Igor Kostic
Igor Kostic has been a researcher, analyst, civil society
activist, and director of the Initiatives, a nongovernmental
organization based in the Republic of Serbia. Igor was born in late
1970s in Prokuplje, southern Serbia. He studied medicine. Through more
than twenty years of informal education in Serbia, Europe and the United
States, Igor has gained a vast knowledge of strategic planning, project
proposal development, and monitoring and evaluation. In 2007, out of
hundreds of candidates, Igor got the opportunity to present his own work
to the professors and master students and the Kennedy School of
Government (Harvard University), and take the necessary knowledge for
his work.
Igor’s activity in civil society began within the Serbian
student movement “Otpor” (Resistance) at the end of the 1990s, and
continued in the Initiatives, the nongovernmental organization founded
by several of Igor’s colleagues and himself. Since 2000, Igor has been
working on designing local projects and actions. As Initiatives grew,
Igor’s role in the organization changed. In coordination with the
Initiatives Board of Directors, Igor has been more focused on the
organization’s strategic development. As a result of coordinated
activities of the Initiatives, local and national government
institutions, and international organizations, Igor established the
Business Incubator Center and Regional Development Agency, the first two
development institutions in Toplica district and in southern Serbia.
These two institutions were launched as joint bodies (public, private and civil sector) to help local community development.
As a consultant, researcher and author, Igor has worked with
many international organizations, private foundations, and institutions
from Europe, former Soviet republics, and the United States. In
recent years, Igor's focus is on exploring opportunities for
cross-sectorial cooperation, development of programs based on long-term
research and development of special projects for international bilateral
donors in the field of youth employment, and effective programs for
youth self-employment.