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The UPU’s Directorate of Development and Cooperation (DCDEV) has played a key role during the global pandemic in supporting posts in developing countries tackle the virus.
Working alongside the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), DCDEV managed the logistics, purchasing and transportation of masks to postal staff in 36 least-developed countries (LDCs).
Rudy Cuadra, director of Development and Cooperation at the UPU, says, “This collaboration enabled us to recover this valuable equipment during a period of global shortage. At a time when aviation has suffered from the decline in traffic due to the pandemic, the research work to find the best way for transportation was done meticulously country by country to find a tailor-made solution.”
In December, DCDEV’s action plan for 2021 was approved by the UPU. DCDEV will now continue to focus on helping posts in developing countries cope with the Covid-19 crises. “Several posts, particularly those in developing countries, have suffered huge financial losses as a result of the discontinuation of international air transportation and are having difficulty restarting services under the current conditions,” Cuadra explains.
“To help we will disseminate a Pandemic Postal Services Recovery Guide, which includes best practice information and aims to support posts, mainly in LDCs, to resume or restore postal activities. We will continue to work on the Operational Readiness for E-commerce 2021 or ORE2 project, which will be implemented in all regions in order to help designated operators to continue to modernize operational processes and use all available IT standardized tools,” Cuadra adds.
This article appeared in Union Postale No.1 2021: https://bit.ly/3wT7lFI