NATO Partnership for Peace Trust Fund Project

Support to Defence Sector Reforms in Serbia

Since July 2006 the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in close cooperation with the Ministry of Defence has successfully implemented the NATO/PfP Trust Fund Project for Assistance to Discharged Defence Personnel in the Republic of Serbia (NTF project). Building on a wide IOM's multi-year worldwide experience in the field of resettlement and reintegration of regular and irregular military and security sector personnel, this project has achieved excellent results in many fronts, becoming a model on how resettlement activities resulting from defence reforms should be managed.

The NTF project, as all other NATO/PfP Trust Fund projects, has been funded by voluntary contributions from individual Allies and Partnership for Peace countries, also allowing donors to join the project in any phase of project implementation. Nowadays, it has been supported by 18 donor nations: Norway as a lead nation, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Austria, the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Luxemburg, Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland, Island, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary and Ireland joined through the Trust Fund that is coordinated in Brussels, as well as Switzerland as external donor.

Thanks to this project and results achieved over the past four-and-half year period the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia has been able to achieve important national goals in the field of defence reform as well as to further contribute to the stabilisation of the Balkan region.
Moreover, it also confirmed that a painful process like the downsizing of the Army can be conducted in a manner that does not add burden to the social welfare system, contributing instead to the further development of the state economy even in a critical moment of global economic crisis. Today, this project can be considered as one of the most comprehensive and successful Trust Funds ever financed within the NATO/Partnership for Peace framework.

Until the end of January 2011 a total of 5,933 discharged defence personnel, referred by the Ministry of Defence, have received individual counselling, while 4,360 of them received financial assistance to support their reintegration into civilian life. A total of 3,417 new micro and small
enterprises have been registered and 442 former defence staff have found employment in existing companies in Serbia.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• IOM
• NATO/PfP Trust Fund
• reforms
• Serbia
• Project
• Ministry of Defence
• defence