UNITAR Executive Director Receives BADEA Director General
10 April 2017, Geneva, Switzerland – An Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) mission consisting of H.E. Mr. Sidi Ould Tah (Director General) and Mr. Mohamed El Aïchouni (Head, Technical Assistance Division) visited UNITAR’s Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on 29 March 2017.
The purpose of the visit was to review the results of the needs assessment phase of the BADEA-UNITAR Technical Assistance Programme on Private Sector Development completed in 2016, to agree on the implementation strategy of the content development and knowledge development phases in 2017/2018, and to discuss common areas of cooperation. The mission was received by the Executive Director of UNITAR and UN Assistant Secretary-General Mr. Nikhil Seth.
BADEA and UNITAR have a very fruitful partnership since 2013. Under this partnership, UNITAR supports BADEA in implementing its technical assistance programme for Sub-Saharan African countries. Since 2013, UNITAR has conducted human resources development needs assessments and trained over 200 key national officials from over 40 anglophone, francophone and lusophone countries in areas such as development finance, microcredit, investment, infrastructure financing, debt management, and financial negotiation.
The private sector is today widely recognized as a crucial source of funding for implementing the 2030 Agenda, and for achieving the first of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals: ending poverty. Under the partnership with BADEA, UNITAR will develop and deliver instructor-led online courses on private sector development in English, French and Portuguese to sensitize and build the knowledge of a larger number of government officials. The Institute will also train national experts as trainers for greater dissemination and impact of the course content. These activities will be followed by regional seminars to assist countries in developing and implementing sound private sector development policies and strategies
UNITAR will also work with BADEA and selected beneficiary countries to strengthen capacities to monitor economic development projects financed by BADEA. As part of the project UNITAR will conduct a two-week course at BADEA headquarters and operationalize an innovative online project monitoring system on a pilot basis. It is expected that this project will contribute to significantly enhance the effectiveness of BADEA operations.
The Arab Bank for Development in Africa (BADEA) was created in 1974 by eighteen Arab countries members of the League of Arab States for the purpose of strengthening economic, financial and technical cooperation between the Arab and African regions and for the embodiment of Arab-African solidarity on foundations of equality and friendship. For more information about BADEA please see http://www.badea.org/.
Photo 1: Mr. Mohamed El Aïchouni (BADEA), Mr. Nasser Al-Kahtani (AGFUND Director General), Mr. Nikhil Seth (UNITAR Executive Director), Mr. Sidi Ould Tah (BADEA Director General), and Mr. Mohamed Al Saleem (AGFUND) (left to right).
Photo 2: BADEA and AGFUND officials.
Photo 3: Presentation of 2016 BADEA-UNITAR partnership activities.