Joint Country Steering Committee meeting

On behalf of the UN Family in Montenegro, let me first of all thank you for co-hosting the eleventh Joint Country Steering Committee for the purpose to reflect on 2017 successes and look into plans for 2018.

The meeting comes a bit late in this year due to many ongoing things on both ends -the Government and the UN, thus plans for 2018 are well under its’ implementation as you are already aware through other foras that the UN System in Montenegro has for convening the partners.

Montenegro should be commended for many good things that it achieved in 2017. While progressing on the EU path and opening new chapters, Montenegro also showed its’ commitment to the global challenges such as the climate change and ratified the Paris Agreement. By doing so, Montenegro joined the club of countries that are aware of the world’s arising problems and the countries who are ready to take the responsibility and action to tackle them jointly. Despite many challenges, economic growth remained stable with positive outlooks for the future. EU stated some very good prospects and a clear perspective for joining the Union by 2025. Montenegro continued to contribute to UN peacekeeping missions and to play a positive agent for preserving peace in the Western Balkans. In 2017, Montenegro also achieved one of the major foreign policy goals to join the North-Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

Still, some challenges stayed. We still need to work together towards full achievement of EU requirements and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to tackle the environmental and ecological hotspots, enhance rule of law, boost economic development while taking care of the most vulnerable. We still need to invest efforts in respecting human rights of the children, women, elderly, migrants and asylum seekers, Roma, LGBTQI, people who live in rural areas. We need to invest more in youth and the dignity of people with disabilities. Or to quote the key principle of 2030 Agenda: We must leave no one behind.

16 resident and non-resident Organisation of the UN Development System continue to support the Government and other partners in Montenegro in achieving these and celebrating successes for the benefit of people in Montenegro. We are here for the issues of migration and refugees, child protection, health and preservation of culture and cultural heritage, because of the environment and democratic governance, but also to support economic prospects of the country.

All these efforts are pursued jointly with the national partners through work of 4 Results Groups for Social Inclusion, Economic Governance, Environmental Sustainability and Democratic Governance.

Dear Co-conveners of Results Group,

I sincerely thank you for your hard work in all the reporting and planning processes, but also in the process of implementation of the plans. UN Organisations and the Government of Montenegro have a very productive and results oriented cooperation thanks to your hard work.

In these years when the Reform of the UN System is taking its’ full swing in order to maximize effectiveness and efficiency of our support to members states, we as the small administration, country and the small office have to work even harder to deliver on our commitments. UN System will continue to provide impartial advice and technical expertise, access to the latest knowledge, innovations and practices to meet Montenegro's development and human rights challenges.

In the ongoing year, our priorities remain the same – support to human rights and the development of the society. Montenegro was assessed by several Human Rights Committees in 2017, as well as Universal Periodic Review, while being visited by two Special Procedures - on genocide and elderly. All these produces recommendations which give a policy path for further development of human rights. We keep on investing in the education system and application of 21st century skills, while empowering youth through the Innovation Lab and gathering data on population in Montenegro through MICS. We will further improve the e-Governance in Montenegro, through the continuation of Social Card, introduction of e-Government Service Bus, introduction of new online services. UN will work with clusters and improve competitiveness of the economy, while delivering support to the asylum protection system and enhancing migration response.

As you can see, many things are still to be done jointly. We have achieved a lot together, and I hope the path of excellent cooperation will continue in the future through many ongoing and forthcoming initiatives that sustainably and irreversibly transform Montenegro.