Presentation of Letters of Credence to the President of Nauru

Omo Yekwo (Good afternoon in Nauruan language) 

I would like to start by expressing my appreciation to you, Your Excellency, by finding time in your busy schedules to receive my letters of credence to your government to serve as the UN Secretary General’s Representative in Nauru and UN Micronesia Multi Country Office at large. This is happening as part of the UN reform being spearheaded by the Secretary General and the request that was presented by the Micronesian leaders to the General Assembly for a greater UN presence in the region. This is indeed a huge step taken by the UN system as this is the first time a new Resident Coordinator’s Office has been established in nearly 20 years. 

I would like to personally commit that as the new Multi-Country Office, we will do everything possible to make sure that the UN work is better aligned to the national priorities and bring an inclusive and sustainable support to the Government of Nauru in addressing its development challenges. As you may already know, the new MCO is coming at a time when the UN System in the Pacific has started developing the new Development Cooperation Framework which will run from 2023 – 2027 by reviewing the old United Nations Pacific Strategy (2018-2022) and we have already invited your government officials through Department of Foreign Affairs to participate in the consultation process. We believe that these consultations will provide important information about what works, what doesn’t and produce an independent assessment of the achievements, the challenges and the lessons learned of the implementation of the programme, to inform the key stakeholders and to provide purposeful input into the next programming cycle. Again, this evaluation is expected to strengthen programming and results, especially informing the planning and decision-making for the next Cooperation Framework (CF) programme cycle. 

The establishment of this new MCO will also provide an opportunity to strengthen strategic engagement and coordination and guidance of UN support to Nauru. To this effect, we would like to pick and carry on with the discussion which was started during the Virtual Missions to Nauru held in August by my colleagues on the need of establishing the Joint UN/Government Steering Committee (or adapting to the already existing mechanism such as National Development Committee) that would offer a platform for a strategic engagement and guidance so that UN work should be more aligned and coherent to the needs and priorities of the people of Nauru. Again, this platform would offer overall strategic direction and oversight on the implementation and development of UN/Government Strategic Development Frameworks (such as UNPS 2018-2022; UNSDCF 2023-2027). 

Another issue that we need to work together is on accessing concessional financing: Considering the middle-income status of Nauru, it has always been a challenge to attract concessional financing from donors to support UN work on development initiatives and there is need for the UN and the GoN to work together to find new innovative ways of getting extra funding for the UN work in Nauru. As the UN, we would like to invite the Micronesian countries to work with us to popularize the Joint SDG Fund, (which at the moment has New Zealand as the only donor) which can used to offer additional financial support to the UN work in the region. We call upon the GoN to work with the UN advocating for the usage of the vulnerability index to be used by donors when deciding on funding compacts rather than the GDP. 

Your Excellency, the UN takes note of so many strides the GoN has registered in the fight/elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG). My presentation of letters of credence to Nauru, is coming at a time when the world is commemorating the 16 Days of Activism to Eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls. Like many of the Pacific Island Countries, Nauru continues to register cases of violence against women and gals. As the Representative for the UN Secretary General in Micronesia, I am ready and committed to work with your government in eliminating this vice and that the entire UN in the region stands united in the fight and stands with Nauru to “end violence against women and girls”. 

Your Excellency, another area that requires the UN and the GoN to work together is on Agriculture and Food Security. The UN notes that Nauru continues to import almost 90% of its food requirement, unfortunately this has contributed to the increase of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) which are mostly associated with poor eating habits. The UN through the Food System Summit supported Nauru to develop Food System Pathways that are going to help Nauru achieve nutrition and healthy food. The pathways are also proposing game-changing solutions and sustainable pathways to increase local food production to achieve improved health, healthy food and nutrition, while preserving the environment and ecosystem. The UN has also supported the GoN to develop the National Agricultural Sector Strategy (NASS) which is aiming at increasing domestic food production for improved health and wellbeing. The NASS addresses key issues and constraints in Nauru’s agricultural sector and its food and nutrition security status. The Strategy is based on a comprehensive problem analysis that defines the core problem to be addressed – food and nutrition insecurity with low levels of health and wellbeing – as well as primary, secondary and underlying causes. More importantly, all of us (the UN, the GoN, and other Development Partners) need to work together to find innovative ways on actualising the Food System Pathways and recommendations in the National Agricultural Sector Strategy. 

Your excellency, the UN notes some significant progress the GoN has registered in a number of initiatives especially related to child protection such as (a) the development of 0-3 policy, a holistic approach to provide holistic support in preparing children before they start early childhood education; (b) training of child protection officers (training on modules 1-3 and models 4-5 are remaining); (c) Sexual harassment policy concept note has been done, No drop policy (review of the national action plan for women and the review of the national women’s policy has been done); (d) Ongoing work on CRC and CEDAW state party report; (e) CRC and CEDAW recommendation implementation plans now in place; (f) translation of the Convention of the CRC and its recommendations, translation of the CEDAW as well as the legislation on domestic violence and family Protection Act into local language has been finalized and (g) the acceptance by the GoN of 133 of the 156 UPR recommendations. All these pieces of work show the GoN commitment to uplift the welfare of children and women and the most vulnerable that are most of the times left behind. The UN stands ready to continue supporting the GoN in protecting the welfare of children and to that effect, the UN has finalised the recruitment of the Child Protection Specialist to support the Department of WASDA in finalizing the training of Child Protection Officers with remaining modules. The UN also stands ready to support the GoN in with the state party reporting mechanisms as well as building capacity in government personnel in implementing the UPR recommendations that the GoN agreed to implement. 

Your Excellency, last but not least perhaps, I would be very much interested to work with you and the people of Nauru to help restore your environment and make Nauru a desirable place for current and future generations. 

Tubwa (Thank you!)