As an important part of the Taking Action on Social Inclusion of Older People project, a workshop was organised between 19 and 21 June 2017 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The title of the workshop was “Writing Successful Proposals for European Union Projects” and it featured participation of the civil society organisations from the five countries where the project is implemented with the support of European Union, Austrian Development Agency and Austrian Red Cross. Four organisations from each of the project countries took part in the event: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia and two representatives of the Austrian Red Cross also participated in the workshop. In addition to two representatives of the Red Cross of Serbia, that coordinates the whole project, the workshop was also attended by representatives of threeHumanaS network member organisations: Covekoljublje, Gerontological Society of Serbia and University for the Third Age DjuroSalaj.

The work was facilitated by Austrian Red Cross experts Michaela Pichler and Charlotte Struempel and the participants represented civil society organisations, members of five national advocacy networks focusing on ageing and older people in the Western Balkans, working to improve the quality of lives of older people and increase their social inclusion. As one of the objectives of the project is to scale up the capacity of civil society networks and their members, transfer of knowledge is an important step towards reaching the project goals. Strengthening capacities of networks contributes to the other objective of the project – improving social inclusion of older men and women. We expect that the impact of this workshop will be felt in enhanced possibilities to create and implement successful projects aiming to improve the quality of life of older people across the region. It is important to have in mind that representatives of older people also participated in the workshop.

The workshop provided an overview of European Union institutions as well as calls for proposals and the work focused on important skills and knowledge related to preparing successful projects for EU funding: problem identification, stakeholder analysis, logical framework, budget and concept note writing. The work was interactive and the participants had many opportunities for group work.

A representative of the Delegation of European Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr Vladimir Pandurevic had a session to discuss the relationship of the Delegation with the civil sector and explain what the civil society organisations need to know and do prior to creating a project proposal. He also answered the questions of the participants.

The participants gave very positive feedback to the workshop saying that the knowledge they adopted will be applicable and useful in their future work. The total number of participants was 34.