United Nations in Zimbabwe

Reinforcing our commitment to peace, human Rights and sustainable development opines
Mr Edward Kallon United Nations in Zimbabwe Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator

Reinforcing our Commitment to Peace, Human Rights and Development *By Edward Kallon

The United Nations in Zimbabwe calls on all stakeholders for increased attention on mental health and investments to promote mental wellbeing - UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Mr Edward Kallon

Resource Mobilization for Mental Health | Remarks by Mr Edward Kallon UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Air Commodore Dr Jasper Chimedza, Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Health and Child Care. Other Government Officials Present. My colleague Prof J M Dangou, WHO Representative. National and International Development Partners Present Distinguished Guests. Ladies and Gentlemen: Good morning and t...

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The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, allocated $1M from United Nations CERF to support emergency response, improve water access and provide information.

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US$ 524M development results delivered under Zimbabwe UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework

06 April 2023, Harare – The 2022-2026 Zimbabwe UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (ZUNSDCF) Steering Committee and stakeholders convened jointly by the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Dr Misheck JM Sibanda and the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Mr Edward Kallon reviewed development results in 2022 and endorsed plans for 2023.

The ZUNSDCF, which delivered US$524 million in various development projects and programmes in 2022, has made deliberate initiatives to target populations often left furthest behind and these include persons with disabilities, migrants and refugees, children, youths, and rural farmers among others under four strategic areas agreed with the Government of Zimbabwe namely:
• People–centred equitable, human development and well-being.
• Environment protection, climatic resilience, and natural resource management.
• Economic Transformation, equitable and inclusion growth; and
• Accountable, equitable and inclusive governance.

Noting that in 2022 the United Nations prioritized social protection, resilience building, provision of quality social services, gender equality, democratic and economic governance, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Mr Edward Kallon said, “without the generous support of the donor community, the development results could not have been achieved and I would like to thank the donor community in Zimbabwe, who supported the first year of implementing the ZUNSDCF with an estimated US$ 544 million”.

The Steering Committee and stakeholders meeting brought together over 100 senior representatives from Government, Development Partners, Civil Society, Private Sector, Youth Groups, Women’s movement, Organizations of Persons with Disabilities, and the media.

Addressing the meeting, Chief Secretary to President and Cabinet said, “the ZUNSDCF is consistent with the collective aspirations and determination of the people of Zimbabwe to achieve an empowered and prosperous upper middle-income society by 2030 as enunciated by His Excellency, President Dr Emmerson D. Mnangagwa and attaining the global aspirations of the transformation and universally accepted Sustainable Development Goals.”

The Government of Zimbabwe and the United Nations have a shared commitment to leaving no one behind through delivering concrete results that ensure inclusive participation and reaching the people typically left behind the furthest. Noting that the UN Country Team in Zimbabwe shares this vision and is taking active steps to implement it through the Cooperation Framework, Dr Misheck JM Sibanda said, “we all work together to accelerate development progress during the Decade of Action as we work to recover better and stronger from the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic”.

The High-Level Joint Steering Committee meeting allowed stakeholders to review and assess existing strategies under the ZUNSDCF and agreed to focus in 2023 on:
• Creating enabling environment that promote (i) human development, (ii) climate resilience, natural resources management and sustainable food systems, and (iii) economic transformation, equitable and inclusive growth.
• Addressing structural challenges related to extreme poverty, exclusion, corruption, discrimination, adherence to the rule of law, and violation of human rights.
• Strengthening government and partners’ capacities at national and sub-national levels to plan and deliver transparently and accountably quality, evidence based and equitable basic public goods and services, implement climate change mitigation and adaptation interventions and build long term resilience, especially for the furthest left behind.
• Empowering communities, especially the most vulnerable and the furthest behind, to demand their rights and meet their responsibilities and promote dialogue and citizen engagement.

The ZUNSDCF with a five-year programme cycle until 2026 and fully aligned to the National Development Strategy One has a development finance portfolio of US$ 2.8billion to be mobilized in support of national development priorities and SDGs.

Media Contact:
• Anderson Chiraya, Chief Director of Programme Management, Office of the President and Cabinet, e-mail: [email protected], : +263 712323859
• Sirak Gebrehiwot, UN Communications, Partnerships and Development Finance Specialist, e-mail: [email protected], Mob # +263 772 198 036

US$ 524M development results delivered under Zimbabwe UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 06 April 2023, Harare – The 2022-2026 Zimbabwe UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (ZUNSDCF) Steering Committee and stakeholders convened jointly by the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Dr Misheck JM Sibanda and the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Mr Edward Kallo...

