Skopje, 15 March 2025 (MIA) - The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is set to mark 30 years of presence in North Macedonia in 2025. UNDP Resident Representative Armen Grigoryan told MIA in an interview the anniversary will be marked with a series of events across the country. 

“We are starting a series of events with this interview when we are announcing the beginning of campaign. Every month from now on we will have at least two events in different parts of the country, in each of the planning regions of the country. Then in October, when the actual signing ceremony of the Standard Basic Agreement between UNDP and North Macedonia took place, we are planning to have a final event here in Skopje,” Grigoryan said. 

The Resident Representative told MIA the UNDP is the most unconditional offer available to the citizens of North Macedonia. He noted that the UNDP began its work in the country in October 1995 with only four employees, while now it almost has 80. In addition to the core funding with which the UNDP operates, the Resident Representative highlighted that initiatives are also being implemented with donor funding. 

“I would like to use this opportunity to thank our donors, to thank our partners who have been supporting UNDP and through the UNDP, supporting North Macedonia for the last 30 years. The amount that in the last 30 years UNDP invested in North Macedonia in the form of pure grants is around EUR 230 million. Maybe this is connecting back to my first statement that this is the most unconditional offer that is available, because what the UNDP is doing, we are doing it at the request and on behalf of the Government, so we are aligned very much with the priorities of the Government as well,” Grigoryan said. 

Grigoryan highlighted some of the UNDP’s current donors – the European Union, Switzerland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Norway, Austria, South Korea, and others. 

“What is more important or at least equally important for us is not the amount, the financial amount that is invested, but the trust and partnership we generate by working together with the communities, with the society, with the national institutions,” he said. 

Recalling the UNDP’s beginnings in North Macedonia, Grigoryan recalled the “Clean and Green” initiative launched in 1998 with the reconstruction of the Vardar riverbank in Skopje. 

“We also contributed to the institutionalizing of the Ministry of Environment, or establishing the Ministry as such, and until today the Ministry of Environment is one of our core partners in the country,” Grigoryan noted. 

The Resident Representative noted that the UNDP supported the adoption of the first “Strategy for Information Technology” in 2004, with the partnership and support of the country’s President at the time, Boris Trajkovski. Grigoryan stressed the UNDP continues to work on the country’s digital transformation alongside numerous national institutions and municipalities. 

He also highlighted the 2006 implementation of the “Comprehensive Policy Support Programme” which then transitioned to the “National Development Strategy” of North Macedonia with the support of the UNDP. 

“We were also pioneers in cyber security, supporting the Ministry of Interior since 2008 and this cooperation continues even today. Another longstanding partnership UNDP has with the Government is a programme called National Employment Plan, that is symbolically named ‘A Chance for All’. For over 15 years we are working with the State Employment Agency to create opportunities for people to be more employable, to retrain them, reskill them or upskill them. This partnership has supported the creation of small businesses, startups and self-employed individuals in the country with more than 7000 success stories so far,” Grigoryan told MIA. 

Speaking about UNDP’s cooperation with the State Employment Agency, Grigoryan highlighted the “Self-Employment Programme”. 

“In the 15 years of the functioning of the programme, the programme has created more than 14.000 jobs. And in 2024, more than 2000 people were trained in entrepreneurship, empowering them to enter the competitive market and start their business. Most of these people are transitioning from supported process to process they are leading. So, this transition is actually what we are looking for in our programmes, that ownership of the programme is either with the private sector or the public sector in the country,” Grigoryan said. 

Another initiative implemented by the UNDP is the “Care Economy”, which, according to Grigoryan, is aimed at supporting people with disabilities, minorities and less fortunate people in creating opportunities for them to start their employment, their company or to be more competitive in the labor market. 

“Since its launch over 500 women have participated in our trainings and capacity building initiatives and over 500 women were employed through this programme. Another component of the Care Economy programme, our work with disadvantaged people, is the Roma Returnees programme where the UNDP is supporting people who are returning from Europe or elsewhere back to their country, to North Macedonia, to support their integration with the society, economic, social, legal and other aspects as well,” he said. 

Grigoryan noted that just in 2024 more than 100 returnees completed their primary education. 

The UNDP Resident Representative also highlighted the “EU Floods Recovery Programme for the Western Balkans” with a strong component for North Macedonia launched in 2015. 

