UNITED NATIONS, Nov 12: India has pledged about USD 10.95 million for development activities across several UN bodies for the year 2017.
“India has been a regular contributor to the UN since its founding. India believes that the UN should have the necessary resources to finance, in an appropriate and balanced manner, the activities and programmes of its three main pillars; Peace and security, Development and Human Rights,” First Secretary in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN Mahesh Kumar said at a Pledging Conference for Development Activities on November 7.
Kumar said as a developing country, India has its own plate full of developmental challenges that need to be addressed, but it still has always contributed to increase the availability of core resources for the development activities of the United Nations system.
India announced pledges of contribution totalling about USD 10.95 million for development activities for 2017, including USD 4.5 million for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), USD 1.92 million for the World Food Programme, USD 1.25 million for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Near East (UNRWA) and a million dollars towards UN Women.
India also pledged resources to UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the world body’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), Commission on Human Settlements Programme (HABITAT), Environment Programme (UNEP), Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and towards the Voluntary Fund for Technical Co-operation.
Kumar said India is also processing contribution for the Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery and for the Victims of Torture and UN Volunteers.
At the pledging conference, 24 countries committed to provide approximately USD 1.09 billion towards development activities. The amount represented an increase of more than of 14-fold over those commitments made in 2015. (agencies)
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