New York: Administrator of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) H E Achim Steiner stressed the importance of Qatar’s role in peacekeeping, conflict resolution, mediation, and developing new cooperative relations, highlighting Qatar's commitment to development and humanitarian responses to crises.
Speaking to Qatar News Agency (QNA), the UNDP chief said Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani’s participation in the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly is a very strong signal of the support that Qatar provides to the United Nations, its centrality in international relations and the rule of law. Also, its ability to support countries through reaching agreements to address issues that perhaps in the past may have seemed secondary, but became very central today, especially responses to epidemics, emergencies, economic transformations, and reform of the international financial architecture.
He pointed out that the cooperation between the UNDP and Qatar is increasing, especially in aspects related to women, peacekeeping, and women in conflict situations. “We have developed partnerships with different ministries and we have initiated some very significant global partnerships, particularly the accelerator labs today present in almost 100 countries, and without the partnership between UNDP, Qatar and Germany as the third partner, that would not have happened.”
Steiner added: “we are an institution that is today working in 170 countries. We have over 22,000 colleagues and staff that are working in those countries and we have thousands of projects that we work with countries to implement. That is a tremendous resource that I think also the State of Qatar views as very relevant to its own strategic objectives.”
He explained that Qatar and UNDP’s partnership have been characterised by proactivity and objectivity in regards to development issues or specific initiatives, pointing out, “for instance, Qatar investing in the accelerator labs, which have become a very significant partnership between UNDP, the State of Qatar, Germany and others. But also UNDP has established a presence in Doha. We are collaborating both with government ministries, but also with some of the academic institutions that are now in the State of Qatar, and that I think provides us with significant potential and opportunities for the future.”
Regarding the amount of annual support that Qatar provides to the Programme, he said, this support “falls into different categories,” noting that Qatar became a core contributor to UNDP, which was a very significant development because an institution like UNDP is funded in two ways: member states contributing financing that allows the institution to have the presence in 135 to 140 countries, which provides the programme with capacity and efficiency.
About the contribution of the United Nations House in Doha to promoting the Programme’s projects in Qatar and abroad, Achim Steiner said: “The opening of the UN House in Doha was actually officiated during the Secretary General’s last visit to Doha. I think everybody realised during that opening ceremony what a tremendous opportunity Qatar has created for the United Nations family. That UN House has become the platform for quite a number of agents.”
He pointed out that the UNDP is about to complete negotiation on the new MOU that will allow them to extend the partnership between the two sides for the next two to three years, stressing the commitment to build on the initiatives that were developed in the last couple of years, amongst them the accelerator labs, in addition to the work in Afghanistan and some other places.
He emphasised the importance of cooperation between the two sides to provide investment opportunities for Qatar and the Qatar Fund for Development, whether in terms of concessional finance, or in terms of grant finance, as in Africa where Qatar is intensifying its participation in partnership with the UNDP, adding “I think we see a lot of potential there, whether it is in sustainable finance, or in digital and energy transitions.”
