Background and objectives:

The Government of Italy has pre-approved Euro 7 Million for 2008-2011 for the Settlement and Integrated Local Development Regional Programme (SILD) that will build on concepts developed through the Serbian SIRP programme on the social housing and local development planning sectors. SILD will be implemented simultaneously in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia to support the development of institutions and capacities in the housing and local development planning sectors, in the specific context of each country but with common concepts mainly related to pre-integration to the European Union.
The objective of the preparation phase is to select local and municipal governments, formulate the detailed project document (feasibility studies in each country) through consultative process, initiate capacity-building activities and incrementally establish core project capacities in appropriate national and local institutions.

Activities:
The main activities include:

• Assessment of national contexts.
• Selection of participating cities/municipalities.
• Consultations of all local, national and international partners.
• Development of detailed project documents for each country, and inter-country coordinating mechanisms.
• Incremental establishment of core project capacities in appropriate national and local institutions.
• Initial capacity-building activities at national and local levels in view of signing cooperation agreements with local partners at the beginning of the implementation phase.

Results:
The expected results in the two identified areas include:      

In Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina:

• Establishment and development of national and local housing agencies with appropriate capacities to formulate and coordinate housing policies and strategies.
• Develop local capacities to formulate integrated development strategies and tools, including Territorial Information Systems
• Preparation and implementation of social housing projects to be presented to financing institutions.
• Identification and formulation of local development and infrastructure
• Capacities developed in central institutions and partners to ensure scaling-up at national level

In Serbia:

• Establishment of six new Local Housing Agencies and a National Association.
• Establishment of a National Housing Agency to mobilize soft finance for low-income housing schemes.
• Formulation of six new Local Development Strategies and tools, including Territorial Information Systems.
• Formulation of a national plan for improving the Territorial Information System.
• Identification and formulation of local development, housing and infrastructure projects to be submitted for funding to national and international partner institutions.