Team That Knows How - ECON

We invest our energy, knowledge and talents in order to influence the economic development and to increase employment levels.

Who Are We And Why?

ECON is a non-governmental organization from Bosnia and Herzegovina whose aim is to have significant influence on creating economic development and employment in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Creating conditions for employment opportunities and economic development are the highest priority for the country and it’s citizens.

ECON Mission

The main purpose of ECON is to increase the income of poor and deprived people especially returnees through economic generation projects. ECON will support poorest people through the implementation of projects centred on employment and economic generation with special emphasis on the projects based on economic development in the organic food sector and focused on specific markets in the European Union.

In order to fulfill it's mission ECON is focussed on five key areas:

• Securing the vision and leadership and best practice in creating employment opportunities especially amongst returnees
• Creating competitive advantage through strategic planning for employment and effective provision of sustainable employment
• Forming effective partnership which will result in increased access to the resources and places or investment opportunities
• Innovative marketing strategies and activities to ensure quality, effectiveness, economic viability, ownership and sustainability
• Management policy, strategy and activities to ensure excellence, quality, effectiveness, expenditure effectiveness, ownership and sustainability

Head Office:

Address:Džemala Bijedica 40/2
Sarajevo, Bosna i Hercegovina
Tel/Fax: +387 33 613 556, 613 568
e-mail: econbih@bih.net.ba

Mostar Office:

Address: Kocine bb
Mostar, Bosna i Hercegovina
Tel/Fax: +387 36 563 231
e-mail: carski_vinogradi@econ.co.ba

Staff:

For staff details contact our head office. You will be directed to the right person, depending of nature of your call.
This procedure is necessary due to operational organization of ECON.

About ECON

ECON is foundation focused on development of sustainable employment opportunities in BiH.

All of our projects are connected to the development of rural areas with special attention on self assistance for the local communities. ECON provides expert assistance that enables local groups to establish sustainable projects that bring long term economic benefit to the most vulnerable groups.
ECON efforts are currently focused on development of organic agriculture in BiH. The aim is to form key elements for sustainable sector and general awareness of the organic agriculture. It is clear that there is great potential in the organic food sector for income generation and assistance to income generation and sustainable development as well as the protection of biodiversity of land.
ECON enforces it's environment protection politics and will only get involved in the projects that fit into strict international environment protection standards.

ECON strategy includes cooperation with other international and local organizations to combine skills and resources in implementing sustainable economic projects.
Good cooperation is achieved with the following organizations and their was essential for the good results ECON had so far – EU, OHR, OSCE, World Bank, EUMM, Sida, Seed - and others.

About Organic Agriculture

The aim of organic agriculture is the sustainable production system based on ecological cycles and alertness. Ways to enforce that are to:

• focus on local renewable resources,
• maintain soil fertility,
• maximize recirculation of nutrition material from plants and organic mater,
• support genetic diversity in the production system,
• effectively use solar and other renewable energy as much as possible,
• enable farm animals life conditions that suit their ecological role and allow for natural behavior,
• do not use substances foreign to nature.

Organic agriculture uses terms like pest and wed control. It does not strive to eradicate pest and weed spices. The philosophy behind it is that all life has it's role in the ecosystem. Most of the pest and weed control in organic agriculture is done through planning (crop rotation, crop selection etc) and preventive measures. This approach requires higher engagement and knowledge by the farmer, due to lack of direct measures (like pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals).

Development of Organic Agriculture in BiH

Economic aspects of organic agriculture and it's application in BiH. As well as the possibility to turn some of the disadvantages of BiH agriculture into it's assets resulted in attempts by several organizations and individuals to start organic agriculture in BiH. The biggest problem was certification price and communication problems, that emerged due to the fact that there was no certification body in BiH and certification was provided by certification organizations hired internationally (Italian, English and others).

The next phase of development of organic agriculture was marked by BIHOP – a Sida financed project implemented by Swedish Consultancy Grolink, and ECON as a local partner. The project had a holistic approach to the problem and it addressed several key problems like local certification body, provision of certificates and assistance with the certification procedures, market development and assistance with approaching markets locally and internationally, general knowledge about organic agriculture – simultaneously. You can get more information of this project on this page under “projects” section.

The third phase of organic agriculture development is the further development of organic agriculture independently from any single project. OK – a local certification body is functional and it expects to be IFOAM accredited this year. Local market in BiH, although small, exists, and BiH organic products are sold all over the World.

About Certification

Briefly, certification is a process of checking whether certain criteria (standards) are met. The most common form of certification is a “third party” certification, which is practical terms mean that someone other than buyer or seller (which means independent of the economy of the product itself) is hired (most commonly by the seller or producer) to evaluate fulfillment of selected standards.

There can be more factors in the certification process, but we can select here a few basic ones:

• operator (e.g. producer, processor, trader) – requests certification services, is responsible for meeting the standards and controls the certificate,
• certifier – a certification body that provides certification services. In BiH Organska Kontrola (OK) is BiH local certification body,
• inspector – a person in charge of inspection, appointed by certification body,
• standards – a set of rules that have to be met in order to be certified,
• certificate – a statement that certain standards are met.

One operator can obtain many certificates, which means that operator is checked for and meets many standards (the standards one received certificates for). Many certification bodies offer certificates under different standards (in accordance with agreements between certification bodies), and OK is doing that as well. OK certification body offers OK, KRAV, AIAB certificates, and the body itself is in final stages of IFOAM accreditation.

