In progress at UNHQ

DEV/2074

UNITED NATIONS PLEDGING CONFERENCE FOR DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES OPENS WITH PLEDGES FROM 29 MEMBER STATES AND OBSERVERS

1 November 1995


Press Release
DEV/2074
GA/8981


UNITED NATIONS PLEDGING CONFERENCE FOR DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES OPENS WITH PLEDGES FROM 29 MEMBER STATES AND OBSERVERS

19951101

Twenty-nine Member States and observers pledged contributions for the development activities of the United Nations system, as the annual two-day United Nations Pledging Conference for Development Activities opened this morning.

In his opening statement to the Conference, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said the financial crisis facing the United Nations was not confined to the regular budget and peace-keeping and humanitarian operations. It was also impacting on the operational activities of the United Nations system for development. Even as that occurred, however, the fiftieth anniversary provided a "window of opportunity" to revitalize United Nations system development cooperation, and reverse the trend of declining resources for operational activities.

The international community faced mounting challenges in development, the Secretary-General said. Political will needed to be sustained and "development fatigue" must be resisted. The international community must look beyond narrow, short-term, domestic interest to the future, to peace and security in their broadest sense. (The full text of the Secretary-General's statement has been issued in Press Release SG/SM/5803 of 31 October.)

Pledges this morning were made for activities of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) and a number of United Nations trust funds.

Preliminary estimates based on pledges made or indicated at today's meeting include, in United States dollar equivalent, the following: $31.6 million for UNICEF; $45.5 million for UNFPA; $907,576 for UNEP; and $138,133 for Habitat. United Nations trust funds were pledged $3.3 million and $9.6

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million was pledged for UNDP. (The amounts are provisional and the UNDP amount does not include pledges made in local currency.)

Also addressing the Conference this morning, its President, Ricardo Castaneda-Cornejo (El Salvador), urged Member States to pledge contributions commensurate with the requirements of the United Nations development system.

Pledges were made this morning by the representatives of Germany, Ukraine, Thailand, Luxembourg, Poland, Tunisia, Spain, China, Portugal, Egypt, Republic of Korea, Ghana, Liechtenstein, Oman, Romania, Fiji, Guyana, Morocco, Jordan, Turkey, Algeria, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe, Malaysia, Belgium and Cote d'Ivoire. The observers of Switzerland and the Holy See also made pledges.

The following eight delegates stated their intention to pledge once their governments had completed the necessary budgetary procedures: Japan, Norway, Malta, Uganda, Mexico, Sweden, Denmark and Senegal. The representative of Latvia also made a statement.

At the outset of the Conference, Juli Minoves-Triquell (Andorra) and Andras Lakatos (Hungary) were elected as Vice-Presidents.

The United States Pledging Conference for Development Activities will convene again at 10 a.m. Thursday, 2 November.

Statement by Secretary-General

SECRETARY-GENERAL BOUTROS BOUTROS-GHALI said if sufficient resources were not made available to the United Nations funds and programmes, their efficiency and effectiveness would be impaired and the larger profile of the Organization's system affected. The operational activities of the United Nations system were a vital component of multilateral development cooperation. All development, in its essence was local, he stated, adding that activities undertaken at the country level were key to the credibility of the United Nations system. The development needs and challenges the system was being called upon to address were growing, both in range and complexity.

He said the financial crisis facing the United Nations was not confined to its regular budget and peace-keeping and humanitarian operations, but also impacting on its operational activities.

He said the stakes involved in voluntary contributions pledged to United Nations funds and programmes went beyond the viability of operations in the field, and that they touched the very heart of the Organization's development cooperation in its broadest dimensions. At a time when there was a growing perception that the profile of the United Nations in development should be highlighted, contributions to its funds and programmes assumed special importance.

In 1994, contributions to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) from governments and other sources, including cost- sharing, amounted to just over $3 billion. The trend of substantially increased resources being channelled through trusts and other special-purpose funds, at the expense of core, central funding, continued in 1994. That further diminished the flexibility and viability of country-level activities.

