The resident coordinator of the United Nations system, Francisco Pichón, ratified the willingness to help in a digital publication about the organization’s work in this Caribbean nation.

According to him, the island’s authorities are interested in aligning the non-state sector with the priorities of the National Economic and Social Development Plan until 2030 and the goals of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

For the UN entities in the country, one of the “most widespread” areas of work currently responds to the need to provide new ventures with tools and starting knowledge.

“Promoting their financial inclusion, providing them with methodologies for their business plans, helping to connect their potential with the priorities of municipal development, are some of the topics addressed not only in the theoretical field, but also in supporting concrete initiatives,” said the official.

“We want to be part of the challenges and the solutions,” said Pichón, who valued the willingness to support economic actors for their integration into productive transformation programs and “in a business fabric that is increasingly articulated as a system, ready to be inserted” in international value chains.

We want to support, he added, the construction of an enabling policy environment in the face of limitations in access to financing, infrastructure and technology.

According to the UN representative, it is also interesting to promote contact with the best international practices to promote accelerating regulatory frameworks and inclusive businesses, with gender equality, within a context where the participation of women as partners of MSMEs is only around 24 percent.

“Capacities, resources and mandates of our Agencies, Funds and Programs are at the disposal of the country, together with national counterparts, cooperation partners and other actors possible, we intend to go further in the future,” he summarized.

UN data, he recalled, corroborate that MSMEs represent around 90 percent of companies and more than two-thirds of employment worldwide; This vindicates its capacity to generate decent work, contribute to innovative and inclusive economic growth, and support the addressing of economic, social and environmental challenges posed by the 2030 Agenda.

Within a global context marked by indicators of slow post-pandemic recovery, geopolitical conflicts and little progress on the SDG goals, adding these actors to the efforts of governments, and the public sector in general, represents an opportunity to add capabilities and resources to the priorities of sustainable development, said the expert.

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