The Chairman of the BiH Presidency Nebojša Radmanović received yesterday the resident coordinator of the UN and the resident representative of UNDP to BIH Yuri Afanasiev.
Afanasiev informed Chairman of the BIH Presidency on the priority activities of the specialized agencies of the UN in BiH and its projects.
He pointed out that they are currently planning priority projects for the new five-year plan for UN operations in BiH for the period of 2013-2019.
He recalled that in the past five years the UN in BiH, through various projects, has invested around 240 million dollars and added that in the new five-year plan there is a planned realization of at least 200 million dollars.
Afanasiev recalled that at this moment there are two issues of vital importance for the UN in BiH: support of BiH reforms by the UN and initiatives of the BiH Presidency regarding reconciliation.
The program reforms envisage that there is one UN program, of all 10 agencies, that would be conducted on a joint consolidated level, and which would significantly reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Radmanović praised the coordinated work of UN agencies in BIH and expressed support of the BiH Presidency for projects of interest in BiH. He specifically asked for an increased engagement of UNDP on projects in the destruction of surplus weapons and ammunition in BiH that is still moving at a slow pace.
Afanasiev requested the support and help of the BIH Presidency in the future on the following projects of UN agencies: signing of convention on control of arms reduction, reduction and destruction of weapons in BiH, campaign to collect illegal weapons, addressing pollution from mines, adopting legislation on de-mining, adopting strategies for transitional justice and application of revised strategies for the implementation of Annex 7 on the care of refugees and displaced peoples in BiH.
At the end of the discussion, Afanasiev informed Radmanović that at the beginning of the next month in Sarajevo Helen Clark, the undersecretary of the UN, when the new premises of the UN agency in BIH will be officially opened, announced the BiH Presidency.