He said Member States, recognizing the importance of funding of operational activities, began, in 1993, a process of intergovernmental consultations through General Assembly resolution 48/162, to place the funding system on a more predictable, continuous and assured basis. Consultations over the past two years had not yielded the expected results, a matter of considerable concern to the United Nations system and to developing countries.

Placing the funding of the operational activities of the United Nations system on a more secure and stable basis was essential if their efficiency and effectiveness was to be enhanced, he continued. The General Assembly, during its current session, would conduct its triennial policy review of operational activities. It would review the progress made and problems faced in the implementation of its resolution 47/199. It would be a mistake, in his view,

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for the review to be conducted merely on issues of efficiency of the means of delivery, divorced from the crucial questions of governance and funding.

He said the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, and the deliberations of the General Assembly on his report on An Agenda for Development, provided a window of opportunity. Member States should unite their efforts to revitalize the United Nations system development cooperation, and to reverse the trend of declining resources for operational activities.

Commenting on the specific requirements of the funds and programmes, he said the UNDP was now focusing its efforts on sustainable human development. It allocated most of its core resources to the poorest countries with a per capita income of $750 or less. Since its programmes were planned on a multi- year basis, core funding, by providing greater predictability and security of resources, directly contributed to UNDP's objectives. Unfortunately, the 8 per cent annual growth foreseen by the UNDP Executive Board for the present programme cycle (1992-1996) had not, so far, been attained. On the contrary, shortfalls led to drastic reductions of indicative planning figure allocations to 70 per cent.

The Board had adopted last June a new three-year programming framework and established, for planning purposes, the figure of $3.3 billion for core resources for the three-year period starting in 1997, he said. A high level of core resources was vital to UNDP's ability to attain its central goal of sustainable human development and poverty alleviation. He appealed to Member States to show their commitment to development and to the important contribution that UNDP made by providing, for 1996, a level of resources commensurate with the tasks.

He said UNICEF served the world's most vulnerable populations, children and women, through programmes in most developing countries. The bulk of UNICEF's efforts had continued to be directed to combating the "silent emergencies" facing children around the world -- the insidious combination of diseases, malnutrition and poverty -- through development activities with a long-term perspective. For those activities, it was particularly important that UNICEF be assured of predictable general resource funding.

The UNICEF operated through a network of more than 200 offices in 115 countries, where about 85 per cent of its staff lived full-time, and some 95 per cent of all programme expenditures were made, he said. The Fund's decentralized structure allowed it to respond rapidly to the changing needs of women and children, as well as to emergency situations.

He stated that UNICEF's cooperation, within the framework of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, was in many countries guided also by national programmes of action prepared in response to the 1990 World Summit

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for Children. UNICEF also assisted governments to fulfil their commitments made at the recent international Conferences on population for social development and women, as they pertained to the survival and development of poor children and women.

The strength and effectiveness of UNICEF cooperation was based on the country programme process, he continued. An ongoing dialogue between UNICEF and the government for identification of country specific needs of poor children and women, and appropriate modalities to address them, underpinned programme implementation and planning for the subsequent programme cycle.

He said the International Conference on Population and Development was a landmark global meeting because it started a new era in thinking about population and development. As part of the follow-up to the Conference, an inter-agency task force had been established, with UNFPA as the lead agency, to enhance system-wide collaboration in the implementation of the Programme of Action. The objectives of the Programme of Action could not be achieved without the necessary financial resources. Currently, around $5.6 billion was available for global population assistance; approximately 75 per cent of that amount came from developing countries. By the year 2000, $17 billion would be needed annually, from both domestic and external resources, for the implementation of national reproductive health programmes, including family planning and sexual health, as well as other basic activities for collecting and analyzing population data. Approximately one third of that amount, or $5.7 billion, was expected to come from the international donor community.

He said the mobilization of resources to the level of $17 billion over the next five years was a formidable challenge. It was, however, very encouraging to see that many developing countries had responded enthusiastically to the Conference. A number of donor countries had already indicated their intention to increase significantly their resources for population. He urged all countries to continue the momentum begun in Cairo, and to provide necessary resources to achieve the goals of the Action Programme.

The Organization faced mounting challenges in development, and political will needed to be sustained, he continued. Development fatigue should be resisted, Member States should look beyond narrow, short-term, domestic interest, and to peace and security in their broadest sense.

