Western Balkans Fund is an international organization established by the governments of the WB6 Contracting Parties: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.
The Agreement for the creation of WBF was signed by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of WB6, on November 2015. The Fund has become operational on October 1, 2017, after the conclusion of the ratification procedures by all the parliaments of its constitutive members.
WBF is financed by the six Contracting Parties in equal quotas. The First appointed WBF Executive Director, elected by the WBF Conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs is Mr. Gjergj Murra, a career diplomat from Albania. Its Secretariat is in Tirana and it is composed by experts coming from all over WB Region.
The Fund’s main objective is to boost cooperation between its members, to strengthen relations and regional cohesion and to advance integration into the European Union.
It will be done by promoting common values among citizens, civil society and regional actors, by strengthening and providing a concrete approach at the “people-to-people” level.
The Fund aims to achieve its goals by supporting common regional projects and by bringing people to share mutual experiences.
The process of preparation and implementation of projects by regional actors, representatives of civil society, high education and research institutions, different associations of culture, business and local authorities, etc. will serve to increase the capacity for larger projects in the future.
As a full regionally owned and all-inclusive initiative, WBF provides financial support to small and medium projects in these key areas:
Education and Scientific exchanges;
Cultural cooperation;
Cross-border and youth cooperation;
Sustainable Development;
Albania, has strongly supported all the steps and the process of creation of Western Balkans Fund.
Through the MEFA structures, during the Albanian Chairmanship in Office of the initiative (2017), important decisions have been taken for approving different rules, procedures and the Host Country Agreement, aiming to provide the necessary legal background for the appropriate functioning of the Organization.
WBF has already launched two Regional Calls for Projects, both well acknowledged by the regional actors and stakeholders.
You can find more: (http://westernbalkansfund.org/ ).
A short presentation of WBF you can find here.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqVC1lZUOr0
