Launching of the Montenegro SDG Acceleration Fund

Dear Prime Minister Abazovic,

Dear Ambassador Urs, Dear Richard

Dear Ministers, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Dear Friends of the United Nations,

Today is a historic moment for the UN system in Montenegro. This might be a small step for individual donors, but it is truly a giant leap for the UN Reforms and Agenda 2030. The Montenegro SDG Acceleration Fund that we are officially launching here today is part of a new generation of country-based pooled funds which create a common platform for joint action on development of the country. It is about partnerships for shared values.

Today, we are celebrating partnership between the UN and Luxembourg, Montenegro and Switzerland, who all joined forces for enhancing the sustainable development agenda through the Montenegro Acceleration Fund. As a strong catalyst for accelerating SDGs, the new Fund will be common space for deliberations between the Government, UN-family, donors and other partners to formulate strategic policies and development interventions.

And by boosting Agenda 2030, the Fund will at the same time help Montenegro move closer to its strategic foreign policy priority – EU accession, having in mind high level of complementarity between these two major development processes in Montenegro.

Let me take a moment to appreciate the contributions made by the Government of Luxembourg and the Government of Switzerland, who placed their trust in this idea and became the first contributors to the Montenegro Acceleration Fund. Two countries that were not previously involved in bilateral development cooperation in Montenegro before, or at least not for many decades. We hope that their commitments will motivate other partners to join hands with us in our determination “to make something big together”.

This powerful development tool is not only well structured, but it also lands timely in Montenegro. In the moment in which the country faces rise of costs of living, growing funding constraints for development initiatives, but also growing tangible climate change consequences. The Montenegro Acceleration Fund is set to be a strong tool for the country to face such challenges.

I would like to thank the Government of Montenegro for sharing the vision of Montenegro Acceleration Fund and for its generous commitment of one million EUR to this important SDG acceleration tool.

Ever since SDG’s adoption eight years ago, Montenegro has been clearly recognizing the importance of investing into sustainable development. I hope that Montenegro’s latest investment of 1 million into sustainable development will encourage other governments to do the same. This amount equals to 1.3€ per citizen, which is unprecedented in our region and puts Montenegro in position of a leader that sets an example for others to follow.

The Montenegro Acceleration Fund is set to create real opportunities beyond words, building up on collective work of UN organizations in addressing complex development challenges together with local partners, both government ministries, agencies and the civil society. The Fund would not be possible without the UN Reform on the ground.

The Montenegro Acceleration Fund will address the developments needs of Montenegro in areas which are today furthest left behind and for the ones who are the most vulnerable. It’s vision is about reducing exclusion, and vulnerability, helping to improve governance, and increasing resilience. This fund will be a flexible tool for the future in handling sudden onset situations like a pandemic or natural disasters where the fund can quickly re-adjust and align itself to the current needs while maintaining its long-term strategic objectives, just thinking about recent tragic events in Turkey and Syria as we speak.

We know that the modality of pooled funding is a well-known global tool for financing development efforts and has already been proven successful in numerous contexts, we are not reinventing the wheel in this case, but rather building on the experiences of decade long knowledge and empirical evidence.

By supporting this fund donors will show that they truly support a modern way of doing business. And, the modern way of doing business is transparent, open, coordinated and joint partnership. The one that shares results and risks among the partners and ensures recognition to the contributors.

With this in mind, I would extend an open invitation to all – our Member States and private sector,  – to seriously consider to join the Montenegro Acceleration Fund and take part in the journey ahead for a fully sustainable development of Montenegro on its path towards full EU membership.