Ministry Statements & Speeches:
Mr President, I am pleased to deliver this statement today on behalf of Canada, Australia and my own country New Zealand.
It has been shortened for delivery and a detailed written statement will be submitted, that elaborates on our guiding principles for reform including the importance of gender equality and human rights.
Today we would like to focus on country, regional and global level elements:
At the country level - we support the full package proposed by the Secretary-General in relation to the Resident Coordinator and the new generation of country teams.
We believe agreement to move forward is contingent on a range of understandings, but fundamentally requires two interconnected commitments from Member States and all members of the UN Development Group.
First, Resident Coordinator funding.
There must be agreement to depoliticised and predictable funding for the enhanced RC system, not subject to micromanagement.
This will also be best achieved by ensuring it is accompanied by a clear transition plan that minimises the impact on UNDP.
In tandem there must be adequate provision of financial incentives – such as pooled funding – owned by the RC, to encourage country teams to act as one.
Second, a strong demonstration of leadership and investment from all UNDG members to the enhanced RC system.
While Member States have a role to reinforce these expectations through governing boards, the leadership of the agencies themselves must embrace a renewed commitment to the RC.
This leadership should include:
- formal management authority resting with RCs, with clear reporting lines, a hierarchy of decision-making, and a clearer mechanism for resolution of disputes in country;
- UNDAFs that are sufficiently strengthened to ensure their ongoing impact and relevance as the central strategic decision-making document for the development system;
- a more capable and better resourced RC office, with stronger policy and analytical capacities, and improved leadership training for in country teams;
- positive career incentives and development opportunities for RCs;
At the regional level - we recognise the potential for the UN development system at the regional level to be streamlined and complement development delivery, not hamper it.
This requires careful thinking around role definition, funding, reporting lines and the added value of the Regional Economic Commissions within the UN Development System.
We support any efforts to bring together regional coordination into one cohesive regional process, specifically the regional UNDG and the regional consultative mechanism.
For CANZ the regional piece is also contingent on other elements of reform.
This includes firstly, the Management reform and secondly, the DESA review, and we look forward to the ambitious regional development system restructuring proposals to be presented in 2019.
We also support careful examination of co-location and duplication at the regional level to provide major efficiencies in both time and money.
Common sense adjustments, such as unified support services and back offices, should be the default and savings should be allocated to where they are needed most - particularly Resident Coordinator Offices and Multi-Country Offices.
Overall these changes can facilitate greater specialisation and better delivery.
At the global level - we support more strategic and effective oversight of the UN development system, including through changes to ECOSOC.
We are all challenged by the number of meetings on the UN calendar.
We support a simplified operational activities segment to improve the quality and engagement of sessions, and to strengthen governance for system wide results.
These changes need to respond to the wide range of General Assembly mandates, including the 2030 Agenda, the sustaining peace resolutions, DESA reform, ECOSOC reform and the humanitarian reform process.
One of the key areas of focus of the QCPR was to improve the baseline data of the UN system, so that better evidence based decision-making could be made.
We welcome the measures to increase the quality of management information and data from agencies, funds and programmes, utilising new technologies to do this as cost efficiently as possible.
We are pleased to see efforts underway to improve system wide coherence through the “New Way of Working” and urge agencies to turn these commitments and ideas into practical implementation, including through the system wide strategic document.
We welcome this as a living document which is improved and strengthened over time and serves as a key tool for increased transparency and engagement with Member States.
These practical steps will see greater coherence between development, humanitarian and sustaining peace issues.
On the Funding Compact - in order to achieve the SDGs, we must seek new sources of funding, including to broaden the donor base and encourage non-traditional donors to increase their contributions as their economies allow.
This is therefore a conversation for all Member States, and will need to be tailored.
The contributions or engagement of SIDS or LDCs will be very different from G20 countries.
We also need to find more pathways and incentives for investment – not only from more Member States, but also from the private sector, philanthropic organisations and civil society.
On this basis the governments of Canada, Australia and New Zealand are very open to a discussion around how to restructure a system in which we voluntarily invest significant amounts of money.
We already provide multi-year core contributions, utilise pooled funding mechanisms and invest strongly in cross-cutting funds.
But we realise that we too can do more to better align and strengthen our investments, and we look forward to upcoming discussions on the Funding Compact.
Mr President,
The conversations today, and over the past month, have demonstrated a real desire and commitment from all Member States and members of the Development Group to change.
We look forward to working with you all to turn commitments into action, and provide the leadership needed to take the next steps forward in this process.
Thank you.