"Social entrepreneurship as an opportunity for social and economic development" was the topic of the final conference where the results of the three-year project "Contribution of civil society organizations to the development of social entrepreneurship" were presented.
More than 70 representatives of civil society organizations, public institutions, and organizations, the academic community, and the media had the opportunity to hear details about the results of the project, but also the possibilities for further development of social entrepreneurship at the conference organized on March 14, 2022, in Bijeljina.
In the beginning, the mayor of Bijeljina, Ljubiša Petrović, addressed the audience, and pointed out that every community has social problems that represent more or fewer challenges:
- Social entrepreneurship is not only one of the most effective ways to solve some of the social problems, but also the most dignified, because it involves people who need help the most and thus restores their faith in themselves and their abilities and possibilities, Petrović said.
Radmila Žigić, director of the "Lara" Bijeljina Foundation, and Amra Hadžić, program manager of the Sarajevo Local Democracy Foundation, spoke about the results of the "Social Entrepreneurship in BiH" project.
They pointed out significant results in the area of establishing a legal framework for the development of social entrepreneurship, the adoption of the Law on Social Entrepreneurship in the Republic of Srpska and the Law on Social Entrepreneurship of Brčko District, and the creation of a draft of the Law on Social Entrepreneurship in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The capacities of 27 social enterprises were strengthened, and two associations of social enterprises were registered, in the Republic of Srpska and the FBiH, whose role is to lead a dialogue with the authorities in order to implement the laws. 24 grants were distributed with the aim of supporting the economic viability of social enterprises and social cooperatives. This saved existing and opened new jobs for representatives of marginalized social groups.
During the first panel, whose topic was "New EU concept of social entrepreneurship", moderator Erol Mujanović presented "Practices and experiences of social entrepreneurship development in the Region". Experts Sonja Vuković from Croatia, Jelena Hrnjak from Serbia and Marina Tucović from Serbia shared their successful experiences of running social enterprises.
Representatives of line ministries spoke during the second panel, the topic of which was "Future institutional practices of BiH in the development of social entrepreneurship".
Rajko Lajić from the Ministry of Economy and Entrepreneurship of the RS, Zdravko Čerović from the Ministry of Development, Entrepreneurship and Crafts of the FBiH, and Stojanka Knežević from the Brčko District Government spoke about the development of social entrepreneurship.
Experts Borko Mihajlović and Stevo Pucar spoke in the last panel "Support of institutions for the development of social entrepreneurship". In addition to them, Borislav Đurić from the Union of Social Enterprises of the Republika Srpska and Nadira Škaljić from the Union of Social Enterprises in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina also spoke.
The participants also watched video presentations in which the social enterprises that participated in the project were presented.
The conference was held within the project "Contribution of civil society organizations to the development of social entrepreneurship", whose implementation is financed by the European Union, and which is implemented by the foundation "Local Democracy Foundation" from Sarajevo and "Lara" from Bijeljina
