By Politico staff writer
The newly appointed United Nations Resident Coordinator in Sierra Leone has paid a courtesy call to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Country Representative on Tuesday 13 October, 2020, at New Signal Hill Road.
Mr. Babatunde Ahonsi, who is a Nigerian, was appointed on 21 September 2020 by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, to represent the UN in Sierra Leone.
Mariatu Swaray, the UNIDO Country Representative, briefed the new UN Resident Coordinator about the key activities implemented by UNIDO recently, referencing the current EU funded West Africa Competitiveness Program (WACOMP) in partnership with the International Trade Center (ITC). She went on to note the components of UNIDO Sierra Leone programme, which include Increasing competitiveness through enhanced productivity and trade compliance; capacity for quality and standards; environment management & compliance to multilateral agreements and renewable energy.
‘’UNIDO is supporting the government to strengthen the competitiveness of the country and ensure its integration into regional and international trading systems in respect to the three selected value chain. This is done through the support given to improve the performance, growth and contribution to industry, regional trade and export of cassava, cocoa and palm oil and improve the climate for business at national level,’’ she said.
Swaray added that in the aspects of quality and standard, UNIDO is directly supporting the Sierra Leone Standards Bureau (SLSB) through establishing National Quality Policy, by developing an accredited national testing laboratories infrastructure and building the technical capacity of staff with respect to chemical, microbiological, and metrological institutions.
Amidst the interruption of COVID-19, UNIDO has been conducting several remote trainings with various stakeholders in relation to ISO standards.
In his statement, Babatunde Ahonsi noted that he is committed to comprehend the various activities implemented by various UN agencies, adding that he was happy for the opportunity to work with the agencies in Sierra Leone.
“I really want to invest in getting to understand the work that each agency does on the ground here in Sierra Leone to be able to see the nexus between the various aspects of development programs. Most of the work that we do is really about capacitating the country to be able to get more out of its natural endowment, whether it is agricultural or what kind business, forestry and so on,’’ he noted.
He went on: “the work that UNIDO does is absolutely crucial to the realization of the country’s aspiration to become a middle-income country. Sierra Leone will never become a middle-income country if it does not begin to move out the value chain of some of the products and resources around with its past significant comparative advantage, whether it is cassava, palm oil, cocoa, iron ore, whatever it. So I am really interested in the work that UNIDO does.’’
UNIDO is the specialized agency of the UN that promotes industrial development for poverty reduction, inclusive globalization and environmental sustainability through inclusive and sustainable industrial development (ISID). UNIDO’s mandate is fully recognized in SD-9, which calls for the building of “resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.”
Copyright © 2020 Politico Online
