Sixty-third General Assembly

Second Committee

9^th & 10^th Meetings (AM & PM)

as second committee considers operational activities for development, delegates

call for more proactive role for Un system in overcoming challenges

Given the recent uncertainties in the world economy, the United Nations system needed to take a more proactive role in overcoming such challenges as declining official development assistance flows and cutbacks in funding for the Organization’s operational activities, several speakers said today, as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) began its consideration of operational activities for development.

Such an enhanced role would enable the United Nations system to enhance its capacity and promote greater coherence, coordination, effectiveness and efficiency in its work, the delegates said.  The representative of Antigua and Barbuda, speaking on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, noted that in the past several years of robust global economic growth, official development assistance had never reached the levels required to achieve even the most modest of the internationally agreed development targets, and had even stagnated or dipped.

She said that since the 2005 Summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations, where donors had pledged to increase aid to $130 billion by 2010, assistance had increased at only half the rate needed to meet that target.  Without significant increases in aid levels for operational activities in support of development goals, the international community would fail miserably to accomplish basic, but fundamentally important, goals and objectives that were common to humanity.  The Committee should ensure that the General Assembly undertook the necessary actions to avoid such a disastrous failure.

Calling the decline in official development assistance a “deeply disturbing trend”, Jamaica’s representative, speaking on behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), said the shortfall in funding to United Nations funds and programmes made it challenging to ensure predictable development assistance, which impeded short- and medium-term planning and programming.  That, in turn, resulted in fragmenting the Organization’s development assistance, and limited the extent to which the system could respond to the priorities of programme countries.

Stressing the importance of not undermining the principle of national ownership, and of giving programme countries the opportunity to determine priorities in funding initiatives, he also called for increased efforts to strengthen the multilateral framework for development cooperation by increasing the stable, predictable base of core funding.  CARICOM also called upon the United Nations to more actively promote and expand the funding base.

On a similar note, India’s representative said developing countries valued the universal, multilateral and impartial nature of United Nations development operations, noting that, like other developing countries, India wished to augment the Organization’s development capability.  The Secretary-General’s reports made for depressing reading, as they showed that the share of global flows of official development assistance to United Nations development entities was more or less static, at slightly more than 10 per cent of global flows.  Moreover, the availability of funds for those entities had declined in real terms over the past year.  Predictable core funding without conditionality was the key to making the United Nations deliver more and better assistance, and greater political will was needed to ensure the Organization was equipped to deal with global development challenges.

Kenya’s representative, speaking on behalf of the African Group, said contributions to the United Nations from non-traditional donors had become increasingly important.  Multi-donor funds or pooled resources to finance specific activities of the Organization’s funds and programmes contributed remarkably to additional and more predictable resources for development assistance.  More efforts were needed to strengthen the impact of national programmes, and ensure they were based on national priorities.  It was also important to ensure that the strategic plans of the funds and programmes were consistent with, and guided by, the main intergovernmental parameters of operational activities for development.  It was important, as well, to align United Nations development assistance frameworks with the programme cycles of the countries concerned, in order to respond more effectively to the development needs and national priorities of developing countries.

Malaysia’s representative said that for many States in the developing world, the United Nations was most visible and relevant in its operational and developmental work, noting that, across continents and in all spheres of human activity, the Organization’s development system had shown that it did, indeed, make a difference to the lives of millions.  While those millions who benefited from its activities were unfamiliar with the bedrock principles of its developmental activities, such as its voluntary and grant nature, its neutrality and multilateralism, those principles were translated into activities on the ground.  In addition, the success of the Organization’s operational activities in assisting the developing world depended, to a very large extent, on the dedication and commitment of United Nations staff in the field.  Malaysia, therefore, viewed with grave concern any situation that might imperil those field staff.

China’s representative said many developing countries had yet to attain any real opportunities for development because the world was facing unprecedented difficulties and challenges.  As such, with the gaps widening between rich and poor, and North and South, poverty eradication remained an elusive dream for hundreds of millions of people worldwide.  Among an array of daunting difficulties, the United Nations development system must give priority to those major issues impacting the overall situation.

