Montenegro's promise for the future: Stepping up commitments for Agenda 2030

Education for the 21st century, greater participation of young people and women, strengthening of human rights institutions and raising awareness of human rights, inequality and discrimination, stronger focus on production and greater use of data with clearly set target values, were some of the key conclusions resulted from the broad national consultations on identifying Montenegro’s priorities for acceleration of the Agenda 2030 and the list of National commitments that the country will present on the upcoming SDG Summit in UN HQ in September 2023.

The dialogue which has been organised by the Government’s Office for Sustainable Development and UN Country Team, gathered various national actors to discuss potential commitments which the President will deliver to the UN General Assembly.

Prioritization of SDGs is not simple. It’s rather very complex and inclusive task. That is why it is very important to have broad dialogue like ours today, which will enables broad participation in paving the way of our country on the second half of path towards Agenda 2030, said Mladen Grgić, Adviser to the President, noting that the Constitution of Montenegro is an excellent basis and a vision for desiging country's pledges for the future.

Juan Santander, a.i. UN Resident Coordinator and UNICEF Representative reminded participants that “half-way on Agenda 2030, the World is on the rate of only 12% of SDGs is on the track".

"SDG Summit is an opportunity to accelerate implementation of this global collective plan through counties renewed commitments,” said Santander who underlined that SDG implementation can be successful only if that process includes all actors.

Adviser to the Prime Minister, Andrej Bracanović, pointed out that the prerequisites for achieving SDG have been met through the positioning of the institutional framework in the General Secretariat of the Government, and emphasized the importance of financing sustainable development.

Montenegro SDG Acceleration Fund will be powerful tool in fulfilling Montenegro’s SDG commitments, said Andrej Bracanović, highlighting that in a very short period since the establishment of the Fund it has generated remarkable resources, heading towards the amount of six million by the end of the year.

The dialogue was inspired by the findings of the study on Montenegro’s priorities ahead of submitting the country’s pledges at the upcoming SDG Summit in UN HQ in September this year. The research conducted by UNDP consultants Olivera Komar and Gerald Berger dives into possible concrete interventions of the country in specific areas such as green transition and climate action, leaving no one behind, quality education, justice for all, gender equality, youth participation.

The study basically screens where the country stands now and where it can be in due time, offering tangible potential goals to which the country can commit. When considering commitments, it is very important to be realistic, but I would add also to be a bit ambitions, said Olivera Komar, co-author of the study and professor at the Faculty of Political Science.

In a focused group work, participants discussed strategic priorities in the context of country’s vision up to 2030. Conclusions which resulted from the dialogue will serve as guiding inputs for national statement which will be delivered by Montenegro at the SDG Summit, during the UN General Assembly in September this year.

The national consultation event was organised within the "Dialogue for Development" platform of the National Council for Sustainable Development, which was established through the National Adaptation Plan project financed by the Green Climate Fund.