Emergence of Social Firms in Serbia – Gerold Schwarz – 07/2010 Emergence of Social Firms in Serbia Cambridge - July 2010 Gerold Schwarz 1

Emergence of Social Firms in Serbia – Gerold Schwarz – 07/2010 History and Background 2 The sheltered workshop system in Serbia has a history and background not so different from many other EU countries and Serbia has a large number of social enterprises.

Emergence of Social Firms in Serbia – Gerold Schwarz – 07/2010 Push for Change 3 Government, Civil Society and the international Community made a combined effort to reform the sheltered workshop system …. With the result that Serbia has now a good legal and financial framework.

Emergence of Social Firms in Serbia – Gerold Schwarz – 07/2010 Resistance to Change 4 To date, only a smaller part of previous sheltered workshops are making serious efforts to reform – the majority are resistant to fundamental changes and may disappear.

Emergence of Social Firms in Serbia – Gerold Schwarz – 07/2010 New emerging Actors 5 The framework meant to transform sheltered workshop into social firms now offers new opportunities for a wide variety of emerging actors – not only from the disability sector but for a new generation of emerging social enterprises.

Emergence of Social Firms in Serbia – Gerold Schwarz – 07/2010 Useful Lessons 6 The experiences with the transformation of sheltered workshops in Serbia show how a combined push for reform in a challenging environment can lead to fast and significant change.

Emergence of Social Firms in Serbia – Gerold Schwarz – 07/2010 Thank you for your Attention Gerold Schwarz 7