Serbia is currently facing the consequences of decades-long marginalisation of women in the labour market. Statistical data indicate significant gender gaps in employment, wages, and working conditions. In addition, women face life circumstances such as pregnancy, childbirth, maternity leave, returning to work after maternity leave, and responsibility for household and care work. These inequalities, combined with insufficiently developed economic and social policies that don’t recognise the specific needs of women, lead to serious socio-economic consequences, including declining fertility rates and an increasing number of couples without children.
Considering that Serbia has approximately 350,000 young women aged between 18 and 30, supporting their economic integration into the labour market is not only an issue of gender equality, but also a demographic, economic, and development-related challenge.
For this reason, the Institute for Development and Innovation has developed a comprehensive support model for women entrepreneurs. Its approach combines practical, market-oriented training in sectors with the highest demand, with continuous and personalised mentoring support throughout all stages of business idea development. Particular emphasis is placed on ensuring equal access to support programmes across all regions of Serbia, so that women from less developed areas also have equal opportunities to acquire relevant skills and build sustainable and competitive businesses, thereby simultaneously contributing to sustainable economic development and improved quality of life.
Support for young women entrepreneurs continues beyond the “Economically Strong! 2” project
Institute for Development and Innovation organised the final event of the “Economically Strong! 2” project, which is implemented with the support of the Ministry for Family Care and Demography, on December 4th 2025. The event, held at the Institute’s premises, brought together more than 30 young women who successfully completed training programmes in entrepreneurship, graphic design, marketing, and finance. The event provided an opportunity for networking among participants, mentors, and successful women entrepreneurs, as well as for the exchange of experiences relevant to the further development of entrepreneurial ideas.
In addition, the participants presented the products and services they had developed during the course of the project. The central part of the programme was a panel discussion moderated by Milica Dolašević, Project Manager at the Institute. The panellists, Ana Tomašević, founder of the Eden Origin brand, and Valentina Radosavljević, founder of the Agape Infinity brand and a participant in a previous training cycle, shared insights from their personal entrepreneurial journeys. They addressed key challenges and turning points in their businesses, the importance of both formal and informal support, as well as ways of balancing parenthood and entrepreneurship.
One of the participants was given the opportunity to join BIRO
During the event, it was also announced which participant of the “Economically Strong! 2” project had been selected to work more intensively with mentors on further business development through the BIRO project. BIRO is an internal initiative of the Institute for Development and Innovation that integrates support for business model development, innovation, personal and professional skills enhancement, and business sustainability. Starting from January 2026, individualised support crucial for business improvement will be provided to entrepreneur Dragana Spalević, founder of the “Dadini kolači” brand.
