Mainstreaming the Concept of Migration and Development Into Relevant Policies, Plans and Acitivities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2013-2015
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MAINSTREAMING THE CONCEPT OF MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT INTO RELEVANT POLICIES, PLANS AND ACITIVITIES IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, 2013-2015 FINAL PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION REPORT May, 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. BASIC PROJECT INFORMATION ........................................................................................................................... 3 2. STRATEGIC REVIEW AND OUTLOOK.................................................................................................................... 3 3. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................... 5 4. OUTCOMES ACHIEVED ........................................................................................................................................ 6 5. OUTPUTS AND PERFORMANCE......................................................................................................................... 17 6. GENDER EQUALITY MAINSTREAMING IN PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION ........................................................... 19 7. LESSONS LEARNT .............................................................................................................................................. 20 8. EXIT STRATEGY AND SCALING UP ..................................................................................................................... 21 7. ANNEXES ........................................................................................................................................................... 22 ANNEX 1 – PROJECT LOGICAL FRAMEWORK UPDATED WITH KEY ACHIEVEMENTS ........................................ 22 ANNEX 2 – BRIEF OVERVIEW OF LOCAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES .............................................................. 30 ANNEX 3 – RELEVANT PROJECT PRODUCTS...................................................................................................... 36 ANNEX 4 – REPORT ON PROJECT MEDIA COVERAGE ....................................................................................... 38 2 1. BASIC PROJECT INFORMATION The Project “Migration and Development: Mainstreaming the Concept of Migration and Development into Relevant Policies, Plans and Activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina” (M&D Project) started in July 2013, with the anticipated duration of two years. The goal of the Project was to contribute to the establishment of a favourable environment for migrants who are willing to promote and pro-actively support the country’s development in relevant domains of transition and socio-economic progress at all institutional and societal levels. The Project had three main components, as follows: 1) Policies for an effective integration of migrants’ contributions to the country’s development are outlined and mainstreamed into local development strategies of at least 10 local governments (LGs), visible projects have been designed (including relevant budget allocations) and are under implementation, where assistance was to be provided to policy-makers and government institutions at local level to strengthen their capacities related to mainstreaming of the concept of migration and development and support inclusion of migration and development related activities into their planning frameworks and processes. Furthermore, the Project anticipated assistance to the design and implementation of migration and development related activities that would lead to improved communication and institutionalisation of cooperation between local governments and diaspora. 2) Capacities of key actors at relevant governmental levels (mainly partner LGs, the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH MHRR) and members of the inter-ministerial working group / WG M&D) on effective M&D mainstreaming are strengthened; cooperation with migrants and their organisations is being structured in municipal planning schemes, where assistance was to be provided to policy-makers and government institutions at all levels through research and analysis of the concept of migration and development worldwide and recommendations for practical implementation of this concept in the context of BiH. Furthermore, an inter-ministerial working group was to be established including representatives of all relevant stakeholders that have interest in policy development, implementation and monitoring related to the concept of migration and development. Capacities of all relevant stakeholders were to be strengthened through practical training and study visits to countries where the concept of migration and development has been successfully mainstreamed into national policies and plans. 3) Key elements for the definition of a valuable M&D mainstreaming concept are identified, validated and integrated into complementary action plans of different key actors in BiH (governmental institutions, civil society organisations, associations of municipalities and cities (AMCs), private sector, migrants’ organisations), where consultations between various migration and development related stakeholders were to be facilitated aiming at the creation of a set of recommendations for policy-makers at all government levels to enable regular and sustainable mainstreaming of the concept of migration and development in their existing or new policies and plans. Furthermore, good practices and lessons learned related to migration and development were to be identified and used for communication to all stakeholders in order to draw their attention to the potentials that migrants have for country development. The main Project partners included the BiH MHRR, the Embassy of Switzerland in BiH, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Other partners were relevant state and entity institutions, entity AMCs, 10 selected local governments, home- and host-country associations and academia. The total contribution by the Government of Switzerland amounted to USD 1,120,586, out of which USD 1,101,385.43 was disbursed for Project implementation, leaving a balance of USD 19,200.57. 2. STRATEGIC REVIEW AND OUTLOOK For the first time in the planning practice of BiH, policies and measures for effective integration of migrants’ contributions to the country’s development were introduced into local development strategies of 10 partner LGs (Jajce, Ključ, Laktaši, Ljubuški, Maglaj, Nevesinje, Posušje, Prijedor, Sanski Most and Velika Kladuša). This was achieved by the end of 2013, following participatory processes and the standardised approach to integrated local 3 development planning in BiH (MiPro),1 which was spearheaded by the Integrated Local Development Project (ILDP), a sister intervention also supported by the Government of Switzerland. The local government experience triggered the initiative and the interest of 7 cantons in the Entity of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) to embed the migration aspect into their cantonal development strategies. Importantly, this provided for vertical alignment across government levels of policies and priorities in the area of migration for development by ensuring down-streaming of priorities identified within the BiH Strategy on Migration and Asylum to the local and cantonal levels. This has further been reinforced by the BiH MHRR public grant scheme to support projects in the area of migration and local economic development (launched in 2015). Following the adoption of the local development strategies by Municipal Councils/Assemblies, in 2014 the Project launched process-based assistance to support partner LGs in designing and kicking off the implementation of pilot local interventions exploring the migration and development concept in practice, and contributing to local socio- economic development by partnering with diaspora. Based on the adopted local development strategies, 14 priority interventions putting migration in function of local development2 were implemented, resulting in 60 new (46 men and 14 women) and 10 retained jobs (all man). The projects also resulted in enhanced income streams through agriculture for 477 households, with anticipated additional annual income of around KM 1.3 million in total. Furthermore, the Health Care Centre in Maglaj was re-established after the devastating 2014 floods, ensuring provision of health care services for the local population of 27,900. The interventions also led to enhanced LG institutional capacities for cooperation with diaspora. The total value of local priority interventions was at KM 1,225,454, where the Project seed fund contributed with KM 855,893, while LGs, diaspora and other partners (e.g. beneficiaries, other levels of government, and private sector) together contributed with more than 40% against the seed funding. Moreover, initial awareness and capacities on the concept of migration and development were created at sub- national levels (local and cantonal), and among the members of the state-level inter-institutional Working Group on Migration and Development. To support the BiH MHRR in their efforts to mainstream migration and development concept into policies and strategies, the Project provided a tailored process-based technical assistance package for its Sector for Emigration, focusing on design, management and evaluation of public grant scheme in the area of migration for local development. In this process, transfer and consideration of accumulated lessons learned from pilot local initiatives supported in partner LGs was ensured, thus contributing to improving the migration and development