“SUTRA” program in Bosanski Brod: 47 families returning to their reconstructed houses
12/04/2005
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Fourty seven Bosanski Brod families are returning to their houses reconstructed within the first phase of “SUTRA” project. On this occasion, the final ceremony took place today. The total cost of housing and infrastructure in Bosanski Brod within the first phase of SUTRA stands close to 819,000 KM.
Beneficiaries, selected in the process led by the municipal authorities with equal participation of non-governmental and business sector, are also provided with small economic assistance in the amount of up to 70,000 KM per municipality, to ensure sustainability of their return.
The ceremony, hosted by Bosanski Brod Municipality representatives, marked successful completion of the first phase of “SUTRA” programme implemented by UNDP. Bosanski Brod is one of seven partners in implementation the first phase of “SUTRA” , implemented also in Doboj, Lukavac, Tuzla, Travnik, Derventa and Mostar City.
In the process of implementation, UNDP worked on transfer of knowledge to Bosanski Brod Municipality, entrusting the implementation steps ranging from selection of beneficiaries related to reconstruction of houses to implementation of tendering procedures to the administration and its non-governmental partners in the Local Action Group (LAG).
SUTRA involves local government structures in the articulation of return needs, the design of relevant interventions, and their funding, implementation, and evaluation. This is a logical next step in the gradual shift from post-emergency recovery under international supervision towards development-oriented, locally owned programming.
Local municipalities are envisaged by “SUTRA” project as leaders of participatory processes, paying equal attention to relevant community stakeholders from civil society and private sector. The “SUTRA” (SUstainable Transfer to Return-related Authorities) project is a joint undertaking of EU, UNDP and the BiH Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees, in cooperation with entity line ministries, aiming at strengthening the local authorities on central and municipal level.
The main objective of this initiative is enabling the local authorities to effectively coordinate, strategically plan and successfully manage the return, preparing them for full ownership of the process. The State Commission for Refugees and Displaced Persons (SCRDP) adopted this project as a joint project and it is a part of the State Strategy for implementation of Annex VII.
First phase of SUTRA initiative that will be completed by the end of April is funded by the EU and UNDP in the amout of close to 2.2 million Euro (EU 2 million Euro), while the domestic authorities through the SCRDP provided the matching funds making total of about 4.5 million Euro. In the first phase, SUTRA reconstructed the total of 336 houses in seven municipalities.
SUTRA is supporting the vertical communication between different levels of government primarily in order to assist the systemic approach to strategy planning and its effective implementation. For that reason the program simultaneously supports the development of capacities in terms of implementation and strategy both at the state and municipal levels.
Confirming sucess of the first phase, the EU and UNDP allocated another 4.1 million Euro (EU 4 million) for follow up that started in September 2004. The follow up is leaning on experience acquired during the first phase and „SUTRA“ will again be looking into the co-funding model, for which pledges have been made by the domestic authorities. SCRDP selected 12 priority municipalities for implementation in the second phase.
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