Belgrade, 17 October 2008 – SIRP Closure Ceremony. Warm words of friendship mark the ending of a successful Programme as the start of the next phase is nearing.

The Settlement and Integration of Refugees Programme (SIRP), funded by the Government of Italy and implemented by UN-HABITAT, organized the Closure Ceremony on October 17th 2008 at Palazzo Italia in Belgrade, marking the end of the successful three-year implementation in seven cities and municipalities in Serbia. The next phase, which is about to start – the Settlement and Integrated Local Development (SILD) – will be carried out also in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania.

“For its success, SIRP can be considered one of the most effective initiatives ever financed by the Italian Government in the Region”, said in his address to the guests H.E. Alessandro Merola, the Ambassador of Italy in Belgrade, adding that it is “a result that has encouraged Italy to a further and more ambitious step: a feasibility study to assess the possibility of extending the SIRP experience to other countries in the Balkan Region”.

The spacious main hall of Belgrade’s Palazzo Italia looked small and crowded that October 17th, when scores of guests from allover Serbia gathered to mark the ending of SIRP, after three years of successfully initiating and fostering institutional and organizational capacity building, support reform processes, in current housing policy and planning for development, providing in the same time tools and methodologies in the frame of the process of EU integration of Serbia.

The 15 million Euros Programme provided also housing for refugees and other vulnerable population building some 670 new apartments in seven Serbian municipalities.

Among other distinguished guests, the Ceremony was attended also by H.E. Oliver Dulic, the Minister for Environment and Spatial Planning in the Government of Serbia, Ms. Anna Zambrano, the Director of the Italian Cooperation in Belgrade, Mr. Daniel Biau, UN-HABITAT Director of the Regional and Technical Cooperation Division, Mr Jean-Yves Barcelo UN-HABITAT interregional adviser  and mayors of Nis, Kragujevac, Cacak, Kraljevo, Valjevo, Pancevo and Stara Pazova.

The Head of UN-HABITAT Office in Belgrade and the Chief Technical Adviser of SIRP, Ms. Ligia Ramirez, addressing the present friends, colleagues and partners, wrapped up in a worm and emotional speech an amazing three years of the Programme, stressing that their determination and will to embark on such a challenging and pioneering journey was the watershed conditioning the ultimate success of the programme: “It is your success as much as it is ours”, said Ms. Ramirez.

The Closure Ceremony featured the presentations of the SIRP BOOK, that captures what SIRP has meant and tried to be for the Serbian people and institutions, the SIRP Awards to seven local actors and teams, whose contributions to the achievements of the Programme in their respective cities were appraised as outstanding and the SIRP FILM, the documentary which gives a word to the real protagonists of the Programme seeking to capture what has been done on the ground, through the viewpoint and judgment of the refugees and other beneficiaries.