2007 UN Pledging Conference

for Development Activities

AM Meeting

member states pledge approximately $80 million in support

 

of United Nations development activities for 2008

 

Delegates Elect Sanja Štiglic ( Slovenia) President of 2007 Pledging Event

Twenty Member States pledged approximately $80 million in support of United Nations development activities for 2008 and elected the President during this morning’s annual Pledging Conference for Development Activities.

Opening the 2007 Pledging Conference, Rachel N. Mayanja, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, said the event was taking place midway to the target date for attaining the Millennium Development Goals, and at a time when there was growing demand on the United Nations system to help developing countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa, realize the internationally agreed targets.

She said it was very worrisome that official development assistance (ODA) from the world’s major donors had fallen by 5.1 per cent in 2006 to $103.9 billion, after having reached a record high of $106.6 billion in 2005.  Contributions to the United Nations system for operational activities had also declined slightly in nominal terms to $15.8 billion last year.  And while funding for major funds and programmes had risen in the past few years, the drop in the share of core regular funding and the increase in non-core, extrabudgetary funding had created a system that was difficult to manage, a blurred division of labour, multiple and confused lines of accountability, and weak overall governance.

During last month’s general debate on the triennial comprehensive policy review, she recalled, many Second Committee (Economic and Financial) delegates had noted the fundamental importance of financing for the effective functioning of the United Nations development system, and had stressed that funding must be predictable and consistent with the basic principles of multilateralism.  The fact that developing countries traditionally pledged the largest amount of resources at the annual pledging event was a heartening sign of solidarity among the developing world.  That new dynamism in South-South cooperation, trade, investment and development assistance was an important complement to North-South cooperation to expedite development, particularly in least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States.

Romesh Muttukumaru, Deputy Assistant Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Partnerships Bureau, agreed, saying that in the past year, India, Brazil and South Africa had contributed significantly to the agency’s Fund for South-South Cooperation.  Still, the Special Unit for South-South Cooperation had yet to achieve the target of $10 million to meet funding requirements.  Similarly, financing for the United Nations Volunteers was $5.5 million in 2006, far short of the $10 million annual target.  However, the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) had fully achieved its programmatic results in 2006, with contributions of $22 million, compared with $19 million in 2005.

He said UNDP’s challenge was to broaden its donor base and raise United Nations contributions to sustainable levels.  Donors’ commitments to the multi-year funding framework was critical to the Programme’s ability to help the countries it served realize the Millennium Development Goals of poverty reduction, managing energy and the environment, responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and mitigating crisis and recovery, among others.  About 71 per cent of total programme expenditures were used for poverty reduction, and 20 countries had announced funding increases to UNDP in 2007.

Lene Christiansen, Office-in-Charge of the Resource Mobilization Branch at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said voluntary contributions to that agency had reached a record high of $360 million in 2006, the highest ever, and would hit an estimated $412.5 million total in 2007, due to increases in local currency contributions from Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain and Sweden, among others.  Of the 162 pledges received thus far in 2007, 62 were multi-year pledges and almost half were from African countries.  The impact of the exchange rate and UNFPA’s still too narrow funding base were significant factors.  The Fund’s top five donors provided 70 per cent of all core resources, and all donors were encouraged to increase their contributions in order to help the Fund develop a robust, predictable funding base.

Similarly, Gary Stahl, Deputy Director of the Programme Funding Office at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said the agency relied more than ever on a predictable and steady growth of regular resources.  It had forecast $527 million in income from regular Government resources in 2007 and, as of 31 October 2007, it had received $533 million, thus exceeding the target.  Today 21 Governments had pledged approximately $7 million to UNICEF, but the proportion of regular resources to total UNICEF resources, which was just 40 per cent last year, was declining.

At the outset of the meeting, delegates elected SanjaŠtiglic ( Slovenia) as President of the 2007 United Nations Pledging Conference for Development Activities.  The Conference also adopted its draft report.

Ms. Štiglic drew attention to the report of the Secretary-General on comprehensive statistical analysis of the financing of operational activities for development of the United Nations system (document A/62/74-E/2007/54); the report of the Secretary-General on comprehensive statistical analysis of the financing of operational activities of the United Nations system:  2006 updated (document A/62/326); a note by the Secretary-General on operational activities for development of the United Nations system (document A/CONF.208/2007/1); a note by the Secretary-General on contributions pledged or paid at the 2006 United Nations Pledging Conference for Development Activities as at 30 June 2007 (document A/CONF.208/2007/2 and Add.1); and background information on programmes and funds for the 2007 Pledging Conference.

Announcing pledges this morning for contributions in specific amounts were representatives of Luxembourg, Turkey, Croatia, Thailand, Algeria, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Indonesia, Uruguay, Singapore, India, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russian Federation, Bhutan, Mauritania, Argentina and Djibouti.

Malaysia’s representative said his country would contribute to UNICEF, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and UNFPA, and the exact pledges to those funds would be announced at a later date.

