On 22 and 23 December 2014, Federal Development Planning Institution (FDPI), Federal Coordinator for IPA projects on behalf of the FBiH Government and Federal Coordinator for EU integration on behalf of the FBiH Government, with the assistance of the Twinning project „Strengthening the National Planning Process in Bosnia and Herzegovina“ and NIPAC office of the Directorate for European integration, organized a seminar on topic „Introduction to Sector-Wide Approach (sWAP) IPA II 2014-2020“.
The seminar involved employees of the Development Planning Institute and representatives of a number of Federal Ministries and other organizations and institutions of the Federation of BiH. The seminar was opened and welcomed by Jozef Pešl, head of the Twinning project and Nijaz Avdukić, assistant director of FDPI, and Rade Jevtić, head of the Directorate for European Integration of the BiH Council of Ministers.
The goal of the seminar is to inform the participants about the sector-wide approach (SWAp – Sector Wide Approach) in IPA II programmes, and the legal basis of this project, the main criteria for the adoption of the sector-wide approach, and to inform the participants about the format of sector-wide programs and action document.
The purpose of Project is to strengthen planning capacities of institutions and sectors in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Entities and the Brčko District, to assist in achieving the conditions for the full use of EU pre-accession assistance, to improve the skills in making persistent economic analyses and projections at the BiH and Entity level and at the Brčko District level, which would be the basis for strategic planning and policy development.
The Project, in fact, provides an opportunity for capacity building in three areas: first - as technical assistance in the strengthening of general planning at all administrative levels, the second - in promoting awareness of the sector-wide approach, with a coherent long-term planning, and the third – in the strengthen the capacity for economic research and projections, and to assist in the development of analytical texts and projections relevant to the formation of medium and long term fiscal plans and economic policies.
The seminar participants were informed about the project of strengthening the national planning process and some experience from Croatia by Dinka Bujas, head for the development of the IT system of the Ministry of Regional Development and Croatia, and Iva Šeler, head of the Department for OP drafting of that Ministry.