WEBIN

Ms. Jelena Nastić is the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the Western Balkans Institute (WEBIN), an NGO active in development cooperation programmes and projects in the Western Balkans operating from the office located in Belgrade, Republic of Serbia. Apart from strategic leadership of organisation, for the past decade Jelena has been a leading project developer, researcher and evaluator on a roster of high-end multi-beneficiary EU, BMZ and UN funding endeavours in Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia and Kosovo* addressing socio-economic development thematic areas. Following her stint at the EU Delegation of the European Commission to Serbia economic integration section where she contributed to team’s analysis on the country’s policy progress in the European Union accession process, she continued her career as a junior project developer and PMI certified project manager with the international public consulting company HD European Consulting Group working on technical assistance projects supporting Serbian public sector institutions in transferring and implementing EU IPA development assistance in a number of sectors. Prior to joining WEBIN, Jelena held the position of a Programme developer at World Vision foundation in Serbia. She has a track record in educational and training programmes development, conducting of development assistance evaluation/impact analysis of implemented local, national and regional projects with the aim to maximise the scope and effects of the assistance provided in line with policy objectives and priorities. Since 2017 Jelena has been engaged as an external assessor of project proposals and funded projects final reports on EU and other donors’ annual grants calls. As a ToT trainer she has been actively supporting young adults’ empowerment in project development and management, and closure of schools-labour gaps through upgrading of soft skills. Jelena holds MA by research in European Studies, specialization track in European international politics and foreign aid from Maastricht University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in the Netherlands.

Mr. Marko Stojanović is a director of the WEBIN Training Academy (WETA) holding expertise in development and use of eLearning materials and their dissemination aspects to different categories of end users and project target groups. He has been providing training and guest lectures for African and European University partners since 2021. He manages WEBIN regular training sessions and blended learning opportunities with students and youth in projects development in the Western Balkans and in intercultural learning aspects, including hackathons format. He holds 15+years of expertise in project management, working on international projects with higher education institutions, often with responsibility for designing effective engagement and outreach measures and instruments and training toolkits to support quality approach to targeted stakeholders including those in vulnerable positions.  He holds vast expertise in policy dialogue and citizens initiatives towards policy improvements. He successfully coordinated interagency meetings for policy analytics, advocacy and reporting all of which form part of his core expertise including in the areas of entrepreneurship and youth, education, professional services, and non-profit organisations. These include the following tasks: applying specialist knowledge in evaluating existing policies; determining if policies are aligned with stated goals and objectives; consulting with internal and external stakeholders to ensure inclusion of relevant factors; identifying benefits, disadvantages, and omissions in existing policy frameworks; ensuring that policies and policy amendments meet legal requirements; reporting on findings and proposing new policies or amendments to existing policies; drafting new policies or amendments to policies and submitting proposals for review; editing and finalizing new policies or amendments as required; documenting processes and disseminating information to stakeholders. Marko is experienced in initiating and forming networks with specific focus such as Anti-poverty Network Serbia, Serbian Youth Umbrella Organisation, etc. His educational background is in economics.

Ms. Jasmina Radoičić is the Head of Internal Operations at WEBIN and representative of employees in the Board. She is an economist, and she is responsible for financial issues and procurements. She is the WEBIN´s main specialist and trainer on procurement (national legislation and EU PRAG for External Actions - following on public procurement rules, policies, and practices). Holding classical procurement expertise, Jasmina is able to negotiate deals from suppliers, analyse spending to identify where savings opportunities are, and collaborate with suppliers to take out costs, improve performances, and gain competitive advantage. As a head of WEBIN financial unit, Jasmina is a highly experienced professional taking on the following responsibilities: keeping accurate records for all daily transactions, preparing balance sheets, processing invoices, holding record on accounts payable and accounts receivable, updating internal systems with financial data, preparing monthly, quarterly and annual financial reports, reconciling bank statements, participating in financial audits, tracking bank deposits and payments, assisting in budget preparation, reviewing and implementing financial policies. She inspires internal customers to comply with procurement initiatives, persuades senior management to give support to procurement strategies and investments and motivates multi-beneficiaries´ international teams to succeed at their projects. Jasmina is also a member of the WEBIN PQA team and she is responsible for project management quality architecture.

Ms. Sanja Kovačević is the Head of WEBIN projects unit. She holds a Master´s Degree in philology (English language and literature) and has a perennial experience in the field of formal education, from early childhood education to higher education. Furthermore, she is an adult trainer in project management and has extensive experience conducting Project Quality Architecture (PQA) methodology-based evaluations. She also has extensive experience in developing research methodology, but also in conducting research studies in numerous projects which are either in progress or have been successfully finalised. Likewise, she has experience in developing study programmes/curricula in the field of higher education, but also training materials in the domain of non-formal adult education. Sanja has been involved in policy analysis activities, preparing socio-economic overviews, research reviews and assessment of projects and programmes. Since 2018 to the present day she has been engaged on regular basis by the Foundation Tempus (National Erasmus Office) in the capacity of an external evaluator, whereby she had the opportunity to evaluate KA1 (Mobility) and KA2 (Strategic Partnerships for School Education, Vocational Education and Training, Higher Education, Adult Education) projects, as well as final reports of finalised project within KA2 Action. She has also been engaged on regular basis as a CEEPUS evaluator in the course of the CEEPUS Network Call since 2019 to the present day. For almost a decade she was an English language teacher and International office coordinator at the Teacher Training College responsible for mobility activities including safety and security aspects. She is an author of a number of scientific papers dealing with the change of paradigm in terms of language learning/acquisition. In her papers she advocates innovative student-centred approaches based on the principles of lifelong learning and problem-based learning.