The United Nations Resident Coordinator in Guinea-Bissau, David McLachlan-Karr called this Wednesday, for greater national ownership and coordinated UN intervention as one of the conditions to serve the people of Guinea-Bissau.

The Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General was speaking during the opening ceremony of the inception workshop of the midterm review of the Partnership Framework between Guinea-Bissau and the United Nations 2016-2020 (UNPAF), which was attended by the Director General of International Cooperation, Marcelo d'Almeida.

According to David McLachlan-Karr, "an effective midterm review and implementation of UNPAF 2016-2020 will be extremely challenging without strong national ownership and coordination, and a sound Monitoring and Evaluation system."

In that sense, he called for a "greater commitment and participation" by both the government and the United Nations, civil society, private sector and development partners "in the midterm review process, as well as on the " further stages of the implementation and monitoring of the partnership framework signed and launched in April 2016”.

"With these crucial conditions, we hope to build an ever more relevant UN for the people of Guinea-Bissau. A UN that brings everyone together", he said.

In the context of the UN reform, the United Nations Development Assistance Framework is the most important UN planning document and mechanism in the country, said the UN Resident Coordinator. In this regard, he recalled that the focus of the United Nations should be sustainable development, requiring that the organization intervene as a whole to help the government achieve solid results against national priorities.

"Rather than just a consolidated picture of all UN Country Team’ activities. UNPAF must become a system-wide response to national priorities," said the UN Resident Coordinator.

By the end of his speech, David McLachlan-Karr thanked the "excellent" partnership the organization has observed in Guinea-Bissau over the years and added that he was “looking forward” to take the UN, under the reviewed UNPAF, to a peaceful, prosperous and healthy future for Guinea-Bissau and all its people.

The Government of Guinea-Bissau and the United Nations agreed to conduct a midterm review of the partnership framework during the months of September and October to assess the progress made in its implementation. The launch, which took place on Wednesday in Bissau, brought together about 50 participants from government institutions, civil society, the private sector, and UN agencies, programs and funds.

The Partnership Framework between Guinea-Bissau and the United Nations 2016-2020, signed and launched in April 2016, is the result of extensive consultations with government, civil society organizations, the private sector and other development partners.