Dear Prospective Applicants,

The Regional Rural Development Standing Working Group (SWG) is seeking applications from qualified applicants in the Western Balkans countries/territories of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo^*, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia to apply for funding costs for vocational training in tourism, agriculture and other cross-cutting sectors like Business Development and ICT, identified as important for economic diversification in the rural areas.

Request for Application (RFA) is comprised of the following main sections:

1. Project Description
2. Eligible applicants
3. Illustrative activities to be financed under this RFA
4. Award Administration Information
5. Submission Requirements
6. Application Review Information

Subject to availability of funds, SWG intends to fund cost for certificate obtained for vocational training in tourism, agriculture and other cross-cutting sectors like Business Development and ICT, identified as important for economic diversification in the rural areas, for training to be obtained between September 28, 2022 and ending on June 30, 2024.

This RFA is a two-stage application process. In the first stage, applicants are asked to submit an Application for Vocational training funding in the attached format, which will be reviewed by SWG’s Evaluation Committee. Applicants will be notified if their application for training qualifies for reimbursement. In the second stage the applicant will send SWG the certificate obtained upon which SWG will reimburse the applicant for funding of up to 300 EUR gross including all related taxes of the training cost.

Awards will be made to the responsive applicants whose applications best meet the requirements of this RFA on a ‘first come first served’ basis.

SWG requires that the Application for Vocational training funding be submitted electronically (e-mailed) to SWG Secretariat at swgsecretariat@swg-seerural.org  starting September 28, 2022 until June 30, 2024.

SWG reserves the right to fund any or none of the applications submitted. Issuance of this RFA does not constitute an award commitment on the part of SWG, nor does it commit SWG to pay for any costs incurred in the preparation and submission of an application. Further, SWG reserves the right to reject any or all applications received. All preparation and submission costs are at the Applicant’s own expense.

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