“After devastating floods, the UNDP took several initiatives in North Macedonia and one of these initiatives is the EU Flood Recovery Programme where we cleaned more than 40 km of the riverbed, 20 km in Strumica river, 100 meters of riverbed reinforcements were built. In addition to this we also started a programme in the Polog region of the country where the floods had devastating effects with unfortunate loss of lives as well. Some of the highlights of this programme is the reinforcement and cleaning of the riverbed and riverbanks in Gostivar as well as in Jegunovce. This programme has demonstrated how initial contribution from UNDP can generate interest and funding also from the Government and other donors as well,” the Resident Representative told MIA. 

Democratic governance is another domain that the UNDP is engaged in. 

“We are working on strengthening governance, local development, support decentralization reform including financial decentralization. At this stage we are supporting the national institutions with the digitization of local services, digitization of central services, public services that are offered by municipalities and central authorities on LOGES and uslugi.mk. In addition to this, more than 15.000 citizens in over 54 municipalities were trained and implemented 55 projects related to strengthening the governance system in municipalities. We are working on bringing the civil society, councilors in municipalities and mayors to work together. Perhaps the last area in this domain, I would like to stress the anti-corruption efforts that UNDP is doing, you know that with the new Government in place in North Macedonia, anti-corruption is one of the priorities in the government programme and we are very happy to also have a package of support that we are offering to the Government on this,” Grigoryan said. 

The Resident Representative said some of the UNDP’s priorities are the National Development Strategy, the Green Financing Facility, and the construction of the cross-border checkpoint Markova Noga with Greece, which began construction on Wednesday as part of the project “EU for Prespa”. In the interview, Grigoryan did not say whether funds would be cut for projects implemented in the country considering the geopolitical developments and the cutting of funds of certain global organizations, but he did note certain projects the UNDP prioritizes and wants to continue. 

“Yes indeed, we are living in difficult times, maybe just to name a few programmes that in these difficult times we prioritize, and we want to continue with them. The National Development Strategy is something that we started several years back, and last year it was adopted by the Parliament of the country. And also, with a decision of the Government, there is a council, the National Development Strategy Council, it is chaired by the Prime Minister and I believe it is the main development document for the country in the next 20 years. So, this is, irrespective of the funding situation, [something] we would like to continue,” he said. 

Grigoryan also highlighted the partnership between the UNDP, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Government and a number of other partners in the creation of the Green Financing Facility with funds from the UNDP through the Sustainable Development Fund. 

“These money were quadrupled by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and we developed two products. One product through commercial banks is allocation  of loans with subsidized interest rate to individuals to green their households. Normally it is inverters, solar panels, improvement of insulation to reduce the electricity consumption but most importantly the cost. And the second component is to do more or less the same but for small businesses, and this component is done by the EBRD. For this we have an initial agreement to continue beyond the current phase of the programme, the Government is very happy, EBRD is happy, UNDP is happy, but most importantly beneficiaries are very happy. We have more demand now for these products offered by commercial banks than the supply, so we are now negotiating the next phase of this,” Grigoryan said. 

Grigoryan highlighted the UNDP’s work in five municipalities across the country related to reducing air pollution. 

“This is also a cost-sharing initiative between Sweden, UNDP and the municipalities that benefit from it. In the previous phase of this programme we worked on this in Skopje, more than 130 households were improving the air quality indoors and outdoors,” Grigoryan said. 

The Resident Representative spoke of the “EU for Prespa” programme as another priority for the UNDP, as well as the construction of the Markova Noga cross-border checkpoint. The initiative is funded by the EU, UNDP and the Government. 

“However, I would like to say that the financial situation will be affecting all of us, I think it is something that we will need to take into consideration and maneuver in the certain period of time that we think is coming,” he stressed. 

Asked about his impressions of the country in which he has been serving as Resident Representative since October 2021, Grigoryan said he learned and is still learning a lot over the past three and a half years he has spent living in Skopje, but there are some things he said would stay with him when he leaves the country – the “warm, hospitable, kind” people, the culture which he said resembles that of his native country, and the beautiful nature. 

“And of course most importantly food, you have great food and I think it is recognized regionally how good the food and wine in North Macedonia is,” the UNDP Resident Representative, Armen Grigoryan told MIA. 

Elizabeta Veljanovska Najdeska

Photo: Darko Popov

Video and editing: Asllan Vishko