USAID’s Mission in Serbia was one of the first to join Local Works. By 2016, they had made six awards to local partners in the democracy, human rights, and governance sector, helping them advance their efforts to engage citizens in advocacy work, increase transparency in the judicial system, affect policy change through public-private dialogue, boost local philanthropy, and much more. 

Through an evaluation conducted by the Agency to understand the factors that made these activities so responsive to citizen priorities and effective in achieving intended results, both local partners and technical staff reported a common trend — the support and flexibility from the Office of Acquisition and Assistance (OAA) made this a successful partnership. 

To learn more, the Agency spoke with staff from OAA who directly supported Local Works in Serbia: two Agreement Officers, Michael Capobianco and Carter Saunders, and Acquisition and Assistance Specialist, Branislav Bulatovic.