Georgetown, Guyana – (January 26, 2017) Minister of State, Mr. Joseph Harmon, today, met with representatives from three United Nations (UN) agencies to discuss the Country Implementation Plan, which is an annual work plan for UN agencies. The visiting team included: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative, Ms. Mikiko Tanaka, Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) Resident Representative, Dr. William Adu-Krow and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Deputy Representative, Mr. Paolo Marchi.
During the meeting, Ms. Tanaka explained that the UN has been engaging with various government agencies to garner feedback to address development issues in Guyana such as health, education, poverty reduction and the Green State Development Agenda. She explained that the UN agencies aim to ensure that their respective programmes are in keeping with the targets and indicators that are outlined in the 2017 national budget. “Whatever is in the plan is an aggregate of what has been already negotiated with the various line ministries,” she said.
Dr. Adu-Krow informed that the UN team has already met with both Ministers in the Public Health Ministry and have agreed that much more can be achieved in terms of improving health care delivery at the level of the Administrative Regions if a more coordinated approach is taken between the subject Ministry and the Ministry of Communities. He said that the UN agencies stand ready to assist to make this a reality.
Expressing gratitude on behalf of the Government, Minister Harmon said that he is happy with this step that the UN agencies have taken whereby it is working with the Government to address priority areas in its work plan. “I can assure you that at the level of the Government we will support this kind of undertaking wherever necessary,” he said.
Meanwhile, the UN agencies in Guyana are set to launch the Multi-Country Sustainable Development Framework (MSDF) tomorrow. This framework is essentially the business plan for the UN agencies, funds and programmes in the English and Dutch speaking Caribbean for the period January 2017 to December 2021. It replaces six country-level UN Development Frameworks, for: Barbados and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS); Belize; Guyana; Jamaica; Suriname; and Trinidad and Tobago.
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