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SARAJEVO, May 4 (FENA) - United Nations Resident Coordinator in Bosnia and Herzegovina Ingrid Macdonald and Council of Ministers Chairman Zoran Tegeltija should sign a new five-year cooperation agreement on May 20, Macdonald confirmed in an interview with FENA.
She noted that negotiations and consultations with authorities, citizens, representatives of the private sector and civil society organizations lasted for more than two years, and through this process four key priorities, that will define this partnership, were defined: rule of law, social cohesion, inclusive economic growth and social protection in terms of improving education and health, as well as how to help citizens to take that step forward in terms of skills development.
UN Resident Coordinator stated that the United Nations are helping their members, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, to accelerate towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and to help citizens and governments reach their full potential.
She emphasized that BiH has harmonized the framework for cooperation, which is an impressive thing because all levels of government from cantons, entities to the state level worked on a plan for implementation of sustainable development goals and how to apply it to the BiH context.
The United Nations has supported the plan in correlation with European integration goals and development priorities, and this will speed up the fulfillment of all goals and commitments, Macdonald said.
"Bosnia and Herzegovina is facing serious challenges. The coronavirus pandemic has changed the lives of all of us, and BiH will face the biggest recession in the last 25 years. It is not unique only for BiH and the situation is not much better in other countries either, but BiH has its own challenges," said Macdonald.
As she pointed out, there are vulnerable categories in BiH that are particularly affected by this global challenge, such as women, students who had online classes, health workers who have carried a heavy burden of the Covid-19 crisis.
Macdonald said UN Secretary-General António Guterres has committed everyone within the UN family to work on the climate plan and provide support to all governments in the context of the climate crisis which is the biggest crisis the world has faced.
Speaking on the subject, Macdonald recalled that the Council of Ministers recently adopted a document in which they actually took on the ambitious commitment to reduce emissions by two thirds of the levels that they had in 1990 by 2050.
That is an important contribution, she says, and that document will be the starting point for the analysis of energy efficiency. She cited Sarajevo as an example, where many facilities have been built without adequate energy efficiency and several projects are being worked on with governments to change that.
In this area, with the support of Sweden, we are working to reduce emissions in order to change the energy sources used by households and switch to more environmentally friendly sources, because by working with BiH authorities, Macdonald says, BiH can be a healthier country to live in.
The UN is also working with local governments, and 22 local governments in BiH, working with UNDP, have committed to working on their own plans to reduce emissions and work for sustainable development, and will continue to work on such initiatives that need to bring tangible and concrete changes.
The UN Resident Coordinator in BiH also spoke about several projects that involve greater youth engagement, emphasizing that although BiH has a difficult past behind it, it also has a great resource in its hands, and that is youth.
Therefore, in the past period, it has been worked on the issue of social cohesion, which includes different groups from different communities and areas of society who cooperate with each other and through that define the priorities they want to work on.
"That was the backbone of the "Dialogue for the Future" project. UNICEF, UNESCO and the UN have generally worked with young people in BiH, Serbia and Montenegro, and there are more than 150,000 people in the region covered by the program in two years. People have been given the opportunity to have their voice in the dialogue," she said.
As the UN Resident Coordinator in Bosnia and Herzegovina Ingrid Macdonald concluded in an interview with FENA, given that a large number of young people, as well as entire families, are leaving the country, it is necessary to find ways to engage them and ensure that their voice be heard because it can be one of the greatest opportunities for achieving a better and more prosperous future.
(FENA) A. B.
