Ministry Statements & Speeches:
Thank you Mr President.
I am speaking today on behalf of Australia, Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and my own country New Zealand.
We wish to express our thanks to the G77 and China for presenting the draft resolution, and to Mirka Wendt of Finland for her facilitation.
The transparent, accountable, efficient, and responsive functioning of the UN Development System is an issue of importance for our delegations. In light of insufficient progress globally towards the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, and the ongoing implementation of UN Development System reforms, Member States have a responsibility to provide ongoing guidance to the system. To this end, we welcomed discussions during the Operational Activities Segment (OAS).
While we joined consensus on the resolution today, we regret that the extremely truncated timeframe for negotiations did not allow for substantive negotiations. The resolution before us does not take the wide ranging OAS discussions into account, nor does it provide updated guidance to the UN Development System. This process cannot be allowed to form a precedent.
We look forward to engaging on the upcoming Second Committee resolution on Operational Activities for Development, where we hope we can take up the opportunity we have missed here.
Thank you.