Press Release

Statement on behalf of the UN Country Team on Sierra Leone’s 62nd Independence Day anniversary.

26 April 2023

As we celebrate this special anniversary, we commend the progress made by Sierra Leone in consolidating peace and democracy.

Sierra Leoneans, Unu adu o

Me na Nadia Rasheed, the UNFPA Country Representative n the UN Resident Coordinator ad interim.

Tiday, ar bring una greetings from the 21 UN agencies, funds and programmes way de work na Salone.

I am pleased to convey my warmest congratulations, on behalf of the United Nations (UN) Country Team, to the Government and people of Sierra Leone on the country’s 62nd Independence Day Anniversary.

As we celebrate this special anniversary, we commend the progress made by Sierra Leone in consolidating peace and democracy. Sierra Leone is one of a few countries that once hosted UN Peacekeeping operations, but the country now proudly deploys its peacekeepers to other countries that need international support.

The UN continues to enjoy a strong partnership with the people of Sierra Leone based on shared values and common interests. As a Country Team, we work as ‘One UN’ with the Government and development partners to deliver sustainable development interventions for people, prosperity, planet, partnership, and peace.

Sierra Leone will hold presidential, parliamentary, and local council elections in June of this year. The UN has accompanied Sierra Leone during all post-war elections. All elections were characterized as credible by international observers, and the upcoming elections will be the second since the end of the civil war to be held without the presence of a UN peacekeeping or political mission.  

Sierra Leone has good reason to be proud of this evolution. At the same time, national institutions, political actors and all Sierra Leoneans have a great responsibility to ensure that the country remains peaceful and stable and continues to grow and prosper for the benefit of all.

            On this occasion of the country’s Independence Day, I would like to reiterate the commitment of the UN to supporting the people of Sierra Leone and national institutions in sustaining the important gains which this country has made so commendably to ensure peace and democracy.

On behalf of the UN Country Team. Let me wish all Sierra Leonean’s a very happy INDEPENDENCE DAY.

Nadia Rasheed

Resident Coordinator ad interim

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Nadia Rasheed

UNFPA
Country Representative
nrasheed@unfpa.org +23233040404
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Nadia Rasheed arrived in Sierra Leone on 16 May 2022 as UNFPA Country Representative. Before joining UNFPA, she was the UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in India. Ms. Rasheed has a wealth of management experience, including on health, gender and development issues. Prior to her last appointment in India, she was the Team Leader for the UNDP Regional Health and Development Team for Asia and the Pacific from 2014 to 2018. She also served as UNDP Deputy Country Director ad-interim in Sri Lanka in 2018. From 2009 to 2014, she was the global Practice Manager for the HIV, Health and Development Practice at UNDP Headquarters in New York. She was also, from 2005 to 2009, Global Policy Specialist on HIV in the Bureau for Development Policy at UNDP. She has represented UNDP in partnerships with other UN organisations, managed interagency programmes on gender, and provided advisory support to UN Country Teams, UNDP Country Offices and national partners. She previously worked with the UNDP Human Development Report Office and with UNDP and other organisations on capacity development and gender equality issues.

Ms. Rasheed holds an undergraduate degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and a master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University

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RCO
United Nations Resident Coordinator Office
UNFPA
United Nations Population Fund

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