In a bid to support United Nations' (UN) efforts to combat global challenges, Qatar has pledged an amount of $62.78 million in voluntary contributions to several UN agencies, departments, and programs in 2020.

The decision reflects the utmost importance Qatar places on cementing its partnership with the UN system to address some of the most pressing concerns around the world. 

Her Excellency the Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations, ambassador Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani announced this at the UN Pledging Conference for Development Activities held at the UN headquarters in New York.

HE Sheikha Alya explained that contributions to core resources would be distributed among several UN offices, as follows:

- $15 million would be allocated to the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism

- $10 million to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

- $8 million to UNRWA

- $8 million to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 

- $5 million will go to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Qatar pledges $62.780 million in voluntary contributions to core resources of a number of UN agencies, departments and programs in 2020, emphasising that the State attaches great importance to strengthening its partnership with the UN system to meet common global challenges. #QNA pic.twitter.com/x3sn3rPxtv

— Qatar News Agency (@QNAEnglish) November 14, 2019

 

Other contributions will include:

- $4 million to Unicef

- $1 million to the UN Office High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

- $1 million to the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF)

- $1 million to the UN Trust Fund for Resident Coordinator system

- $5 million to Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict

- $5 million to the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth

Other voluntary contributions would amount to $5 million for the digitization of United Nations documents, as well as $250,000 to support the organization of the International Symposium on Youth Participation in Mediation Processes in December 2020 to be held in Doha. The conference will mark the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Youth Peace and Security Agenda.

Furthermore, $30,000 would be allocated to the UN Voluntary Trust Fund on Combat Contemporary Forms.

HE Sheikha Alya stressed that Qatar seeks to improve the ability of the UN to respond quickly and consistently to the millions of people in need in different parts of the world.

She reiterated Qatar's keenness to help bolster the UN's development system to better serve the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

She also mentioned that Qatar's support to the UN amounted to $500 million in 2018, noting that the country is one of the largest partners supporting the UN in various fields.

Meanwhile, delivering a statement at a meeting on the development of LDCs and to follow up the implementation of the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA) for the decade 2011-2020, Sheikha Alya reiterated Qatar's commitment to supporting development efforts for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and assisting them in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

She expressed Qatar's offer to host the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries in March 2021, stressing that this echoes the country's commitment to ensure prosperity for all.

The conference also reflects a sense of solidarity to ensure the economic, sustainable and inclusive growth of LDCs, which would have positive repercussions on the global economic landscape, she added.

 

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Cover Image Credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs