On 17^th June 2020, the outgoing President of the United Nations General Assembly, His Excellency Tijjani Muhammed-Bande, announced the election results of the President of the General Assembly, non-Permanent members of the Security Council and members of the of the Economic and Social Council.

The elections were held simultaneously in the United Nations Headquarters, New York, General Assembly hall – entitled “Procedure for holding elections by secret ballot without a plenary meeting during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic”.

UN75 President

UN75 President – His Excellency Volkan Bozkir

Turkish Diplomat, Hon. Volkan Bozkir, was elected as the President of the 75^th session of the United Nations General Assembly on June 17^th, 2020. He was the sole candidate for the post, nominated by the government of the Republic of Turkey – receiving 178 ballots. Hon. Bozkir is expected to take office on 15^th September 2020 for a period of one year.

“I am thankful to all UN member states, for electing me with an overwhelming majority, as the President of the 75th UN General Assembly,” Bozkır said on Twitter. “As we mark the 75th anniversary of the UN, I will guide the efforts to contribute to international peace, in the challenging times we live in.”

Source: Daily Sabah https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/diplomacy/diplomat-volkan-bozkir-becomes-1st-turkish-citizen-to-be-elected-unga-president

Iconic horse shoe table of the United Nations Security Council.

Kenya wins a non-permanent seat in the Security Council

On 18^th of June 2020, the Republic of Kenya won a non-permanent seat in the Security Council. This happened during the second round of voting in the General Assembly where the country received 67 more votes than its competitor, Djibouti. Kenya will begin the 2-year tenure in January 2021, joining fellow elected members India, Ireland, Mexico, and Norway.

Endorsing the country as its flag bearer was the African Union – which Kenya thanked for this opportunity. The Republic of Kenya will now be able to contribute to the Security Council’s primary responsibility under the UN Charter – maintaining peace and security worldwide.

Tanzania supported Kenya in securing a seat at the security council through campaigning and voting for the fellow East African country, in both rounds. Furthermore, Kenya acknowledges Tanzania’s support throughout the process and especially during the second round of voting.

United Nations Economic and Social Council Chamber

Zimbabwe elected to key United Nations body

On the 17^th of June, ZIMBABWE was elected to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) cluster for a 3-year term that will begin on 1 January 2021.

The outgoing president of the UN General Assembly, His Excellency Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, announced the results after voting by secret ballot in the assembly on Wednesday.

Obtaining a position in the ECOSOC Council means that Zimbabwe will be able to participate in the everyday management of specified UN agencies, bodies, and commissions that fall under ECOSOC’s oversight purview – which extends to over 70 per cent of the human and financial resources of the entire UN system.

The other African countries that were elected to join the ECOSOC Council are Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, and Nigeria.

For the last 4 years, we have been working with the Parliamentary Group for Sustainable Development pioneering their establishment in 2018. UNA Tanzania trained the Members of Parliament in this group on the SDGs in order to deepen their knowledge and provide analytical tools to help them conduct budget analyses on how the Global Goals are reflected in national budgets.

Speaker of the National Assembly Hon. Job Ndungai (MP)

The training involved a total number of thirty three (33) Members of Parliament in which fifteen (15) were women and fifteen (15) were men. It also included three (3) parliamentary staff members of which all were women.

It is our focus to include and interact at a larger scale with decision makers since they influence and ratify the laws and budget to be passed for the good of the people, therefore the time to time training help in capacity building, and be present to “LEAVING NO ONE BEHIND’’ in the implementation of Agenda 2030.

In light of our advocacy work on the following up on the effectiveness of the Women, Youth and People with Disabilities Empowerment Funds, last month His Excellency, Dr. John Pombe Magufuli, the President of the United Republic of Tanzania as he was dissolving the parliament, highlighted that it was one of the successes during the previous three years, as 93.2 billion had been given out to women, youth and PWD’s : 4-4-2 respectively. This carries an important meaning to our work with the government through the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government Authorities (PORALG) different stock take dialogues and capacity building on the Sustainable Development Goals especially on Economic Growth and Decent Jobs #goal8 as a specificity.

On Monday 29^th June 2020, Tanzania became the first country to resume all schools and social gatherings in East Africa; following the president’s announcement while addressing the parliament in Dodoma, on the 15^th of June 2020.

The reason this measure was taken is because the president believed that there was no need for children to stop their learning, and for the public to continue enduring social and economic hardship because infection rates of the novel corona virus in the country have significantly dropped.

President of the United Republic of Tanzania – Hon. John Pombe Magufuli.

Nevertheless, Hon. John Pombe Magufuli still encouraged students and the public to follow all safety precautions outlined by the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, as well as the Ministry of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports.

These precautions include regularly washing hands with soap and running water or frequently using hand sanitizers. Social distancing by standing and sitting at least one meter apart from one another. Limiting the number of people watching live matches in sports stadiums by halving the stadium capacity. And, encouraging all elderly and people with underlying medical conditions to watch sports matches in their households.

Through the aforementioned guidelines, Tanzania is sure to rejuvenate its economy and ensure a safe and secure environment for all important activities to take place.

As a compliment to our Social Media Campaign and also a careful concern as an organization on the spread and impact of Corona virus, at a time where most of the restrictions were lifted in Tanzania, schools opening up, transportation too does not support the 1 meter precaution, and above all many people ignore the fact that Corona still exists regardless of the numbers of the infection going down and it’s high time to take precautions and save themselves and others from the spread of the virus.

The AD with a hashtag #HatukoSalamaMpakaWoteTuweSalama – meaning ‘No one is safe until we all are safe!’ aimed to reach Tanzanians of age 13 – 65+ as a target and managed to reach 280,000+ Tanzanians.