The Virgin Islands (VI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have agreed to extend their Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation (MOU) until November 2023, as it relates to sustainable development, COVID-19 recovery, the blue economy, and disaster risk reduction. Photo: GIS/Facebook

The VI and UNDP originally entered into a MOU on Cooperation on November 2, 2020. Photo: Facebook/File

The agreement was made between Premier and Minister of Finance, Hon Andrew A. Fahie and United Nations (UN) Assistant Secretary-General, Mr. Luis F. Lopez-Calva.

Speaking on the extension Premier Fahie said, “The Virgin Islands’ partnership with UNDP has been tremendously helpful to progressing the sustainable development of the society.”

Hon Fahie added, “In the first year we benefitted from two UNDP workshops that highlighted available UNDP assistance to the VI in the event of a natural disaster; a UNDP grant was given to one of our local small businesses participating in the UNDP FUT-Tourism, and UNDP has committed to forthcoming technical assistance in the area of Blue Economy early in 2022.”

He said the relationship will go from strength to strength in the year ahead as the territory forges ahead closer to completing the National Sustainable Development Plan.

UN partnership will unlock opportunities - Luis F. Lopez-Calva

In his letter to the Premier, the Assistant Secretary-General who is also the UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean said, “We believe this partnership can be instrumental to unlocking opportunities for the achievement of the SDGs and 2030 agenda, including mainstreaming the SDGs in national policies and plans.”

The VI and UNDP originally entered into the MOU on Cooperation on November 2, 2020.

The Assistant Secretary-General added that the UN is also committed to implementing and providing technical assistance for sectoral analysis, promotion of Blue Economy, and other relevant activities such as addressing socio-economic impacts of COVID–19 and other external shocks such as natural disasters, financial crisis or pandemics.

His representative in the Eastern Caribbean Subregion, Ms. Valerie Cliff, UNDP Resident Representative, in a statement also highlighted that there is potential for the VI and UNDP relationship to be a model partnership between SIDS and the UN.