Jane Feehan, EIB’s Head of Regional Representation, visited the UNDP Country Office and met the UNDP Country Office team. Benoît Cambier, EIB’s Investment Officer from Luxembourg, also participated virtually. During the meeting, UNDP and EIB discussed areas of bilateral interest for development effectiveness.

Tjark Marten Egenhoff, UNDP’s Resident Representative, explained how UNDP Guiné-Bissau uses a portfolio approach to address developmental challenges in the country. He noted that, UNDP is currently working on the transitioning from UNIOGBIS for peacebuilding alongside implementing the development agenda including governance and rule of law, sustainable development, economy, and strategic support. He further noted that UNDP is seeking to partner to create ecosystems for economic development particularly on SME strengthening and the startup market.

“We are also providing support in digital transformation of health systems, justice, finance, and taxation”, he further noted.

Dr. Jose Gabriel Levy, UNDP’s Deputy Resident Representative (Programme), explained that UNDP is also working to establish a new health cluster. He said that UNDP, with the primary support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, is providing support to digitise COVID-19 testing and vaccination and inform the citizens about the pandemic through a dedicated call center. Besides this, UNDP is also establishing a state-of-the-art warehousing facility, cloud-based epidemiological surveillance, and an ambulance management system.

Also present in this meeting from the UNDP Team were Luana Natali (Head of Governance Cluster), Jihene Touil (Head of Sustainable Development Cluster), Duhitha Wijeyratne (Acting Head of Economic & Strategic Unit), and Gulfam Mustafa (Partnership & Communication Specialist).