Bangladesh has received a special UN award for its outstanding contributions to South-South Cooperation.
UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and the UNESCAP handed over the award in Bangkok Wednesday.
The award is the recognition of its outstanding contributions to South-South Cooperation at the 40th anniversary commemoration of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for South-South Cooperation, says a foreign ministry press release.
The Outstanding Contributions Award was given by the UN to seven countries from the Asia and the Pacific including Bangladesh, India, China, Fiji, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan for their outstanding contributions to promote South-South and Triangular Cooperation.
Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UNESCAP Ambassador Saida Muna Tasneem received the award on behalf of the government in a special ceremony at the UNESCAP.
Commenting on the award Ambassador Tasneem said, “Bangladesh received the award for its pioneering role in building social innovation partnerships over the past decade through the South-South Network for Public Service Innovation.”
Tasneem highlighted more than 20 different collaborative projects that Bangladesh has shared over the past few years with 20 different countries in Asia, Pacific, Africa and Latin America under the South-South Public Service Innovation Network.
These included the Union Parishad Digital Service Centres, Digital Financial Services including B-kash, Teachers e-Portal, Social Safety Net Digital Cash Payments, Multimedia classrooms, Electronic-Government Procurement or e-GP, Portable Biometric Devices for National ID, Cyclone Preparedness through Digital Alerts and Digital Mother and Child Health Services.
The UNOSCC Regional Coordinator for Asia and Pacific Denis Nkala highly praised Bangladesh and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her sustained commitment and leadership to the South-South partnerships in advancing Public Service Delivery Innovation leveraging digital technologies.