UNDP, AfDB pledge stronger partnerships

The country representatives of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), have pledged stronger and more effective partnerships with Rwanda as the country accelerates its development.The UNDP Country Representative, Lamin M. Manneh, who doubles as the United Nations Resident Coordinator, Negatu Makonnen the African Development Bank (AfDB) Resident Representative and the IKEA Foundation Chief Executive Officer, Per Heggenes made the pledge, yesterday, during a meeting with President Paul Kagame at Village Urugwiro, yesterday.IKEA, a leading Swedish conglomerate, works closely with the UN family.“Rwanda is a country where everybody wants to be now; it’s making a lot of progress under the dynamic leadership of President Kagame and it’s a beautiful country. We are all impressed by the immense progress this country has made taking into account where it came from 18 years ago,” Manneh said. “As you know in the past the UN had failed Rwanda, so we don’t want that to happen again”.He pledged to ensure that the UN and other partners work even better in a more effective way to support the country’s transformation process.“The UN made significant contributions to Rwanda’s recovery and the transformation process, and my commitment is to reinforce that support to see it galvanised and provide even more impactful support towards the country’s progress in many more years to come,” the new UN representative added.Manneh, also presented his credentials to the Head of State.Prior to his appointment in Rwanda, Manneh served as the UN coordinator in Congo Brazaville for four years, among other duties.AfDB resident representative said: “The Bank has a very active engagement and partnership with Rwanda in the areas of operations project programme support, country policy dialogue and knowledge generation. We are happy for the partnership we have with this country.”Makonnen noted that he had a wide range of discussions with the President regarding the partnership between the bank and the government.“We are focusing on supporting Rwanda in infrastructure development, particularly in the areas of energy and transport, both national and regional transport network,”he noted.On his part. The CEO of IKEA Foundation observed that Rwanda was making enormous progress with the support of the UN family.“Our foundation works primarily to improve opportunities for children and youth in the developing world to help them improve their lives and their families,” Per Heggenes said.“Our discussion with President Kagame based on the mutual cooperation between IKEA Foundation and the government to improve the lives of people in Rwanda”.Heggenes stated that he was in the country to assess how the UN family works effectively in partnership with Rwanda.IKEA Foundation is UNICEF’s largest corporate partner and has been supporting UNICEF programmes in the areas of education, child survival and disaster risk reduction for over ten years.

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UNDP, AfDB pledge stronger partnerships