UNDP Resident Representative in the Netherlands Antilles to highlight the MDGs

Dr. Marcia de Castro, the UNDP representative for Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles arrived in Willemstad, Curacao on May 30 as part of a three-day official mission. Mrs. De Castro met with the Governor, Prime Minister, Commissioner Zita Jesus Leito of Constitutional Affairs with a number of other Central Government Officials, held press interviews with the Amigoe and Extra media houses and discussions with policy makers and practitioners from the University of the Netherlands Antilles, civil society and eminent persons.

Figure 1: (from left to right) Ms. Jamila Romero – project manager for the Cap Dev project; the Prime Minister Mrs. Emily de Jongh - Elhage, Dr. Marcia de Castro, and Mr. Ralph James

During her visit, Mrs. De Castro delivered speeches at the first ever United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) campaign workshop and public lecture in Curacao. The sensitization workshop included 25 representatives from line departments, civil society, private sector, development sector and academic community from the Islands of Bonaire and Curacao. The workshop was to create awareness and encourage commitment to the achievement of the MDGs in the Netherlands Antilles – eight internationally-agreed goals to alleviate poverty - and is part of the global UN MDGs campaign in preparation for the world leaders’ MDGs summit in September, in New York. The workshop participants will form part of a support team for the MDG diagnostic review and reporting in August this year. She also opened a public lecture 100 men, women and youth from the University, NGO community, Chamber of Commerce, media and interested individuals.

Mrs. De Castro was in the NA as part of the monitoring of the ‘Capacity Development for Nation Building of the Netherlands Antilles Project’ 2009-2010, a partnership agreement between the Government of the NA and UNDP. The project aims to enhance national and local capacities of senior public servants to manage the constitutional change process, preparing them for new responsibilities of negotiating with multilateral organizations, assist to assess the development status of the new countries and develop tools and capacity for data management particularly as related to planning, monitoring, reporting and evaluating the MDGs and related national development priorities in a transparent and inclusive way. The project outputs include the establishment of an MDG Team Group, production of an MDG Report, set up of development information database (DEVINFO), set up of digitalized archive and organization of five capacity development workshops on the themes of change management, MDGs, multilateral partnership development. For more information, please contact Project Manager Mrs. Jamila Romero, Senior Policy Advisor, Department for Development Cooperation (email: jamila.romero@gov.an), Mrs. Okama Brook, UNDP Liaison Officer (email: okama.brook@undp.org.tt), telephone +5999 461 1866 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              +5999 461 1866      end_of_the_skype_highlighting ext 129.