In order to promote the benefits of social entrepreneurship for the development of the local community, Association „Otaharin“ has organized a round table “Joint Responsibility for the Community Welfare” on 15th February at the Resource Education Center in Bijeljina for representatives of public companies, NGOs, businessmen and social enterprises.

This activity has been organized within campaign “Social Entrepreneurship – Joint Responsibility for the Welfare of the Community”, which is financed by Austrian Development Agency (ADA)through CAREs project “Enhanced social protection by building capacities of the civil society organizations (CSOs) in Bosnia and Herzegovina”.

„In order for social entrepreneurship to have an effect, it is necessary for other relevant actors in the local community, such as institutions, companies, non-governmental organizations, and the media to be directly involved in creating a favorable climate for the functioning of social entrepreneurship“, said roundtable participants.

On this occasion, a dialogue was opened between the partners on the specifics and potential of social entrepreneurship in Bijeljina.

Danijel Malić, an expert on the EU project “Development of Social Entrepreneurship in BiH” has presented the research on models of social enterprise in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the most important articles of the draft Law on Social Entrepreneurship of Republika Srpska.

“This draft arose from the need to establish an institutional and legislative framework for the development of social entrepreneurship and for institutions to develop a framework that is in line with the needs of existing enterprises, granting them social enterprise status, to be more recognizable for market competition and other commercial subjects“, said Malić.

The participants agreed that in order to create a system of support for the improvement of the functioning of social entrepreneurship, except adoption of the legislative framework, it is necessary to provide tax relief as well as exemption from income tax.

Campaign “Social Entrepreneurship – Joint Responsibility for the Welfare of the Community” aims to encourage local communities to support sustainability of social enterprises. It will be carried out in the area of Bijeljina, Bratuca and Modriča.

The campaign, through a series of round tables and the distribution of informative and educational materials, initiates a dialogue at the local community level that will lead to recognizing the role of social enterprises and the benefits that this type of economic activity brings to the communities in which they operate.