The European Social Fund Agency initially was named Human Resources Development Programmes Support Foundation and was established by the Ministry of Social Security and Labour of the Republic of Lithuania and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania in August, 2002.
At the very beginning, ESFA was established to administer the pre-accession instrument’s Phare ESS 2001 and Phare ESS 2002 projects, thereafter the Agency became an integral part of the Institutional Structure of Structural Funds in Lithuania. Since its inception, ESFA was appointed to administer the SPD 2004-2006 – during the 2004-2006 programming period, the ESF 2007-2013 – for the 2007-2013 programming period and the ESF 2014-2020 – for the 2014-2020 new programming period.
With the accrual of experience and knowledge while administering the Human Resource projects, the ESFA was entrusted with overseeing the following new programmes: Community Initiative EQUAL (2004), SOLID funds (2007-09), European Glo¬balization Adjustment Fund (2009), National Programme of the European Year 2010 for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion (2010), Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (2014), Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (2014).
Since the very beginning of establishment we cooperate and liaise with the various institutions: ministries, agencies, foundations, social partners. We foster long-term institutional partnership with the Ministry of Finance, Social Security and Labour, Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Interior. Since 2014 our list of institutional partners was enlarged with the Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Health.
With the intrusted programmes delegated to it, the ESFA focuses on ensuring that all funds given by the European Union and the Republic of Lithuania are appropriately used. In addition, the Agency ensures efficient project management to include: project preparation, selection, supervision and quality control of project implementation.
