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Wallace Ruzvidzo

Herald Reporter

THE United Nations (UN) mobilised US$1.2 billion to support Zimbabwe’s developmental efforts over the past two years, in a move aimed at helping the country achieve its vision of becoming an upper-middle-class society by 2030.

UN Country Representative, Mr Edward Kallon, highlighted the organisation’s cooperation framework with Zimbabwe, which has been in place since 2022, to complement Government efforts and ensure the success of National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).

Speaking after paying a courtesy call on Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Ambassador Frederick Shava at his Munhumutapa offices in Harare yesterday, Mr Kallon praised the excellent relations between Zimbabwe and the UN, citing progressive collaboration in many sectors.

“The meeting also had the opportunity to discuss our cooperation framework with the Government of Zimbabwe, which is now midpoint since it was signed with the Government in 2022. We have had excellent collaboration with the Government in the various areas — prosperity, people, and peace, which are the critical themes of our co-operation framework.

“The cooperation framework was requesting funding of US$$2,8 billion to support and complement the effort of the Government of Zimbabwe to address the development aspirations and needs. To date, the community has been able to mobilise about US$1,2 billion to support various Government programmes,” he said.

Mr Kallon said the world body was committed to seeing through the success of Zimbabwe’s economic blueprint and the betterment of Zimbabweans’ livelihoods.

“Our cooperation framework is aligned with the National Development Strategy, and I want to take this opportunity to extend my sincere thanks to member states who have been contributing resources to enable the UN to support the efforts of the Government of Zimbabwe.

“We will now be reviewing the co-operation framework on September 26 to enable us to draw lessons on where we are and what we need to do to improve our partnership and collaboration with the Government of Zimbabwe,” he said.

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Turning to humanitarian assistance in the wake of the El Nino-induced drought, Mr Kallon said the UN had so far mobilised US$100 million for Zimbabwe.

In April, President Mnangagwa declared the 2023-2024 agricultural season a state of disaster following the El Nino-induced low rainfall.

“We are also working closely with the Government of Zimbabwe following the declaration of the disaster by His Excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwa. We, the UN system, launched a flash appeal requesting US$438 million to complement the effort of the Government of Zimbabwe to deliver much-needed humanitarian assistance to the affected population.

“To date, we have been able to mobilise about US$100 million. We are not where we expect to be, but we continue the advocacy following the visit of the global co-ordinator of El Nino, Madam Rina Ghilani, recently to Zimbabwe.

“We are very hopeful that we will continue supporting the Government of Zimbabwe to be able to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable. But it’s also good to note and to continue working hard to ensure that the medium and longer-term effort to alleviate the impact of El Nino is also funded and supported,” said Mr Kallon.

The UN representative said his meeting with Ambassador Shava had also centred on the Summit of the Future to be held in Harare today.

“This was a very opportune and very timely meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Shava, and we used this opportunity to discuss the Summit of the Future as member states prepare to go to New York to try to look at the global order again and try to see how to strengthen multilateralism moving forward. So it was a good opportunity,” he said.

Mr Kallon said the UN had convened successful engagements with stakeholders in the country including the youth from the country’s 10 provinces.

“The UN has been engaging here on the issues of the Summit of the Future. We have had engagements with the media in Zimbabwe. We have had engagements with young people from all the provinces in Zimbabwe and engagements with the diplomatic community in Zimbabwe.

“On the 12th (today), we are having a big stakeholder discussion and we are so pleased that the Honourable Dr Shava has agreed to give a keynote address on the Summit of the Future,” he said.