Edo Stork was speaking in Luanda, where this Tuesday he handed the Credentials Letters of this new UNDP resident representative in Angola, signed by Achim Steiner, global administrator of the programme, to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Teté António.
"I recognise that I have arrived at a difficult time, but in the last six months Angola has made enormous efforts to contain the spread and circulation of covid-19 in the country," said the Dutchman who, before this mission, was the UNDP deputy resident representative in Peru.
According to a UNDP note in Angola, Edo Stork praised the application of the state of emergency and the state of calamity in this country, but warned: "We have to recognize that the social and economic impact of covid-19 is very great, both for companies and families".
"We will put development, innovation and technology at the service of sustainability", he said.
He added: "The international community will work closely with the Angolan government and civil society in the country to ensure that nobody is left behind.
Edo Stork has a master's degree in computer science, with a specialisation in artificial intelligence, and has experience in various areas such as development assessment, leadership development and project management, strategy development, United Nations leadership and development, ethics, international public sector accounting standards, United Nations security, gender and development, HIV/AIDS, among others.
Prior to this mission, Edo Stork was the UNDP deputy resident representative in Peru (2016- May 2020), Honduras (2012-2015) and Trinidad and Tobago (2008-2012).
From 2005 to 2008 he served as senior program officer at UNDP Headquarters in New York and, prior to that, as chief facilitator at the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in Papua New Guinea in 2004.
