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Statement of Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator
On the occasion of the 2010 Annual Cluster Meeting of Resident Representatives/Resident Co-ordinators from UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Arab States

19 April 2010, Bahrain

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I am delighted to join you at this cluster meeting of the UNDP Regional Bureau for the Arab States.

At the outset, let me express my deep appreciation to the Kingdom of Bahrain for agreeing to host this meeting.  We are very appreciative of Bahrain’s warm hospitality.  
I am very grateful that Sheikh Ibrahim Khalifa Al Khalifa, the Minister of Housing of Bahrain, has made time to be with us.

Let me also greet others who have joined us here, including United Nations Development Group colleagues from the region and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, and our Resident Co-ordinators/Resident Representatives and other senior UNDP leaders from the region representing our seventeen country offices in the Arab States and the Programme for Assistance to the Palestinian People.

Recently I met with Bahrain’s Ambassador in New York, Mr. Tawfeeq Almansoor. He came to present a significant contribution from Bahrain for UNDP’s cash-for-work programme in Haiti. 

This solidarity with the people of Haiti, and support for UNDP’s recovery efforts there, is greatly appreciated. It is also a good example of how Bahrain and UNDP can work together to support development. I would like to take this opportunity in the presence of the Minister of Housing to thank the Government of Bahrain once again for its generous support, and also acknowledge the remarkable human development progress of Bahrain itself.

At UNDP we see our partnerships with countries in the global South increasingly extending beyond bilateral programmes into relationships which directly support South-South co-operation.

UNDP and the UN development system as a whole are well placed to facilitate the transfer of knowledge, expertise, and best practice within the South. Within the Arab States region there is a lot to share – looking at the innovations which exist in many fields from education to renewable energy and social protection. Being here in Bahrain reminds us of this, and of the desire of nations like Bahrain to support development.
In the 21 Century we need to expand our global partnerships for development if we are to achieve the MDGs and other internationally agreed development goals.

Traditional Official Development Assistance remains vital, but alongside it we see the rapid growth of South-South co-operation, of the mega-philanthropic and NGO sectors, and of private sector interest in contributing to development.

In these challenging times, there is more than enough work for every nation, organisation, corporation, and individual who wants to support development.
In recent years, countries in the Arab States region have been dealing with a series of crises. Some are in recovery from prolonged conflict. There have also been the food and fuel crises, growing climate challenges, and the global recession.

Many countries have faced economic setbacks, as growth and remittance flows slowed and export volumes and prices dropped.

In the UN development system, responding to programme countries’ needs during the crisis has been a priority. We have been called on to design social protection systems, advise on budget priorities, and even to help reschedule debt burdens.

In Egypt, UNDP was asked to help develop a conditional cash transfer programme.  In Saudi Arabia, we were asked to look at how to generate jobs for young people.  In Jordan and Yemen, we have worked on how to improve food security. 

At the regional level, UNDP worked with the League of Arab States to define the key development challenges which are inhibiting progress on reducing poverty and ensuring food security. 
 
Looking ahead, we see economic diversification playing a key part in building future resilience in the region to economic shocks.  In 2006, around 75 per cent of the region’s exports were accounted for by hydrocarbons. That makes the Arab region particularly vulnerable to fluctuations in fuel prices, and is encouraging countries to look at how to broaden the base of their economies.

According to the 2010 Arab MDG report, this region is on track to halve the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day, and thus to meet that very important MDG target.

Unemployment rates in the region, however, remain high.  Employment-intensive growth will be needed to achieve sustainable growth and poverty reduction, and for decent work. Addressing the employment challenges facing women and young people must be a priority.

These issues draw UNDP and ILO together around the common agenda of decent work. In Egypt, UNDP and ILO are helping start-up businesses access business advice and mentoring services. In Sudan UNDP, and ILO are helping unemployed young people to get proper work.

In January, UNDP’s Executive Board directed us to integrate the ILO’s Global Jobs Pact into the work of UNDP, and to report annually on progress. The actions ILO proposes put jobs at the very centre of responses to the global recession, and would help maintain momentum on the MDGs and other development goals.

Ten years after the MDGs were agreed to, the review Summit at the UN this September will be a major opportunity to generate renewed commitment to the goals, and to identify remaining gaps in their achievement and how best to fill them.
I urge all our Resident Representatives to encourage your host governments to be represented at the highest level at the Summit.

UNDP is working in a number of ways to support concrete outcomes from the Summit.
For instance, together with other agencies, we are helping thirty governments - including seven in this region – to prepare in depth national MDG progress reports. They will highlight successes and look at what more needs to be done.

The lessons to be drawn from these studies will feed into the international assessment we are preparing of what it will take to achieve the MDGs. It will look at what could be done to scale up proven interventions at the national level, taking into account that many countries are still trying to recover from the recession and other shocks, and look at how global partnerships for development can help.

