Montenegro

New partnership to develop the capacities for local self governance of Montenegro

Representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Public Administration and UNDP successfully concluded negotiations and are ready to move forward with the Project for Capacity Development for Local Self-Governance of Montenegro. The core funding will be provided by the Ministry and UNDP Montenegro whilst other donors are expected to join in soon.

This project being complementary in some parts with EC IPA projections for local governance programmes, its main goal is to support municipalities - particularly in the most impoverished, Northern region of the country. The support will be for increase of capacities for organizational and leadership development, improving its responsiveness to socially-excluded citizens and lowering barriers to doing business.

Partners in the project are the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Union of Municipalities, Municipalities, NGOs, citizens, entrepreneurs. The anticipated project duration is 2 years. Under UNDP’s direct execution, the estimated amount of project funds is €1,500,000 of which the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Public Administration and UNDP will provide €100,000 each.

Development of the North of Montenegro is one of priorities of the Montenegrin Government, because a balanced development of all parts of the country is of key importance, H. E. Mr. Ivan Brajović, Minister of Internal Affairs and Public Administration evaluated. “We recognized as very important to support local self-governance in the North. This project will impact improvement of their organizational structures, development of entrepreneurship, strengthening leadership and networking,” said Minister Brajović.

He added that it is planned to measure the success indicators of the project implementation, through periodical organizing of polls among citizens, analysis of success and correction of possible shortcomings. “I don’t think it’s necessary to explain in detail how much development of North is almost the ultimate priority in the affairs of the Government, because a balanced development of all parts of the country is of key importance,” Minister Brajović concluded.

Mr. Alexander Avanessov, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative to Montenegro deems important that the Project is a response to “one of priorities of the National Strategy for Sustainable Development - development of the country’s north, which faces difficulties in socio-economic development”. He explained that the role of UNDP in this Project, in partnership with other donors, is to mobilize knowledge, experience and resources, in order to achieve positive results. “How to reduce the risk of corruption in those municipalities, how to improve business opportunities – that is the main aim of this two-year project that we are jointly initiating,” said Mr. Avanessov.

Mr. Avanessov mentioned that UNDP and the Ministry also wish to get to some youth related projects, in order to get youth interested in staying in places where they were born. UNDP, he said, sees a lot of potential in the North of Montenegro, in relation to the resources, huge possibilities for development of tourism, forestry, agriculture and certain projects in the domain of infrastructure.

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Project for Capacity Development for Local Self-Governance of Montenegro in brief

Currently there are notable development disparities between the Southern and Central region and the Northern region of Montenegro. Among other things, lack of human resources, expertise and capacity in the North to design and implement development projects contribute to maintaining less a valuable investment climate in the North and less opportunities in terms of sustainable economic development and job creation.

However, the efforts have been taken by decision makers and international partners, and especially EC with their IPA funds, to strengthen the institutions, processes and human resources in order for this region to be able to achieve national sustainable developmental objectives.

As advocates who provide knowledge-based advising and consulting in the area of – among others – democratic governance, UNDP offered its vast global experience in the area of local self government. They forwarded a local governance project proposal to several government counterparts - including the Ministry of Interior and Public Administration, the Union of Municipalities, the Human Resources Management Agency and, of course, several municipalities of Montenegro.

Over the course of the last few months the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Public Administration and UNDP Montenegro have discussed about the possibility of initiating a capacity development project to support municipalities in their efforts to achieve European standards and better serve citizens. 

The main project components will be: Organizational development; Municipalities networking; Increase citizens’ participation and Governance benchmarking indicators at local level for EU integration.

The project is based on the idea of having an integrated approach to local governance that includes two pillars: a supply side intervention, i.e. institutional reform and capacity development at individual and organizational level in core functions such as planning, internal organization and provision of key services, including leadership and knowledge systems development through municipal networking; and a demand side intervention, i.e. increasing awareness of citizens regarding the aspects of participation, access to information and accountability embedded in the new law on local self government. Finally, a benchmarking governance indicators component will monitor progress by providing disaggregated governance data by municipality.

This project will not only support entrepreneurs and citizens in enhancing their access to quality services in the municipalities; it will also have a long term impact of supporting fiscal decentralization. The project will also identify and respond to individual and organizational capacity gaps. This includes strategic planning, organization of business processes, targeted service delivery to foster SME development and increase accountability through a transparent reporting system.