The Business-Friendly Certification Program (BFC) is based on the best practices of Local Governments from around the world. With the support of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) - Regional Open Fund for the Modernization of Municipal Services, this program became a regional standard for the business environment accepted by partner institutions from the region, with the aim of putting a stamp on the quality of the business environment in the municipalities and cities of Southeast Europe (SEE).
The Business Friendly Municipalities in Southeast Europe (BFC SEE) certification is a special program aimed at improving and harmonizing the business environment, promoting economic cooperation and attracting new investments in the SEE region. The BFC SEE label has been internationally recognized as an indicator of efficient local governance and an investment-friendly environment in Southeast Europe. In this project, the Riinvest Institute serves as the secretariat for Kosovo. The first phase of the project will be implemented in the period 2022-2024, with the participation of eight Kosovo municipalities.

POLICY ANSWERS (R&I POLICY making, implementation ANd Support in the WEsteRn BalkanS) supports policy coordination in the Western Balkans and with the EC and the EU. 14 partner organisations, representing network nodes in the region and EU expert organisations, support policy dialogue through formal meetings (such as ministerial and steering platform and ad-hoc policy meetings), monitoring and agenda setting, capacity building and implementation of the EU's Western Balkan Agenda, as well as the alignment of thematic priorities. The project implements regional pilot activities and offers an information hub based on the westernbalkans-infohub.eu online information platform. The partners provide analytical evidence via monitoring and mapping activities of the stakeholder ecosystem, of the implementation of the Western Balkans Agenda and of the Western Balkans’ integration into the European Research Area as well as via strategic foresight. POLICY ANSWERS also allows for tailored and targeted capacity building activities in the Western Balkans as well as regional alignment of priorities in relation to the digital transformation, the green agenda and towards healthy societies. Pilot activities provide learning opportunities on policy and programme level and reach out to final beneficiaries related to improved academia-industry cooperation, researcher mobility, inclusion of youth in policy processes, promotion of research infrastructures and increased innovation skills in all areas.

The overarching goal of the project is to help raise standards of economic literacy in the regions of Eastern and South Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union by promoting and distributing to readers free of charge in all formats the regionalized edition of CSE, as prepared by the Economic Fundamentals Initiative (hereinafter referred to as “EFI”), to the widest possible audience. To that end, EFI will work with partners in the target countries to maximise the project’s impact, harnessing the partners’ expertise in delivering education projects and their understanding of the local operating environment.

Green Action Space (GAS) is a platform which will promote education, research and advocacy on topics related to Green Transition. The Green School, anchored at GAS, is an educational platform that seeks to build knowledge for civil society organizations, media, policymakers, and businesses on perhaps the most important issue of our generation – climate change. With the European Green Deal in place and the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans – a commitment all Western Balkan countries have pledged to pursue, gives way for the foundation to implement a series of knowledge-enhancement and discussion-facilitating lectures for the so many unknown environment actions that result from the various international, environment-protection agreements. Therefore, GAS aims at providing a learning platform to empower the green-minded to get organized, get educated and get ready to tackle today’s challenges and ones ahead of us.