Improved state owned enterprises, WB - Supporting Better, Effective, Sustainable,Transparent SOEs (BEST-SOEs) in BiH Förbättrade statligt ägda företag, WB Världsbanken har ansökt Sida om finansiering på 45 miljoner kronor för att genomföra projektet "Stöd till bättre, effektiva, hållbara, transparenta offentligt ägda företag (på engelska: State-Owned Enterprises, SOE) (BEST-SOE)" i BiH under perioden 2021-2024.
Projektets mål är att stödja Bosnien och Hercegovinas (BiH) regeringar i att utveckla och genomföra reformer och skapa verktyg för en modern politik, regelverk och styrning av SOE, som en grund för förbättrad transparens, effektivitet och hållbarhet inom SOE-sektorn. Enligt detta strategiska mål förväntas projektet leda till följande resultat:
- Regeringarna i BiHs entiteter (Republika Srpska och Federationen Bosnien-Hercegovina) har ett mer detaljerad och relevant kunskap om aktuella luckor i SOE-sektorns styrning och deras orsaker, och de alternativ och verktyg som behövs för att välja, utforma och genomföra nyckelreformer på alla nivåer.
-Allmänheten i BiH, media och det civila samhället har en bättre förståelse för SOE-sektorns utmaningar, reformalternativ och säkerhetsnät för att mildra negativa effekter. Lokala medier och civilsamhället har bättre möjlighet att formulera budskapen till allmänheten; och allmänheten stöder överlag mer reformer.
Den projektets budget är 45 000 000 SEK (45 MSEK). The World Bank has applied to Sida for funding of 45 million SEK to carry out the project "Supporting Better, Effective, Sustainable, Transparent SOEs (BEST-SOEs)" in BiH during the period 2021-2024. 
The Project aim is to support Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH) governments in developing and implementing reforms and enabling tools for a modern policy, regulatory, and institutional SOE sector governance framework, as a foundation for improved SOE sector transparency, effectiveness and sustainability. Under this strategic objective, the project is expected to have several indicative outcomes: 
Entity governments have more granular policy-relevant evidence on current gaps in SOE sector governance and their causes, and the options and tools needed to select, design, and begin implementation of key reforms at all levels; 
BiH public, media, and civil society have a better understanding of SOE sector challenges, reform options, and safety nets in place to mitigate adverse impacts; local media/civil society are better able to formulate the messages to the public; and the public are overall more supportive of reforms.
The indicative budget for the project is 45 000 000 SEK (45 MSEK) The objective of this project is to support Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH) governments in developing and implementing reforms and enabling tools for a modern policy, regulatory, and institutional SOE sector governance framework, as a foundation for improved SOE sector transparency, effectiveness and sustainability.
The project has four components. The components correspond to the four constraints/reform areas identified earlier: policy level (main focus), owner level, company level, and reform enablers. The activities under each component were selected according to their relevance, feasibility, and potential for impact, as well as their alignment with government priorities and requests for support, with Government of Sweden strategy, and with relevant World Bank and development partner projects.
The theory of change for this activity can be summarized as follows. BiH SOEs currently find themselves in financial and operational crisis. At the root of this poor outcome is an interlocking set of governance weaknesses which cascade from the policy down to the owner institutions and company levels. The reason the companies are unproductive and inefficient is not because they lack resources or market access, but because they lack incentives for performance as a result of the gaps in governance and accountability. Compounding the challenge of advancing needed reforms is the lack of enabling foundations for reform - lack of strong public demand for reform. This project seeks to lay the foundations for improving the health of BiH’s large SOE sector by supporting BiH governments in addressing these key constraints. It will do so by helping BiH governments set in place key governance fundamentals at policy, owner, and company levels, as well as reform enablers. Together these interventions are expected to contribute to two key intermediate outcomes: provide BiH governments with the evidence, options, and tools to select, design, and begin critical reforms; and help build public awareness and demand for reform. Both together will help entity governments to adopt and begin implementation of key reforms to address the binding SOE sector governance constraints. Although the ultimate impacts of these reforms lie beyond the timeline of the project and are not directly measured here, it is expected that if sustained over a medium-long term period, the reforms supported by this project will directly and significantly improve the sector’s performance: they will create a better, and more effective, sustainable, and transparent SOE (BEST-SOE) sector.
The Theory of Change graphically illustrates how proposed ACTIVITES lead to expected OUTPUTS, and how those contribute to achieving INTERMEDIATE and DEVELOPMENT OUTCOMES.

The choice to focus on governance aspects is rooted both in extensive literature showing them to be root drivers of challenges as well as in BiH experience. Many SOE projects in BiH in the last few decades, including most donor-supported investment and capacity building projects, have focused on purely technical company-level constraints such as financing for purchase of improved equipment or transfer of technology, while largely neglecting the root governance drivers. The result has been the sector’s continued financial and operational decline over the last decades, despite large capital injections and support. The attempts to address aspects of governance or ownership were generally unsuccessful as they were often not accompanied by critical reform enablers such as strategic communication, change management, and labor management strategies. Without the enablers in place, reforms that were perceived to threaten particular interests were met with stiff resistance and were ultimately rolled back. A notable exception remains the World Bank-supported RS Railways restructuring project, which was seeded with the support of the Government of Sweden, and which invested in consistent strategic communication and a transparent and comprehensive labor restructuring process for that company. Applying these lessons, this project focuses on critical governance reforms needed to fundamentally shift the state of play in the sector. Reform enablers will also receive special attention given the lessons learned about their importance for reform sustainability.
Besides the substantive focus on governance, global experience with SOE reform also informs how the interventions will be selected and deployed. Experience from many countries suggests that in challenging political economies like BiH’s the most effective approach is multipronged, flexible, and incremental. The benefits of a multi-pronged approach, which addresses governance constraints not just at the company level but at all relevant complementary levels is that it casts a wide net, and increases the chances of impact. It also brings a wide array of stakeholders into the dialogue, leveraging synergies across different interventions, and allowing strategic sequencing. Applying these lessons, this project will take a holistic approach, addressing governance constraints at all the levels discussed earlier and depicted in Figure 1. Flexibility in the choice or sequencing of activities has been shown to be also critical in uncertain and changing contexts like BiH’s, particularly in light of the COVID crisis. With this in mind, the project will draw on a comprehensive menu of activities (described below) but adopt a flexible approach to selection and sequencing during implementation, to ensure they remain demand driven and responsive to reform openings over the course of the project. Finally, an incremental approach is imperative for the complex and difficult reforms at hand. The project will carefully select and sequence interventions and break down complex reforms into “palatable” steps to set a manageable pace for reforms and ensure that they are sustainable and irreversible. An incremental approach will also facilitate learning by all parties and stakeholders, and allow for easy course corrections as needed at each successive step. To ensure smooth implementation and iterative adaptation to changing needs, the project will be accompanied by continuous technical-level dialogue. Occasional high-level meetings will be organized to facilitate key necessary decisions and follow-up actions.