TIRANA May 24, 2006 – Six Albanian organizations were among 21 winners to receive grant awards for innovative employment projects at the final round of the 2006 Western Balkans Development Marketplace, which took place last week in Belgrade. The six winning projects received high ratings and scores among 55 non-governmental organizations and private firms from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia and Montenegro, which participated in the event. The total grant fund available was worth over US$ 700,000.

As a part of the same program, the World Bank, in cooperation with a Serbian NGO, Civic Initiatives, organized a conference focusing on key challenges, opportunities and best practices for employment of youth in the region. In this event, representatives from the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sport, BESA Foundation, and Albanian Youth organizations participated in the discussions and deliberations.

"The goal of this entire event was to boost creative thinking in addressing one of the most important development issues in the region – job creation in the formal sector. Recognizing specific problems of youth unemployment and the benefits of the closer ties among nations across the region, this grant program and the accompanying youth conference were especially focused on projects addressing the issues of youth unemployment and regional cooperation," said Nadir Mohammed, the World Bank Country Manager in Albania.

The Development Marketplace is a program which the World Bank undertakes every year globally and in different regions and countries in order to identify and directly support innovative, bottom-up development ideas through grants as well as knowledge-sharing. Open to all, these programs enable NGOs, governments, donors, academic institutions, and private companies to partner with the World Bank in finding unique development solutions which can then be expanded or replicated elsewhere.

The 2006 West Balkan Development Marketplace was the first such program organized by the World Bank in this region. Over 1,400 applications were received during this competition between November 19, 2005 and January 30, 2006 from civil society groups, social entrepreneurs, the private sector, private foundations, academia, and government agencies from all over the region. During March and April 2006, a number of different groups of assessors in each of the participating countries selected the best 55 projects to compete for grants of about US$ 35,000 for each project in the final event in Belgrade.

The six winning Albanian organizations that will be funded through this program are:

This regional program was also supported by UK Department for International Development (DfID), Balkan Trust for Democracy, Komercijalna Banka from Macedonia, Delta Holding Company from Serbia, Fund for Open Society Serbia, Open Society Foundation from Albania, Dutch Embassy in Tirana, as well as by Media Center in Belgrade.