UN development chief continues Africa tour with stop in Ethiopia

The head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was in Ethiopia today, where she met with the country’s leader and discussed ways to support efforts to tackle poverty, address climate change and ensure that progress made thus far is not lost amid the global economic downturn.

“I think many countries would be happy to be seeing the progress Ethiopia is making,” UNDP Administrator Helen Clark said, highlighting achievements in areas such as maternal health and universal education.

While in the capital, Addis Ababa, Miss Clark met with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who she said was “obviously very serious about the climate change negotiations and the possibilities that come from that.”

She said there are huge opportunities for developing countries if the Copenhagen talks aimed at a global agreement on tackling climate change “go right and deliver a deal for development.”

In addition to meeting with the Prime Minister, Miss Clark also met with members of the House of People’s Representatives, with whom she discussed the work being done to encourage women’s participation in local government and the importance of UNDP’s support to parliaments around the world.

The top UN development official also addressed a meeting of UN resident coordinators in Africa, stressing the importance of achieving the globally agreed anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“In the middle of a global economic crisis, making progress on these goals is of course challenging. In fact, we risk going backwards,” she noted.

“But if we drill down to the specific situation of any country and to evidence of progress and failure on specific MDGs, or we look at growth potential in new and emerging areas, we will find that dramatic progress is often possible.

“That progress will depend on what kinds of policies nations pursue, their budget priorities, their ability to enact governance improvements, and investments in filling crucial capacity gaps,” she stated.

Ethiopia is the last stop on Miss Clark’s inaugural tour to Africa as head of UNDP, which also took her to Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).