The 43.5 million EUR European Union Floods Recovery Programme marked the first anniversary of the catastrophic floods of May 2014 by reaching a significant recovery milestone.
To date, a total of 100 public facilities damaged in the floods have been rehabilitated with funds from the European Union, which has allowed citizens in the flood-affected areas to regain access to vital public services. The rehabilitated facilities comprise educational institutions, health care centres, municipality buildings and social welfare centres. In total, the Programme will rehabilitate 118 flood-affected public buildings in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The EU funds are also helping to bring back jobs which were lost due to the floods and generating new jobs through disbursement of economic recovery grants to 56 SMEs. The number of jobs in SMEs supported by the EU Floods Recovery Programme has increased since May 2014 from 1,861 to 2,125 in April 2015, which is having a positive impact on economic growth in the flood-affected municipalities.

The EU Floods Recovery Programme started its activities in July 2014 to quickly restore normal living conditions for the most vulnerable people in flood-affected communities. The value of the overall Programme is 43.52 million EUR, out of which 42.24 million EUR is provided by the European Union.

The Programme continues to deliver concrete and visible results:

• 1,591 private homes damaged in the floods have been rehabilitated for the vulnerable population, allowing families to return home. The total number of homes to be rehabilitated by the Programme is 4,000.
• 66 communal infrastructure objects (e.g. roads, bridges and water and sanitation facilities) have been rehabilitated, allowing the restoration of transport links and other basic services to local communities. The total number of infrastructure objects to be rehabilitated by the Programme is 130.

To achieve these results, the European Union has already disbursed recovery funds worth more than 20 Million EUR across Bosnia and Herzegovina, and currently activities worth 6 Million EUR are in progress. Activities worth more than 13 Million EUR are now being planned and will be disbursed in the course of this year for the direct benefit of flood-affected communities.

The next phase of EU support, totalling 41 million EUR, will be mobilised as soon as the BiH authorities finish the process to ratify the relevant Framework Agreement. This funding will focus on further recovery support as well as strengthening flood prevention and resilience, and it forms the last part of the 85 million EUR pledge made by the EU for Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Donor Conference in July 2014.

The EU Floods Recovery Programme was launched to restore normal living conditions in local communities and ensure that the assistance reaches the most vulnerable in the aftermath of floods in May 2014. Financial aid is used for rehabilitation of the buildings for public services, infrastructure, housing units for the most vulnerable and for socio-economic recovery of local communities.

This assistance is the first part of the funds that the European Union pledged at the donor conference in Brussels in July 2014.

The Programme is implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in cooperation with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

For more information visit the EU Floods Recovery Programme feature page and EU Floods Recovery Programme Facebook page

The Programme photo gallery can be accessed athttps://www.flickr.com/photos/127747187@N02/sets/