Mrs Gakuba paying her farewell call on President Rene at State House on Tuesday

The local United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) representative, Mrs Rose Gakuba, marked her farewell visit to Seychelles with a final call on President France Albert René on Tuesday March 30, at State House.

Accredited to Seychelles in January 2000, Mrs Gakuba described her time here as, "very enriching" and "a wonderful experience".

Mrs Gakuba leaves behind a variety of ongoing projects, including work on climate change, capacity self-assessment, the environment and HIV/Aids.

Whilst accredited to Seychelles she also moved to address the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and was instrumental in bringing together the private sector, government and societal NGOs in order to review Seychelles' progress towards meeting the MDGs.

Mrs Gakuba highlighted the restoration of cooperation between Seychelles and UNDP, following its breakdown in 1998, as one of her principal successes while in post.

At the time of Mrs Gakuba's arrival in late 1999, UNDP assistance to Seychelles had been suspended due to arrears owed to the regional office in Mauritius and Seychelles' new status as a Net Contributing Country (NCC), thanks to its UN human development index score.

During negotiations at the UN headquarters in New York Mrs Gakuba succeeded in persuading her superiors to allow arrears to be settled in rupees and for Seychelles to continue to benefit from UNDP funding, though with an amended emphasis, now focused on environmental projects, notably the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Mrs Gakuba described her one regret from her Seychelles posting as not having had adequate resources to follow up on the many ideas, and enthusiastic support which accompanied them, generated by contacts in Seychelles.

She described the work which will face her successor as a continuation of programmes already in place.

"It's a continuation, we have ongoing programmes in environment and in HIV/Aids, so my successor will pick up with the Government of Seychelles on these areas which are ongoing," she said.

After spending 19 years "in the field," Mrs Gakuba is now travelling to the UNDP offices in New York, where she will work as a senior advisor in the strategic division.

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