The newly-appointed UNDP Resident Representative for Myanmar, Mr. Peter Batchelor presented his credentials to the Union Minister for International Cooperation U Kyaw Tin at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Naypyidaw on Thursday 28 March 2019.

Download
in Myanmar Version  

Mr. Batchelor is the first person in nearly 40 years to hold the position of UNDP Resident Representative in Myanmar without also simultaneously holding the position of UN Resident Coordinator. The delinking of the two roles - UNDP Resident Representative and UN Resident Coordinator - is a key part of the United Nations Development System reform process which was initiated in 2017 by the current UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Mr. Knut Ostby remains the UN Resident Coordinator a.i. for Myanmar.

Mr. Batchelor is a South African national and an economist by training with a PhD in economics from Cambridge University. He has more than 20 years of experience in international development and has worked in UNDP Headquarters (New York and Geneva) and in the field in Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. Previously he was UNDP Country Director in Myanmar and UNDP Resident Representative a.i. in Sri Lanka.

After the presentation of credentials, Mr. Batchelor and the Minister exchanged views on the state of cooperation between the Government of Myanmar and UNDP covering a number of topics such as peace and good governance, environmental management, rule of law, anti-corruption, and poverty reduction, as well as UNDP’s new area-based programme in Rakhine. UNDP’s Country Programme for Myanmar was approved by the UNDP Executive Board in 2018, and will run until 2022. It has two main areas of focus: i) Governance and Peace; and ii) Sustainable and Inclusive Growth (including Environment and Climate Change). UNDP works in over 170 countries and territories, and has been present in Myanmar for more than 50 years.