The project is funded by the European Union’s Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (EU-IPA) and is part of a series of initiatives that aim at finding durable solutions for refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and returnees from the conflicts that hit Yugoslavia during the decade of the 90’s.
The deterioration in the last two decades of the socio-economic situation in the Republic of Serbia has particularly affected its most vulnerable social groups, mainly the refugees and displaced persons who live in a state of perpetual uncertainty regarding their possibilities to return, being further exposed due to the limited support being offered for their integration and for an eventual improvement in their living conditions. With the signature of the Readmission Agreement, the Government of Serbia is now bound to provide sustainable housing solutions to those migrant groups that require particular care and assistance in their reintegration process.
The project “Support for the Improvement of the Living Conditions of Forced Migrants and Closure of Collective Centres – Project Management Unit”, with an allocated budget of 920,000 Euro and recently awarded to a consortium composed by EPTISA and CARE, is a quite complex intervention that will, in a rather challenging environment, cater a large number of national and local stakeholders and target groups disseminated across a very wide geographic area.
The overall objective of the assignment is to provide assistance to the EU Delegation to the Republic of Serbia and to the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration in the implementation and monitoring of a 14.2 million Euro grant scheme that aims to find adequate living conditions and to integrate forced migrants who choose to stay in Serbia, while also supporting the sustainable return of those wishing to go back to Kosovo.
In the next 24 months, a team of experts from EPTISA and CARE will be organised in 3 Units, each responsible for one specific area of intervention: (1) Closure of the 14 remaining collective centres and provision of housing solutions for approximately 2,000 people, (2) Support to, at least, 12 municipalities in the implementation of Local Action Plans (improving the living conditions of an additional 450 refugees, IDPs and returnees under the Readmission Agreement), and (3) Supporting the return to Kosovo of 200 displaced families.
This assignment represents an important step forward in strengthening EPTISA’s position as one of the leading service providers of technical assistance in the fields of housing solutions for vulnerable groups and in the management of EU-funded grant schemes.
For more information about this project please contact EPTISA Regional Office for Southeast Europe at eptisasee@eptisa.com.