UN, Maldives discuss UNDAF progress

Maldives on Sunday requested the United Nations (UN) to align its country-level developmental framework with the priorities of the administration.

The government made the request at the meeting of the High Level Steering Committee of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), which was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

With regards to this request, the government co-chair of the meeting and Secretary, Multilateral at the foreign ministry, Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed highlighted the relevance of the Maldivian government's Strategic Action Plan, as the basis for the next UNDAF, which is to be renamed the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework.

In turn, the UN co-chair and Resident Coordinator Dr Arvind Mathur commended the government’s key achievements in its short duration, including judicial reforms and the progress in decentralisation.

Maldives and UN signed the UNDAF for the period 2016-2020 on August 24, 2015. The framework focuses on four key outcome areas: youth and children, gender, governance, and environment and climate change.

According to the foreign ministry, five government agencies responsible for the four outcome areas presented their main achievements, challenges and way forward in their respective outcome groups, at the meeting of the steering committee. Meanwhile, the UN Country Team presented key findings from the UNDAF final evaluation carried out earlier in the year, as well as roll out of the new United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework.

Representing Maldives at the steering committee meeting were the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Gender, Family and Social Services, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Planning and National Development, Ministry of Finance, and the Attorney General’s Office, in addition to the foreign ministry. The UN was represented by the entire UN Country Team, which includes the four resident agencies of UNDP, WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office.