IKEA Serbia and the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation gathered around a joint project "I Am Bold!" aimed at supporting the economic empowerment of women in Serbia. The project aims to contribute to the improvement of the position of women in the work and social environment, building women's equality at home as well.

Within the first cycle of the project, six women's entrepreneurial initiatives were supported in the total amount of 4.2 million dinars. Having in mind the current crisis caused by the COVID 19 virus pandemic and the uncertain situation in which a large number of male and female entrepreneurs in Serbia found themselves, IKEA Serbia and the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation decided to launch a new competition aimed at female entrepreneurship.

The "I Am Bold" competition will support businesses founded by women and/or those run by women, as well as legal entities that employ at least 60% of women. The main activity of the legal entities that will be supported is production activity (toys, textile products, old crafts, food, drinks / juices / syrups, decorative / useful items, products for children, etc.). The projects will be selected based on their impact on women's employment, relevance and capacity to achieve business progress and sustainability after the end of the project. The activities must be undertaken exclusively in the territory of the Republic of Serbia.

Legal entities that may apply include the following:

• Micro enterprises

• Cooperatives

• Male and female entrepreneurs

• Companies that employ marginalized and socially disadvantaged women

• Citizens' associations that have a mission to promote economic independence and the position of women in society, and have a commercial activity through which women are employed.

Requirements for participating in the competition:

• That they are registered in the Business Registers Agency or that they have been entered in the Register of Farms for at least 2 years from the day of announcing the competition;

• That they have submitted a completed application form and annexes with the necessary supporting documentation;

• That they are directly responsible for the preparation and implementation of the project, and not for acting in the capacity of an intermediary. 

Amount of support:

Legal entities can apply with their business ideas for the grants ranging from 5,000 to 7,000 euros.

The competition is open until September 30, 2020.

The guidelines for submitting applications, as well as the application form, can be downloaded from the website www.divac.com/jasamodvazna , while all questions regarding the application procedure for the competition can be asked by sending an e-mail to jasamodvazna@divac.com . Applying is done by sending the application documentation (basic, supporting and preferred documentation) by filling in the online form which is available on https://www.emailmeform.com/builder/form/Zc3QVdyF16J2TPbG89 . The Foundation will assign an ordinal number to each received project proposal, while the list of received applications will be posted on www.divac.com/jasamodvazna .

Source: https://www.divac.com/jasamodvazna and Coordination Body