We are also pulling together an “MDG breakthrough strategy” to inform the support we can give to programme countries. Our Regional Bureau for Arab States RBAS has been contributing to this work led by the Bureau for Development Policy.

Flowing from the strategy will be an acceleration framework through which UN Country Teams and host governments can identify constraints to MDG progress and how they might be best addressed.

For the UN development system to be effective in the 21st Century, we need to be more catalytic in what we do. Programme countries are looking to us for the best strategic and policy advice possible, and for support in building the capacity to deliver for themselves.

We need to be focusing our efforts on strengthening the national institutions and systems which are needed to design and implement policies, and deliver services.

A small project approach to development is not capable of supporting the step change in development which programme countries aspire to make.

We must tailor our assistance to meet national demands and circumstances. Especially in NCC and middle income countries, but not only there, it is critical to position the UN strategically as a provider of high quality policy advice, and as leaders in development thinking.

I have emphasized in many speeches how critical investments in meeting the needs and priorities of women and girls will be in meeting the MDGs – indeed, those investments may well contribute to a critical part of the breakthrough strategy we need.

Women’s empowerment was identified by the first Arab Human Development Report in 2002 as being one of the three main deficits facing this region.

In recent years there has been more participation of women in public life, more reforms promoting gender equality in family and personal status laws, and progress in girls’ education.

Even so, many Arab women still do not enjoy the same social, economic and political rights and status as Arab men. In this region under ten per cent of parliamentarians are women. That will have to change if meeting the needs of women is to be given greater priority.

I know from personal experience that increasing the voice and participation of women in public life is vital for getting women’s issues taken seriously on national agendas.  
I have no doubt that greater gender equality will have a powerful positive impact on many national development goals.

The spillover effects of education for girls, for example, include a reduction in child and maternal mortality, improved child nutrition, and a greater ability to protect women and girls from HIV/AIDS, abuse, and exploitation.  Women’s ability to move out of poverty will also improve.

More needs to be done to expand women’s economic opportunities; to strengthen the legal status of women; and to ensure that women’s voices are heard in decision-making.

Since coming to UNDP as Administrator, I have emphasized the links between the poverty reduction/MDGs and environment and  sustainable development pillars of our work.  Poverty will never be sustainably reduced if we destroy the very ecosystems on which human life depends.

Climate change is a huge challenge to development – and we need to support ways of adapting to it and mitigating it which are supportive of development.

These were issues we discussed at the joint EC-UNDP-UNEP workshop in Cairo last September.

This region is already the most water scarce in the world. An increasingly erratic climate makes that worse through more droughts, reduced agricultural production, and, potentially, population transfers. Here in the Gulf, underground water salinity could increase.

At Copenhagen last December, developed countries committed to provide additional financial resources of around $30 billion for 2010-2012 for support for climate change adaptation and mitigation in developing countries.

I understand that a number of Arab countries –Algeria, Djibouti, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and UAE – have associated themselves with the Copenhagen Accord.

The details of the funding disbursement and the actual pledges from Copenhagen are still to be finalized. But increased climate financing can help put countries on a greener development path, and help finance adaptation.

When a climate agreement is reached, significantly larger funding is likely to be available. In the meantime, and as we prepare for the Conference of Parties meeting in Mexico later this year, there is practical work to be done with the currently available resources.

At UNDP that means supporting programme countries to integrate disaster risk reduction and climate change responses into their development plans.

Together with our partner agencies, we must support countries to pursue mitigation strategies and access new and clean energy.

We can also help share expertise across the region. I know Morocco, for example, is keen to share its knowledge and know-how in terms of low carbon and climate-resilient development.

An important pillar of UNDP’s work is in strengthening governance, an area of deficit consistently identified in the Arab Human Development Reports. 

Lasting development results call for strong national leadership and ownership, where developing countries drive their own development solutions.

Development will thrive where there is wise leadership investing in people, institutions and infrastructure. It will thrive most where domestic resources are allocated effectively and where governments are responsive to their citizens.

Our interventions in this region include increasing access to justice; strengthening national electoral institutions; and supporting stronger sub-national governance.
UNDP also works to strengthen the capacity of national human rights institutions and support their establishment where they do not exist. Our role on human rights is neither a normative nor a monitoring one – that is the role of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Tuesday marks exactly one year since I arrived at UNDP headquarters in New York. Over the past twelve months I have met virtually every UNDP resident representative and country director, and with colleagues at all levels of the UN Development system.

I believe that we are most effective when we work together. Programme countries benefit when our UN Country Teams are well co-ordinated, and our donors are emphasizing greater coherence in the UN development system.

8 of the 46 countries rolling out new UNDAFs this year are in this region. For those countries this is a huge opportunity to position our efforts strategically and coherently in support of national priorities, the MDGs and sustainable development.

I know that these and many other issues are on the agenda for the cluster meeting and the UNDG meeting running parallel to it this week. I wish you all a successful meeting on our theme of achieving the maximum development impact.
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