The representatives of Spain, Libya, Brazil and Venezuela said they would announce their pledges at a later date.

Pledges Made for 2008

Luxembourg

UNDP	$7,999,380
UNFPA	$6,734,760
WHO	$8,553,530
UNICEF	$7,129,210
United Nations Fund for HIV/AIDS	$6,692,725
UNIFEM	$1,454,860
UNHCR	$2,036,800
UNEP	$872,910
UNRWA	$3,055,175
OCHA	$436,450
United Nations Equipment Fund	$1,163,850
WFP (excluding humanitarian projects)	$1,163,850

Turkey

UNDP	$1,000,000
UNDCP	$500,000
UNICEF	$150,000
UNFPA	$150,000
United Nations Trust Fund for African Development	$100,000
United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Fund	$100,000
UNCDF	$100,000
UNIFEM	$50,000
INSTRAW	$25,000
United Nations Volunteers	$10,000
United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture	$10,000
Drylands Development Centre	$10,000
United Nations Youth Fund	$10,000
United Nations Voluntary Fund on Disability	$10,000
United Nations Trust Fund for Ageing	$10,000
United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery	$6,000

Croatia

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)	$33,000
UNDP	$30,000
UNFP	$22,000
UNIFEM	$22,000
CERF	$22,000
United Nations International Drug Control Programme	$6,000
United Nations Trust Fund for African Development	$12,000
Small Island Developing States	$6,000
UNITAR	$6,000
United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Fund	$6,000

Thailand

UNITAR	$2,000
United Nations International Drug Control Programme	$30,000
INSTRAW	$3,010
UNDP	$865,112
UNDP local office	$490,857
UNFPA	$96,000
UNICEF	$112,500
UNICEF local office	$65,837
UNICEF local office for Thailand administrative expenses	$65,079
UNDCF	$2,500
UNIFEM	$10,000
United Nations Volunteers	$1,587

Algeria

UNDP	$100,000
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification	$3,500
Perez-Guerrero Trust Fund for Economic and Technical Cooperation	$10,000
UNICEF	$24,000
UNITAR	$5,000
UNFPA	$10,000
United Nations International Drug Control Programme	$10,000
UN-HABITAT	$10,000
United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture	$5,000
Human Rights Commission	$50,000
United Nations Fund for Indigenous Peoples	$5,000
Voluntary Fund for the International Decade of Indigenous Peoples	$5,000
UNEP	$10,000
Central Emergency Response Fund	$10,000

Malaysia

UNDP

$385,000

Kuwait

UNDP	$570,000
UNICEF	$200,000
UNEP	$200,000
UNITAR	$20,000
UNIFEM	$20,000
United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture	$10,000
UNFPA	$10,000
UNDCP	$5,000

United Arab Emirates

UNDP	$324,000
UNICEF	$100,000
UNHCR	$54,000
UNITAR	$10,000

Bahrain

UNDP

$36,000

Indonesia

UNDP	$50,000
UNICEF	$100,000
UNIFEM	$50,000
UNFPA	$35,000
UNCITRAL	$20,000
UNITAR	$10,000
INSTRAW	$20,000

Uruguay

UNITAR	$1,000
UNEP	$10,000
INSTRAW	$2,000
UNFPA	$3,000
UNIFEM	$3,000
UNICEF	$20,000

Singapore

UNDP	$300,000
UNICEF	$50,000
UNIFEM	$50,000
Trust Fund for the Strengthening of OCHA	$20,000
UNDCP	$5,000
Trust Fund for the UNCITRAL Symposia	$2,000
UNFPA	$5,000

India

UNDP	$4,500,000
UNICEF	$900,000
UNFPA	$500,000
UNIFEM	$20,000
INSTRAW	$1,100
UNEP	$100,000
UN-HABITAT	$80,000
UNDCP	$300,000
UNRWA	$20,000
United Nations Volunteers	$15,000
United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Fund	$3,000

Iran

UNDP	$10,000
WFP	$40,000
UNFPA	$60,000

Also pledged to pay its outstanding dues of $53,500 to UNICEF.

Saudi Arabia

Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

$6,000,000

(with an additional $6 million to be spent each year until 2010)

Russian Federation

UNICEF	$1,000,000
UNFPA	$300,000
UNDP	$1,100,000
UNODC	$500,000
UN-HABITAT	$400,000
WFP	$11,000,000

Bhutan

UNDP	$15,750
UNICEF	$15,450
UNCDF	$4,000
United Nations Volunteers	$2,000
UNFPA	$5,950
UNEP	$1,450

Mauritania

UNDP	$12,166
UNICEF	$8,111
UNFPA	$8,111
United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery	$4,055

Argentina

United Nations Fund for South-South Cooperation

$25,000

Djibouti

UNDP	$1,000
UNICEF	$1,000
UNFPA	$1,000

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For information media • not an official record