Statement by President of Conference

The President of the Conference, RICARDO G. CASTANEDA-CORNEJO (El Salvador), urged Member States to pledge contributions commensurate with the requirements of the United Nations development system. He urged delegations present to convey to their governments the expectations required of them.

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Pledges Made

Algeria

UNDP $100,000 UNDO local office 2,150,000 dinars UNICEF $25,000 UNFPA 300,000 dinars UN Trust Fund for Victims of Torture $5,000 UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs (Central Emergency Revolving Fund) $10,000

Belgium

UNDP 650,000,000 Belgium francs UNICEF 90,000,000 " UNFPA 95,000,000 " UN Capital Development Fund 20,000,000 " UN Volunteers Programme 40,000,000 " UNIFEM 15,000,000 " UN Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation 10,000,000 "

China

UNDP $2,930,000 2,500,000 yuan renminbi UNICEF $1,100,000 100,000 yuan renminbi UNIDO $200,000 350,000 yuan renminbi UN Volunteers Programme $30,000 UN Capital Development Fund $30,000 International Trade Centre $50,000 Trust Fund for Transnational Corporation/ UNCTAD $20,000 General System of Preference/UNCTAD $10,000 UN Disaster Relief Organization $20,000 UN Institute for Training and Research $10,000 UN Fund for Science and Technology for Development $20,000 UN Programme on AIDS $100,000 UN Habitat and Human Settlements $40,000 Foundation 150,000 yuan renminbi UNIFEM $30,000 United Nations Trust Fund for INSTRAW $10,000 UN Trust Fund for the International Year of Disabled Persons $10,000 Fund of UN Drug Control Programme $30,000

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Côte d'Ivoire

UNDP $30,000

Egypt

UNDP 1,168,310 Egyptian pounds UNICEF 130,000 " UNFPA 299,668 " UN Volunteers Programme $3,000 UNIFEM $2,000 UN HABITAT and Human Settlements Foundation 20,000 Egyptian pounds Fund of UN Drug Control Programme $1,000 UN Environment Programme - UNEP 20,000 Egyptian pounds

Fiji

UNDP 66,700 Fiji dollars UNDP (local offices costs) 18,700 " UNICEF 4,800 " UNFPA 5,000 " UN Fund for Science and Technology for Development 1,100 "

Germany

UNDP 132,000,000 deutsche mark UNICEF 12,000,000 " UNFPA 46,200,000 " UNIFEM 1,600,000 " UN Voluntary Fund for Ageing 50,000 " Fund of UN Drug Control Programme 2,000,000 " UN Trust Fund for Victims of Torture 180,000 " UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (Rome) 5,000 " UN Volunteers Programme 3,500,000 "

Ghana

UNDP $40,000 UNICEF $5,000 UNFPA $5,000 UNIFEM $5,000 UN Trust Fund for INSTRAW $5,000 UN Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation $5,000 UNHCR $5,000 UNEP $5,000 WFP $5,000

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Guyana

UN Operational Activities for Development 7,853,000 Guyana dollars

Holy See

UNDP $2,000 UNICEF $2,000 UN Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation $2,000 UN Voluntary Fund for Disability $2,000

Jordan

UNDP 191,000 Jordanian dinars UNDP Project in Jordan 170,000 " UNFPA 34,000 " Rent for UNFPA local office 30,000 " Local office of WFP in Jordan 33,000 "

Lebanon

UNDP $5,000 UNICEF $5,000 UNFPA $5,000 UN Volunteers Programme $5,000 UNIFEM $5,000 UN Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation $5,000 UN Voluntary Fund for Disability $5,000 Fund of UN Drug Control Programme $5,000 UN Trust Fund for ESCWA Regional Activities $5,000 UNEP $5,000

Liechtenstein

UNDP 5,000 Swiss francs UNICEF 5,000 " UNIFEM 8,000 " UN Trust Fund for Victims of Torture 7,000 "