About the Others

ECON did not start activities re development of organic agriculture in BiH with the illusions that this can be achieved without wide support and involvement of all interested in this form of agriculture. This approach resulted in a number of useful contacts and relationships in BiH, the region and internationally. Only a few will be mentioned here, complete list is under construction:

• OK – BiH certification body, contact is in contacts section,
• Association of Agricultural Producers of Organic Products – organizes all interested in organic agriculture in BiH,
• BETA – association focused on technical part of development of organic agriculture,
• LIR – association for development of organic agriculture in Banja Luka
• CEFA – Italian organzation that is in BiH for a long time, is active in development of organic agriculture and is one of the pioneers in in this area in BiH.

Many were left out, but such is life when one writes about whole area of development.

Development of Organic Agriculture in BiH - BIHOP

Grolik , a Swedish consultancy, together with ECON, non governmental organization from BiH, implemented the project of “Development of Organic Agriculture in BiH” that was funded by Sida, Swedish Agency for International Development and Cooperation.

Phase one of this project was implemented from May 2001 till December 2002. Phase two followed from January 2002 till December 2005.

The aim of the project was to form key elements of sustainable organic farming sector and general public awareness of the organic agriculture.

The activities included:

• certification,
• education of inspectors,
• establishing certification organization,
• education of advisors for organic agriculture,
• development of legal framework for organic agriculture,
• market development.

Text of the project brochure!

Jobs Thorugh Organic Agriculture

Time frame of implementation of the project is September 2004 – August 2006.

The project involves 50 families for growing organic raspberries in Srebrenica and Bratunac regions, 60 families for growing organic strawberries in Gorazde, and establishing education and production center in Mostar. Organic products are grown on 15 ha in Carski Vinogradi farm in Mostar and 60 families will undertake education program and get their own green houses.

Project brochure!

Transition From Conventional to Organic Agriculture

Time frame of implementation – October 2004 – October 2005

This project was designed as the assistance to the initiative of development of organic agriculture in BiH. Organic agriculture is an important concept of sustainable and environment friendly food production method, and it should resolve pollution and ecosystem degradation problems that accumulated in the past decades through the use of pesticides, herbicides and artificial fertilizers in the conventional agriculture.

The aim of this project is the development of organic agriculture through the assistance to the farmers to convert to organic agriculture in BiH and in that way achieve two almost conflicting outcomes:

• increase employment opportunities and
• protect the environment.

Individual aim of the project is the assistance to farmers to cope with the organic certification requirements.
Additional aim is to present the idea of production and development in accordance with environment protection philosophy.

Manual consisted of seminar lectures

Feasibility Study on Establishing Agro Ecologic Center in BiH

Time of implementation - December 2004 - May 2005

ECON implemented a feasibility study project for the establishment of agro ecological center in BiH. The Feasibility Study Document came out as a direct result of the project.It is on disposal to all interested in implementation of such or a similar center, as well as any segment that are included in those activities. The document can be used as an educational book for all interested in ecologically sustainable forms of living.

For additional information and/or assistance in the implementation of such or similar center feel free to contact ECON. Also, all your comments and suggestions are welcome.

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Strenghtening Marketing Skills in Agriculture

Time of implementation - October 2005 – December 2006.

The aim of this project is to assist development of small to medium enterprise sector through increase of sales of local production to Sarajevo region, North West region, and Herzegovina region, as well as foreign markets.

Aim groups are processors, agricultural producers and collectors of organic products from BiH.
The main activities include:

• establishing database of producers and production
• establishing uniformed packing and brand
• establishing sales points
• organnizing distributors
• implementing marketing campaign and preparation of promotion material
• aproaching international markets

Downloads

Here you can find and download documents on this site.

The text of the project brochure from the project "Development of Organic Agriculture in BiH.
Feasibility Study of establishment of Agro Ecological Center in BiH document
Manual consisted of presentations to farmers interested in organic agriculture and certification process.
A brochure describing the project of "Jobs Thorugh Organic Agriculture".
This is English version
And this is Bosnian version of it.

Links

Here you can find links to other pages about organic agriculture. If you know the link you think would fit into the context of this page, please contact us.

Official web page of Organska Kontrola
Official web page of KRAV - Svedish Certification Agency
Official web page of The Association of Agricultural Producers of Organic Products in BiH
Web page that can help you find info about organic producers and products in BiH.
Official web page of Grolink - Svedish Consultancy focussed on development of organic agriculture.

Disclaimer

Well, this is something everybody does so we made one too.
ECON is very involved in the projects it implements, and that is our priority. We put efforts to make this site as accurate as possible, however, mistakes do happen. If you notice any, feel free to contact us here.

There is a mention of our donors and other organizations and individuals in several texts in this web page. This is not an official (or approved) representation of them and ECON cannot take responsibility for it. However, they are welcome to contact us for suggestions of changes.

This page was not designed to offend anyone, so if you find anything in that context, please feel free to contact us. We shall make sure the mistake is corrected promptly!

BIOADRIA - Adriatic Organic Farming

Time of implementation - beginning 2007 - end of June 2008.

Dear All,

ECON is a partner on BIOADRIA project financed by INTERREG/CARDS – PHARE. Learning through Internet (e-learning) is one of the activities offered by the project free of charge. If you, or someone you know, are interested in attending it, please contact us until 31st July 2007. Attached is the education program. Other material and beginning of the education will be available from August 2007, and time spent on learning will be allocated by you and adjusted to your spare time. The materials will be in English.

You can learn more about BIOADRIA project on their web page.
If you are interested, state name and surname of the person applying for the training to Fatima, in order to get access code.

Thank you for cooperation,
Regards,
Fatima Sehic