Welcoming Remarks from the UN Resident Coordinator in The Gambi

Remarks by the UN Resident Coordinator in The Gambia
Fadzai Gwaradzimba
On the Occasion of the UNDAF Joint Strategy Meeting
Wednesday, 8 th February 2006
Kairaba Beach Hotel
Your Excellency the Vice President of The Republic of the Gambia
Dr. Ajaratou Isatou Njie Saidy
Permanent Secretaries
Senior Government Officials
UN Colleagues
Members of the Media
Members of National and International NGOS
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
And all other protocols observed,
It is my pleasure to extend a warm welcome to all of you to the Joint Strategy
Meeting between the United Nations and the Government of The Gambia. The
UN county team is greatly honoured and privileged to have Her Excellency, The
Vice President of The Republic of The Gambia in our midst. Your Excellency, I
would like to take this opportunity to thank you for kindly agreeing to make the
opening remarks at this workshop. I would also like to warmly thank our
colleagues from the Office of the President and the Secretary General for
tirelessly supporting our endeavours during the last few months leading to this
joint strategy meeting.
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Your Excellency,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The purpose of this joint strategy meeting is to define and clarify the UN’s
strategic priorities in The Gambia for the next five years as delineated in the
United Nations Development Assistance Framework or UNDAF. Following upon
our validation workshop of yesterday, you will now have the opportunity to hear
the different agencies present their draft programme strategies for 2007­2011 and
how these will respond to the priorities identified in the UNDAF. This workshop
culminates a process of consultation that has been ongoing for over one year and
has involved many of you present today. I am extremely grateful for the
commitment and interest that the government counterparts have shown in the
UNDAF formulation process and hope that our collective efforts in jointly
identifying the key areas for UN support for the next five years will result in a
stronger and results driven partnership between the government and the United
Nations system.
As most of you are aware, the UNDAF process is central to the UN reform, which
calls for harmonization and alignment of UN procedures and programmes to achieve
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). UN reform is not new. Since 1997, when
the Secretary General called for a new bold frontier for the UN system and set up the
United Nations Development Group (UNDG), UN agencies have been steadily, if
sometimes slowly, moving the harmonization and alignment agenda forward. Several
goals underpin UN reform at the country level. I will mention but a few of these:
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First, it seeks to place national priorities at the centre of development cooperation in
order to promote national ownership and development effectiveness of the country.
In this respect, the UNDAF represents strong support for national priority setting and
planning processes as it is firmly anchored in The Gambia’s Vision 2020 and Poverty
Reduction Strategies (PRSPII) and the Millennium Development Goals.
Second, UN reform seeks to forge a results driven, coherent and transparent UN
response to national development challenges through a collaborative analysis of the
country situation (CCA), priority designation of roles based on the comparative
advantage of each agency and the adoption of joint programmes and common
monitoring and evaluation framework. In the majority of countries as is in the case
with The Gambia, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and WFP (the Executive Committee
Agencies) have synchronized their programming cycles, adopted harmonized cash
transfer systems and launched joint programmes. We even have pilot joint offices in
countries such as Cape Verde. As our programme countries and donor partners
continue to push for greater alignment and coherence within the UN system, we in
The Gambia country office sincerely hope that the present UNDAF will pave the way
towards an even more unified UN response to national development priorities.
Third, UN reform seeks to achieve greater impact and reduced transaction costs
through common services and premises. In many countries such as The Gambia, UN
agencies share services in diverse areas such as office space, security, travel
banking and telecommunications. The UN presently shares a common UN House in
60 countries.
The ultimate goal of all these measures is to avoid duplication, reduce the burden on
programme countries we serve and enhance the UN system’s contribution to
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development effectiveness at country level. In the final analysis, the role of the UN is
to tackle the scourge of extreme poverty and inequality, make a difference in people
’s lives, enlarge the individual’s opportunities and expand human capabilities through
partnership with governments and national partners.
The role of the UN as a trusted partner that promotes strengthening of national
capacities to promote national ownership; a partner that acts as an honest broker to
support countries in mobilizing and managing development assistance; as a
convener that brings together and promotes participation of all stakeholders in
national planning and as a n advocate for the MDGs and the protection and
promotion of Human Rights­­­­ is well known.
What is perhaps less well known is how the UN works to achieve these goals. The
UNDAF framework tries to bring together the complementarities and, indeed, the
complexities of the system together.
Your Excellency,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The UNDAF has identified three broad areas of co­operation:
1. Poverty Reduction and Social Protection
2. Basic Social Services
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3. Governance and Human Rights.
These areas of co­operation have been further defined into specific outcomes that
the UN and outputs will aim to achieve as well as the activities and partnership
arrangements and resources required. By focusing on specific areas of
interventions, the UNDAF will enable the United Nations system to collectively
achieve the expected development outcomes.
Your Excellency,
In formulating the UNDAF, however, the UN is conscious that ultimately, the
achievement of national goals and targets as defined in the PRSP, and other
planning tools, is the responsibility of the Government. The UN, like other
development partners, can only facilitate the process and assist the Government in
its efforts to achieve its development targets. In this regard, the UNDAF must be
seen as those choices that the UN has made to organize its contribution towards the
achievement of national priorities, based on its comparative advantage, available
resources and mandates.
The UNDAF must be seen as a UN strategy. It has direct links to other analytical and
strategic planning tools and processes at the country­level, and there is need for the
UNDAF to be synchronized, whenever possible, with the national development
planning cycle. In this regard, the UNDAF will contribute to and build upon other
analytical and strategic planning processes and this should result in the reduction of
transaction costs and duplication among processes of development analysis and
planning.
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In implementing the UNDAF, partnership is key. The UN’s primary strength is acting
in close partnership with government and other development actors, while at the
same time working towards the fulfilment of its role of promoting the achievement of
the internationally agreed goals and targets.
We as a team will therefore, be looking at Government to set priorities and provide
leadership; at NGOs and Civil Society organizations to promote advocacy and
outreach; at donors and the private sector to mobilise resources and provide
expertise; at regional and sub­regional institutions to provide their unique
perspectives and best practices; and at the media to promote public information.
We hope that these partnerships will result in greater impact on development
results and development effectiveness.
Your Excellency,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my expressed hope that this first Joint Strategy Meeting will not only achieves
its specific goals to review the UNDAF Results Matrix and identify implementation
strategies with government, implementing Ministries and key non­governmental
partners.
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I also hope that this meeting will represent the beginning of a strengthened and
strategic working relationship with the Government and other partners that will
institutionalise open lines of communication among the various UN Agencies and
partners; assist with identifying new programming opportunities for the UN
System and keeping the UN System’s assistance focussed on the results of the
agreed upon UNDAF matrix.
Let me conclude by thanking all of you for joining us today and wishing you fruitful
deliberations.
I now have the single honour to invite Her Excellency The Vice President of the
Republic of the Gambia to present her opening remarks.
Thank you for your attention.
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