Finance
The UN Resident Coordinator in India, Shombi Sharp who was on a visit to Odisha, met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at Naveen Niwas and discussed Odisha’s development path and the partnership with UN agencies.
He brought up the UN agencies’ long-standing and productive collaboration with the Odisha government.
Additionally, Shombi Sharp commended the State government’s efforts to increase the human development indicators. Sharp recognized the government’s responsibility in disaster relief.
One of the States most vulnerable to natural disasters is Odisha, which was severely damaged by a super cyclone in 1999. However, upon taking office, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik made disaster management a top priority and fortified the State’s community-led mechanisms. Odisha is now acknowledged as a pioneering state in the field of disaster management. The CM was recognized by the UN in 2013 for her management of Cyclone Phailin in 2019.
The New York Times carried a front page article on Odisha’s handling of the Cyclone Fani and asked nations to learn from Odisha.
Sharp hailed the achievements of Odisha in food security. He mentioned about Odish’s Millet Mission and how Odisha has shown the way for India and even the World. 2023 was declared by UN as the International Year of the Millets.
When it came to implementing the National Food Security Act, Odisha was ranked first. Once recognized for its high rate of famine, the state is now a major food surplus state and one of the leading suppliers of food grains to the federal government. Owing to Naveen Patnaik’s pro-poor initiatives, Odisha boasts a vast food security network to guarantee that its citizens are consuming enough nutrient-dense food.
Odisha even runs the Aahar centers across the State, where the cooked-food is served at Rs 5. Odisha was the pioneer state in advocating and supporting the local millets which are the staple food of the local communities. These environmentally sustainable efforts have been emulated at the national and international level. Odisha’s Millet Mission has received accolades from across the globe for its innovative and inclusive initiatives. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was invited to the World Food Program (WFP) Headquarters in 2022 to share the experience of Odisha in Food Security.
Sharp also talked about the state’s implications of 5T Governance. Transparency, Technology, Teamwork, Time, and Transformation, or 5T, are the tenets that have guided the State’s expedited governance since 2019. Odisha’s growth trajectory has accelerated due to the transformative influence of the 5T Governance framework throughout the state.
CM Patnaik thanked Shombi Sharp for his visit to Odisha. According to Patnaik, Odisha would keep collaborating with UN agencies in a number of areas in order to introduce the best practices from around the globe to the State.