Water is a common good not a commodity: UN experts

GENEVA / NEW YORK (21 March 2023) – Water should be managed as a common good not a commodity, UN experts* said today. They urged States to ensure that human rights and water defenders be placed at the core of the discussions during the first UN conference focusing on water in nearly five decades. The experts issued the following statement ahead of the UN 2023 Water Conference (22-24 March).

“The human rights to water and sanitation are clear illustrations of the indivisibility, interrelatedness and interdependency of human rights and are vital for achieving an adequate standard of living. Whether looking at physical security of women and girls, discrimination against Indigenous Peoples, peasants, minorities or to the human rights to health, adequate housing, a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, education, and many others, all are intimately linked to water and sanitation.

For the first time in almost 50 years, the United Nations is convening a three-day conference in New York to consider the global water situation and the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

We welcome the efforts by the United Nations, Member States, right-holders and other stakeholders from all parts of the world to gather in New York and work together for advancing the global water agenda. Progress on SDG 6 – clean water and sanitation for all - can only happen effectively if communities and their human rights are at the center of the discussions, especially by hearing the voices of those that endure discrimination, marginalisation, poverty and situations of vulnerability.

Water is a human right. It needs to be managed as a common good. Considering water as a commodity or a business opportunity will leave behind those that cannot access or afford the market prices. Commodification of water will derail achievement of the SDGs and hamper efforts to solve the global water crisis, already further exacerbated by the triple planetary crisis: climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and toxic pollution, affecting the life and health of billions around the world.

The UN 2030 Water Conference is an opportunity for listening to and engaging with human rights defenders, particularly water rights defenders, and other rights-holders. Instead of restricting the freedom of expression and association of human rights and water rights defenders, and even criminalising them, it is time to ensure their meaningful participation, especially for women and youth human rights defenders, in all discussions and in any outcomes and water governance mechanisms at the international, national, and local levels. In this context, robust public access to information frameworks are needed to foster transparency, participation and accountability.

It is time to stop a technocratic approach to water and consider the ideas, knowledge and solutions of Indigenous Peoples, peasants, and local communities who understand local aquatic ecosystems to ensure sustainability of the water agenda.

As mentioned in a recent open letter from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to member States, the UN Water Conference “is a once in a lifetime opportunity to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, and Sustainable Development Goal 6 in particular, to address the root causes of this water and sanitation crisis” currently affecting two billion people without guaranteed access to safe drinking water and more than four billion without basic sanitation.

We reiterate our hope that the UN 2030 Water Conference will be the beginning of a genuine and long-term collaborative agenda to accelerate the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 6 and promote and protect human rights by putting water rights defenders and rights-holders at the center of all decision-making processes at international, national and local level.”

ENDS

*The experts: Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation; Marcos Orellana, Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights; Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights; David R. Boyd, Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment; Ian Fry, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change; Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; José Francisco Cali Tzay, Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples; Balakrishan Rajagopal, Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing; Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association; Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the right to food; Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression; Fernand de Varennes, Special Rapporteur on minority issues; Dorothy Estrada Tanck (Chair), Elizabeth Broderick, Ivana Radačić, Meskerem Geset Techane and Melissa Upreti: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls.

The Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.
For additional information and media requests please contact Maria Jose Acosta Lazo ([email protected])
For media enquiries regarding other UN independent experts, please contact Maya Derouaz ([email protected]) and Dharisha Indraguptha ([email protected]).
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UN Secretary-General calls for radical transformation of global financial- system to tackle pressing global challenges, while achieving sustainable development 17 February 2023, New York - With the failure of the global financial system to effectively cushion the impacts of current global crises on the Global South — the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the ongoing climate emergency — the UN today called for the urgent need for a significant i...