France’s representative, speaking on behalf of the European Union, said the Secretary-General’s report on the implications of aligning the strategic planning cycles of United Nations funds and programmes with the comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development presented valuable options for synchronizing the strategic planning cycles of the Organization’s funds and programmes with that of the comprehensive review.  That type of alignment might facilitate integrating recommendations into the new strategies of those organizations more easily.  The coherence of the United Nations system regarding development would thereby be enhanced.  Setting up a quadrennial cycle would help promote better consideration of guidelines under the review of operational activities and ensure a more optimal follow-up via a midterm progress report.  Consequently, the Organization’s work would be rebalanced.  The European Union wished to engage in a comprehensive dialogue on how to proceed, in order to adopt a text on alignment during the current General Assembly session.

The representative of Switzerland said that although non-core contributions represented an important supplement to regular resources, they were not a substitute for core resources, and stressed that regular resources must remain the “bedrock” of operational activities for development.  A “systematic culture of evaluation” should also be encouraged in order for the Organization to gain credibility among donors.  Two other recommendations were also paramount in improving the funding of operational activities for development:  an effort to gain political visibility and authority at the centre of debates on such emerging issues as climate change; and increasing peer pressure among multilateral donors.

Presenting reports for the Committee’s consideration were Thomas Stelzer, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs; and Inés Alberdi, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

Other speakers today were the representatives of Indonesia (on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), Colombia, the Russian Federation, Ethiopia, Thailand, Mozambique, Belarus, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Iran, El Salvador and Nepal.

The Second Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, Thursday, 16 October, to begin its consideration of the follow-up to and implementation of the outcome of the 2002 International Conference on Financing for Development and preparations for the 2008 Review Conference.

Background

The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) met this morning to discuss operational activities for development, including operational activities for development of the United Nations system, the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review of operational activities for development, and the activities of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

Before the Committee was the Secretary-General’s report on the Comprehensive statistical analysis of the financing of operational activities for development of the United Nations system for 2006 (document A/63/71-E/2008/46), which provides information on the 37 United Nations system entities that reported funding for operational activities for development.

According to the report, $17.2 billion was the total value of contributions received by the United Nations system for operational activities in 2006, which represents a 0.4 per cent increase in nominal terms, and a 2 per cent decrease in real terms, compared to contributions received in 2005.  Expenditures in 2006 were $16.4 billion, representing an increase of 4.7 per cent from 2005 and an average annual increase of 13 per cent since 2002.

The includes a comparison of the trends between United Nations system financing and other multilateral and bilateral development assistance; an analysis of the contributions of the specialized agencies; and a description of progress made towards building a comprehensive and sustainable financial data and reporting system on United Nations operational activities and future plans.

Also before the Committee was a report of the Secretary-General on Trends in contributions to operational activities for development of the United Nations system and measures to promote an adequate, predictable and expanding base of United Nations development assistance (document A/63/201), which addresses the issues of expanding the development assistance base and promoting an upward trend in real contributions; securing predictability; and ensuring appropriate balance between core and non-core resources.

The report, which provides an overview of current trends in funding for the development system, analyses obstacles to improving the situation, and presents follow-up actions taken or planned by the Secretary-General, concludes that the funding of United Nations development cooperation should be addressed as an integral part of the effort to maximize support for developing countries in achieving the Organization’s agenda.  As such, country-based, demand-driven approaches rooted in national priorities should be advocated to quantify funding requirements.

In addition, the Committee had before it a note by the Secretary-General transmitting the report on Activities of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), which provides a review and update of the cumulative progress of the programme and activities identified in that body’s multi-year funding framework for the period 2004-2007, tracks overall progress and highlights results of the support that UNIFEM provided to countries in 2007.

The report (document A/63/205) states that in 2007, UNIFEM registered significant growth in its resource base, breaking the $100 million mark in total contributions, securing and surpassing the targets of the multi-year funding framework for regular and other resources.

In the context of United Nations reform, the report states that UNIFEM intensified its support for developing sustainable national capacity in the implementation of, and accountability for, commitments to gender equality by continuing to focus on four key goals:  reducing feminized poverty; ending violence against women; addressing the gender dimensions of HIV/AIDS; and achieving gender equality in democratic governance.  The prospects and gaps worldwide, nationally and regionally in relation to those four goals determine the focus of the agency’s work.

