Together we can make a difference

The crises that emerged during 2008, stemming from extreme volatilities in the global fuel, food and financial markets, have sharpened the focus on the economic and social vulnerability of people in all nations, but of those in the poorest countries in particular. To these, the daunting challenge of climate change must be added. At a time when, according to the United Nations Millennium Goals Report 2008, we finally observed an emerging downward trend in poverty around the world, this situation poses the greatest challenge to our common welfare for some decades.

UNIDO has not been standing still in the face of these new threats. Our response has been to make every effort to encourage the growth of industry in the fight against poverty. The core of UNIDO's mandate, which is to advance sustainable industrial development and international industrial cooperation, has now assumed an even greater urgency than heretofore.

We must face these threats together. We saw welcome strides towards a United Nations system that is at last beginning to Deliver as One. UNIDO's commitment to inter-agency collaboration and coherence continues, among other things, in our integral role within the United Nations System Chief Executive Board (CEB), in our active participation in United Nations Country Teams (UNCTs) and through my own continuing chairmanship of UN-Energy.

I fervently believe that economic growth and the fight against climate change should not just proceed hand in hand; they are two parts of the same whole. Again, effective international cooperation must be the cornerstone of renewal. Over the last years, UNIDO brought its expertise to bear on matters such as industrial pollution, green energy and industry, and technology transfer, in a number of forums, including COP14 in Poznan and soon at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

Four years ago already, in my first statement to the Industrial Development Board (IDB), I highlighted the importance of partnerships and underlined how essential inspiration and motivation are to jointly face all challenges. Today, I continue to firmly believe that, together, we can make a difference, as long as we remember that it is always about people, and never about abstract concepts.

Dr. Kandeh K. Yumkella