Promoting UNs development work, Norwegian Crown Prince visits Burundi
BUJUMBURA, 30 October: Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Tuesday began a four-day visit to Burundi as part of his work to promote global antipoverty targets.
– I am here to learn more about your successes here, abut what you have achieved after the conflict, he said upon touching down in the Great Lakes region nation.
– I am most of all interested in meeting Burundian people and in learning more about how people live here, their hopes and dreams, their aspirations, the Crown Prince added.
His main objective as UNDP Goodwill Ambassador, a position he has held since 2003, is to promote the Millennium Development Goals – eight targets to slash a host of social ills by 2015 – and he is scheduled to visit several humanitarian and development projects aiming to help vulnerable groups.
His programme includes stops at the Stamm Foundation, a national NGO and partner of the UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF), which seeks to provide humanitarian assistance and vocational training to orphans and street children, as well as a UN Educational, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) schooling project for street children.
The Goodwill Ambassador will also visit the “Caisse cooperative d’épargne et de credit mutual,” a microcredit project focusing on low-income women, and will attend a theatrical event to curb sexual violence.
In the south-eastern Ghiaro district bordering Tanzania, he will make a stop at the Mukazye seed centre, which is part of a UNDP reintegration and rehabilitation programme for war victims and aims to reduce poverty.
As Goodwill Ambassador, the Crown Prince has also visited Guatemala, Tanzania, Cambodia and Sierra Leone.
Kilde: FNs nyhedstjeneste
