The primary focus of BAFA’s activities is fostering economic development via Restart.  What makes Restart unique is that it is a non-profit social enterprise which sells services to fund some of its activities. In 2021, Restart:

• Produced an updated Investors Navigator to Bosnia and Herzegovina, providing up-to-date and relevant information concerning real-estate, labor market, accelerators, incubators & co-sharing workspaces, banking & financing (available upon request).
• Produced Country Profile of Bosnia and Herzegovina promoting BiH as a new hot outsourcing destination.
• Organized it’s 6th annual Reconnect event for diaspora businesspeople, attended in person and virtually by over 160 participants from 13 different countries.
• Received a grant from Market Makers to position Restart as a business process outsourcing (BPO) matchmaker and intermediary for directing foreign companies to already existing suppliers of business processes and knowledge services in BiH as the next outsourcing destination.
• Entered year 5 of cooperation with USAID’s diaspora invest project, focused primarily on the diasporainvest.ba portal which in 2020 reached 1,058 registered users and 51,841 unique visitors.

Restart Project

BAFA is a co-founder of Restart. Restart operates as a business embassy for the diaspora. We handle business requests and facilitate investments coming from the diaspora network and their contacts around the world.

Restart aims to serve entrepreneurs, business-oriented individuals, and municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) needing better international networks, a better information base, as well as consulting regarding direct and indirect investments. Restart reaches out also to all other members of the BiH diaspora who desire to directly take part in the economic and social transformation of their homeland.

The LEADER Project

LEADER empowers promising entrepreneurs in Bosnia and Herzegovina to learn business fundamentals through the following modules: Business Plan Development, Opportunity Recognition, Business Strategy, Marketing Strategy and Tactics, Entrepreneurial Finance (Financial Statements, Cash Flow, Valuation), Operations, Managing People, Communications and Action Planning. Through this approach, LEADER aims to enable high-potential individuals to develop local business solutions that create opportunities for their communities.

BAFA is active in the leadup to elections with distributing information about how to register and vote, both for Bosnian-Americans in the US and US citizens in Bosnia. In 2020 we organized a Facebook event with US Ambassador Eric Nelson, the #BiHAmericansVote campaign with Bosnian-American organizations in the US and several TV appearances to get the word out.

Building Our Community

BAFA is the most prominent organization of the American diaspora and Bosnian-Americans in Bosnia. It’s a membership-based community whose mission is to enhance human and social capital in both countries through the promotion of volunteerism, diversity, and responsibility.