The New Country Representative of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to Sri Lanka Christian Skoog presented his credentials to Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, on July, 5, 2021 at the Foreign Ministry.
Accepting the credentials, Minister Gunawardena recalled the UNICEF’s cooperation with Sri Lanka supporting the rights and well being of children, since the early 1950’s. Minister Gunawardena acknowledged with appreciation the outstanding work carried out by the UNICEF in Sri Lanka and particularly its efforts to seek empower, educate and enable Sri Lanka’s children to become the agents of change who drive national development into the future.
He also commended the UNICEF’s Covid-19 response and social protection. While elaborating UNICEF’s on child-centered approach which is designed to positively impact the stages of a child’s growth and development which is categorised as early childhood, middle childhood and adolescence, UNICEF Country Representative underscored that the UNICEF wishes to work closely with Sri Lanka towards the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, mainly in achieving the SDGs directly linked to children.
Minister Gunawardena expressed the hope that the on-going excellent cooperation between the Government of Sri Lanka and the UNICEF will be further strengthened during the term of the new UNICEF Country Representative.