Winning a project is fantastic, implementing it might be a challenge but NALAS is there to help

Cities from «Western Balkan 6» part of the EU Projects City Network, initiated by the City of Sarajevo and supported by GIZ and NALAS, won their first joint projects within only a few months’ time. The new projects brought about new challenges related to activity implementation, budget management, procurement, coordination of consortium partners and much more.

To empower the city network project teams with the skills needed for successful project implementation, NALAS hosted a training in EU Project Management and a Networking Meeting, from 4 to 7 December 2023 in Tirana, Albania.

Participants became familiar with the basic PRAG rules, learnt how to prepare, and use monitoring plans to check the project results and expenditures, became familiar with the reporting rules and payment procedures, learnt how to implement communication and visibility activities, how to deal with potential risks and changes that can arise during the project implementation and prepare for expenditure verification and possible project audits.

At the Networking Meeting, participants discussed the experiences and lessons learnt in project development, from their practical work in developing several joint projects in the past months, learnt about the open calls for proposals and brainstormed on possible new joint applications, based on the ongoing calls.

“This City Network achieved a lot in only a few months since its initiation, mostly thanks to the group of fantastic municipal EU officers that we brought together and keep strengthening. Their commitment, energy and the joint spirit built through several activities continues to shine and grow and we are looking forward to many successfully implemented projects for the benefits of the citizens of the Western Balkans”, said Jelena Janevska, NALAS Programme Director.

The EU Projects City Network in the Western Balkans was initiated and is led by the City of Sarajevo and currently includes 11 cities: Sarajevo, Podgorica, Pristina, Mostar, Bar, Niksic, Leskovac, Novi Pazar, Sveti Nikole, Mat and Elbasan. It is supported by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the German Cooperation (GIZ), with the technical assistance of NALAS.