OC BiH profile

The National Olympic Committee Bosnia and Herzegovina (OCBiH) is a sport umbrella institution, which was founded on June 4th 1992. After the founding and the appearance of sportsmen and sportswomen of our country in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, it received an official recognition from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which made its decision at the session of the Executive Committee in Monaco, on September 24th 1993.

After the establishment and the international recognition, OCBiH was registered December 8th 2002 into the Ministry of Justice's registry as the primary sports organization, in which National sports federations are joined. With the registration, as well as with the signing of the Lausanne Declaration on Doping in Sport on June 28th 1999, OCBiH was constituted as a Paramount sports body in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

OCBiH, as a member of the International Olympic Committee, is required to respect the rules of the Olympic Charter, IOC Statues, IOC Code of Ethics, World Anti-Doping Code, Law on Associations and Foundations of BiH and Law on sport of BiH.

Apart from numerous implemented projects funded by the IOC and EOC, the OC BiH has started its successful implementation of Erasmus + sport projects since 2015. Due to a great number of EU funded projects, the OC BiH has decided to establish a seperate sector for EU funded project in order to secure a timely and successful EU project implementation. In regards to getting a greater number of EU project applications year after year this has proven as an effective and efficiant decision. 

The table below indicates a successfully implemented Erasmus + sport projects within which OC BiH has participated as a partner in the Consortium.

EU programme	Year	Project identification or Contract number	Applicant/Beneficiary name
Erasmus + sport	2015	2014-3140/014-001	Aplikant: FH Joanneum
Erasmus + sport	2016	2015-3343/001-001	Aplikant: FH Joanneum

The first project implemented was in the scope of good governance in sport entitled ‘’How to Lead a Sport Club to a Successful Future – SportGO’’ specifically tackled the issues of good governance in grassroot sport clubs, while the second project addressed the issues of dual career of athletes entitled ‘’Athletes Learning Entrepreneurship – a New Type of Dual Career Approach – AtLETyC’’, resulting in an online training programme in Entrepreneurship designed for elite athletes, where as a part of a course, modules on strategic management, change management and public affairs were covered.

Currently OCBIH is implementing three Erasmus + Sport projects, presented in the table below.

EU programme	Year	Project identification or Contract number	Applicant/Beneficiary name
Erasmus + sport	2018	2017-2463/001-001	Aplikant: Federacion Andaluza Natacion
Erasmus + sport	2019	2018-3485/001-001	Aplikant: Furim Institute
Erasmus + sport	2020	612999-EPP-1-2019-1-IT-SPOSCP	Aplikant: EOC EU office

The two projects “Integration of elite athletes into the labour market through the valorization of their transversal competences – ELIT-in”, and “Athletes Becoming Social Entrepreneurs! Developing a Gamification Based Social Entrepreneurship Training Program for Athletes – SENTA”, both deal with dual career of athletes, within which the ELIT-in project addresses the issue of transversal skills in elite athletes, and SENTA works closely with the issue of social entreprenurship in sport, so fa a novel concept in sport system.

The third ongoing project „Road towards Innovative Governance of NOCs and Grassroots Sport Organisations –RINGS” deals with good governance in sport specifically in providing methodology for effective work of National Olympic Commitees and other sport organisations, such as national sport federations and their clubs.  

In addition to Erasmus + Sport projects, OCBIH currently implements two projects of IPA Cross-border cooperation programmes in partnership with Serbia entitled “Social Integration through parasport – PARAINSPIRED”, dealing with athletes with disability, and “Museum stories”, which will once again promote the story of Olympic city of Sarajevo and an Olympic Museum as a part of OCBIH.

In summary the OCBiH's work covers the segments of sports, international relations, marketing, arts and culture administration and finances, and is fully diverse in its work with different stakeholders, from athletes, coaches, international and domestic sport organisations, sport federations and clubs, sponsors, media and society in general. As the only sport organisation at the national level, it covers not just the local sport community, but as well community at the national level. Its impact is widely known not just in the country, but the region, Europe and the world. Constantly struggling with changes, as a very small but effective umbrella sport body it depends on good leadership, wise governance, and diversification of employee skills in tackling a great number of stakeholders and their needs.