Tags
The New United Nations Capital Development Fund Executive Secretary, Judith Karl, will be in Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania for her first official visit which will start on 11 September 2014 and will end on 19 September 2014.
Ms. Judith Karl, appointed by the UNDP Administrator Ms. Helen Clark on 10 July 2014, has joined UNCDF – the UN’s capital investment agency that promotes economic development and inclusive growth in the least developed countries – on 1 August 2014.
The new Executive Secretary will hold bilateral meetings with senior government authorities and stakeholders, including development partners, civil society organizations and academia institutions to exchange views on issues ranging from strengthening financial sectors and public financial management and delivery of basic social and infrastructure services, the post 2015 agenda and progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, all of which constitute core elements of UNCDF’s focus in the three countries.
She will visit some inspiring UNCDF’s flagship programmes, including MicroLead – an initiative supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Mastercard Foundation and the Livelihoods and Food Security Trust Fund (LIFT) to increase access to financial services by supporting the expansion of microfinance savings-led market leaders in underserved countries – and YouthStart – a programme in partnerships with The Mastercard Foundation to increase access to financial services for low-income youth in sub-Saharan Africa.
Ms. Karl will also interact with media to announce new upcoming UNCDF’s initiatives, such as CleanStart Connect 2014 – an annual UNCDF event that, on 29-31 October in Addis Ababa, will bring together leading energy and financial service providers, investors, policy makers and development partners to advance practical solutions to reducing energy poverty– and the launch of the Local Finance Initiative (LFI) in Tanzania, a programme to unlock flow of domestic capital to finance local projects needed to promote inclusive local economic development.