Diaspora Invest — Bosnia and Herzegovina's Diaspora-to-SME Investment Bridge

Launched by USAID in 2017, Diaspora Invest targets Bosnia and Herzegovina's large diaspora — remittances alone equal roughly 14% of national GDP — as a source of capital and know-how for the home economy.

The programme combines matching grants, technical assistance and diaspora business-advisory councils with financial-sector work to unlock lending for diaspora-linked entrepreneurs who often lack local collateral or credit history.

By the programme's own accounting, it has supported more than 200 diaspora-founded start-ups and early-stage firms across 74 different Bosnian cities and towns, drawing $69 million in diaspora investment from 22 countries on five continents at a reported $15 of private investment for every $1 USAID spent. The model has also been extended into mainstream finance: a separate $5.18 million loan-portfolio guaranty from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) allowed ProCredit Bank to offer longer-term loans to more than 80 additional diaspora-linked businesses in tourism, manufacturing and agriculture.

Supported firms together created over 2,800 jobs and have sold more than $325 million in goods and services, including roughly $233 million in exports to EU and North American markets.

All headline figures come from USAID and DFC's own programme reporting; no independent third-party impact evaluation with a counterfactual was located, so the numbers should be read as credible but self-reported.