Partnership Statistics
Total U.S. Assistance to Serbia and Montenegro
(FY 2001-2005) |
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| The United States government continues to partner with the government of
Serbia and Montenegro and its citizens at all levels to advance our mutually
shared goals of peace and prosperity. Since 2001, the United States government
has invested more than $700 million in Serbia and Montenegro's future.
The
chart located to the left encapsulates the amount of resources committed
to helping to prepare Serbia and Montenegro in its ambitions to join a
stabile, united Europe.
Our support can be divided into three main categories:
Economic and Social Reforms (Serbia, Montenegro); Democratic
Reform Programs (Serbia, Montenegro);
and Security
and the Rule of Law (Serbia, Montenegro).
Please take a moment to learn more about what the United
States and Serbia and Montenegro are doing together to prepare for a brighter
future.
SERBIA
Economic and Social-Sector Reform Programs: In FY 2004,
the United States government provided $24.15 million in economic transition-related
assistance to Serbia. This
assistance addressed aspects of reform necessary for the economic recovery
and growth that are a key for Serbia to become a stable component of a region
moving toward EU integration. Technical assistance focused on strengthening
institutions necessary to sustain economic reform and to support the development
of a market economy. Our programs continued or initiated assistance in a
wide variety of areas, including macroeconomic policy reform, fiscal reform,
bank supervision, non-bank financial sector regulation, strengthening the
central bank, financial intermediation and credit mobilization for small
or medium enterprises (SMEs), combating financial crime, preparation for
WTO accession, customs reform, agriculture, building the competitiveness
of Serbian enterprises, commercial law reform, and strengthening the capacity
of commercial courts to fairly and efficiently enforce the law. Our highest
social-sector priority is poverty reduction through reducing barriers to
private sector development, helping communities to help themselves through
infrastructure and income generation projects, and pension reform.
Democratic
Reform Programs: Our democracy programming in Serbia emphasizes
support for civil society and more effective governance at all levels.
USAID’s Community Revitalization through Democratic Action (CRDA) program
and the Serbian Local Government Reform Program (SLGRP) have focused
on increasing citizen participation at the grassroots level and increasing
the transparency and management capacity of local governments. In the
last
quarter of FY 2004, community development programs have increasingly
emphasized the importance of job creation and economic development. This
emphasis
will remain the program’s primary focus as it enters its fourth year.
We also support civil society, independent media, trade unions, anti-trafficking
initiatives, a more democratically oriented political process, and rule
of law programs. We also assist democratic reforms through support for
projects by indigenous NGOs; media training; educational and other exchange
programs; translation and publishing of American book titles; and the
bringing
of U.S. experts to speak on a variety of topics.
Security, Regional Stability
and Law Enforcement Programs: United States government assistance on
judicial reform and rule of law activities continued
to intensify in FY 2004. Our primary focus continued to be on bolstering
Serbia’s domestic capacity to prosecute war crimes cases and to combat
organized criminal activities. USAID completed its effort to help the Serbian
Government
build and equip a Special Court for War Crimes and Organized Crime, with
our Regional Legal Advisor (RLA) providing follow-on assistance to facilitate
effective prosecution and develop the capacity of the Court to absorb additional
cases as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) moves toward the 2010 expiration of its mandate. In FY 2004 the Belgrade
Mission began to implement a fuller range of criminal justice/rule of law
programs, including a program focusing on the police who investigate organized
and war crimes, an advisor on trafficking in persons (TiP) and an Export
Control and Border Security (EXBS) advisor. The Special Court began to
try
the high-profile cases of the assassination of PM Djindjic and murder of
former President Stambolic, and continued to try the Vukovar/Ovcara war
crimes case transferred to it by the ICTY. The RLA and U.S. Marshals developed
a
witness protection program. We continued to provide successful assistance
in building the capacity to combat money laundering, terrorist financing
and other financial crime, providing needed equipment, advice, and training
to the anti-trafficking police, prosecutors, and judges. These programs
serve as a comprehensive approach to combating human trafficking. ABA/CEELI
has
been also working with prosecutor’s association on ethics and training,
supporting the magistrates association, providing training on anti-TIP, and
assisting
the Humanitarian Law Center in both its efforts to locate and aid witnesses
and victims in domestic war crimes cases and to transform into a war crimes
documenting center.
MONTENEGRO
Economic and Social-Sector Reform Programs: The U.S. government, through
USAID and US Treasury assistance, continues to work with the government of
Montenegro to implement a comprehensive economic reform program. The primary
goal of the program is to transform Montenegro form a state-driven economy
battered by the impacts of a decade of war and sanctions in the region into
a stable, market-driven system buoyed by private sector growth. The focus
of this support has shifted from its initial phase of drafting the new legislative
framework governing most key areas in the economy toward implementation of
that legislation and the building of capacity in key institutions necessary
for the functioning of a modern market economy. USAID continued assistance
for business consulting, analysis and lobbying to support the development
of the private sector and initiated an expanded effort for private enterprise
development and sector competitiveness in tourism, agriculture and wood processing.
Democratic Reform Programs: Our programs provide support for democratic
reform, strengthening of democratic institutions and civil society development.
Our democracy programming emphasizes support for civil society and more effective
governance at all levels through three pillar programs –Community Revitalization
through Democratic Action (CRDA), Good Local Governance (GLG) and the Judicial
System Reform Project (JSRP). In FY 2004, the CRDA program was in its third
year and the GLG and JSRP activities were gearing up. Taken together these
programs focus on increasing citizen participation in community development
and local governance, improving the transparency, fiscal soundness and management
capacity of local governments and intergovernmental systems and modernizing
the structure and operations of the judicial system at Republic and local
levels. Through our democracy and governance strategic objective, we also
assist independent media, NGOs, political parties and trade unions to develop
competence, operational transparency and effectively represent citizens and
provide support for victims of trafficking. As in Serbia, we also assist
democratic reforms through support for projects by indigenous NGOs; media
training; educational and other exchange programs; translation and publishing
of American book titles; and bringing U.S. experts to speak on a variety
of topics.
Security, Regional Stability and Law Enforcement Programs: The United States
government continues its emphasis on assisting border security, reflecting
the 2003 shift of border security functions from the former Yugoslav Army
to the republic's police. In addition, the U.S. provides continued funding
for police training in Montenegro to raise overall professional standards
and in particular to combat human trafficking. A separate U.S. program supports
the renovation of the police training center. Meanwhile, the establishment
of a Resident Legal Adviser (RLA) Program provides the U.S. with an additional
mechanism to facilitate training and provide equipment to law enforcement
and judicial bodies in response to new investigative techniques introduced
by revisions to the Law on Police and the Criminal Procedure Code. Finally,
U.S. assistance continues to support the Montenegrin Financial Intelligence
Unit and strengthens action taken by Montenegro in 2002 to criminalize money
laundering for the first time.
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