Overall, the first part of the year of the Fostering Employment and Growth Opportunities (FEGO) project applying a Market System Development (MSD) approach involved several activities and milestones. The Swisscontact as implementing partner have spent first part of the year in drafting of the FEGO Operations Manual, FEGO Gender Inclusion Assessment and Strategy, FEGO Minority Inclusion Assessment and Strategy latest by 30 June 2022, Environment Assessment and Strategy on FEGO Sectors and the FEGO Innovation Fund Manual.
The FEGO project has initiated eight interventions in all three sectors resulting in 18 partnership agreements, and the team has been fully focused on selecting partners that can foster growth, bring innovation, improve B2B and B2C linkages, enable export opportunities, and contribute to reaching the desired systemic changes. The interventions aim to support propoor growth in the apparel, furniture, and rural tourism sector, and they include improving products and services, promoting diversification, introducing innovative and ecofriendly products, increasing production and processing capacity, establishing B2B linkages, and enhancing branding and export potential. The project has selected potential destinations for intervention based on signs of development of the rural tourism business model and established rural tourism business models that need improvement. The rural tourism team designed interventions to improve the rural tourism offer and promote branding and promotion at the enterprise level, with the main focus during this reporting period being on destinations such as Kamenica, Ferizaj/Uroevac, and Peja/Pec.
The FEGO project has made significant progress in supporting MSMEs, especially women owned businesses in the furniture, apparel, and rural tourism sector. The project has benefited 22 MSMEs, out of which 12 are women[1]owned. In the apparel sector, the project has created 51 job opportunities, with 100% of the results in terms of employment coming from the intervention "Fostering B2B partnerships and business financing models." The furniture sector has also seen progress, with MSMEs receiving support in upgrading their machinery, increasing production, and introducing new products. The project has prioritized six destinations in the rural tourism sector, where it is working with private businesses and local governments to improve the existing tourism offer and digital presence. The FEGO project has successfully implemented gender and social mainstreaming by prioritizing women owned businesses and introducing a new business model for training service providers. Overall, the project is on the right track towards achieving its targets, and the interventions and activities are presented in detail under respective outputs.
