Project CETAP is in the process of providing specific technical assistance to support policy development that will favour a circular economy, by promoting and enabling re-use and recycling.

Alongside this the team are supporting further harmonization of the existing country-wide legislation and once completed this will result in an upgraded legal framework governing the waste management – further aligning local entity legislation with the EU Waste Package.

In addition, the agreed scenarios proposed by the Study on Market Potential for the application of circular economy principles in the management of special categories of waste in BiH should be transferred into the municipal and cantonal plans.

The project team will use all of this information to prepare guidelines for strategic planning in the waste sector for cantons and municipalities, and will also develop municipal and cantonal plans for circular special waste management for a specified group of exemplar local government units.

In November the project team developed draft contents for the guideline on strategic planning. This will be presented within the 4^th Progress report dated 30^th November 2025. The guideline will be prepared during the second quarter of 2026 and the completion of the guidelines will coincide with the delivery of the second series of trainings and stakeholder capacity building.

Also in November the project team had two induction workshops for the exemplar municipalities in Republika Srpska. The events were held in Banja Luka and Sarajevo and were well attend by the exemplar municipalities.

At the workshops the project team discussed the expected outputs and working modalities with the delegates.

The hope now is to have two sessions a month from January 2026 with another one-to-one session planned with the CETAP waste planning expert team for the Republika Srpska in early December 2025.

In terms of waste management planning activities in the Federation, the project team have made agreements with Sarajavo Canton; Herzegovina Neretva Canton; and are awaiting formal agreement from Central Bosnia Canton and Zenica Doboj Canton on specific work activities in those territories. A work plan for these Cantons and associated municipalities is being submitted with the 4^th Progress report dated 30^th November 2025.

The CETAP Team would like to thank all of our exemplar municipalities and cantons who have are working with us to enable this transition.