The West Balkan Development Marketplace is a competitive grant program that provides direct support for innovative, grassroots development ideas from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia and Montenegro. The competition aims to boost creative thinking in addressing one of the most important development issues in the region – job creation in the formal sector.

Proposals are welcome from a range of development actors – civil society groups, social entrepreneurs, the private sector, private foundations, academia, and government agencies that partner with any of the institutions mentioned above.

Winning projects will be selected according to the following criteria:

• Innovation – The project must present a new approach to creating jobs in the formal sector and should benefit the jobless.
• Results – The project must show clearly how it will create new jobs. 
• Sustainability  – The project must have real chances of surviving beyond the implementation period.
• Replicability – The project must demonstrate that it can be successfully copied and implemented elsewhere.

 “Within the overall theme of creating jobs and opportunities, we are particularly interested in ideas that foster regional cooperation and that address the problem of youth unemployment, ” said Carolyn Jungr, the World Bank Country Manager for Serbia and Montenegro who presented the competition to the media, think-tanks and NGOs at a press conference Saturday.

The application process closes on January 30, 2006.

The best projects will be selected in May and will receive roughly USD 35,000 each.

Announcing upcoming promotional activities under the Western Balkan Development Marketplace 2006 competition, Carolyn Jungr said: “Over the coming weeks and months, we will be looking for support from development and private sector partners and hope to raise more than $1 million to support the top 30 ideas from across the region.”

Click here for more information on the competition, application guidelines and forms.