NORWAY CONTRIBUTES $10 MILLION TO UNDP TRUST FUND FOR AFRICA
Press Release
DEV/2081
NORWAY CONTRIBUTES $10 MILLION TO UNDP TRUST FUND FOR AFRICA
19951208 NEW YORK, 8 December, (UNDP) -- In a show of support for good governance in Africa, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator, James Gustave Speth, and the Permanent Representative of Norway to the United Nations, Hans Jacob Biorn Lian, signed an agreement today under which the Government of Norway will contribute $10 million to the recently-created UNDP Trust Fund for Governance in Africa. Norway is the first country to announce its contribution to the Trust Fund.The main objective of the Trust Fund is to assist the region in acquiring the capacities needed for democratic public administration and governance. That objective is in tandem with sustainable human development priorities, including UNDP's important mission of poverty eradication.
More than 30 sub-Saharan African countries have held national elections in the last few years, according to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa.
In a UNDP report on good governance, Mr. Speth described it as "central to all of UNDP's work." Without it, priority goals could not be attained. National capacity-building for effective, sound governance should be UNDP's priority means to achieve its objectives.
Commitments made by governments in March 1995 at the World Summit for Social Development called for strong support for public administration policies that helped people to emerge from poverty. UNDP cooperated with African countries in the area of governance to help them build their institutional capacities in the executive, legislative and judicial area. UNDP was also helping strengthen the expertise of civil society organizations.
The Fund will support the United Nations Special Initiative on Africa, which will be officially launched in January 1996 and which places a high premium on good governance.
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