President Salva Kiir is scheduled to launch a report about economic development produced by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) at an event in Juba next week.

According to a letter about the event by Eugene Owusu, UNDP Resident Representative in South Sudan, Kiir will personally launch the National Human Development Report for South Sudan on 24 February at Freedom Hall.

“The President of the Republic of South Sudan, H.E. Salva Kiir Mayardit, has signed the foreward of the report and he will personally do the official launching,” Owusu wrote.

The event will also be attended by Nhial Deng, Prof. Pauline Riak, Bishop Paride Taban and Taban Deng as panelists in a discussion of the report. 

UNDP runs a number of projects in South Sudan in cooperation with the South Sudanese government, including large-scale health projects. Independent auditors last year found that more than half of the healthcare buildings constructed by UNDP in South Sudan were unused while much of the equipment it donated lay idle.