FIJI ELECTED TO PRESIDE OVER UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS EXECUTIVE BOARD FOR 2014

10/01/2014

Fiji's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, announced today that Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations His Excellency Peter Thomson has today been elected as the President of the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) for the year 2014.

Minister Kubuabola said that it was a great honour for Fiji to be chosen to chair one of the most important boards of the international system. He said that Fiji will carry this new responsibility with the same professionalism with which it handled the role of Chair of the Group of 77 and China in 2013. The Executive Board consists of 36 UN Member States who sit on the Board for three year periods. Fiji commenced its three-year term on the Board in 2013, and was endorsed by the Asia-Pacific Group to be its candidate for the Presidency of the Board for the year 2014. The formal elections were conducted at a meeting of the Executive Board held today for the purpose of electing a President and Bureau for 2014.

Minister Kubuabola highlighted that the work of the Executive Board in making policy decisions and giving direction to the three agencies, UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS, is fundamental to shaping the developmental work that the UN carries out in developing countries. As such, he said, presiding over the work of the Executive Board for 2014 will be a natural follow-on for Fiji from its 2013 role as Chair of the Group of 77 and China, the primary role of which was advocating for the interests of developing countries. Fiji’s Presidency of the Board will seek to apply the knowledge gained from the G77 Chairmanship into operational action for the funds and programmes that the Board governs.

Fiji’s Minister said that his country takes its responsibilities in the international community as a matter of highest priority. He said that poverty eradication and sustainable development were global issues that affect every country and that Fiji had to play its part in implementing them. He said he was confident Fiji’s term at the helm of the Executive Board would see solid progress on these global issues.

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