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| New
Year Message 2005 17 January 2005 |
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| THE TSUNAMI TRAGEDY | |||||
| I welcome you back from the Holidays, where I hope you seized the opportunity to relax with family and friends, enjoying that most important and closest of communities we need to care about. Like others around the world, I am sure you also felt that this year it was difficult to celebrate in the normal way, considering the suffering experienced by the millions who had their lives shattered by the outburst of nature in the Tsunami Tragedy. We pray for those who have lost children, parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters, and for all those millions who have seen their livelihoods transformed and destroyed in a few seconds of unparalleled destruction in modern time. Let us also pray that it will be possible for our colleagues in the many UN agencies now actively involved in addressing the reconstruction needs of those who survived, to provide the leadershipneeded in this extremely challenging and difficult situation. | |||||
| A FEW HIGHLIGTS FROM 2004 | |||||
| A detailed account of UN Country Team efforts
and results will be available towards the end of February, when the
Resident Coordinator’s Annual Report has been finalized and sent to
the UN Development Group office in New York. This report will be made
available to all of you. But I would like to mention a few ‘highlights’
from the report. First of all I would once again like to thank all of you for contributing to making the UN STAFF RETREAT in Palapye very successful. Your evaluations indicate that most of you regarded the objective of creating a DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF THE HIV EPIDEMIC as the most exciting part. It was indeed fascinating to see you perform theatre about issues related to our office environment as well as the family environment. I believe this experience has given all of us the energy and strength to deal better with an issue that we know can be difficult to handle. The launch of the maiden MDG REPORT - with the subtitle: ACHIEVEMENTS, FUTURE CHALLENGES AND CHOICES - in September was a defining moment for the UN in 2004. The report has been well received and was extensively referred to in the inaugural deliberations of Botswana’s ninth Parliament. Indications are that the 2005 Budget Speech will carry a theme that incorporates the MDGs. I believe we can all be proud to have been part of giving birth to this maiden MDG report. In my 2004 Message, I mentioned THE TASK FORCE ON WOMEN, GIRLS AND HIV/AIDS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA as one of the major challenges of the year. Staff from all agencies participated actively in the long process, and our two Eminent Persons, Professor Sheila Tlou and Justice Unity Dow, were very happy with the support they received from the UN system. A major highlight was the meeting with His Excellency, President Festus Mogae, discussing some of the major challenges. A direct impact of this was the inclusion of many of the reflections of the report in the speech the President delivered in Gantsi on World Aids Day. |
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| THEME GROUPS AND UNDAF REVIEW | |||||
| During 2004, the number of active Theme and Working
Groups increased, as a response to our efforts to implement the UNDAF,
and as a response to requests from the UN system in general. I know
that this has meant an increase in the burden of work for many staff
members, and I would like to acknowledge the hard work you have delivered. All of the groups are in the process of developing work plans for 2005 right now. Let me just indicate the groups that will be active during the year:
The principle of Common Premises is a very important one, and an essential element of the UN reform process that is a key concern of the Secretary General. Common Premises ensures a clearer visibility for the UN family of agencies, and ideally it also contributes to lower administrative costs because a number of services can be shared. In addition it makes it possible for staff from different agencies to cooperate and work together more easily, thus ensuring better quality support for our partners. A Task Force of Operations Managers from all agencies worked very hard from May to December to respond to the Terms of Reference agreed to by Heads of Agencies. In the report dated 17 December 2004, the Task Force recommended to the UNCT various options as short, medium and long term solutions to the current rental problems. The report has been shared with all the agencies concerned, and the RCO has also sent it to the UNDG Working Group on Common Premises in New York, requesting for advise.
“How can we overcome our own fragmentation and competition for funding so that we can continue to ensure that the increased ODA flows that we are now seeing can have their maximum impact?” The answer, in broad outline, is clear: the world of different projects, with different rules and reporting requirements, has to fall away, in return for a much leaner model, based on supporting national strategies for achieving the MDGs. So within the UN system itself, we will need a “grand bargain” of our own. How exactly this will work is still to be determined. But we know some of the parts, as they have been outlined by the group of REGIONAL DIRECTORS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA, based on the guidance and support from the Boston Consulting Group that visited Botswana and other countries in the region in 2004. We expect to get more detailed guidance from the UN Development Group and the group of Regional Directors at the end of January. At the end of the day, all of this will mean that all of us – and all agencies - will be able to offer the Government and People of Botswana stronger support in their struggle to meet the Vision 2016 and Millennium Development Goals challenges.
With the 60th session of the General Assembly coming up in September, where the first FIVE-YEAR REPORT ON PROGRESS OF THE MDGS will be discussed, and where the recommendations of the report “A MORE SECURE WORLD – OUR SHARED RESPONSIBILITY” will also be discussed, there is no doubt that 2005 will go down in the history books as a ‘defining’ year for the UN. In Botswana, we may not always feel the impact of the international debate on the role of the UN as strongly as UN staff working in other less developed countries, where official development assistance plays a much bigger role. But there is no doubt that it does and it will impact on our work as well.
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