LITHUANIA MAKES PLEDGES TO UN DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
First time participant at the UN Pledging Conference, Lithuania has informed of the recent pledges made to UN Women, United Nations Office for the Coordination of the Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations World Food Programme, United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF.)
The 2012 United Nations Pledging Conference for the Development activities and 2012 United Nations/Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Pledging Conference for the World Food Programme gathered major donor states at the UN Headquaters on 14 November 2012.
The chairperson of the major annual UN Pledging Conferences Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaitė, Lithuanian Permanent Representative to the UN, stressed that a significant increase in a number of participating both developing and developed nations sends the right message of commitment to the developing community as the UN system prepares for the review of the implementation of MDGs, the follow-up to the outcomes of the conference on sustainable development as well as post-2015 development agenda.
“In the past five years alone Lithuania’s official development assistance increased four-fold. In line with its commitments, Lithuania is working to meet the ODA target of 0.33 percent of GNI by 2015” stated Lithuanian Deputy Permanent Representative Mrs. Rita Kazragienė. She highlighted that since 2004 when Lithuania evolved into a donor the development cooperation policy had become an integral part of the Lithuanian foreign policy.
In 2011, in the aftermath of the worldwide economic and financial crisis overall ODA levels shrunk. In the meantime, Lithuania’s ODA has increased by 25 percent.
Lithuania is a candidate to fill in a non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council at the election held in October 2013.