The report concludes with a set of recommendations on the ways in which the development and organizational effectiveness of UNIFEM can be further strengthened.  The UNIFEM Consultative Committee, at its forty-eighth session, requested that the agency report back to it annually on the strategic plan, 2008‑2011, tracking progress according to the key results and indicators, including how it has used the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women as a basis for programming.  The Consultative Committee also stressed the importance of UNIFEM’s input into the work of the Commission on the Status of Women, and encouraged it to participate actively in the follow-up to the outcomes of the Commission.

Also before the Committee was the Secretary-General’s report on the Implications of aligning the strategic planning cycles of the United Nations funds and programmes with the comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development (document A/63/207), which provides options with regard to changing the review from a three-year to a four-year cycle.

The report examines two options for changing the review to a four-year cycle and analyses the implications of such a change on the planning process and the respective cycles of each fund and programme covered, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the World Food Programme (WFP).  The first option -– holding the first quadrennial comprehensive policy review in 2014 -– would require the fewest adjustments to the current and subsequent planning cycles of UNDP, UNFPA and WFP, including their budget processes.  The second option –- holding the next comprehensive policy review in 2011 instead of 2010 -– would necessitate adjustments in all four agencies in order to adopt 2013-2016 as a synchronized plan period.

Also before the Committee was a letter dated 11 June 2008 from the Permanent Representative of Mozambique addressed to the Secretary-General (document A/63/85-E/2008/83), which transmits a summary statement of the outcomes and the way forward emanating from a seminar held in Maputo from 21 to 23 May 2008 for the eight Governments of the “Delivering as One” pilot countries -- Albania, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Pakistan, Rwanda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay and Viet Nam –- as well as representatives of the Government of Malawi.

The letter states that initial indications of the seminar were that the pilot process was yielding positive results in ensuring the presence of a more effective and coherent counterpart of its national partners.  Among the constraints on fully implementing and accelerating the initiative were a lack of predictability and timeliness of funding, a lack of harmonization and simplification of business practices, and low-level of use of national operational capacities.

Introduction of Reports

THOMAS STELZER, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, introduced the Secretary-General’s reports on comprehensive statistical analysis of the financing of operational activities for development of the United Nations system for 2006 (document A/63/71-E/2008/46); trends in contributions to operational activities for development of the United Nations and measures to promote an adequate, predictable, and expanding base of United Nations development assistance (document A/63/201); and the implications of aligning the strategic planning cycles of the United Nations funds and programmes with the comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development (document A/63/207).

He said that in the few months following the conclusion of the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review, States had witnessed sudden turns in development with the combined energy and food crises, and now the financial turmoil engulfing economies.  Current events called for political will, as well as actions to sustain and shore up development cooperation and mitigate the impact of the crises on poorer countries.  Strategies and priorities must also be adjusted.  The recent Accra High-Level Forum on Aid effectiveness had generated fresh commitments to reform development cooperation.  Hopefully, the Doha Review Conference on Financing for Development would be seized as an opportunity to adopt decisive measures to mobilize financing and launch the systemic changes needed to bolster development.

Indeed, the crying need to adjust strategies and step up development cooperation also applied to the operational work of the United Nations development system, he said.  The system was coming together to help Governments cope with the impact of the intertwined crises and keep the focus on long-term development goals.  In that regard, the General Assembly’s agenda on operational activities for development at the sixty-third session was highly topical.  It had to do with two major issues:  financing the United Nations system, an essential element of an effective response that was under threat in the current environment; and how to ensure that the guidance on operational activities given by all Member States through the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review translated into the country-level activities of the funds and programmes, a question at the heart of the governance of operational activities for development.

He said the first two reports were complementary, and responded to the concerns of Member States with regard to improving the quantity and quality of funding.  Overall, the funding of the system’s development cooperation should be addressed as an integral part of efforts to maximize support to developing countries in achieving the United Nations development agenda.  The Committee should provide further political guidance to strengthen and place the Organization’s development system on a sound financial footing.  The third report tackled the issue of ensuring that the strategic plans of funds and programmes were anchored in the guidance given by Member States in the General Assembly.

