Princess Basma joins UN Day celebrations in Amman

AMMAN — The UN country team in Jordan celebrated UN Day on Monday, commemorating the 71st anniversary of the ratification of the UN Charter.

The commemoration was held under the umbrella of the new UN Sustainable Development Partnership Framework (UNSDPF), which will be the roadmap for the UN’s work in the Kingdom for the period 2018-2022 and is aligned with Jordan’s national plans and programmes, according to a UN statement.

“The various international days which we observe as a global community at this time of the year, resonate with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,” said HRH Princess Basma, addressing the ceremony in her capacity as goodwill ambassador for UN Women and UNFPA, and honorary human development ambassador for UNDP. 

Such events aim to strengthen the momentum to push for tangible change, she said. 

“In too many parts of such a volatile region as the Arab world, the interrelationship between poverty and conflict has become a stark reality, whereby one of the consequences of the ongoing turmoil is that the percentage of people making less than $1.25 a day has increased from 4.1 per cent to 7.4 per cent,” said the princess. 

Discussing the situation of women in the region, the princess noted that early marriage is still the fate of almost three in 10 girls.

“Just imagine the ripple effect on our region if, alongside their peers — the 500 million adolescent girls living in the developing world — our girls were not only safe, healthy and educated, but empowered to draw on their inherent potential, to help break the cycle of intergenerational poverty,” she added.

In his address, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Jordan Edward Kallon said the global transformation this year “seems to match with our local transformation in Jordan”.

“In 2016, the United Nations family has been working closely with the government of Jordan to define its next partnership framework for Jordan for the years 2018 to 2022,” he said. 

Kallon, whose mandate in Jordan is about to end, noted that the Kingdom will also witness a change in UN leadership by the end of the year.

As part of the UN country team’s efforts to mark UN Day and to leverage the “high” presence of youth on social media, the team launched an Instagram competition in early October to raise awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals and the UNSDPF.

Youth were asked to send innovative pictures representing their priorities, with reference to peace and dignity, peace and justice, the planet, prosperity and partnerships.  

Princess Basma and Kallon honoured the five winners of the competition.