PM receives UN Assistant Secretary-General
– pleased with UNDP work in Guyana
DPI, Guyana, Thursday, April 4, 2019
Prime Minister and First Vice-President, Moses Nagamootoo received at his Official Residence last evening, Dr. Luis Felipe Lopez-Calva, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
The senior UN official, on a one-day visit to Guyana, was accompanied by the Guyana-born Regional Advisor, Kenroy Roach and Officer-in-Charge of UNDP’s Guyana Office, Andrea Heath-London.
During the hour-long meeting, the UN envoy briefed the Prime Minister, who is performing the functions of the President, on several programmes in which UNDP is involved in Guyana, including drafting of the Green State Development Strategy (GSDS). He expressed satisfaction with the level of collaboration between the UN agency and the Government of Guyana.
The Prime Minister, who holds ministerial responsibilities for Constitutional Reform and Parliamentary Affairs, explained the constructive role of UNDP in assisting to develop Guyana’s governance practices, and in sponsoring programmes that address some of the UN sustainable development goals.
Dr. Lopez-Calva, a Mexican-born economist, has been a former senior World Bank advisor, and the lead author of the 2017 World Development Report on “Governance and the Law”. He has also been the Chairman of the Network on Inequality and Poverty in the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association.
Country Advisor, Kenroy Roach has been coordinating youth employment programmes in some 60 countries. An economic development specialist, he is a PhD Fellow at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands.
Also at the meeting was Tondicka Austin, UNDP desk officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.