Shoulder to shoulder with people of Montenegro

“The cooperation with the United Nations Team in Montenegro is one of the best examples of the international framework of cooperation we have,”  underlined Igor Lukšić, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration at the opening of the Joint Country Steering Committee (JSCS) meeting. The Committee monitors implementation of the Integrated UN Programme, a five-year strategic document that articulates cooperation between Montenegro and the United Nations until 2016.

The annual meeting gathered representatives of eight line ministries and heads of resident UN agencies as well as representatives of few regionally based UN organisations. Participants approved the 2015 UN Work Plan  and reviewed results from 2014 in three pillars of cooperation - social inclusion, democratic governance and sustainable economic development and environment protection. 

In 2014, together with national partners, the UN organisations implemented programmes worth USD 13.4 million. Planned interventions for 2015 amount to USD 12,6 million.

The prepresented results, as pointed out by participants, demonstrate an obvious trend in effectiveness of cooperation between the Government and the UN.

“This partnership seeks to bring irreversible changes in the society, especially when it comes to vulnerable groups. The UN will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with people of Montenegro, supporting the country in addressing national priorities within the EU accession process,”

UN Resident Coordinator a.i. and UNICEF Representative Benjamin Perks.

Perks particularly underlined Montenegro’s global reputation of being a good example of innovation in directly involving people in the Post-2015 Consultations. Perks thanked the Government for consistent support to the Delivering as One (DaO) work of the UN family in Montenegro.

The Government and UN will  work on designing a new strategic framework of cooperation in 2015.

Montenegro  is among few countries which implements all six components of the integrated concept of work Delivering as One - the one programme, the one leader, the common budgetary framework, the one fund, operating as one and communicating as one.