INÉS ALBERDI, Executive Director of UNIFEM, introduced the report on that agency’s activities transmitted in a note by the Secretary-General (document A/63/205), saying UNIFEM continued to focus on its mandate of supporting innovative activities benefiting women in line with national and regional priorities, promoting women’s involvement in mainstream development and playing a catalytic role in United Nations development cooperation.

She said the report highlighted progress on the four outcomes framing UNIFEM’s 2004-2007 Multi-Year Funding Framework, which included creating and implementing laws and policies promoting gender equality and women’s human rights; building institutional capacity to allocate resources and set up accountability mechanisms to ensure implementation; strengthening the capacity of gender-equality advocates to influence and participate in mainstream development policymaking and programming; and ending harmful practices and attitudes that perpetuated gender inequality worldwide.

The report, she said, built on the findings of UNIFEM’s biennial publication Progress of the World’s Women 2008/09, which explored gender and accountability by asking the question, “Who answers to women?”  It showed the challenges requiring urgent attention:  women were outnumbered four to one in legislatures; women comprised more than 60 per cent of unpaid family workers; three women in sub-Saharan Africa were infected with HIV for every two men; and in some parts of the world, 10 per cent of women died from pregnancy-related causes despite the existence of cost-effective and well-known methods to prevent maternal mortality.

Highlighting recent system-wide, regional and national initiatives to strengthen coordination and accountability for ensuring gender equality, she cited the completion in 2008 of the first round of field testing by the United Nations Development Group’s Task Team on Gender Equality of indicators to assess performance on supporting nations’ gender equality.  Those indicators had been distributed to United Nations country teams.

Statements

PHILIPPE DELACROIX (France), speaking on behalf of the European Union, said the report on the implications of aligning the strategic planning cycles of United Nations funds and programmes with the comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development presented valuable options for synchronizing strategic planning cycles of the Organization’s funds and programmes with that of the comprehensive review.  That type of alignment might facilitate integrating recommendations into the new strategies of those organizations more easily.  The coherence of the United Nations system regarding development would thereby be enhanced.

As underscored in the report, he said setting up a quadrennial cycle would help promote better consideration of guidelines under the review of operational activities and ensure a more optimal follow-up via a midterm progress report.  Consequently, the Organization’s work would be rebalanced.  The European Union wished to engage in a comprehensive dialogue on how to proceed in order to adopt a text on alignment during the current General Assembly session.  The synchronization of planning cycles would represent real progress in stepping up United Nations development efforts.

Turning to the report on trends in contributions to operational activities for development, he said that if the Organization’s activities for development often suffered from the voluntary nature of their funding, it remained true that they had received a significant increase in donor contributions, particularly from European countries.  The European Union was committed to enhance efforts to improve aid predictability further, in line with the Paris Declaration.  In particular, it hoped that steps could be taken quickly to create a comprehensive, viable and stable system for data releases and financial reports on the operational activities for development of all entities of the United Nations system.

Regarding implementation of General Assembly resolution 62/208, he said the European Union supported its implementation fully, and was determined that the United Nations system play its full part in implementing the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, the principles of which had been developed further at the High-Level Forum in Accra last September.  The European Union hoped implementation of the resolution would help achieve greater coordination among United Nations activities at the local and central levels, and called upon the United Nations Development Group to present proposals for implementation of the Accra Agenda for Action.

ADIYATWIDI ADIWOSO ASMADY (Indonesia), speaking on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and associating himself with the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, said that given the recent uncertainties in the world economy and tight Government budgets, the United Nations system needed to work even harder to overcome challenges such as declining official development assistance flows and cutbacks in funding for operational activities.  It was important to strengthen collaboration and cooperation in the United Nations system, as well as with donors, the private sector and civil society.  ASEAN called on donors to honour their commitment to increase funding for the Organization’s operational activities.

There was an urgent need to improve United Nations mechanisms and funding modalities, in order to promote an upward trend in real contributions, he said.  At the country level, the United Nations system must improve aid effectiveness through better quality and delivery, a more effective use of resources, simplified and harmonized operational processes, reduced transaction costs and enhanced national ownership.  The system must also have the tools to help support progress towards attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.  In that regard, there was a need to measure progress in concrete, tangible and measurable ways.  To enable that, the Organization should continue promoting reform by advancing leadership, providing clear guidance, and enhancing greater coherence, effectiveness and efficiency in the operational activities of the entire United Nations system.

