Ambassador Rabab Fatima, Bangladesh's permanent represen-tative to the United Nations, has been elected vice president of the UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS executive board at the elections held in New York yesterday.

The ambassador of Bulgaria was elected president of the board, while the other vice presidents are ambassadors of the Netherlands and Gambia.

"This will enable Bangladesh to work closely with other board members and the leaderships of these three vital UN organs and provide them strategic guidance to their work," said a statement by the Bangladesh Permanent Mission to the UN. 

The UNDP, UNFPA  and UNOPS have specific mandates to advance UN's development agenda in the field level. UNDP is the largest UN agency with primary focus on poverty alleviation and sustainable development. The UNFPA covers population and family planning issues, while UNOPS works in cross-cutting areas across peace, development and humanitarian matters.

In her address at the first meeting of the newly-elected executive board, Ambassador Fatima thanked the board members for their support and confidence in Bangladesh's ability to contribute to the work of these important UN agencies.

She assured them of her delegation's full support to their work, especially now in their efforts to build back better from the Covid-19 pandemic.

This election comes as a demonstration of the trust and confidence that Bangladesh enjoys due to her strong legacy of working together with the UN entities and their executive boards for implementation of the global development agenda under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Ambassador Fatima presently also serves as the president of Unicef executive board.