TheJourneyVolume1 - Book - Page 98
#NextGenUNDP
Pa Lamin Beyai
SIER RA L E ON E
negatively impacting and militating against gains made
by countries towards the attainment of the Sustainable
Development Goal, under Agenda 2030.
But despite facing many challenges, being Resident
Representative during the COVID-19 pandemic has
also provided me the opportunity to collaborate with
the government, UN Agencies, Development Partners,
and Civil Society Organisations, to assess the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 in Sierra Leone and provide
support to individuals, families, and small business
affected by this unprecedented pandemic.
As such, UNDP in Sierra Leone has been working
with the government and other partners to accelerate
local efforts in the containment and management of
COVID-19. All sister Agencies of the UN Country Team
(UNCT) in Sierra Leone should now work with national
governments and direct interest towards innovation,
real-time data and analytics, and innovative financing
for better decision making during and post-COVID-19
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and build back better, with a health system that is both
resilient and sustainable. The obvious starting point for
this is to use the existing Medium-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP) to address short-term shocks
and medium to long-term recovery, while factoring
resilience to future pandemics.The UNDS Reform and
the changes it has brought about within the UNDP
structure comes in handy this time around.
We cannot underestimate the role of Resident Coordinators in improving the way the UN works in countries
to effectively deliver the SDGs, and their role in coordinating the work of UN agencies. Resident Coordinators being independent professionals not affiliated to
any agency has greatly improved relationships within
UNCTs. In this regard, UNDP is always looking for
innovative ways of working by doing things differently
in the most efficient manner possible to remain the
partner of choice in ensuring sustainable development
in Africa. n