United Nations Common Premises Inaugurated in Belize
On Friday, members of the Briceño administration, including the prime minister and other government officials, as well as the diplomatic corps, joined the United Nations in launching a U.N. common premises in Belize. The inauguration took place in Belmopan where the second floor of the David McKoy Building has been dedicated to a number of U.N. offices representing various agencies. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
The raising of the United Nations’ standard on the grounds of the David McKoy Building celebrated a historic day for the organization, as all its agencies in Belize are now located at one address in Belmopan. The UN House, as it is known, accommodates the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator, the United Nations Development Programme, the International Labor Organization, the World Food Program and the GEF Small Grants Programme. Birgit Gerstenberg is the UN Resident Coordinator to Belize and El Salvador.
Birgit Gerstenberg
Birgit Gerstenberg, UN Resident Coordinator
“In his December 2017 report, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres presented his vision and proposals to reposition the UN development system to better respond to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. He noted the code for achieving the United Nations objectives, needs to be nimble, efficient, and effective. It must focus more on delivery and less on process, more on people, and less on bureaucracy.”
The inauguration of UN House was also attended by Prime Minister John Briceno, Chief Justice Madam Louise Blenman, and other members of government. PM Briceño shared brief remarks during the ceremony, reflecting on the role of the United Nations on Belize’s road to sovereignty.
Prime Minister John Briceño
Prime Minister John Briceño
“The decision to house the UN common premises here is also a direct investment in the future generations of Belizeans. We believe that the UN played a great role in the achievement of our sovereignty and territorial integrity. It was in the halls of the United Nations that we and like-minded nations who believed in the right to self-determination stood our ground to achieve our political independence and to ensure Belize’s territorial integrity. So, for us, the United Nations is indispensable, not only in international peace and security, but equally in development, the rule of law, human rights, and the transformation of lives of states and of people.”
U.N.D.P.’s Deputy Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Linda Maguire, emphasized the significance of the opening for UN collaboration.
Prime Minister John Briceño
Linda Maguire, Deputy Regional Director, U.N.D.P.
“This is UN House because the resident coordinator is here, but also because other agencies are here. So it offers a space where we as UN can think about how to work better, how to work more efficiently, more effectively at the service of the people we serve and, you know, over time I think we‘ve seen [that] we’ve got overlapping challenges, global crises, overlapped with national challenges. We want to be better at coordination and this is the hub to help us do that.”
The move to the new UN Common Premises in September 2022, occurred during the fortieth anniversary of partnership between UNDP and the Government of Belize. Common premises are a key enabler for common services, as well as shared services between agencies and form an integral part of the United Nations efforts to harmonize common operations at the country level. Isani Cayetano for News Five.
