1.Country: Republic of Cape Verde

2.Duty Station: Praia

b) Classification: BFamily

  1. Required Languages: French
  1. Languages that would be an asset: Portugueseis an important asset. So is English.
  1. Country Situation:

Cape Verde graduated in 2008 from Least Developed Country status, the second country in the world to do so. In accordance with World Bank classifications, Cape Verde is a lower middle-income country. Cape Verde has demonstrated significant development progress since independence in 1975. In 1991, the first multi-party elections were held and solid democratic institutions and systems are in place. The country's positive development progress and itsstrong and democratic governance structures have inter alia led to the fact that the country is well on track to meet the MDGs by 2015. Several targets and goals have already been met. An exceptional performance by a small insular and natural resource poor nation.

Joint Office:

In 2006, Cape Verde became host to the first ever (and todate the only) Joint Office of the then four ExCom agencies (UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA and WFP)with the working title: "Office of the United Nations Funds and Programmes". This, of course, constituted both a tremendous challenge as well as great opportunity for both Managers and staff of the Office. In addition to being Resident Coordinator, the incumbent was the accredited Representative of UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and WFP. In 2010, as a result of the country's progress against WFP graduation criteria, WFP closed its country office representation. The Joint Office used this opportunity to rebrand itself to the "Joint Office of UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF" ensuring increased clarity and visibility of the participating funds and programmes. Currently the Resident Coordinator is thus also UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF representative.

Delivering as One

Cape Verde is one of the 8 original Delivering as One (DaO) UN pilot countries (along-side Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Albania, Uruguay, Pakistan and Vietnam). Implementation of the first One UN Programme (approved in July 2008) commenced in 2009. It brought together 20 Resident and Non-Resident Agencies in a coherent operational programme. The DaO experience is guided by a Steering Committee, co-chaired by the Deputy Minister, Ministry of External Relations and the UN Resident Coordinator. It counts on the participation of the National Directorate of Planning within the Ministry of Finance, the Association of Municipalities, the NGO Platform and two UNCT members selected on a rotational basis. The second One UN Programme/UNDAF is aligned with the Government planning cycle and covers the period 2012-2016.

  1. Will there be additional coordination functions, e.g. Humanitarian Coordinator?

As mentioned above, the RC is the Resident Representative of UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF. The RC also represents around 14 non-resident agencies active in Cape Verde. Some of these have national staff in the country (UNODC, UNIDO, UNHABITAT, UNWOMEN). Resident Agencies in the traditional sense are: UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, FAO and WHO. In emergency situations (such as the 2009 Dengue epidemic), the RC has also acted as Humanitarian Coordinator.

The Resident Coordinator is Co-chair of the so called Development Partners Group (DPG), encompassing all the donors present in Cape Verde. In recent times the DPG has lost a bit of steam but it is important for the new RC incumbent to know that this coordination platform exists. Currently the Budget Support Group carries more weight but the DPG includes other important partners to Cape Verde such as the US Millennium Challenge Compact, China and Brazil. A request for the UN to have observer status in the budget support group is currently under review by members of the Budget Support Group. The Ministry of Finance has already agreed.

  1. Is the RC also the Director of UNIC?

There is no UNIC in Cape Verde.

8. Is there an SRSG or other Special Envoy of the SG assigned to the country?

No

  1. UN Funds, Programmes and Agencies (incl. Regional bodies) represented:

a)In-country:

Fullfledged representations: UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, FAO and WHO

As per above, UNODC, UNWOMEN, UNIDO and UNHabitat have national programmeofficers supporting country-level activities. They are currently members of the UNCT.

b) External, with responsibility for Cape Verde:

ILO, UNESCO, UNODC, UNIFEM, UNIDO, UNOHCHR, UNEP, UN Habitat UNAIDS, OCHA, IOM, UNCTAD, WMO, IMO, World Bank, IMF, ICAO, UNOPS, ITU, UNOWA (UN Office for West Africa), ADB (African Development Bank, Dakar Office)

  1. Inter-Agency Task Forces and/or Theme Groups operational in the country:

Joint Team on HIV-AIDS (currently chaired by the Joint Office); UN Theme Group on Human Rights and Gender (currently co-chaired by UNWOMEN and UNOHCHR); Operations Group (chaired by the Joint Office); Communications Group (chaired by the Joint Office) and an M&E Group (chaired by the Joint office)

11. Status of Development Planning Instruments:

a) Country Strategy Note (CSN): not applicable

b)Common Country Assessment (CCA):

Completed

c)Harmonization of Programme Cycles:

Completed

d)U.N. Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF):

One UN Programme II/UNDAF covering the period 2012-2016

12. Key political and socio-economic issues significant for UN System Development Assistance:

The country is an example of political stability in the West Africa region. As mentioned, the country has solid democratic structures and a tradition of democratic governance, with multi-party democracy and regular elections held over the last two decades. Since 2011, the political scenario is characterized by a PAICV led Government and a President of the Republic from the opposition party MPD. This quite unusual co-habitation has so far been successful. MPD is also presiding over 14 of the country's 22 municipalities.

