RECONOMY Western Balkans 2023-2026 - RECONOMY North Macedonia component RECONOMY Västra Balkan 2023-2026 RECONOMY for the Western Balkans is a regional program with the objective "Women and youth, in particular, disadvantaged and excluded groups, benefit from improved economic opportunities (better income and decent and green jobs) inclusively and sustainably". The program uses a Market Systems Development Approach. This approach underlines the importance of systemic change: understanding where market systems are failing to serve the needs of people living in poverty, and acting to correct these shortcomings, mainly by creating incentives among the actors in the system to make the system more inclusive. MSD promotes, among other thing,s locally adapted and innovative solutions, adaptive programming and sustainable and scalable results. This program is one of two “sub-programs” in one regional program covering both the Eastern Partnership (EaP) and Western Balkans. Both sub-programs have country windows, one in WB, North Macedonia, and one in EaP, Armenia.
Employment and income increases for excluded groups are a key component of inclusive economic development. In Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans, the development is negatively affected by both poverty, brain drain and discrimination against different population groups. Income and employment for development cooperation's target groups counteract these negative trends.To stay competitive in global markets, development towards green transition is necessary and therefore also green skills and adapted business models.
The program is implemented by Helvetas, a Swiss NGO with experience from working with market system development.
RECONOMY is an innovative program in that it uses an MSD approach at the regional level. Often the "Markets" in MSD approaches are limited by national borders. But especially in the Eastern Partnership and in the Western Balkans, this is rarely the case. Various aspects of the market systems cross borders and RECONOMY has a well-developed way of exploiting these opportunities for development. The approach includes:
• Common problems – where similar issues exist in different contexts and lessons from one context can be applied in another.
• Shared problems – where trade in goods, services, information or other cross borders and present a particular challenge or opportunity and which RECONOMY can address.
• Shared solutions – where RECONOMY utilizes knowledge and networks within several related markets to work with the same private sector actors or administrative actors in several countries. RECONOMY för Västra Balkan är ett regionalt program med målet "Kvinnor och ungdomar, i synnerhet från missgynnade och utestängda grupper, drar nytta av förbättrade ekonomiska möjligheter (bättre inkomst och anständiga och gröna jobb) på ett inkluderande och hållbart sätt". Programmet bygger på en marknadssystemansats (MSD) dvs. har ett fokus på systemförändringar. Inom programmet byggs en förståelse för var marknadssystem misslyckas med att tillgodose behoven hos människor som lever i fattigdom. Programmet inriktas på att rätta till dessa brister, främst genom att skapa incitament bland aktörerna i systemet för att göra systemet mer inkluderande. MSD främjar bland annat lokalt anpassade och innovativa lösningar, adaptiv programmering och hållbara resultat i stor skala. Detta program är ett av två ”del-program” i ett regionalt program som täcker både Östra Partnerskapet (EaP) och Västra Balkan. Båda delprogrammen har var sitt landfönster, ett i VB, Nordmakedonien, och ett i EaP, Armenien.   
Sysselsättning och inkomstökningar för exkluderade grupper är en nyckelkomponent av inkluderande ekonomisk utveckling i hela världen. I Östeuropa och på Västra Balkan påverkas samhället negativt av både fattigdom, kompetensflykt och diskriminering av olika befolkningsgrupper. Inkomster och sysselsättning för utvecklingssamarbetets målgrupper motverkar dessa negativa trender. För att vara konkurrenskraftig i globala marknader krävs en utveckling mot en grön omställning och därmed även nya kompetenser och nya anpassade affärsmodeller.
Programmet genomförs av Helvetas, en schweizisk NGO med erfarenhet av att arbeta med MSD-metoden. 
RECONOMY är ett innovativt program genom att det använder MSD på regional nivå. Ofta begränsas "Marknaderna" i MSD-ansatser av nationella gränser. Men särskilt i det Östliga Partnerskapet och på Västra Balkan är det sällan fallet. Olika aspekter av marknadssystemen sträcker sig över gränserna och RECONOMY har ett välutvecklat sätt att utnyttja dessa möjligheter till utveckling. Tillvägagångssättet inkluderar:
• Gemensamma problem – där liknande frågor finns i olika sammanhang och lärdomar från ett sammanhang kan vara tillämpas i ett annat.
• Delade problem – där handel med varor, tjänster, information eller annat korsar gränser och innebär en speciell utmaning eller möjlighet och som RECONOMY kan adressera.
• Delade lösningar – där RECONOMY utnyttjar kunskaper och nätverk inom flera relaterade marknader för att arbeta med samma näringslivsaktörer eller förvaltningsaktörer i flera länder. The objective of RECONOMY is:

"Women and youth, including the most disadvantaged and excluded, benefit from improved economic opportunities (better income and decent and green jobs) inclusively and sustainably."

By addressing dysfunctions and underperformance in systems assessed to have high productive potential for the most excluded/vulnerable populations, the programme is expected to maximize benefits for the poorest populations in a sustainable manner over time. At the end of the project it is expected that

- an additional 30,200 women and youth have received additional income and decent and green job opportunities. Of these, at least 50% are women, at least 10% are from the most disadvantaged and excluded groups, at least 20% are green jobs. Moreover, at least 24% of the total target of 30,200 women and youth are in North Macedonia, corresponding to the financial allocation from the country envelope.

- at least 40% of the women and youth with additional income and decent job opportunities express satisfaction with their situation.

To reach the above impact, 3 main outcomes are measured:

Private sector enterprises adopt improved/new services into their operations & boost their competitiveness, indicated by:

- The amount of additional investment made by private sector enterprises increase because of changes stimulated by the program (target: CHF 19,500,000, out of which CHF 4,000,000 green finance)

- The percentage of private sector enterprises that report higher turnover and/or profit as a result of changes stimulated by the program (target: 40%) 

Target groups increase their skills as well as access & use intermediation services & support systems to make informed decisions, indicated by:

- An increased number of women and youth have improved skills relevant to market needs (Target: 22,700 women and youth, at least 50% women, at least 10% of the most disadvantaged and excluded, at least 20% green skills, at least 24% in North Macedonia)

- % of women and youth who express satisfaction with the relevance of skills (target: 40%)

- Number of women and youth that access and use intermediation services (target: 125,150, at least 50% women, at least 10% disadvantaged and excluded groups)

- % of women and youth who express satisfaction with the relevance of intermediation services (target: 40%)

Private sector enterprises have better policy support to do business & increase their efficiency, indicated by:

- Number of private sector enterprises report better performance as a result of clear and implemented  policies/regulations/administrative requirements as a result of the programs facilitation (target: 1,280, disaggregated by services and sectors)

- A percentage of private sector enterprises that report increased economic opportunities and business environment (target: 40%)