A new United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) Action Plan was launched in Accra on Friday to present a coherent vision and strategic programme, to assist the UN system to support Ghana’s development agenda.

The five year plan, dubbed: “The United Nations Development Assistance Framework Action Plan (UAP),” covers 2012- 2016.

It replaces the individual Country Programme Action Plans of the United Nations Development Project, United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Population Fund and the World Food Programme, including key programme results and implementation strategies of all the 20 UN agencies, funds and programmes operating in Ghana.

The UAP concentrates on four strategic areas, which are food security and nutrition, sustainable environment, energy and human settlements and human development and productive capacity for social services, as well as transparent and accountable governance.

Ms Ruby Sandhu-Rojon, UN Resident Coordinator, said the UAP, went beyond the traditional UNDAF, which was limited to stating strategic objectives and programme results.

“The UAP makes the UNDAF a living document that has sufficient operational details and agreements amongst UN agencies and with Government, to make the UN machinery work and deliver more relevant and sustainable development impact, as part of the wider national development agenda,” she said.

Ms Sandhu-Rojon said the UAP, did not only define what the UN would do in the next five years in the country, but also how the UN family in Ghana would collaborate and coordinate its activities to deliver jointly on 11 strategic outcomes, that would be the collective UN focus over the next five years.

She said the UAP focused on some of the major inequalities and regional disparities in Ghana, and therefore strengthened the UN country Team’s engagement in the poorest regions of the country, particularly the programmes and projects of the joint UN Office in Tamale, which cover Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.

Ms Sandhu-Rojon listed the key benefits of the new plan as increased coherence between individual agencies country programmes, transparency and accountability of UN programming based on comparative advantages and a clear division of labour between UN agencies.

Professor Newman Kusi, Special Advisor to the Minister of Finance, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, officially launched the plan on behalf of the Minister and said; the ceremony marked a milestone in the work of the UN in the country.

He said for the first time, a UN team had developed an action plan to enhance their development projects in the country.

Prof Kusi expressed the government’s gratitude for the new plan and said Ghana is determined to work hard, towards making the new plan successful.

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chris Kpodo, said it was gratifying to note that the UNDAF was based on the challenges identified in previous Ghana Common Country Assessment, and in support of national priorities and guided by the principles of the Millennium Declaration Goals.

“We therefore note with satisfaction that the UNDAF Action Plan has a strong foundation for a more efficient, effective and coherent UN system, which has the conceptual framework and operational capacity, to be a partner of choice for Ghana, in its development aspirations for years to come.”

Mr Kpodo said it was worth noting that whilst the target date for the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) would elapse in less than three years, “many countries especially in the developing world are lagging behind in those targets”.

He expressed the hope that the launch of the UNDAF and its potential positive effects on the country’s development agenda, would contribute “in relevant ways to the enhancement of our efforts towards the full attainment of the MDGs”.