Remarks: Launching UN Joint Presence In Nauru

Remarks By Isiye Ndombi,
UNICEF Pacific Representative, Launching UN Joint Presence
Nauru, 9 September 2010

Your Excellency, the President of Nauru, Mr. Marcus Stephen
Honorable Ministers, Honorable Members of Parliament and Senior Officials of Government,
Your Excellencies, Heads of Diplomatic Missions,
My colleagues from the UN,
Children and Young People,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very happy to be here on this great occasion when the UN family is rallying together to commit support to the strong development framework that the Government of Nauru is now championing. UNICEF was one of the UN agencies that participated in last year’s review of Nauru’s 20-year National Sustainable Development Strategy. The Review was encouraged by your government’s leadership and the country’s gains out of the ashes of a crisis in just 5 years. This shows what clarity of vision, strategic sector plans and a strong development monitoring framework can achieve.

Your Excellency, Mr. President, there is an African saying that “If you want to go quickly, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” This is true whether you are travelling on land, by sea or by air. I believe that this also true for the development journey. If we work together as the UN and the UN with other partners in a coordinated manner, we can support your government to achieve a lot more. I can confirm that we are here together with my colleagues Knut and Dirk to emphasize the oneness of the UN and the power of strong partnerships. Let’s go together.

My role here this morning is to add the voice of UNICEF and children to the development framework and focus for Nauru. About 21 years ago, on 20 November 1989, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child – currently the most widely ratified international treaty – underlining the world’s governments’ recognition of and commitment to fulfilling children’s and young people’s human rights. Nauru ratified the CRC in July 1994, confirming that the State accepted obligations to fulfill, protect, respect and promote the human rights of children.

The greatest asset Nauru has are her people; the Nauruans, particularly the Nauruan children and young people. We need to ensure that each Nauruan child is protected to survive (through better health and nutrition), that each child is enabled to learn and develop (through effective education) and that each child is protected from abuse, neglect and exploitation (through appropriate legislation, services and community actions).

The importance of this accountability reminds me, Your Excellency, to encourage the Government of Nauru to prepare and submit the initial report of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which has been overdue since 1996. I have discussed this issue with senior members of the Government and am aware of their commitment to prepare and submit the report. I have promised to provide some technical assistance to facilitate this.

I would also like to highlight three other areas which we have identified for UNICEF support:

1. We’ll work jointly with WHO and UNFPA to explore strategic inputs to assist the government of Nauru to accelerate progress towards the achievement of MDG4 and MDG5 targets.
2. We’ll work with the government and partners to strengthen your civil registry especially the component of birth registration.
3. We’ll work with the government and partners to strengthen strategies for universal primary education including the quality of learning.

We’ll continue to work with the MoH to strengthen immunization coverage against vaccine-preventable diseases across Pacific islands countries and territories including the Republic of Nauru. UNICEF procures vaccines in bulk for Pacific island countries, including Nauru, which enables them to pay significantly discounted prices. UNICEF congratulates the government for maintaining high vaccination coverage (against the childhood vaccine-preventable diseases).

As Knut has already highlighted, the UN Joint Presence we are launching today is not for its own sake. We believe that the UN Joint Presence will lead to better coherence among us but, even better, it will lead to better development results for Nauru.

Your Excellency Mr. President, as you prepare to travel for the High Level General Assembly Meeting on MDGs which will take place in New York in the next couple of weeks, our minds are already starting to focus on the roadmap after the Summit. We in the UN believe the integrity of data is foundational to good planning at the national and sub-national levels and will work closely with partners to support the Government of Nauru to carefully monitor and report on progress.

We’ll be focusing on supporting the government of Nauru to improve results, whether the indicators are on target for MDG achievement or not. Of course we need to work harder when we are off-track towards the MDGs. But even where we are on track for MDGs, there are some who are being left behind. In human rights terms, while we may be happy that 80 percent of people are having their right fulfilled, we must also ask what the goal posts are for the remaining 20 percent. We cannot sit on our laurels and enjoy partial success. Often the most needy are the ones that are reached last; the ones often marginalized and excluded from numerous other services. Having a clear vision and embarking on a good plan to invest in and to measure development requires hard work. As you are witnessing today, we pledge to join other partners like our sister agencies UNFPA and UNDP to support you.

In summary, Your Excellency Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, UNICEF is committed to work with UN and development partners to support the Government of Nauru to achieve its development objectives. We emphasize our commitment to supporting your analysis of and reporting on the implementation of the CRC. We emphasize the critical role of good data. We emphasize the importance of results for communities and families in communities and districts – at the sub-national level.

Thank for your attention.

ENDS

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