The Fund comprises €10 M to be disbursed through the local labour offices for locally provided services related to job creation.

The Fund supports six types of activity for counteracting unemployment and stimulating employment in areas with severe social and economic difficulties and which require a strong stimulus for development and redirection. It is anticipated that application of the Pilot Services component of the project will provide a good basis for the development of the Employment Services’ capacity at both local and national level.

The WYG International team of Bulgarian specialist advisors in each region and in Sofia are supported by a pool of international advisors who provide advice and support to regional labour offices and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. This includes support in provision of all six types of project actions.

A key feature of the project is the development of the capacity of local Employment Services staff to provide an efficient service to the unemployed and to monitor the immediate and longer term effect of training and employment projects financed through the Fund.

In the early part of the project, WYG International has developed and will put in place a comprehensive and practical Management Information System (MIS) for the projects ; this system integrates information from the regional labour offices with that supplied by employers, providing continuous feedback on the local labour market and the impact of the projects financed through the Fund.

The information which will be gathered by this system will be used to provide immediate monitoring information on project progress in each locality and each region. It will also be used to inform the systematic assessment and evaluation of project outcomes and impacts which is an integral part of the technical assistance project and which has been designed to provide policy and practice feedback to regional labour offices and other stakeholders.