UNFPA and UNICEF today jointly signed work plans with the Federal and Regional governments of Ethiopia. The work plans worth more than USD 10 million will be implemented in the Ethiopian Fiscal year 2012 between July 2019 and June 2020.  The work plans were signed with the Ministry of Finance and Regional Bureaus of Finance and Economic Development.

During the signing ceremony Ato Admasu Nebebe, State Minister of Finance recognized the support and strongly stated the need for its continuation to achieve the development goals and sustain the recent reforms made by the government. He stressed the need for alignment and coordination at all levels among UN agencies to increase efficiency.

On her part, Bettina Maas, Country Representative of UNFPA appreciated the strong support and direction being given by the Ministry of Finance on the bottom-up planning process of the Work Plans. She said this is critical in realizing national priorities identified in the Growth and Transformation Plan and various sectoral plans through national execution.

The work plans will be implemented in the Country Programme of UNFPA providing support to government priorities in the areas of reproductive health, adolescent and youth development, population and development, and gender equality and women’s empowerment in the framework of the UN Development Assistance Framework.

As part of the harmonization process of UN Delivering as One, the annual work plans of the two UN agencies were developed under the framework of UNDAF.

The work plans will be implemented by 22 Federal and Regional Government Implementing Partners covering 15 programme areas.