Within the two-day conference “Advancing the Gender Equality Agenda in the Western Balkans and Turkey”, President of the Parliament of Montenegro Mr Ivan Brajović held a separate meeting with Ms Cihan Sultanoğlu, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
President Brajović informed his interlocutors on plans and priorities in the work of the Parliament of Montenegro, noting that return of dignity and strengthening of the administrative capacity have great importance among these.
They expressed readiness for cooperation of the UNDP and the Parliament with regard to further development and strengthening of efficiency and transparency in the work of the Parliament. That will help Montenegro to meet EU standard in two specific fields: gender equality and oversight role of the parliament in legal and financial issues.
- Assistance and experience which UNDP and other international organisations share with us result in finding best solutions for our society in many fields. However, we are aware that we have to work on our development by ourselves with continuous and strong cooperation among the Parliament, Government and civil society, in a word – cooperation of all, Mr Brajović said.
The interlocutors noted significant progress of Montenegro since its independence of 2006, particularly in the field of democratisation, reform of legislation and European integration processes. Those are the fields where UNDP and Montenegro have very active cooperation through numerous programmes, including the Parliament.
They agreed some of the models of cooperation for the upcoming period, including the assistance in presenting the objectives of sustainable development. Recently adopted Public Administration Reform Strategy 2016-2020 calls for aimed efforts towards strengthening the role of parliamentary committee on economy, budget and finance with regard to financial oversight and public finance management. This is the field where UNDP can provide technical and developmental support, by using the model of previously established Capacity Development Programme.
