15 October 2008

Jakarta, Indonesia: UNV will play a major part in a new initiative in Indonesia, working alongside the Government and nine UN partners in the fight against poverty.

An agreement was signed in Jakarta on 8 October 2008 to bring together UN agencies in the joint programme 'Improving the human development in Belu District, East Nusa Tenggarra Province'. The initiative was developed in close cooperation with the district, provincial and central Government and will continue until 2010.

East Nusa Tenggarra is in the western part of Timor island, neighbouring Timor-Leste. According to the UN programme document it is one of the poorest parts of Indonesia, and 63 percent of the population live below the poverty line.
The 'Improving sustainable livelihoods' aspect of the joint programme, in which UNV and five other UN agencies are involved, will help people work their way out of poverty through skills transfers and sharing good practices, while acknowledging and utilizing traditional knowledge.

Local people will be mobilized to voluntarily take part in their own development projects: examples include training in agricultural techniques and the better use of natural resources to mitigate the effects of climate change. UNV will recruit new national UNV volunteers to support these efforts.

Part of the programme mandate is to ensure gender equality, and the UNV volunteers will work within communities to ensure the full involvement of women in the programme. "UNV will encourage civic engagement in all the areas the joint programme covers," remarked Stefania Sini, the current UNV Programme Officer in Indonesia. "That's the strength that we bring.”

Not only are UNV volunteers going to work on the project at the field level, but at the central level too. A national UNV volunteer was recently recruited to assist the UNDP Joint Programme Manager in the region, and the UNV Indonesia Programme Officer will also be part of the programme steering committee, providing advice and guidance and coordinating with UN partners.

The 'Improving sustainable livelihoods' part of the joint programme involves UNV working alongside UNDP, the World Food Programme (WFP), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). In addition to these, other partners within the overall East Nusa Tenggara programme are the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The United Nations Resident Coordinator in Indonesia, El-Mostafa Benlamlih, said: "This programme - on a very practical level – brings together what each of the UN organizations can contribute to development and shows how we can maximize our impact by combining our strengths."

Experience with the joint initiative in Belu may be used in other districts in the future. The UN has identified several more regions, among them Nusa Tenggara Timur, Aceh and Papua, and planning is underway with UNV participation.