Luxembourg

UNDP 10,000,000 Luxembourg francs UNICEF 10,000,000 " UNFPA 8,000,000 " UNIFEM 8,000,000 " UN Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation 1,000,000 " Fund of UN Drug Control Programme 2,000,000 " UN Trust Fund for Victims of Torture 300,000 " UNEP 1,000,000 "

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Malaysia

UNDP $385,000 UNICEF $84,000 UNFPA $15,000 Fund of UN Drug Control Programme $15,000

Morocco

UNDP 1,750,000 Moroccan dirhams UNICEF $75,000 UNFPA $6,000 UN Volunteers Programme $5,000 UN Trust Fund for INSTRAW $2,000 UN Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation $5,000 UNRWA 228,000 Moroccan dirhams Fund of UN Drug Control Programme $3,000 UN Trust Fund for Second Transport and Communications Decade in Africa $5,000 UNEP $10,000

Nicaragua

UNDP $30,000

Oman

UNICEF $30,000 UNEP $10,000

Poland

UNDP $241,791 UNICEF $41,045 UNFPA $20,522

Portugal

UNDP $1,200,000 UNICEF $100,000

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Republic of Korea

UNDP $2,566,640 UNICEF $1,200,000 UNFPA $500,000 UN Capital Development Fund $10,000 UN Volunteers Programme $100,000 UN Fund for Science and Technology for Devleopment $7,000 UNIFEM $20,000 UN Trust Fund for INSTRAW $10,000 UN Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation $19,000 Fund of Un Drug Control Programme $79,000 UN Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Fund $15,000 UN Trust Fund for Victims of Torture $10,000 World Food Programme $440,000

Romania

UNDP 123,240,000 Lei UNICEF 8,413,500 " UNFPA 4,147,500 " UN Fund for Science and Technology for Development 2,370,000 " UN Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation 1,777,500 " Fund of UN Drug Control Programme 1,777,500 " UN Fund for Industrial Development 6,162,000 " UN Information Centre in Bucharest 7,702,500 "

Spain

UNDP 1,278,000,000 pesetas UNICEF 270,000,000 " UNFPA 68,000,000 " Fund of UN Drug Control Programme 68,000,000 " UN Trust Fund for Victims of Torture 7,000,000 " UN Educational and Training Programme for southern Africa 4,000,000 " UNEP 100,000,000 "

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Switzerland

UNDP 56,000,000 Swiss francs UNICEF 17,000,000 " UNFPA 9,000,000 " UN Capital Development Fund 1,000,000 " UN Volunteers Programme 500,000 " UNIFEM 450,000 " Fund of UN Drug Control Programme 600,000 "

Thailand

UNDP $865,112 (voluntary contribution) $216,006 (programme cost) UNICEF 2,080,500 baht (voluntary contribution) $112,500 (counterpart contribution) UNFPA $72,000 UN Capital Development Fund $2,500 UN Volunteers Programme $1,500 UNIFEM $3,000 UN Trust Fund for INSTRAW $3,000 Fund of UN Drug Control Programme $10,000 UN Institute for Training and Research $2,000 UNEP $10,000

Tunisia

UNDP 409,732 dinars UNFPA 25,000 " UN Capital Development Fund 150,000 " UN Volunteers Programme 5,000 " Fund of UN Drug Control Programme 1,000 " UN Institute for Training and Research 1,960 " UN Trust Fund for Victims of Torture 1,500 " Other 1,500 " UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous People 1,000 " UNRWA 12,000 " UNHCR 5,000 "

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Turkey

UNDP $800,000 UNICEF $125,000 UNFPA $90,000 UNIFEM $10,000 UN Trust Fund for INSTRAW $20,000 Fund of UN Drug Control Programme $100,000 UN Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Fund $10,000 UNEP $12,150

Ukraine

UNDP $215,000 (in local currency equivalent)

Zimbabwe

UNDP 190,000 Zimbabwe dollars UNICEF 50,000 " UNFPA 7,000 " UN Fund for Science and Te chnology for Development 14,000 " UNIFEM 18,000 " UN Institute for Training and Research for Women 8,000 " UN Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation 15,000 " UN Educational and Training Programme for southern Africa 10,000 " UN Office to Combat Desertification and Drought 5,000 "

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For information media. Not an official record.