Opening Session of the Club de Madrid Annual Policy Dialogue
Welcome Remarks by Mrs. Zainab Hawa Bangura
Under-Secretary-General and Director-General
of the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON)
at the Opening Session of the Club de Madrid Annual Policy Dialogue
Thursday, 03 April 2025 - 09:00 AM
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Your Excellency Mr. Danilo Türk, Former President of Slovenia and President of the Club de Madrid,
Your Excellency Honourable Aden Duale, Cabinet Secretary for Health for the Republic of Kenya and Chief Guest,
Your Excellency Dr. Abraham Korir Sing’oei, Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs of the Republic of Kenya,
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Good morning and Karibuni Nairobi! On behalf of the United Nations family in Kenya, it is my distinct pleasure to welcome you all to the heart of UN operations in Africa and the only UN headquarters in Africa and the Global South, the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON)! Our luscious, green, biodiverse, peaceful 140-acre campus is the perfect backdrop for fruitful discussions on critical matters that affect our planet – you could not have chosen a better venue!
UNON’s mandate is primarily one of global service delivery. As you all know, we are host to the global headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and an increasing number of sister UN agencies, funds and programmes that are moving components of their global operations to Nairobi in order to bring them closer to the field progammes they support, as well as take advantage of our first-class world services at third-world costs – a win-win if you ask me!
UNON also provides administrative and conference service support to UNEP, UN-Habitat, the Resident Coordinator System and other UN offices in 166 countries around the world. Trailblazers in our own right, we are the first pilot of the UN Secretary-General’s Efficiency Agenda in the successful implementation of the Kenya Common Back Office (CBO).
In spite of very limited resources and multiple unprecedented challenges, our drive to be the best and serve humanity better has never been stronger. 100 acres of the land we stand on today was first gifted to UNEP (300 staff) by the visionary first President of Kenya Mzee Jomo Kenyatta in 1975. 3 years later, his successor, President Arap Moi added 40 acres to the gift at the onset of UN-Habitat in 1978 with 30 staff, for a total of 330 staff on this compound. Today, as the UN Designated Official in Kenya, I oversee a total of approximately 20,000 personnel and UN assets, including 6500 staff from 86 UN offices, 11000 dependents and approximately 3000 transient staff who work in non-family duty stations in the region but who come to Kenya as their home base for rest and recuperation, to visit their families residing here. This number does not include members of the World Bank and IMF, whom we also cover for security purposes only. The impressive UN presence in Kenya would all not be possible without the strong support of and close collaboration with the host government of the Republic of Kenya, on multiple levels.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today, Nairobi, headquarters to UNEP, is recognized as the seat of global environmental multilateralism. The United Nations Secretariat on its part, noting the critical presence of UNON as the only UN global headquarter office in Africa and the global south, is undertaking its largest capital investment of a total of almost US$340m in any single UN duty station outside of peacekeeping in Africa, through UNON’s two key capital projects:
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The A-J renovation and new office building project tagged at USD 66 million being completed in 2025; and
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The conference centre upgrade project including the construction of a new state of the art Assembly Hall estimated at USD 265.7 million. This project will see the construction of the only and first Assembly Hall built in Africa since the ones built in Geneva in 1936 under the League of Nations and at the UN Headquarters in New York built in 1946 respectively.
The conference centre upgrade project is currently underway at the design phase and is expected to be completed in 2030, after which should member states so decide and call upon Kenya, our UNON Gigiri compound could host the UN General Assembly! This speaks to the power of vision and transformation!
As host to UNEP global headquarters, UNON is walking the talk of environmental sustainability, with a number of initiatives underway. For instance, not only are we the first and only UN headquarter office to have attained the ISO 14001:2015 certification for environmental management systems since 2023, we are also targeting for our Gigiri complex to be substantially net zero by 2030.
Talking about environmental sustainability, climate change is one of the most pressing issues in the context of sustainable development today. The urgency of this crisis demands immediate action and countries, especially those most vulnerable to climate change, need access to financial and other resources that can help them mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change through mechanisms that are robust, transparent, scalable and accessible to all nations.
The concept of sustainable development is not just about protecting the environment or addressing social inequalities. It is about ensuring that present and future generations have the opportunity to live healthy, prosperous, and fulfilling lives. Achieving this balance requires the mobilization of resources, not just in terms of financial capital, but also in knowledge, innovation, equality and international cooperation.
The Club de Madrid Annual Policy Dialogue on Financing for Sustainable Development presents a unique opportunity to discuss and collaborate on sustainable solutions to the planet’s most pressing issues and reinforce a whole-of-society approach to leave no one behind. Faced with increasing challenges such as climate change, poverty, inequality, economic instability and an increase in conflicts around the world that threaten to erode human dignity and global peace, there was never a better time to explore and discuss the crucial issue of financing the future we all want. One of the key messages of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is that financing for sustainable development is not optional - it is an imperative. And international cooperation and engagement are vital for their success. On UNON’s part, we are simply honoured that some of these discussions are taking place on our very own soil at the Gigiri complex.
We trust your discussions over the next couple of days would consider avenues to deepening efforts to mobilize resources and strengthen international cooperation, using finance as a tool to drive positive, sustainable change towards building a future that is prosperous, equitable, resilient for the benefit of all and not just the purview of a privileged few.
We wish you very fruitful deliberations and take the opportunity once more to say Karibuni UNON! Thank you.