India criticises UNDP for ignoring developing countries

India has criticised the UN Development Programme for ignoring concerns of developing countries, saying "deliberate neglect" by the UN body towards views of developing nations does not augur well for the future of the implementation of the 2030 development agenda.
"The way in which UNDP, which remains primarily a development agency, has chosen to ignore the concerns of its primary constituents, i.E. Developing countries, does not augur well for the future of the implementation of the Agenda 2030," Counsellor in the Permanent Mission of India to the UN Prakash Gupta said at the Second Regular Session of the Executive Board of UNDP here yesterday.

He said developing countries look up to UNDP with immense hope and aspirations to make sure that their common development objectives are fulfilled.
"This continuing, consistent and deliberate neglect by UNDP Management towards views of developing countries is not leading to a desirable situation and needs to be addressed sooner than later.
"We hope that UNDP will take necessary steps to ensure that its increasing perception of being against developing country interests is corrected at the earliest," he added.
Gupta said that since the last year's June Session in Geneva, the Group of 77 and China has sent three official submissions to the UNDP and not one of the requests has been acted upon.

"It is therefore most unfortunate that even on the question of scheduling sessions in Geneva, another issue that could well have been decided in the previous Board, or even this one, the Group is being forced to move for a decision in the UN General Assembly later next week," he said.

He said India along with G-77 has been requesting for deletion of just three indicators from a set of 100 in the integrated Results and Resources Framework since the last one year, but while thirty others have been pruned by UNDP Management, those three remain un-altered.
He said for India, and for the entire developing world, the vision for the future cannot but have the eradication of poverty as its overarching goal.

"We are gratified that there has been no compromise on the ambition of the Agenda 2030 either. Its fulfillment, in our view, can allow poverty to be eradicated within the span of a single generation," he said.