The Government of Maldives and the United Nations Country Team are committed to the achievement of the 7th National Development Plan’s goals, which support the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals and the realization of the values and principles of the Millennium Declaration. The Millennium Declaration also articulates our vision of a world in which nations, communities and people join together to promote freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance and respect for the environment and each other’s political, social and cultural beliefs.

Building on the analysis contained in the United Nations Common Country Assessment, the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) identifies a specific set of development issues explicitly aligned with the Government’s 7th National Development Plan (NDP) and emphasizes joint programming between United Nations agencies to maximize the collective efficacy of the United Nations system. The UNDAF development outcomes are those selected among the extensive goals set out in the 7th NDP, and identified to be those most appropriate to the areas of focus and expertise of the United Nations agencies working in the Maldives. As the Maldives graduates from the Least Developed Country status and joins the ranks of middle-income countries, the country at the same time faces challenges such as environmental sustainability, disaster mitigation, income disparity, enhanced social equity and democratic governance. The challenge we face is to attain the outcomes set out, considering the three year period of the UNDAF and reduced resources available to the United Nations agencies as compared to the resource envelop available after the tsunami. The counter balance to this set of challenges is the Government’s strong commitment that will ensure the objectives agreed upon in this document are achieved for the people of Maldives.

We are grateful to our many colleagues in the Government, the United Nations agencies in the Maldives (resident and non-resident), other development partners who have contributed time and effort to the consultations, the UNDAF Strategic Prioritization Retreat held in September 2006, the UNDAF Joint Strategy Meeting held in December 2006, and Theme Groups that have worked to produce this Framework. Special thanks are due to the people of Maldives who took part in the community consultations that were undertaken in various locations in the country.

We view the UNDAF and the formulation process that produced it as a useful contribution to the harmonization of United Nations activities in the Maldives and our shared efforts to reaffirm the goals and values of the Millennium Declaration.