UN Secretary-General calls for radical transformation of global financial-
system to tackle pressing global challenges, while achieving sustainable
development

UN Chief reiterates call for G20 countries to agree on $500 billion annual stimulus
for Sustainable Development Agenda

17 February 2023, New York - With the failure of the global financial system to effectively cushion the impacts of current global crises on the Global South — the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the ongoing climate emergency — the UN today called for the urgent need for a significant increase of finance for sustainable development.
“Today’s poly-crises are compounding shocks on developing countries – in large part because of an unfair global financial system that is short-term, crisis-prone, and that further exacer-bates inequalities,” warned UN Secretary-General António Guterres on the occasion of the launch of the SDG Stimulus released today.
“We need to massively scale up affordable long-term financing by aligning all financing flows to the SDGs and improving the terms of lending of multilateral development banks,” stressed the Secretary-General. “The high cost of debt and increasing risks of debt distress demand decisive action to make at least $500 billion dollars available annually to developing countries and convert short term lending into long term debt at lower interest rates.”

A financial system that works for all
Halfway to the 2030 Agenda deadline, progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – our roadmap out of crises – is not where it needs to be. To reverse course and make steady progress on the Goals, the SDG Stimulus outlines the need for the international community to come together to mobilize investments for the SDGs – but, in so doing, create a new interna-tional financial architecture that would ensure that finance is automatically invested to support just, inclusive and equitable transitions for all countries.
The current global financial system – originally created to provide a global safety net during shocks – is one in which most of the world’s poorest countries saw their debt service pay-ments skyrocket by 35% in 2022. The “great finance divide” continues to proliferate, leaving the Global South more susceptible to shocks. Developing countries don’t have the resources they urgently need to invest in recovery, climate action and the SDGs, making them poised to fall even further behind when the next crisis strikes – and even less likely to benefit from future transitions, including the green transition.
As of November 2022, 37 out of 69 of the world’s poorest countries were either at high risk or already in debt distress, while one in four middle-income countries, which host the majority of the extreme poor, were at high risk of fiscal crisis. Accordingly, the number of additional peo-ple falling into extreme poverty in countries in or at high risk of entering debt distress is esti-mated to be 175 million by 2030, including 89 million women and girls.
Even prior to the recent rise in interest rates, least developed countries that borrowed from in-ternational capital markets often paid rates of 5 to 8 per cent, compared to 1 per cent for many developed countries.

SDG Stimulus Offers
The SDG Stimulus aims to offset unfavorable market conditions faced by developing countries through investments in renewable energy, universal social protection, decent job creation, healthcare, quality education, sustainable food systems, urban infrastructure and the digital transformation.
Increasing financing by $500 billion per year is possible through a combination of conces-sional and non-concessional finance in a mutually reinforcing way.
Reforms to the international financial architecture are integral to the SDG Stimulus. As high-lighted in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, financing sustainable development is about more than the availability of financial resources. National and global policy frameworks influence risks, shape incentives, impact financing needs, and affect the cost of financing.

The SDG Stimulus outlines three areas for immediate action:
First, tackle the high cost of debt and rising risks of debt distress, including by converting short-term high interest borrowing into long-term (more than 30 year) debt at lower interest rates.
Second, massively scale up affordable long-term financing for development, especially through strengthening the multilateral development banks (MDB) capital base, improving the terms of their lending, and by aligning all financing flows with the SDGs.
Third, expand contingency financing to countries in need, including by integrating disaster and pandemic clauses into all sovereign lending, and more automatically issue SDRs in times of crisis.

Central role of International Financial Institutions
The international financial institutions remain at the heart of this agenda. Of immediate urgen-cy, there are three important ways in which the Multilateral Development Banks can act.
First, the MDBs must massively expand the volume of lending, including concessional lend-ing. This can be achieved through increasing their capital bases, better leveraging of existing capital and implementing recommendations of the G20 Capital Adequacy Framework Review, and re-channeling Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) through MDBs. As long as countries remain in need of urgent resources the SDG Stimulus will also call for a new round of SDRs.
Second, MDBs must improve the terms of their lending, including through longer-term lending, lower-interest rates, more lending in local currencies, and the inclusion of all vulnerable coun-tries in lending programmes.
Third, MDBs – as well as all public and private actors – must explicitly incorporate the SDGs into their framing, their operations and all stages of the lending process and disaster and pandemic clauses must be integrated into all debt contracts to provide immediate relief in times of crisis.
This means adopting a transition approach, which aligns investments with the SDGs while al-so considering specific country and development contexts, and the trade-offs that may be in-volved on the path towards a more resilient, just, and inclusive global economy. At the national level, the UN also stands ready to support, including through supporting the development and application of SDG-aligned Integrated National Financing Frameworks (INFFs).
Member States – including the Group of Twenty (G-20) – must play their part. It is clear that the G20 Common Framework for Debt Treatment (CF) has failed. The SDG Stimulus calls for providing immediate relief to all countries in need, including through debt suspensions, re-profilings, exchanges and write-downs where necessary, as well as the creation of a perma-nent mechanism to address sovereign debt distress.
As underscored by the UN Secretary-General, the SDG Stimulus, while ambitious, is achievable: “Investing in the SDGs is both sensible and feasible: it is a win-win for the world, as the social and economic rates of return on sustainable development in developing countries is very high.”
But to make this happen, “urgent political will to take concerted and coordinated steps to im-plement this package of interconnected proposals in a timely manner is critical.”
A Bretton Woods 2.0 is sorely needed, both to fulfil the function for which it was originally de-signed for and to prepare the world, and its vulnerable people, as we head into uncertain ter-rain.
The link to the SDG Stimulus document is here.

