Annual Session 2020 of the Executive Board of UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS

UNDP Segment 

INDIA STATEMENT

By

Ambassador T. S. Tirumurti, Permanent Representative

4 June 2020

Thank you, Mr. President. 

I thank Administrator Achim Steiner for his statement and for his leadership of UNDP. I am heartened to listen to his remarks and his priorities and strategies.

The global outbreak of COVID-19 triggered a health crisis, which has quickly transformed into an economic, social and humanitarian crisis with potential long-term effects on development prospects. Member States are seized with the impact of the pandemic and are reviewing their developmental priorities and reallocating their dwindling resources.

I would like to touch briefly on a few areas.  At the outset, we need to re-priortize the UNDP priorities as per the partner countries new development priorities to, at the very least, mitigate the consequences of this COVID crisis.  While Agenda 2030 remains the goal, it is possible that the short-term priorities, maybe even medium-term priorities, may be slightly different though not necessarily contradictory.  UNDP should be nimble enough to react to these changed immediate set of priorities of partner countries.

It is equally important to focus on specific priority sectors since developing countries may be hit in varying degrees depending on their worst affected sectors, for example, tourism.  Reprioritizing naturally puts the focus on the health sector as well as social protection. 

It is also hard to imagine how the world would have coped with such a disruption by COVID-19 without the digital tools that we posses today. Hence, technology and digital people-centric solutions should become a critical component of our development paradigm. I note that UNDP is embracing such digital technologies but we need to promote this in partner countries in a big way. 

Prioritizing the needs of the poor and vulnerable will have to receive the highest priority with respect to digital initiatives. In recent years, India has undertaken transformative development and people-friendly programmes fully integrated through digital technology.  This has come as a blessing during these times and I thank Administrator for referring to India in this context.

The current crisis has underlined the need for partnership, in leaving no one behind, and in prioritizing the needs of the most vulnerable. In this context, India has taken every effort, despite the difficult circumstances at home, to extend its support to our partners around the world. From supply of essential medicines, testing kits, PPEs, to deployment of Rapid Response Teams to developing an ‘Information Exchange Platform’ and to conducting courses by our premier health care institutions under our flagship ITEC programme, for India, development partnership is critical to South-South Partnership. 

As one of the largest contributors to UNDP among the developing countries, we take keen interest in the Organization’s success.  I assure you of our steadfast commitment to UNDP in catering to COVID times and beyond to adapt to new development priorities.

Thank you.