ISLAMABAD, Feb 10: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Wednesday reiterated its commitment towards helping Pakistan achieve its national development goals.

UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific Deputy Director Ligia Elizondo made this pledge during her five-day visit to Pakistan aimed at cementing UNDP’s relationship with a wide range of development partners, including the government and donors.

Ms Elizondo’s visit coincided with a crucial time in Pakistan given the host of challenges and developments faced by the country. Despite these difficulties, UNDP continued to fortify its programmatic focus and operational management processes to enhance the value of its services while ensuring the highest levels of management, accountability and transparency.

In a statement issued here, UNDP stated that it was strengthening its programme in Pakistan while playing a leadership role in the implementation of the recently-signed One UN Programme, specifically in the areas of disaster management and environment.

“Pakistan is one of the largest and most inclusive of the 8 UN reform pilots and UNDP would continue to collaborate with the government, civil society and other UN agencies towards the advancement of nationally identified development priorities.”

According to the statement, prevailing security situation also presented challenges to the implementation of UNDP projects in Balochistan and NWFP, especially in the wake of the recent kidnapping of a UNHCR official in Quetta. “Despite these challenges, UNDP’s development assistance across 87 districts in Pakistan amounted to $28.56 million in 2008.”

In her meetings with important development partners such as the Election Commission of Pakistan, National Disaster Management Authority and other stakeholders, Ms Elizondo ensured the continued commitment of UNDP towards the issues of poverty reduction, gender, disaster management, energy, environment and democratic governance.

The partners were also briefed about UNDP’s plan to implement programmes that were aligned with the country’s development priorities.

The deputy director also met Minister of State for Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar and apprised her of UNDP’s resource mobilisation efforts to reposition its programme within the One UN Programme.

Commenting on UNDP’s longstanding relationship with the Economic

Affairs Division, she stated: “We

hope that the new challenges Pakistan faces can be overcome through UNDP’s well established capacities and look forward to EAD’s role in guiding this coordinated effort in keeping with the national goals.”

The UNDP official also visited key areas of UNDP’s recovery interventions in the earthquake-affected district of Muzaffarabad where she directly interacted with the affected communities.

UNDP’s earthquake response programme was based on the needs identified by the communities and had helped livelihoods of more than 10,000 people and reactivated local government institutions to respond to the disaster.