Strategic Prioritization Retreat

Your Excellencies, Dear Minister Radulovic, Partners, Colleagues,

A warm welcome to this Strategic Prioritisation Retreat – where we are going to set the priorities of our new joint program for the coming five years between the UN and the Government of Montenegro.

This is also a moment to reflect on our past achievements, and think about how to build upon those joint accomplishments while moving forward.

The past and the still ongoing journey  has been marked by unprecedented crises of humanity in the last few years:

1. At the very outset of our current program, we were all still focusing on the migrant crisis. The UN system and the Government of Montenegro jointly responded by strengthening systems to support migration flows through the country and in the region.
2. Global pandemic – yet with no clear understanding of what the long-term effects on our economies, societies, and on our individual lives this will have.  The UN system and the Government of Montenegro have been fighting together, by providing knowledge,, medical equipment and enhancing preparedness and resilience of the health and education sector, and with vaccines through COVAX. But the fight continues.

When we look at our  joint achievements over the past few years I notice a few powerful results that in my mind stands out;

1. almost doubled the number of children in kindergartens and number of children with disabilities in schools,
2. supporting environment protection with two new protected marine areas – Platamuni and island Katich, near Petrovac,
3. enhanced dialog between social partners and sparked social cohesion dialogs among youth, women and policymakers in Montenegro and the Western Balkans,
4. fight gender and family violence, while empowering women to be prominent political figures and economic actors,
5. developing numerous digital solutions for enhancing the efficiency of governance and easing the life of people in the country,
6. We have commenced the UN Reform on global, regional, and national levels.

And many many more…

These results would not be possible without dedicated UN team Government ownership and excellent cooperation and close partnership with our multilateral partners, financial institutions, the Member States, civil society, and the private sector.

Herewith, I would like to sincerely thank you all for helping promote the values of the United Nations, the Sustainable development goals, and the fight for people, prosperity, and the planet.

Today 73 years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted and 10 December, and ever since the world celebrates Human Rights Day on this day and so do we, this is also the day that marks the end 16-day campaign on violence against women.

The New Cooperation Framework is the strategic guiding document that will continue to advance these and other strategic goals in the coming five years with the start 1 January 2023. And it will build upon and help facilitate the advancement of the Government's own overarching mid-term strategy.

What the colleagues will share with you today has been a highly consultative process with a truly bottom-up approach where we all came together, government institutions, civil society, and international organizations. And I would like to thank Minister Radulovic and his ministry for helping coordinate this process from the Government side.

The new Cooperation  will be based on three pillars::

1. Inclusive economic development and environmental sustainability,
2. Human capital development, reducing vulnerability, social inclusion,
3. Social cohesion, people-centered governance, rule of law, and human rights.

This approach, we believe will serve the best national interests and help the Government achieve its priorities and speed up the realization of the SDG by 2030, and it will also help the country advance towards its EU accession.

New Cooperation Framework is simply about eradicating poverty and hunger, improving education and achieve gender equality, fighting climate change and boosting innovation potential, leveraging partnerships, and above all leave no one behind.

I  am therefore honored to know that Montenegro has decided to present their second-ever Voluntary National Report to the United Nations on the progress on the SDGs next year in New York at the High-Level Political Forum in July 2022. And we stand ready in working together on this important milestone event.

Dear Friends,

Today, we aim to disclose to you all a six-month-long planning and consultation process, after this meeting the actual drafting of the new Strategy document start, and implementation begins from January 2023 and five years onwards.

With your support, and especially with strong Government ownership, we expect to make this a successful journey ahead. But most importantly, we can only do it together in a coordinated, transparent, and joint manner.

And here the United Nations remains our common platform for dialog, sustainable development solutions, and enhancing human rights. Goals of the Cooperation Framework, are, likewise, our shared goals, and that is why we welcome you all to join us in achieving them, together!

Thank you.