Innovative new partnership agreement engages Honduras as an active development partner in a global cooperation strategy that promotes Southern solutions to Southern challenges.
19 July 2017 – The Government of Honduras, the United Nations Country Team in Honduras and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) today signed an innovative new partnership agreement that brings together all three parties to promote and support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals through expanded South-South and triangular cooperation.
Specifically, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) emphasizes the leveraging of Honduras’ national strategy for South-South cooperation in a way that benefits countries throughout the South. It also emphasizes developing capacity at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to manage and facilitate South-South cooperation through new tools and training.
“The UN is on the ground in Honduras with 14 agencies, funds and programmes; working with 22 government entities,” said Jorge Ramón Hernández Alcerro, Honduran Secretary of State for Government Coordination. Alcerro, who led the Honduran delegation to New York, said his Government is “committed to a cooperative approach that is inclusive, coordinated and therefore effective in sharing our successes.”
“We have long supported the development goals of our neighbours through active South-South cooperation,” said Ambassador Maria del Carmen Nasser de Ramos, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Honduras. “We are now ready to expand this cooperation to a global level. In just in the past year, we supported 50 projects in seven different countries to advance sustainable development in the region.”
The delegates signed the MoU at a special ceremony late Wednesday at the offices of UNOSSC in New York during the UN’s High-level Political Forum to review implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Also signing were UNOSSC Director Jorge Chediek, and Consuelo Vidal, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Coordinator in Honduras.
“Honduras has shown in the past years a strong commitment to South-South cooperation,” said Chediek, who also serves as the Envoy of the UN Secretary-General on South-South Cooperation. “We at UNOSSC are ready to support the further expansion of this cooperation as a way to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals.”
“The Government of Honduras brought about this partnership approach, calling on the UN system to deliver as one, and jointly with UNOSSC leverage South-South cooperation for development,” said Consuelo Vidal, UN Resident Coordinator, and UNDP Resident Coordinator in Honduras.
The Honduran delegation at the ceremony included: Mr. Miguel Antonio Zúniga, Secretary of Development and Social Inclusion; Doctor Delia Rivas, Secretary of Health; Ambassador Mary Elizabeth Flores, Permanent Representative of Honduras to the United Nations; Ambassador Alejandro Palma Cerca, Deputy Permanent Representative of Honduras to the United Nations; Mr. Efrain Corea, Presidential Director of Strategic Planning; Mr. Luis López Palma, Presidential Director of Results Management; Clara Sierra, Director of Multilateral Cooperation, Secretariat of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation; Yolannie Cerrato, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Honduras to the United Nations; and Fadua Ortez, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Honduras to the United Nations.
Mr. Lenni Montiel, Deputy Director, UNDP Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Carribean, was also present.
Special guests from the private sector present included Mrs. Pamela Molina, President Fundación AGROLIBANO, and Mr. José Roberto Leiva, Executive Director FUNDAHRSE.
For more information, or to schedule media interviews, please contact: Mr. Mithre J. Sandrasagra, United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (mithre.sandrasagra@undp.org + 1 212 906 5493).
