The National Council for Women Entrepreneurship (NCWE) is the first and only council for women entrepreneurship acting at the national level, established through the project ” Enhancing contribution and efficiency of women’s entrepreneurship CSOs related to the EU integration reforms in the area of economic policy (“WE-Contribute”). The NCWE is a voluntary, informal unification of active actors from the civil sector, policy makers and relevant institutions that act in the areas of women entrepreneurship.

To provide the necessary basis for influencing the overall development of women’s entrepreneurship in the country, including EU integration processes through the introduction of an effective mechanism for consultation, advocacy and influence.

To create a synergy of quality and impact of strong representation of the interests of women entrepreneurs in front of the stakeholders of the legislative and executive power, through identifying and recommending solutions to issues critical to the development of women entrepreneurship in the country.

Assembly

Assembly is the highest body of the NCWE. The Assembly of the Council consists of all members of the NCWE. The Assembly elects the Presidency consisting of: a president with a mandate of 6 months with a right to re-election, a deputy president, a secretary, and two more members. The President represents and represents the NCWE. The Assembly meets as necessary, and at least twice a year. Meetings of the Assembly are convened by the President of the Assembly on his own initiative. The Assembly can decide fully if more than one half of the total number of members are present. As a rule, the Assembly adopts the decisions with a majority of the votes of the present members.

The Assembly performs the following tasks:

• Adopts guidelines and work plan;
• It establishes the acceptance of new members and the termination of membership;
• Elect the President of the NCWE;
• Adopts a program of work for the NCWE;
• Discussion of the achieved results from the development of the NCWE and gives directions for further development of the Council;
• Make other decisions, conclusions, recommendations for resolving issues of interest to the NCWE.

Presidency

The Presidency is an executive body of the Assembly that manages the work of the NCWE. The presidency consists of five members: president, vice president, secretary and two members.

President (rotating position among members of the NCWE for a period of 6 months)

The President is responsible for:

• Leadership and vision – Providing leadership and transferring the vision of the NCWE to the team and other stakeholders;
• Authority – To have the opportunity to start and complete all appointments on time and to ensure that the agenda is followed throughout the meeting;
• Discussion – Monitor discussions to ensure that they are relevant and useful;
• Conflict Management – Mitigate all conflicts that occur during the meeting;
• Marking a replacement – ordering another member to assume these duties in the event that the president is absent from the meeting.

Vice president

Vice President is responsible for:

• Leadership and vision – Providing leadership and transferring the vision of the NCWE to the team and other stakeholders
• Authority – Taking the leadership of the council in case of absence of the president, to have the opportunity to start and finish all the meetings in time and to ensure that the agenda is followed throughout the meeting;
• Discussion – Monitor discussions to ensure that they are relevant and useful;
• Conflict Management – Mitigate all conflicts that occur during the meeting.

 Secretary

The Secretary is responsible for:

• To keep record of all events, recommendations and action points in the minutes of each meeting;
• Revision and distribution of transcripts;
• Maintaining communication and information, including archives.

Members of the Presidency

Members of the Presidency are responsible for:

• Membership – Recruitment and orientation of new members of NCWE (in consultation with other NCWE executive and project team) and management of existing members of NCWE during their mandate, in order to ensure appropriate continuity.
• Information – Collect all information required by the NCWE (for example, invitation/letter, member documents).
• Schedule – scheduling meetings and other events of the NCWE and keeping a record of the expected and real presence of these events.
• Materials – Reaffirming that all materials required for meetings, including agendas and minutes, are distributed in an appropriate and timely manner.
• Communication – Facilitating communication between the NCWE and the project team.

Members of the NCWE are expected to contribute to the work of the council through:

• Joint assistance and cooperation to improve the coordination of activities related to women entrepreneurship issues;
• Creating a synergy of quality and influence of strong representation of the interests of women entrepreneurs in front of the stakeholders of the legislative and executive power;
• Enabling networking of women entrepreneurs on a national and international level;
• Monitoring strategic, political and legislative documents on women entrepreneurship;
• Sharing and developing educational programs and channels for informing important events in the field of women entrepreneurship;
• Identify and promote good practices.

In that direction, the National Council for Women Entrepreneurship has prepared the first Action Plan, which will contribute to identify and recommend solutions on issues critical to the development of women entrepreneurship in the country.

The Action Plan of National Council for Women Entrepreneurship foresees activities in three priority areas:

• Priority area: 1. Business environment, advocating interest
• Priority area: 2. Networking
• Priority area: 3. Educational programs, informing

As objectives that stand out from these priority areas, the following are stated:

Objective 1: Creating a favorable business environment in which women entrepreneurs are encouraged to raise awareness of women entrepreneurs about the benefits of advocating their own interests enabling them to participate in the decision-making process

• Objective: 1.1 Increased access to information about the business environment and inclusion in entrepreneurship
• Objective: 1.2 Increased participation of women entrepreneurs in the advocacy process

Objective 2: Improved quality of the permanent networking conditions and promotion of the accessibility of women entrepreneurs and civil society organizations for easier networking and business partnerships

• Objective: 2.1 Increased number of events that will enable networking of women entrepreneurs
• Objective: 2.2 Provided opportunities for business partnerships between women entrepreneurs

Objective 3: Increased availability of opportunities for participation in educational programs and information on the opportunities for women entrepreneurs and civil society organizations in which they can act/influence in their environment

• Objective: 3.1 Providing educational programs for strengthening the capacity of CSOs
• Objective: 3.2 Established mechanisms to improve access to information for women entrepreneurs at the national level
• Objective: 3.3 Increasing the flow of information between the NCWE and the civil society organizations

The reason for the preparation of such a document comes from the need to carry out activities that will respond to the current needs and constraints faced by women entrepreneurs as well as the relevant bodies working on this topic. Through this, the Action Plan of the National Council for Women Entrepreneurship will enable creation of a synergy of quality and influence of strong representation of the interests of women entrepreneurs in front of the stakeholders of the legislative and executive power. Through the promotion of good practices by the Council, better coordination of the activities related to women entrepreneurship issues will be made possible, as well as access to the sharing and preparation of educational programs and channels for informing important events in the field of women entrepreneurship. In this way, the Action Plan of National Council for Women  Entrepreneurship will enable networking of women entrepreneurs on a national and international level.