MEDIA CONTACTS
Francyne Harrigan, UN Department of Global Communications, [email protected]
Sharon Birch, UN Department of Global Communications, [email protected]

UN Secretary-General calls for radical transformation of global financial- system to tackle pressing global challenges, while achieving sustainable development 17 February 2023, New York - With the failure of the global financial system to effectively cushion the impacts of current global crises on the Global South — the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the ongoing climate emergency — the UN today called for the urgent need for a significant i...

UN Environment Program Official Sonja Leighton to Visit Zimbabwe - The Harare Times By Staff Reporter The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Acting Deputy Executive Director,

MEDIA ADVISORY

UN Environment Programme Senior Official Sonja Leighton to Visit Zimbabwe

05 February 2023, Harare – The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Acting Deputy Executive Director, and Director of Corporate Services Ms. Sonja Leighton-Kone will visit Zimbabwe from 06 to 11 February 2023.

During her visit, Ms. Leighton-Kone will meet with His Excellency President E.D. Mnangagwa; and other senior Government officials including Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade; Minister of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry; Minister of Energy and Power Development; and Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development. In addition, Ms. Leighton-Kone will be meeting with the UN Resident ad Humanitarian Coordinator Mr Edward Kallon and the UN Country Team.

During her visit Ms Leighton will engage senior Government officials on environmental opportunities and challenges especially issues linked to triple planetary crisis of climate change, loss of nature and biodiversity, and waste and pollution. Her discussions with Government will include on strengthening collaboration with UNEP and marshalling practical solutions to the triple planetary crisis supported by UNEP as part the 2022-2026 Zimbabwe UN Sustainable Development Cooperation.

Ms Leighton will also have consultations with the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Heads of UN agencies in Zimbabwe and the UN Country Team on enhancing coordination and cooperation in the delivery of support to the country.

Facilitated by the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Ms Leighton will also travel to the field to see projects on environmental sustainability.

Ms. Leighton-Kone will be accompanied by Frank Turyatunga, Regional Director, and Representative for Africa; Ms. Meseret Teklemariam Zemedkun, Head, UNEP Southern Africa Sub-Regional Office; and Rami Abdel Malik, Special Assistant to the Deputy Executive Director.

Ms. Leighton’s brief bio is available on: https://www.unep.org/people/sonja-leighton-kone.

For more information and media requests, please contact:
Sirak Gebrehiwot, Communications, Partnerships and Development Finance Specialist at the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office on [email protected] or +263 772 198 036.

International Day of Education 2023: Join the Global Campaign Ahead of this year’s International Day of Education (IDE), join us on social media to call on member states to turn their commitments into action and invest in education. Here are the steps you can follow to join the activation: Head to the filter and take a photo Download it and ope...

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed January 24 as International Day of Education in celebration of the role of education for peace and development. This day is celebrated under the theme "to invest in people, prioritize education."

Education is a human right, a public good, and a public responsibility.

Zimbabwe Unhcr UNESCO Unesco Regional Office for Southern Africa United Nations United Nations in Zimbabwe

As we journey together towards achieving the milestones in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Zimbabwe’s National Development Strategy, we must be mindful of the fact that only by standing up for universal human rights can we advance sustainable development, prevent violence, and sustain peace.

Message on Human Rights Day | UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Seventy-four years ago, in 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Today, the UN family joins the Government and people of Zimbabwe, and development partners to mark Human Rights Day. This day also marks the end of the 16 days of activism against gender-based...