UNDP Administrator Praises Collaboration with Qatar as Enthusiastic Innovation Investment Partner

HE UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) takes pride in collaborating with Qatar as an influential global actor and ardent innovation investment partner, HE UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said.

Interviewed by Qatar News Agency (QNA), His Excellency hailed HH the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani's UN General Assembly participation as "an expression of Qatar's both respect and very active engagement in the UN". He added that the UNGA is the world's only remaining platform for all countries to have a voice and to be represented with the same number of seats, which makes it a significant meeting place "despite many of the challenges that are faced by multilateralism in today's world".

He hailed HH the Amir's speech at the 79th UNGA, which clearly called for the urgent need to respect the rule of international law and ensure humanitarian responses.

He added that the State of Qatar's UN presence through its permanent mission allows it a great deal to exercise influence on international issues ranging from the Middle East conflict to global economic institutions and the future of digitization and artificial intelligence.

He added that the Qatar-UNDP partnership is active across 170 countries, highlighting accelerator labs collaboration with the Qatar Fund for Development across 115 countries, with Qatar and Germany growing into the two principle investors in enabling UNDP to set up these over 100 labs across the world.

"They accelerator labs have been a great success story, both for the countries in which they operate, but also for the state of Qatar who has been highly visible through this partnership all over the world, Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Central Asia," he said.

HE Steiner detailed the UNDP-Qatar cooperation in areas of crises including Afghanistan and Yemen, and in Sudan including with other partners. He hailed Doha as "the most important non-OECD contributor of core funding to UNDP, and that is a very critical part of financing the work of the UN Development program in developing countries across the world". 

Speaking about the catastrophic impact of the war on Gaza on people and infrastructure, HE Steiner spoke highlighted the inability of children to attend schools and the devastation of health infrastructure, noting that providing humanitarian aid is of utmost importance because people in Gaza need to survive.

"They need food, they need water, they need medicines. And it has been a very difficult process of in the midst of this conflict, to ensure adequate provision of humanitarian aid," he said.

He pointed out that nearly 200 UN staffers were killed as victims in this ongoing war while working in the field of humanitarian aid, stressing the inability to work normally in Gaza. He added the UN was able to carry out a polio vaccination campaign and play a very active role in the field of solid waste management, where about 800 tons are removed daily in cooperation with local partners.

Highlighting the UN Human Development Index, he explained that it is a project that the UNDP began nearly 30 years ago when it challenged the idea that measuring progress in development only requires measuring the per capita share of gross national income or gross domestic product.

HE Steiner stressed that amid many conflicts and climate change, there is enormous pressure on countries to accelerate cooperation at the national and international levels.

He added that the upcoming Human Development Report will focus on the risks posed by digitization and AI.

(QNA)