MINSK, 31 January (BelTA) – Belarus' Permanent Representative to the United Nations Andrei Dapkiunas took part in the first regular session of the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Program, the United Nations Population Fund and United Nations Office for Project Services (UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS) at the UN headquarters in New York. The Belarusian diplomat made a number of observations regarding the draft UNDP Strategic Plan for 2018-2021, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Belarusian Ambassador stressed that being a middle-income country, Belarus intends to vigorously defend the interests of this group of countries during the drafting of the plan. Middle-income countries should not be considered as competitors to other categories of recipients of assistance for development but as a critical and necessary subject of global sustainable development. The Belarusian diplomat suggested that the UNDP Strategic Plan should prioritize assistance to the countries in overcoming natural disasters and man-made catastrophes such as the Chernobyl accident.
The UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS Executive Board, of which Belarus is a member, will adopt the UNDP Strategic Plan for 2018-2021 at the end of 2017. The plan lists specific areas of the UNDP activity in the next four years in responding to the most pressing development-related problems in the world.
Andrei Dapkiunas also expressed gratitude to UNDP Administrator Helen Clark, who is leaving the post in April 2017, for selfless work as UNDP head and coordinator of international cooperation on Chernobyl.
Belarus' Permanent Representative noted that over the years of fruitful work in this post, Ms Helen Clark has become a good friend of many countries, including Belarus.
As BelTA reported earlier, in April 2016 Ms Helen Clark was awarded the Francysk Skaryna Order by the President of Belarus in recognition of her significant personal contribution to the development of cooperation between the Republic of Belarus and the United Nations in comprehensive rehabilitation and sustainable development of the regions affected by Chernobyl catastrophe.
