By Juma Kwayera http://standardmedia.co.ke
After years of lobbying under the strain of political and security concerns, Kenya has scored a major diplomatic victory after the elevation of a local United Nations facility to the highest level in the UN system.
The UN Environmental Programme (Unep), housed in Gigiri, Nairobi, has been upgraded to an assembly status. Kenya is now home to the UN Environment Assembly (Unea) and UN-Habitat, two of the many programmes linked to the system.
Six others are headquartered in New York, USA, two in Switzerland and the others in Germany, Italy and the Gaza Strip (Palestinian territory). The change from Unep to Unea means Nairobi will soon be hosting heads of states from all over the world when they attend the global organisation’s assembly meetings, instead of travelling to New York.
Prior to the upgrade, only 54 countries were represented at Unep. However, the number is set to soar to 193. According Kenya’s former envoy to Somalia Mohammed Affey, this will mean increased demand for housing, labour and expansion of infrastructure to handle increased traffic of foreign visitors.
Premier status
Affey says the transformation gives Nairobi premier diplomatic status in the developing world that comes with adds-on such as investments and job creation.
“Politically, it places Kenya in a very strong position among developing countries,” says Affey.
He adds, “The UN Summit will be coming to Nairobi for environment conferences. This will improve Kenya’s image internationally. The next President needs to take advantage of his status to market Kenya as a prime investment destination.”
Wolfgang Thome, an aviation and tourism expert, says the upgrade would have a domino effect on Kenya’s economy. In an article published in online newspaper, e-TN, Dr Thome quotes a Nairobi-based travel agent as saying: “We had a lot of negative publicity in the past. Issues of Somalia and our elections have dampened interest in travel to Kenya.
The decision by the UN is most welcome. It affirms that Nairobi is a worthy partner to the UN and a capable host city to the new Unea. They have world-class facilities at Gigiri where their headquartres is located. Our hotels are among the best in Africa, and new big hotel names are coming to Kenya all the time. Our airport is the best connected in this part of Africa.”
Ambassador Solomon Maina of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who took part in the three-year negotiations that culminated in the elevation, shares the sentiments.
Maina told The Standard On Saturday that Nairobi’s decision to incorporate environmental diplomacy in its foreign policy had a huge impact on how the rest of the world viewed Kenya.
Global climate
In addition to Africa’s absorbing the full impact of global climate change, he says it had become necessary to upgrade the status of the Unep to provide a bigger platform for articulating environmental issues more strongly and cogently.
“During the last conference in Rio de Jenairo, we had talks with other countries to mobilise support to ensure that Unep gets a regular budget and universalisation so that all 193 UN members come under Unep. Unea will have its own budget and plan its programmes assured financial support,” Maina points out.
He added that hitherto, Unep relied on donors, who sometimes disburse funding erratically. Negotiations met with resistance from Latin America, particularly Brazil. The South America’s largest economy lost out when the European Union and China rallied support for Kenya, with the backing of the G-77 countries.
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