In Red Cross Niš, on October 11 and 12, 2025, a self-assessment of the organization's capacity was held using the BOCA (Branch Organisational Capacity Assessment) methodology developed by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The International Federation financially supported this activity, and the event in Niš is the tenth self-assessment of this type in the National Society of the Red Cross of Serbia after this methodology was adopted by the National Society in June last year.

During the two days of work, the existing capacities and strength of the Red Cross Niš were recognized, especially in the field of work with volunteers, connection with the local community, the local network of grassroots Red Cross organisations, in a large number of active young volunteers. Through joint work, the participants of the workshop identified those capacities of the branch with potential for improvement, so through work on action plans, roadmaps were created for better cooperation with communities in order to better identify needs and design activities, better connection with local self-government, but also better mobilization of resources, structured learning through the implementation of activities and planning, monitoring and evaluation.

BOCA (Branch Organizational Capacity Assessment) is a self-assessment toolkit developed by the International Federation to provide standardised support to branches of National Societies in the process of identifying and assessing their strengths, limitations and challenges related to their organizational capacities. Intended and made available to all organizations of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in the world, this tool has so far been used for self-assessment by more than five hundred organisations across the globe and as a result gave concrete plans for the improvement of various elements of their work. The Red Cross of Serbia, with the support of the Capacity Building Fund of the International Federation, following the neighbouring National Societies in Hungary and North Macedonia, started using the BOCA last year tool and has so far conducted workshops in ten of its branches.