United Nations Albania and SiDA sign agreement to support business engagement for SDGs

United Nations Albania and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SiDA) signed today a new contribution agreement in the frame of the UN Joint programme “Business Partnerships and Solutions for SDGs”.

The agreement was signed by UN Resident Coordinator in Albania Ms. Fiona McCluney and by Ms. Petra Burcher, Deputy Head of Mission/Head of Development Cooperation, Embassy of Sweden in Tirana. Through this agreement, four UN agencies in Albania, namely UNDP, FAO, ILO and UNIDO will carry out several interventions to achieve the objectives of the joint programme. The total funding under this agreement is SEK 4,500,00 (approximately 495 thousand USD).

In her remarks during the event Ms. McCluney praised the close partnership with Sweden to strengthen business capacities to better engage on action for SDGs: “Today, we mark another significant milestone which reconfirms our continued close partnership with Sweden and brings together the collective capacity of the UN System Agencies in Albania", she noted.

This collaboration is part of a wider scale-up of our efforts to provide much-needed assistance among the private sector in Albania, aiming at enhanced support and improved understanding and engagement on the SDGs.

In her remarks Ms. Bucher of SiDA underlined the opportunities that this programme offers for businesses: “This UN joint programme provides a great opportunity for Albanian businesses to benefit from the Swedish expertise and business to business exchange of good practices in two important sectors of the economy such as agro-processing and textiles”, she said.

Representatives of UN Albania praised the full commitment of the Government through the State Minister for Entrepreneurism to partner on this initiative for the implementation of the project activities and ensure long term sustainability of the project results.