The EU Floods Recovery Programme at its fifth Advisory Panel meeting held on 05 November 2015 in Sarajevo announced an increase in the number of beneficiaries and the extension of its rehabilitation works, thus providing additional support to all those affected by the devastating floods that struck Bosnia and Herzegovina in May 2014.
The scope and duration of the Programme was recently expanded through a no-cost extension, thanks to savings made during the implementation process. The Programme will now run until end of February 2016 (instead of October 2015).
The Head of Cooperation at the Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Melvin Asin, said: “Being able to do more with the original funding of 43.52 million EUR provided by the European Union is yet another success of the Floods Recovery Programme in addition to being implemented in a fast, quality and transparent manner. The Programme continues to produce good results across the flood-affected areas. So far around 500,000 people in BiH benefited directly/indirectly from this assistance. However, threat of re-flooding is still present and a key challenge for BiH authorities. We are doing our utmost to be an active partner and will mobilise the significant additional EU-funds for BiH to support further flood recovery and flood risk management“.
The Programme was launched in August 2014 to help restore normal living conditions in local communities and ensure that the assistance reaches the most vulnerable ones in the aftermath of the floods. Its original targets were the rehabilitation of: 4,000 houses; 90 schools and kindergartens; 4 health centres, 4 social work centres and 3 municipal buildings; 110 roads, bridges, and water and sanitation facilities; as well as of 20 small and medium enterprises and 700 agricultural holdings to retain and create over 2000 jobs and all those have now increased.
The EU Floods Recovery Programme is funded by the EU and implemented by the UNDP, UNICEF and IOM.
The Advisory Panel is a key component of the governance structure of the Programme, composed of domestic institutions responsible for floods recovery efforts at the State, Entity and Brčko District BiH levels, representatives of the EU Delegation to BiH, as the donor, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as the Programme implementing partner.
