APS : Thursday, 08 September 2016
ALGIERS-Resident coordinator of the System of United Nations Agencies in Algeria and Representative of the UN Development Program Bah Keita hailed Thursday in Algiers political willingness “shown by highest Algerian authorities” to promote Tamazight.
During his talks with Secretary General of the High Council for Amazighity (HCA) Si El-Hachemi Assad, the UN representatives pointed out the progress made by Algeria in terms of development and promotion of Tamazight,” and welcomed “the highest authorities’ willingness” to achieve this goal, especially after the constitutionalization of this language.
In addition to its promotion as national and official language, Keita welcomed “the fact that this political willingness culminated in genuine actions through works, publications and other activities, in which several sectors and actors of the civil society participated.”
On this occasion, he highlighted his “readiness” to back the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“We have come to contribute to the promotion of Tamazight” as part of efforts to achieve the SDGs, he stated, stressing that “all agencies of the UN System actively partake in this political willingness” shown by Algerian authorities.
In this regard, Keita pointed out the need to “encourage activities that can make Tamazight language a vector of development, knowledge transfer, understanding and peace values,” expressing the wish that SDGs will be translated into Tamazight.
Moreover, the UNDP representative hailed progress made by Algeria in terms of human development, dubbing it “model” in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and “pride” for the African continent.
For his part, Assad stated that his meeting with Keita “was an opportunity to exchange views on cooperation in terms of implementation of development goals and means to work together for the development of Tamazight.”
“We also discussed undertaken actions to promote Tamazight and efforts made the State to achieve this objective,” he added.
