Thursday, May 11, 2006

UNITED NATIONS, NY: Antigua and Barbuda beat Panama by a vote of 33 to 19, for a three-year term on the joint Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)/United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), at the elections held on Wednesday in the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

The UNDP/UNFPA Executive Board is made up of representatives from 36 member States of the UN, who serve on a rotating basis. The Board oversees and supports the activities of UNDP and UNFPA, ensuring that both organisations remain responsive to the evolving needs of their programme countries, which are mainly developing countries.

“This was truly a team effort,” said Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr John Ashe.

“The staff of our Mission, Ms Janil Greenaway, Ms Gillain Joseph and Ms Shermain Jeremy, worked tirelessly campaigning and lobbying the fifty-two voting members of the ECOSOC, who are the only ones can vote in ECOSOC elections, which are done by secret ballot,” he said.

Ambassador Ashe said that while he was disappointed that only thirty-three of the forty countries who promised in writing to support Antigua and Barbuda actually did, he was nevertheless pleased by the margin of victory.

“We knew we were fighting an uphill battle against Panama, which had the added advantage of being a member of ECOSOC. That this proved not be an obstacle leads me to believe that there is simply no substitute to good, old fashioned hard work,” he added.

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity.

UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.

UNDP is the development agency arm of the United Nations. It works to help developing countries and countries with economies-in-transition build up and improve their capacities to promote, support and accelerate human development and sustainable growth, primarily through its so-called five “practice areas.”

These are: energy and environment; the fight against HIV/AIDS; the search for effective policies to combat extreme poverty; the building of democratic institutions for better governance; and the efforts to prevent and recover from crisis.

Antigua and Barbuda’s term begins on 1 January 2007 and ends on 31 December 2009.

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