Participation in an event in Montenegro – The Road to Impact Economy

On 10 December 2025, in Podgorica, Montenegro, the event “Pathfinding Event on Impact Economy in Montenegro” was organised by ADP-ZID. This was a regional event within the Invest for Change (I4C) project. The event brought together representatives from the civil sector, public institutions, the financial sector and European networks from the Western Balkans, with the aim of strengthening the impact investing ecosystem and supporting the transition from social and green economy towards an impact economy.

The opening of the event carried a strong message of cooperation. Sanda Rakočević from ADP-ZID reminded attendees that I4C is a project for learning and practicing how to manage impact. This stance was confirmed by government and EU representatives, Biljana Vučetić and Valentina Di Sebastiano, who added the need for monitoring and performance evaluation conducted through digital tools. Andreja Rosandić from Impact Europe identified the challenges and explained that the primary goal of the project is to strengthen the potential of partners to form their own impact funds.

The project partners presented their strategies for strengthening the ecosystem:

• Smart Kolektiv (Serbia): Neven Marinović announced the development of new financial instruments and a focus on systemic support and capacity building.
• Partners Albania (Albania): They see the future in providing lending and loans for development.
• ARNO (Macedonia): Announced the challenge of creating an e-catalogue for green and social enterprises through the “Y-COMPASS” project within the BOOST programme, coordinated by ALDA and funded by Agence Française de Développement. As a second step, they highlighted the necessity of involving the Macedonian diaspora.

During the panel discussions on financial tools and policies, the “learning by doing” (and learning from mistakes) approach was emphasised. Martijn Blom from Impact Europe stated that “An impact fund is like making pancakes; the first one or the first few are never the best”, while Silke Horáková from Tilia Impact Ventures, a pioneer in impact investing, encouraged that the long and unpredictable path brings many benefits.

Irina Janevska and Andrijana Tasevska attended the event in Podgorica on behalf of ARNO. 

“As a new member of the ARNO team, I had the chance to meet all the partners in person for the first time. This regional gathering is important because we are talking about the foundations of impact investing in the Western Balkans. We are all investing ourselves in the transition from traditional to social and green economy—an economy with a soul, a social economy, an economy of trust, responsible, useful and solidary—or, in the absence of an adequate and generally accepted translation in Macedonian, an impact economy. There is a long way ahead of us, but we do not walk alone; we are six partners in the project and we have excellent guides—our colleagues from Impact Europe,” said Andrijana.

The event was realised within the Invest for Change project (2025–2030) – a pioneering initiative funded by the European Union, aimed at developing a more favourable environment for social entrepreneurship in the Western Balkans. The project is coordinated by Impact Europe and implemented in partnership with ARNO (Macedonia), Partners Albania (Albania), Smart Kolektiv (Serbia), Foundation 787 (Bosnia and Herzegovina), ADP Zid (Montenegro) and Innovation Centre Kosovo (Kosovo).