TheJourneyVolume1 - Book - Page 42
#NextGenUNDP
Maleye Diop
REPUBLIC OF CONGO
the growing demand for support from partners and the
government. Recurring lockdowns, poor connectivity, and
irregularities in energy supply are the other challenges. In the
current situation, implementing the COVID-19 Socio-Economic Response Plan is a way to build back better. But this
remains a challenge due to Congo’s economic situation and
the difficulties we face in mobilizing resources.
UNDS REFORM, TRUST AND ENGAGEMENT
I first discovered UNDP’s excellent international development work more than 20 years ago. I had enrolled in a
graduate degree in Public Policy through the US Government’s Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program. It was
while I was here, that I made a well-informed decision
that UNDP is where I needed to be, to realise the dreams
forged by my past, and if I was to make a difference in the
future of our world.
Even before my time in UNDP, there had been talk
about UN reform for several years, but with every
attempt, the reforms in the past fell well short of expectations. When I first heard about the UNDS reform, it
looked like it focused more on UNDP. While some may
welcome UNDP dropping the coordination function
within countries, there is still, in some instances, a great
deal of confusion as roles and responsibilities within the
system seem to be blurred.
Nevertheless, UNDP has remained the government of
Congo’s most trusted partner. They turn to us for support
in a variety of sectors. However, the government’s main
concern is to for their expressed needs to be met, rather
than going into internal UN bureaucracy and mandate
boundaries. Governments are constantly looking to
relevant partners, where they can get immediate and
efficient support. UNDP’s cross-cutting mandate,
combining upstream policy and downstream implementation, gives us the opportunity to remain the first port
of call for countries’ development service requests. The
trust that we have built facilitates our engagement and
work in the countries where we operate.
With the COVID-19 pandemic however, we have new
challenges, which include how we balance the safety
and well-being of our staff while responding swiftly to
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FURTHER CHALLENGES
We also need to move beyond just framing response offers.
Instead, we should help mobilize finance, to implement the
response offers. The challenges keep coming. Business as
usual in international development is no longer an option.
For example, countries have now developed some capacities
they did not have few years back. And programmatic support
as it used to be, is no longer an area where partnercountries
need assistance.
Knowledge sharing, best practices, and innovative
approaches have become an emerging demand and a
niche to support programme countries, especially those
that are not in crisis settings. It is becoming critical for
Congo to explore putting in place its own national funding
frameworks to finance development, and make itself less
dependent on external donors. These accelerating development landscape changes, require reforms and building
on our nature-rich advantages. One relevant example is
the Congo Basin, which is the world’s second lung, with a
high capacity in carbon sequestration and cross-border
peatlands fields.
The challenges keep coming.
Business as usual in international
development is no longer an option.
For example, countries have now
developed some capacities they did
not have few years back.”