The Cape Verdean Government has an ambitious transformation agenda aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the economy in order to sustain growth, create jobs and reduce poverty While the country in terms of social and human development indicators is a very positive exception in the region, youth employment, security and environmental vulnerability remain important challenges. With its fragile ecosystem, Cape Verde faces numerous challenges including shortage of natural resources and insufficient rainfall.

Despite impressive progress, Cape Verde remains a country in transition, still faced with economic vulnerabilities associated with its previous LDC status. Two key contributors to the economy, tourism and remittances, are highly dependent on the overall global financial climate.

The third critical contributor to the economy, official development assistance (ODA), has, since Cape Verde’s graduation, been on the rise, as the country has had increasing access to concessional lending. (This is shown in the 2011 Surveyon Monitoring the Paris Declaration.) ODA is expected to decrease, however, because of financial difficulties of main partners and the end of the transition period granted by donors at graduation. Given that the aid environment is evolving increasingly towards lending, and given the uncertain prospects for increased domestic resources, national ambitions for fast and equitable progress will be under increased pressure in the coming years. In addition, integration into the global economy (Cape Verde became a member of the WTO in 2008) demands increasing levels of competitiveness, for which both public and private capacities need to be further built.

Employment generation remains a key priority for the country, through both investments in public works and the development of private sector investment for job creation. Unemployment, currently at 13 per cent, has been an ongoing concern, particularly as regards youths between 15 and 24, and increasingly with regards to university graduates. Women are more affected by unemployment than men (25.5% of women are unemployed compared to 18.3% of men).

Building on its quite extraordinary achievements on all socio-economic indicators, Cape Verde is now faced with the requirement of a qualitative leap, aiming at an irreversibly positive development path within a complex global financial context. This is also the objective of the state reform process, which aims to consolidate public institutional capacity to promote growth as well as a more inclusive society, where quality and equity goals need to replace access objectives.

  1. Highlights of Collaborative UN Assistance:

The past cooperation cycle (2006-2011) had two particular characteristics. First, the four former Ex-Com agencies: UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and WFP had a Common Country Programme, the very first one of its kind. Following on this, Cape Verde asone of the eight pilot countries for the Delivering as One (DaO) initiative, adopted an all-encompassing One UNProgrammein 2008.

These experiences have set the stage for better-coordinated interventions and created opportunities for improved integration of the assistance provided by individual agencies. Following the conclusions of the country-led evaluation of the Delivering as One conducted in 2010, the second One UN Programme aims to better capitalize on the individual agencies’ comparative advantages and expertise, within a framework of joint and integrated approaches. The One UN Programme as reflected in the UNDAF 2012-2016 is based on national priorities and articulated around three levels of assistance: (i) support to human rights and gender-based macro-economic policy choices; (ii) consolidation of institutional capacities for adequate management of the country’s multiple transitions; and (iii) development of local and community capacities for direct impacts on the improvement of living conditions. UN operational activities intend to support national efforts to (i) promote inclusive growth and poverty reduction; (ii) consolidate institutions, democracy and citizenship; (iii) reduce disparities and promotion of equity; and (iv) promote environmental sustainability and climate change adaptation.

For more information please refer to UNDAF 2012-2016 and to the UNDP,UNFPA and UNICEF CCPD for the same period.

  1. Key elements of Current Year’s RC Work Plan:

UN Support to the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy paper (2012-2016); Greening of the Blue House. With support of the Regional centre for New and Renewable energy, UNDP and UNIDO are investing in the greening of the Blue UN House with US $ 65,000 and US $ 80,000 respectively. There are positive indications that the DaO Steering Committee will agree to make up the estimated financing shortfall of US $ 45,000 through the use of One UN Funds in view of the important demonstration effect that a green UN House would have. (Cape Verde has its own important green ambitions and has as goal in 2020 that 50% the country's energy use will be from new and renewable energy sources). It is hoped that FAO and WHO alsowill be able to contribute.

15. Common Premises:

All agencies are since 2009 located in a spacious, comfortable and eye-catching blue One UN House in a central and convenient location in Praia.

16. Common Services:

UN Dispensary, reception desk, telephone exchange and internet, canteen (currently non-functioning) and gym, banking, security, cleaning and maintenance of common areas of premises. For UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF all services are common as a result of the Joint Office.

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