The Right Honourable Prime Minister, Ms. Robinah Nabbanja,
Honourable Ministers
Your Excellencies, the Ambassadors and Heads of Corporations
Representatives from Civil Society and Private Sector
Development Partners
All my UN family members
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today, it is my honour to address this distinguished gathering on behalf of the United Nations system in Uganda.
I extend my deepest gratitude to the Right Honorable Prime Minister and to all present for gathering here today. This joint UN – Government Steering Committee reflects our shared commitment to partnership progress and the principles of multilateral cooperation that underpins our collective efforts.
Our collaboration with the Government of Uganda and multiple development actors has been critical to the implement of the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2021-2025, which is aligned to both Uganda’s Vision 2040 and the National Development Plan III.
The year 2023 was pivotal yet challenging. The global landscape remained dominated by economic uncertainties following the aftermath of COVID-19 and geopolitical tensions, particularly the impacts of ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and towards the end of the year, the eruption of war in Gaza. These conflicts are not only influencing and reshaping the global political and economic landscape, but also have profound implications for the development assistance, affecting funding and prioritization of initiatives worldwide.
In Uganda, likewise these disruptions to development funding is being felt. I understand from the Ministry of Finance website that overall donor contributions to Uganda are expected to fall significantly. That is a decline is expected to impact Uganda’s health sector the most.
And quite frankly, the situation doesn’t seem like it will be changing dramatically soon. This puts collective pressure on us all to see how we can do ‘different’. And as every time of change, the sooner we adapt, the better. It is an opportunity for us all to collectively do different, do better, be more effective and efficient.
Reflecting on the outcome of last year’s National Joint Steering Committee meeting,
- The UN was asked to strengthen and improve its coordination with NDPIII implementation – we have made progress in that area including by supporting your efforts Madam Prime Minters to revitalize the National Partnership Forum.
- We were also asked to strengthen emergency response planning and preparedness especially for climate shocks. We started by strengthening our own internal coordination – we put in place a mechanism that brings the UN family together in emergency preparedness and response and that is allowing us to support response better collectively and also to dialogue with your team. For instance in this 2024, we have been looking at the Governments Disaster preparedness and Response plan and considering how we can support.
- We were asked to do more on the environment and ecosystems in refugee hosting areas – there has been several initiatives in line with the Cooperation Framework supporting resilience building in refugee response including support to refugee hosting communities; for example, the support to large scale farming, market access and commercial tree planting by respective UN agencies.
- On Karamoja we were asked to adopt more sustainable approaches to development including provision of tractors, construction of dams for water harvesting for irrigation to Karamoja. The efforts largely remained in emergency mode. When we did do is come closer together as a UN family and more recently, we are beginning to see some shifts towards a more integrated development approach by the UN system in Karamoja. So hopefully by the next Steering Committee meeting there will be much more to say about that.
Today, our focus is not just to review our past year's work but to strategically position ourselves for the future. The Joint Steering Committee is more than an oversight body; it is a think tank, a brainstorming platform, and a strategic guide that steers the implementation of the Cooperation Framework. And of course, a new Cooperation Farmwork is just around the corner, expected to be finalized by last quarter of next year.
We have planned to show you a video – 15 minutes long – of the highlights of the collective achievements in 2023. In your folders there should be an abridged version of the report. Some of you have seen the full report. After this we will share a link on our UN website for the full report.
Following the video, we have planned discussions – Led by the Prime Minister. Firstly of course to answer your questions. And then perhaps to discuss more strategic questions such as:
- alignment & prioritization
- coordination & synergy
- furthering inclusive stakeholder engagement in our work
- advocacy areas for collective resource mobilization etc.
As we discuss, my colleagues and I are really keen to understand how you think we can better support Uganda’s quest for socio-economic transformation. And I hope we will collectively be inspired by the many challenges & opportunities before us to bring substantive change for socio economic transformation.
All resident agencies are present here today. As you will imagine, it was impossible to align all the travel calendars… but all missing UN Representatives are actually on mission out of the country.
And as regards the video: a small warning – the voice of the video is not really my voice. We used AI to narrate the report. Thank you once more for being here and I look forward to a vibrant discussion.