RDT-LAC
From UN Coherence Country Wiki
6 October, 2008
Dear LAC Regional Director colleagues,
A bit overdue, but here come some encouraging news and actions on the UN Hub in Panama.
Before we proceed with our joint update, there is a specific action point requested from all of you in relation to your Deputy Executive Directors and exploring the possibility of them being in Panama on 20 October to meet the Vice-President of Panama and for him to present advance notice to them on the offer Panama is making to the UN as regards terms and conditions the Government is offering to Regional Offices for their establishment. Furthermore, they will have the opportunity to visit the buildings made available by the Government of Panama to the UN LAC Regional Offices, be updated on progress made and on the plans ahead, seeking their support with advocacy at HQs level in terms of the procedural and legal issues ahead, as well as seek their advice on all above. More details below.
1. Status on negotiations with the First Vice President of Panama on the LAC UN Framework Agreement and the LAC UN Regional Hub
In a meeting held by the undersigned and other RDs and their representatives with the First Vice-President of Panama on 24 October in New York, we updated the First Vice-President, Samuel Lewis, of the progress made on the RDT side and suggested action points on which progress was needed: This meeting was preceeded by a sequence of meetings held by Marcela and Nils with high-level officials and the Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Salient points:
i. We reported that agreement in the Regional Directors Team (RDT) had been reached that UNOPS manage the refurbishment of the Joint UN Hub premises, with a Steering Committee within the RDT providing guidance to UNOPS and reporting back to the RDT.
ii. In addition to the contributions of Panama and Qatar towards the refurbishing of the main Hub building, Norway has confirmed their contribution of one million USD and negotiations were to take place with Spain to realize their commitment of two million USD. The VP offered to raise this with Spain and other potential contributors keen on UN "Delivering as One" initiatives in support of our efforts. He recommended this be raised also with UK Junior Minister Lord Mark Malloch Brown. We confirmed that UNEP has included the LAC UN Regional Hub to be priority for investment in "green UN" facilities. In this context we reinforced that the initiative of making the "City of Knowledge" a model green city as source of knowledge and practice in green and carbon neutral environment, as example for the whole of LAC, not just be a City of Knowledge position, but a State policy and a requirement on the part of Panama on the management of City of Knowledge.
iii. We raised the need for further progress on the part of the Government of Panama on the offer of the State of Panama to the UN on the terms and conditions of the LAC Regional Office Joint Hub. The Government is negotiating with the City of Knowledge Board and Management, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had mentioned earlier their hope to finalize these negotiations by early November. We recommended that an advance presentation of this be made on 20 October to UN Agency Deputy Executive Directors coming to Panama, and for the Vice-President to communicate this to them. The VP confirmed his willingness to expedite negotiations so as to be in a position to make such advance notification to the Deputy Executive Directors present on that occasion.
iv. In November 2007, we shared a Zero Draft on a possible Framework Agreement between the Government of Panama and the terms and conditions applying to UN Regional Offices and their staff with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Due to various changes in the Ministry, this got sort of "forgotten" for a while. We share below a copy in Spanish of this Zero Draft of last year. We will arrange for a translation to english shortly. The key to submit the draft to initiate the internal clearance process with the legal advice sections of UN Agencies and the UN Office for Legal Affairs, is the paragraph the Government of Panama needs to provide to us on the terms for the UN LAC Joint Regional Hub, we informed the VP. The VP committed to expedite this and suggested we use as a working date 5 December 2008 for signing this agreement. We agreed to use this as a notional objective, with the caveats of the intricacies of the legal review processes. However, as the draft was based on established UN Convention on Immunities, etc, we hoped we would be able to fast-track this. The UNFPA Legal Advice Office has offered to update this draft and facilitate a priority management of the clearance process with the UN Agency Legal Advisors and UN Office of Legal Affairs. We mentioned to the VP that an early response and offer from the Government, would increase the possibility of meeting the target date.
Borrador Acuerdo Marco
v. The VP raised the need to move with the refurbishment. We mentioned that we had considered dividing the work into phases, starting with the preparation of the design, detailed estimates and tender documents, while securing additional funds for the refurbishment phase. We raised the need for the change in the terms of the agreement between Panama and UNDP as holder of the funds in trust, so that UNOPS could start this first phase, and the VP expressed willingness to do so.
2. Internal RDT arrangements
i. UNOPS has prepared a draft understanding between us, the RDT members, for your early review.
Letter of interests of UN agencies
ii. All interested agencies to reconfirm their commitment to being part of the UN Hub, provide estimates on numbers of staff and approximate office space needed. The maintenance and services fee will be worked out on the basis of number of staff and space utilized basis.
iii. The RDT Hub Steering Committee, established at the RDT meeting in Suriname, will be convened soonest by Maria-Noel Vaeza, Marcela Suazo, Beat Rohr and Nils Kastberg, in consultation with the members of this Committee.
3. Meeting 20 October on the UN Hub between Deputy Executive Directors and Panama First Vice President
The Deputy Executive Directors of UNICEF and UNFPA, Hilde Johnson and Mari Simonen respectively, have expressed their willingness to participate in this meeting in Panama on 20 October. This would provide an opportunity for the Vice-President to present advance notice at the DED level on the offer the Government of Panama is making to the UN as regards terms and conditions to Regional Offices for their establishment. Furthermore, they will have the opportunity to visit the buildings made available by the Government of Panama to the UN LAC Regional Offices, be updated on progress made and on the plans ahead, seeking their support with advocacy at HQs level in terms of the procedural and legal issues ahead, as well as seek their advice on all above.
The tentative schedule is as follows:
11:00 - 13:00 Regional Directors present with UN Deputy Executive Directors
13:00 - 14:00 Working lunch with First Vice-President Samuel Lewis. Presentation of Panama offer to the UN.
14:00 - 14:30 Visit to UN Hub main building.
18:30 UN inter-agency reception with Government
The remaining times are free for the own agency commitments.
Please let us know those RDs able to make it, and those Deputy Executive Directors willing and able to join this important step in the way towards strengthening our joint presence.
Warm regards,
Marcela Suazo and Nils Kastberg
