General Project information

The EU funded project “Project Preparation and Technical Assistance Facility to Reinforce Administrative Capacity in Serbia” provides technical assistance of the value of 6 MEUR with the overall objective of enhancing and reinforcing Serbian capacity in the context of the EU accession process and the management of the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA).

 

The project is implemented by GIZ from Germany as the lead company of a consortium including MWH from the Netherlands and Particip from Germany. This is complemented by Baines Babic Ltd from Belgrade.

 

The project has special focus on IPA Component III (Regional Development) and IPA Component IV (Human Resource Development) and consists of 3 inter-linked parts:

Part I - Programming
Assistance in building the operational framework that Serbia requires for managing IPA Component III and IV. This part includes assistance in drafting the Strategic Coherence Framework (SCF) and the 4 Operational Programmes (OPs) relating to IPA Component III and IV.

 

Part II – Project Generation
Assistance to NIPAC and relevant line ministries in the preparation of projects to be funded under the OPs, with special focus on development of a project pipeline of major projects in relation to Component III.

 

Part III – Capacity building
As a support for the assistance in Part I and II, the project has a capacity building component for the Serbian administration in its preparation and management of IPA. In relation to Part III a Training Programme and a “Train the trainers” module will be designed and developed. The training aims to contribute to fostering sustained capacities for the development, institutional management and monitoring of IPA Component III and IV.

 

The achievement of the project objective will contribute to a more efficient and effective development and absorption of IPA. Administrative absorption can be defined as the ability and skill of authorities to prepare suitable plans, programmes and projects in time, to select programmes and projects, to arrange the co-ordination among principal partners, to meet the administrative and reporting requirements, and to finance and supervise implementation properly, avoiding irregularities as far as possible.

 

The overall approach to achieving this objective is to work closely with the National IPA Coordinator (NIPAC), Strategic Coordinator (SCO) and the NIPAC secretariat, as well as the line ministries in the development of structures, and the production of strategic, planning and technical documentation, able to deliver the challenging implementation of IPA III and IV. This close working relationship will ensure that the project is institutionally well anchored and can effectively support and influence developments without taking too much initiative away from the bodies in charge of these processes.

 

In short, the project aim to build capacity within institutions, as opposed to supplying capacity by making the project an institution in its own right.