Montenegro today: Understanding the development landscape

Your Excellencies, members of the diplomatic community, dear friends of the UN. 

Let me start by welcoming you all to the event: “Montenegro today: Understanding the development landscape”. Understanding complex hyper dynamics nowadays, not only in Montenegro, but elsewhere certainly is not an easy task. But having the accurate, well-informed picture on the development landscape is extremely important for progress of any country, including Montenegro. In-depth, thorough analyses are critically important tools in this regard, and we gathered today to present you one such tool and to hear your views. It’s the development insight called UN Common Country Analysis – CCA, which the UN family in Montenegro produces each year. It’s designed to assess the context for sustainable development in a country, which providies the analytical basis for our operations. The first iteration of the CCA was launched in 2021, with many of you present. We have updated the CCA in 2022, reflecting on the progress made, the challenges faced and the opportunities to further progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. Today we will hear about these reflections, and you will have an opportunity to provide your views and discuss the sustainable development context. 

But I would be remiss if I did not mention that Montenegro, like many of the countries in the Western Balkans sub-region, has been caught up in geopolitical waves, reverberating across the globe. Globally we have seen inflationary pressures increasing, stoking a rising cost of living, driven by rising energy and food prices. Countries have responded by increasing interest rates and enacting support packages for their citizens. The war in Ukraine has also had a substantial impact on Montenegro, not just economically but also socially and politically. These events have been made all the worse as they occurred as we were exiting the COVID-19 pandemic and hampered the recovery, which could push many households into vulnerability and even poverty. 

While Montenegro has had to weather this storm and maintain its post COVID recovery, significant work remains to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals with only 7 years left. The COVID-19 had reversed some of this progress. So this is no time to relax. The Voluntary National Review presented last year, which is part of the process of monitoring and assessment of implementation of 2030 Agenda. It showed that Montenegro has made much progress despite the challenges. We need to renew our joint efforts to ensure to tackle the challenges of inequality, climate change and social exclusion. Only through our joint efforts can we truly leave no one behind and fulfil the promise of the 2030 Agenda. 

There is a lot of hope on this path. The process of EU integration remains a strong opportunity to accelerate progress on the SDGs with two thirds of the SDGs achievable if Montenegro completes this process. And, after a sizeable drop in GDP and increase in poverty, Montenegro has outperformed some of its peers in its post-COVID pandemic recovery in the past year. This demonstrates not only Montenegro’s great potential but its ability to punch above its weight and be an example to its peers. But every silver lining has a cloud and there are many difficult events in the coming year that Montenegro will have to navigate carefully to put itself on the right path to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. 

We hope to give you a flavour of these challenges and very much look forward to hearing your views.  

And with that I will hand over to David. 

Thank you.