Bangkok--25 Oct--UNIS Bangkok Reaffirming their commitment to work together to enhance the impact ofUnited Nations development activities, the United Nations RegionalCommissions and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) todaysigned a Cooperation Framework at UNDP Headquarters in New York. The Cooperation Framework is intended to build on the complementaritiesbetween the work of the five Regional Commissions and UNDP. The RegionalCommissions and UNDP have agreed to collaborate, coordinate and complementeach other in assisting Member States achieve the Millennium DevelopmentGoals and other internationally agreed development goals. They also commit to sharing knowledge on policy development issues,programmes, and emerging priorities to support sustainable humandevelopment; and to address issues likely to benefit from regional ormulti-country involvement. Using their comparative strengths, the Regional Commissions and UNDP willwork together to encourage organizational effectiveness at the global andregional level and also, where relevant, at the national and local levels.Joint collaboration is expected to focus on a number of areas, includinghuman resources development; country-level planning processes; follow-up toUnited Nations Summits and international conferences; regionalcoordination; knowledge management; regional and inter-regional technicalcooperation; advisory services at the country level; and joint products andinitiatives at the regional and global levels. The five Regional Commissions are: the Economic Commission for Africa(ECA), the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), the Economic Commissionfor Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Economic and SocialCommission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and the Economic and SocialCommission for Western Asia (ESCWA). Signing the agreement on behalf ofESCAP was Ms Noeleen Heyzer, the Executive Secretary. Upon the signing of the new agreement, Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, ExecutiveSecretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, and current Coordinator ofthe Regional Commissions, stressed that the implementation of theCooperation Framework, through channeling the comparative strengths andcapacities of the Regional Commissions and UNDP, should result in moreeffective and efficient support and service delivery to the developingcountries in the various regions and to UN country development work. Thisshould also foster more coherence in UN development work at the country,regional and global levels. Mr. Kemal Dervi?, UNDP Administrator and Chair of the Untied NationsDevelopment Group, emphasized that strong partnerships are critical to theprovision of quality development services and expressed confidence that thenew Cooperation Framework will mark a new stage in this partnership forresults. He also pledged UNDP’s continuing support to building a moreresponsive and effective Untied Nations at the country and regional levels.