Barbados UN Resident Stephen O’Malley makes first familiarisation stop in Montserrathe United Nations Resident Coordinator for Barbados spent a day-and-a-half on October 1-2, 2013 in Montserrat, his first official stop on a swing through the sub-region.
Stephen O’Malley was speaking to the press after he had presented his credentials to Montserrat during his first visit in his capacity of UNDP (United Nations Development Program) Resident Coordinator for Barbados and the OECS countries.
He met with cabinet members and other key government staff and individuals. He visited the unsafe zone to view the devastation wrought on the southern part of the island by the Soufriere Hills Volcano. Of this visit, Mr. O’Malley said he found to be, “very impressive both in sense of what the devastation it causes for people, for property, but also I think a very historic reminder of the power of nature.”
The UNDP official reported that his visit was an effort to acquaint himself with the realities of Montserrat, “and then to start to get some ideas of how we can continue what has been a very strong partnership between the UN and Montserrat overtime.”
He said, “We have collaborated in a number of areas,” one such area located at Silver Hills, which visited where, radio repeaters, etc. with regards to disaster management. These were funded under a program that the UN Development Program ran, “where we’ve worked together for the benefit of the people of Montserrat.”
As he outlined other areas of support, he said, “Of real interest to us is this connection between energy, environment and climate change,” as he made reference to his visit to over-look Plymouth, “gives you a sense of this incredible power of nature and as we look at the data from climate change and the way that effects small island developing states whether they’re here in this region, or Asia.
The UN Coordinator spoke of ‘inequality’ an area of interest, which he said is growing in the world even with the economic rebound. “…even now under the economic rebound where we see it in other parts of the world… an unfortunate differentiation between a certain group of people who are doing quite well and others who are not benefitting as much,” continuing, “so inequality appears to us to be growing across the world and that’s something we’re very interested in,” he said.
He noted however, “this region is considered to be a middle income, these are middle income states that do quite well,” as he qualified, “certainly don’t have the pockets of extreme poverty that you find in other parts of the world…”
media reps – James White Jr. and Bennette Roach
He said the UN is working and questioning, “how can we have more inclusive growth, so not just growth that shows year on year improvements in GDP, but also that everybody particularly the less well-off are also benefiting as well.”
In rounding up on some of the UNDP areas of interest, Mr. O’Malley addressed the area of statistics. “That is something where we are really trying to help a number of the countries at the OECS to look at what more can be done in that area and particularly we have a strong interest in what we call multi-dimensional – how do we better assess the real situation of people…” he said.
The UN resident coordinator fielded efficiently, questions and comments from ZJB and The Montserrat Reporter. He recorded his appreciation and thanks to everyone for a very warm welcome to Montserrat. At the beginning as he introduced himself, he said: “Well thank you very much and thanks for the warm welcome to Montserrat,” I started my role as UN Resident Coordinator…”
