Country Director’s remarks at launch of UNDP’s Country Programme 2011-2015

Remarks by
Ms. Elena Tischenko, Country Director, UNDP Cambodia
at the Launch of
UNDP Country Programme (2011-2015)
Phnom Penh
16 March 2011

Excellency Chhieng Yanara, Minister attached to the Prime Minister and Secretary General of the CRDB/CDC;
Excellencies; Distinguished development partners; colleagues from the UN family;
Ladies and Gentlemen!

We are delighted to have you all joining us today to mark the signing of the new Country Programme of cooperation between UNDP and the Royal Government of Cambodia for the next five years. The programme was signed earlier this week and we are here tonight to say our big thanks to all national and international partners for advice and inputs and of course for our long-standing partnerships.

We are marking the culmination of a journey that we have taken to agree on how best UNDP can support Cambodia’s national goals in the coming years. But the more important journey is ahead of us – it is to achieve our joint targets and translate them into development results for Cambodian people.

We are excited to be entering the new programming cycle at this time  when new  opportunities are  opening up for Cambodia as the country resumes an impressive growth and takes on an ambitious agenda, as was evidenced  by the Cambodia Economic Forum  last month. We are proud to be part of this acceleration  effort and help make sure that such growth is inclusive and people-centered, so that by the time Cambodia achieves the middle-income status – as it intends to do by 2020 - it arrives there with equity, a solid social base and resilience to sustain and enlarge its development gains.
 
The main direction of the new country programme is to support the achievement of the MDGs, especially those lagging behind, in the five remaining years before the global deadline. This orientation requires us to stay agile and relevant and join forces and resources with other partners for more impactful results. MDG focus also highlights the intrinsic linkages among development challenges and the need for integrated responses, be it in reducing inequalities, bridging gender gaps or addressing climate change.

In moving forward towards this goal we see UNDP as part of the development community that enjoys strong partnerships and shared commitments. We are deeply grateful to our partners – Sweden, European Union, Denmark, Canada, Australia, Spain, United States, Germany, Japan, for continued support and collaboration, as well as for support and friendship of UN family and development banks.

We see our role in the next five years to be working together with our national partners and development community to make sure that national programmes and systems provide effective, country-owned ways to respond to complex challenges, to seize new and emerging opportunities and to benefit from the unmatched dynamism of the Asian region.

We look forward to working together with all our partners to achieve the targets envisaged in the country programme and to have a good reason to get together again and review progress down the road.
 
I would like to thank CDC, our main counterpart and also our co-host today, for their leadership in the consultative process that was followed throughout the formulation and that will now continue into our joint monitoring of the programme implementation. This is an important step in UNDP’s lasting partnership with CDC and other partners and friends from, I believe, seven sectors, with whom we work closely. We count on our partners to help us stay focused, keep challenging ourselves for better results and make improvements as we go.

Many thanks again to all of you who came today to join us today and let us wish our partnerships the best of success in the years to come.

Thank you!