United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Southeast Europe Police Chiefs Association (SEPCA) sign a Memorandum of Understanding

On 29 November 2011, Ms. Kori Udovicki - UN Assistant Secretary-General, UNDP Assistant Administrator and UNDP Regional Director for Europe and CIS met with Mr. Veselin Veljovic - Director of the Police Directorate of Montenegro and President of Southeast Europe Police Chiefs Association (SEPCA). The meeting took place during the SEPCA donators conference, which UNDP took part in, and during which UNDP expressed interest in executing a portion of projects dedicated to strengthening capacities of regional police services. On this occasion, Ms. Udovicki and Mr. Veljovic signed a Memorandum of Understanding between UNDP and SEPCA, which provides a framework of cooperation and facilitates collaboration between the two organizations, on a non-exclusive basis, in areas of common interest.

Ms. Udovicki expressed her satisfaction with the current level of collaboration on a regional level and pointed to the possibility of an integrated approach to security issues. Furthermore, Ms. Udovicki declared that UNDP is ready to help SEPCA attract donors in order to sustain the work of the association. UNDPs support would add credit to SEPCA, the members of which are themselves partially financing the work of the association – a show of commitment that is highly praised by the donor community. Finally, Ms. Udovicki explained, UNDP can offer technical and system solutions for activities in the area of armed violence prevention, as well as help with the development and strengthening of collaboration efforts, and institutional support to SEPCA projects.

At this time, Mr. Veljovic thanked the UNDP for its support of SEPCA and expressed interest in further collaboration, particularly in the area of cyber crime.  Mr. Veljovic also spoke highly about the Women Police Officers Network (WPON) a SEPCA initiative executed with substantial assistance from the UNDP.

Present at the meeting were also Mr. Gojko Vasic, Vice President of SEPCA and Director of the Police of Republika Srpska; Mr. Rastislav Vrbensky, UNDP Resident Representative and UN Resident Coordinator; Dr. Ivan Zverzhanovski, SEESAC Team Leader a.i.; and Ms. Bojana Balon, Women Police Officers Network in South East Europe project coordinator.