Over the five-year period of implementation, the NATO/Partnership for Peace (PfP) Trust Fund Project for Assistance to Discharged Defence Personnel in the Republic of Serbia (NTF project) has achieved significant results in many fronts. It assisted numerous discharged defence personnel and their families in their reintegration into civilian life; through a wide range of capacity building activities combining formal trainings, coaching and learning-by-doing methodologies, the project supported the defence sector reform process and strengthened the MoD capacities to deal with future resettlement activities also related to the professional Army; at the local community level, it enhanced Serbia’s socio-economic development and democratization as well as contributed to stability within the Western Balkans region.



As concerns the direct project beneficiaries, a total of 6,025 individual have received individual counselling, while 4,596 of them received financial assistance to support their reintegration into civilian life; a total of 3,586 new micro and small enterprises were registered and 442 former defence staffs found employment in existing companies in Serbia.

As evaluated by external experts, such extremely positive results have gone beyond the initial targets, contributing to making this project as a possible model/example for future similar NATO/PfP activities; in that regard the conclusions in the latest External Independent End-of-project Summative Evaluation Report, from April 2011 (page 40) report as follows:  “Compared to other projects that support socio-economic reintegration of discharged military personnel, this project goes beyond the immediate needs and takes a comprehensive, medium-term time-frame to address the difficult and complex multi-dimensional issue of reintegration of discharged personnel. It has earned an outstanding record in terms of customer friendliness and in terms of the already known and much appreciated ICRS that IOM has used in other projects in the past and that was so successfully used in this project thanks to the high standards set and the very high staff quality”.

Considering the excellent results achieved as well as the good reputation, the NTF project, as one of the largest and most comprehensive resettlement projects ever financed by the NATO PfP, has attracted the attention of different countries within and beyond the region. In that view, the NATO PDD has also published a feature story about the NTF project at the NATO website:

(http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/news_74420.htm).

Regarding the self-sustainability of the NATO/PfP support and the long term impact of the donors’ investments, after five years of the NTF implementation, the Program for Resettlement has become an integral part of the Ministry of Defence. As confirmed by the Ministry at the last Steering Committee meeting held on May 2011, existing capacities built through the programme have become permanent part of the MoD that will continue to exist and perform similar resettlement activities even after the end of the NTF. On the basis of valuable experience and lessons learned through the five-year NTF project, the MoD is currently developing a new resettlement project with two-year duration that will be focused on professional soldiers and further professionalization of the Armed Forces.