1. United Nations BiH
Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and
Herzegovina - Joint Commission on Human Rights,
Child Rights, Youth, Immigration, Refugees,
Asylum and Ethics
International Day for Eradication of Poverty
Prepared by UN RC Office
17 October, 2011
Sarajevo

2. Summary
• BiH BRIEF SOCIO-ECONOMIC OVERVIEW OVERVIEW
• UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF)2010 – 2014
• 2011 UN ACTIVITIES ON POVERTY ERADICATION

3. Poverty in BiH
• UN and WB support key statistical research in capturing and
understanding poverty issues in BiH – MICS, HBS, LFS
Population in BiH below national poverty line (%)
Year Total Urban Rural
2001 19.5 13.8 19.9
2004 17.7 11.3 22.0
2007 14.0 8.2 17.8
• Additional 20% at risk of poverty
• Effect of crisis**: fall in household incomes by 4% would lead
to an increase of the poverty rate by two percentage points
*Multi Indicative Cluster Survey (MICS), Household Budget Survey (HBS), Labour Force
Survey (LFS) – all three surveys due in 2011/ new data will be available early 2012
** WB estimate

4. Most vulnerable to poverty
and social exclusion
• Children: in particular from vulnerable households, living in rural areas,
without parental care, with disabilities, Roma children and displaced
children
• Youth: unemployed youth in 2009 48.7% - four times higher than EU
• Persons with disabilities: 10-15% of population. Almost 2/3 of adults
with disabilities lives close to or below the poverty line and are subject to
a range of inequalities.
• Roma: 50% of Roma children enrolled in primary and only 2% in
secondary education. Only 3% of Roma have permanent employment.
27% of Roma live in households with per capita consumption below the
equivalent of the PPP 2.15 USD
• Elderly: Every third elderly person in BiH is poor. The pension system in
BiH covers 81% of persons older than 64 years. Average pension in FBiH
in 2010 was 343 BAM and in the RS 320 BAM.
• Refugees and displaced: in BiH there are still 113,191 displaced persons,
8,600 of which still live in 160 collective centers

5. Economic trends…
• External debt doubled in 10 years
• GDP growth stalled due to crisis

6. Economic trends (cont’)…
• Low foreign direct investments…
• … decreasing development assistance

7. BiH fiscal deficits

8. High unemployment…
• Employment continues to be extremely high…
• … among the highest rates in the world (13th out of 198 countries)
• Estimate for 2011 (ILO methodology) 23% (would still rank on 28th
place between Dominica and Equatorial Guinea)

9. Ineffective and costly social assistance
* Note of caution: in BiH transfers to households spending is hard to fully reconcile for lack of reliable data. However the general order of magnitude on
spending is indicated in the chart above

10. Education issues in BiH
• In 2009, only 14.8% of children are enrolled in preprimary
education (90.1 % of four-year-olds in the EU-27 in 2008)
• 20,489 children of school age in 2009 were out of primary
education
• Every fifth child in BiH does not attend secondary school
• Enrollment in tertiary education in 2009 was 37% (vs. 71% in
Poland or 88% in Slovenia)
• Only 11% of labor force in BiH has tertiary education (2007).
In EU, this average is 23.8%

11. 2011 Economic Outlook
• 2011: recovery gathering pace, however
• Growth projections from 2.2 - 3.0 percent
• Economy remains fragile
• Return to robust growth requires:
• Healthy financial sector (credit growth)
• Sound public finances (fiscal consolidation)
• Improved business and investment environment
• competitiveness of the economy
• Reduced corruption
• Rule of Law

12. United Nations and Word Bank
development assistance
• United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2010-2014
adopted by Entity Governments and Council of Ministers in March, 2009.
Started implementation January 1, 2010
– Priority sectors: local/rural development, social inclusion, environment/climate
change and justice/human security;
– Support provided by 9 resident agencies (ILO, UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNHCR,
UNICEF, UN Women, UNV, WHO), 6 non-resident agencies (FAO, IFAD, UNEP, UNECE,
UN-Habitat, UNIDO), WB, IOM and IOM;
• World Bank Country Partnership Strategy 2012-2015
– Priority sectors: Competitiveness, Inclusiveness and Environmental Sustainability
– 100 MUSD IDA credits, 150 MUSD IBRD loans, and possible additional grant financing
• Implemented in partnership with all levels of government in BiH;
• Aligned with the EU integration process and state/entities priorities.
Total UNDAF allocation envisioned: USD 178,000,000 (2010-2014)
Total WB allocation envisioned: USD 250,000,000 (2012-2015)

13. 2010 UN Sectors & Financial Overview
Indicative Total
Indicative Budget
Planned Budget
2010 Donor Delivery per
per Outcome for
Outcome in 2010
2010
UN, EU, Swiss, Germany,
Governance /
Netherlands, Lichtenstein, Italy, 8,481,073 8,225,484 20%
Local Develop.
Sweden, Norway, BIH
UN, Netherlands, Spain, Norway,
Social Inclusion Swiss, Lichtenstein, Turkey, 20,484,151 19,371,601 47%
Sweden, USA, Slovenia, UK, EU, BIH
Environment / UN, MP*, Spain, Netherlands,
5,840,752 5,399,475 13%
Climate Change GEF**, Norway, France, EU, BIH
Justice/Human UN, GFATM***, EU, Spain,
8,978,239 8,360,121 20%
Security Belgium, Italy, Sweden
TOTAL USD: 43,784,215 41,356,681 100%
*Multilateral Fund for Implementation of the Montreal Protocol
**Global Environmental Fund
***Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria

14. 2011 UN Sectors & Financial Overview
Indicative Total
2011 Donor Planned Budget per %
Outcome for 2011
UN, EU, Swiss, Lichenstein, Sweden,
Governance/
Netherlands, Norway, Austrian, BIH, 9,397,106 17%
Local Development
UN
UN, Netherlands, Switzerland, EU,
Social Inclusion 17,481,446 32%
Spain, Turkey, BIH
UN, Spain, GEF, Austria, Finland,
Environment Protection /
Sweden, Slovenia, MP, EU, France, 7,482,181 15%
Climate Change
BiH
UN, GFATM, EU, Spain, Denmark,
Justice / Human Security Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, UK, 20,923,809 36%
USAID, NATO PfP
TOTAL USD 55,284,542
• Approx. 70% of amount goes directly to excluded groups

15. 2011 UN Activities on Poverty Eradication
Sector: GOVERNANCE & LOCAL DEVELOPMENT
Annual Outcomes
• Facilitate rural economic, agricultural and infrastructural development and strengthen
municipal governance and absorption capacities in line with the EU accession process.
• Support governments’ efforts in adopting socially inclusive standards in the social
dialogue, policy development and policy implementation process.
• Strengthen governments’ capacities in adopting human rights-based measures and
mechanisms for addressing citizens needs (focus on IDPs, refugees, migrants, women,
children, Roma, etc.)
SECTOR TOTAL USD 9,397,106

16. 2011 UN Activities on Poverty Eradication
Sector: SOCIAL INCLUSION
Annual Outcomes
• Assist governments in implementation of the revised Strategy for Implementation of
Annex VII.
• Improve basic health, education, social protection, and child protection services.
• Increase youth employability and first time work experience opportunities for
unemployed youth.
• Support development and implementation of evidence-based policies and protection
systems targeting social inclusion of vulnerable groups (elderly, children, IDPs, returnees,
women, Roma) and implementation of UN Conventions (Rights of People with Disabilities,
Rights of the Children, etc).
SECTOR TOTAL USD 17,481,446