RC Opening Speech — One UN, One Purpose: Repositioning for Sustainable Development and Collective Delivery at the 2025 UNCT Annual Retreat

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to our 2025 United Nations Country Team Retreat. This gathering represents a crucial opportunity for us to collectively reflect, strategize, and reaffirm our commitment to supporting the people and Government of Sierra Leone in achieving their development aspirations.

This retreat is particularly significant as 2025 marks the first year of implementing the new United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (CF) 2025-2030, aligned with the national Medium-Term National Development Plan."

However, we must acknowledge that the global context in which we operate is undergoing significant and rapid transformations. Shifts in development financing, coupled with evolving geopolitical dynamics, present both challenges and opportunities. This necessitates a strategic review of our approaches to ensure scaling up efficiencies, re-thinking our approach to partnership , resource mobilization and joint programming.

In light of these challenges, the UN Secretary-General’s UN 2.0 and UN80 initiatives calls for enhanced efficiencies, innovative partnerships, review of mandates, and structural realignments within the UN system. 

Our discussions here will reflect on how we can domestic and adjust to these reforms while keeping our promise we made to the people of the Sierra Leone through the Cooperation Framework launched last year.

In this spirit, we have chosen a theme for this retreat that encapsulates our collective ambition: “UN's strategic repositioning in Sierra Leone: Enhancing Partnerships for Innovative Financing and Improving Internal Efficiency and Staff Well-being.”

Over the course of the three days, our discussions will aim:

• To strategically reposition the UNCT to navigate the evolving landscape and maximize our impact through innovative partnerships including South/South cooperation, and the private sector to unlock new streams of sustainable financing for development.
• To develop concrete strategies for enhancing efficiencies, promoting joint resource mobilization, and harnessing innovative financing mechanisms to drive transformative results across all our interventions. Harnessing innovative financing including but not limited to for instance:
  • Leverage private sector capital through blended finance and public-private partnerships.
  • Tap into climate and development finance mechanisms, ensuring Sierra Leone accesses its fair share; and
  • Support government efforts to improve domestic resource mobilization and financial governance.
• To critically reflect on the UN's unique added value in the current environment, ensuring that our contributions are both relevant and responsive to the needs of Sierra Leone.
• Finally, and with utmost importance, to address the well-being of our dedicated staff, ensuring that we foster a supportive and enabling environment in which they can thrive, particularly in these times of uncertainty.

During this retreat, our approach will be participatory, we will draw upon the wealth of expertise within our UN family, as well as the invaluable insights of the Government of Sierra Leone, International Funding Institutions, and the private sector.

Colleagues, this retreat is more than a meeting, it is a moment of opportunity. A chance to align our vision, sharpen our strategies that are contained in our new Cooperation Framework, and deepen our solidarity to better deliver on the commitment we made. 

I am confident that, through open dialogue, strategic thinking, and a shared sense of purpose, we will emerge from this retreat with a clear roadmap for strengthening our collective ability to deliver on our promises to the people of Sierra Leone.

Let us re-commit to a UN that is fit for purpose and fit for Sierra Leone’s future.

Let us move forward not just as agencies, but as one UN family, united in purpose and action towards better support to the government and the people of Sierra Leone.

TOGETHER, WE CAN AND WE WILL