Welcoming the system-wide coherence approach, with the “Delivering as One” pilot programmes undertaken voluntarily by eight countries, he said ASEAN also supported its member State Viet Nam’s participation in the “One United Nations” programme.  The outcome of the pilot programmes would be essential to intergovernmental consultations on the operational effectiveness of the United Nations.  ASEAN had also taken note of the assessment of progress of country-level UNIFEM programmes, and looked forward to active discussion on the Secretary-General’s recommendations for strengthening the agency’s effectiveness.

GEORGE OWUOR (Kenya), speaking on behalf of the African Group, said well-managed operational activities for development would help the United Nations better serve African countries in their efforts to achieve internationally agreed development targets goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.  While commending the Secretary-General for the improvements in the annual financial report and for the successful efforts to harmonize the statistical analysis of financing of operational activities, the African Group was concerned about the 2 per cent decrease in contributions for operational activities in 2006, and the decline in the share of core contributions to United Nations funds and programmes in recent years.

He expressed support for General Assembly resolution 62/208 because it stressed that core resources remained the bedrock of operational activities for development due to their untied nature.  The Organization’s resources must be commensurate with its mandates and demands.  The African Group supported the call for donor countries to increase funding for operational activities, particularly by providing core resources.  However, it was concerned about the decline in official development assistance from 0.31 per cent in 2006 to 0.28 per cent in 2007, and urged developed countries that had not yet done so to honour their commitment to devote 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product to development assistance, and 0.15 to 0.2 per cent to development in least developed countries.

Contributions to the United Nations from non-traditional donors had become increasingly important, especially South-South Cooperation, he noted.  Multi-donor funds or pooled resources to finance specific activities of funds and programmes contributed remarkably to additional and more predictable resources for development assistance.  More efforts were needed to strengthen the impact of national programmes and ensure they were based on national priorities.  It was also important to ensure that the strategic plans of funds and programmes were consistent with, and guided by, the agreed main intergovernmental parameters of operational activities for development.  It was important, as well, to align United Nations development assistance frameworks with the programme cycles of the countries concerned, in order to respond more effectively to the development needs and national priorities of developing countries.

RAYMOND WOLFE ( Jamaica), speaking on behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), said the United Nations was a valuable partner in providing development assistance, particularly in an increasingly precarious international environment characterized by an unfolding food security crisis, the adverse effects of climate change and global financial turmoil.  The impact and effectiveness of the Organization’s development system was determined largely by the financial resources available, especially in light of increasing demands on it.  Despite the need for predictable, stable, long-term funding, particularly core funding, there had been a decline in total funding to the United Nations system in real terms, and that amount had been decreasing relative to non-core funding.  Non-earmarked funding should complement the regular budget.  The decline in overall official development assistance was a deeply disturbing trend, and CARICOM called for the political will necessary to reverse it.

Increasingly, donors had resorted to bilateral cooperation programmes and other multilateral frameworks to channel their contributions, he said.  The shortfall in funding to United Nations funds and programmes made it challenging to ensure predictable development assistance, impeding short-term and medium-term planning and programming.  That resulted in fragmenting the Organization’s development assistance and limited the extent to which the system could respond to the priorities of programme countries.  CARICOM stressed the importance of not undermining the principle of national ownership, and of giving programme countries the opportunity to determine priority in funding initiatives.  It also called for increased efforts to strengthen the multilateral framework for development cooperation by increasing the stable, predictable base of core funding, and called upon the United Nations to more actively promote and expand the funding base.

He said the 2007 Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review recognized that middle-income countries faced significant challenges in poverty eradication, and efforts to address those challenges must be supported in order to sustain achievements.  Jamaica’s economic classification as a middle-income country, based on certain limited macroeconomic criteria such as per capita income, overshadowed the stark reality that Jamaica had pockets of extreme poverty.  Some middle-income CARICOM countries had graduated from United Nations development assistance, and from concessionary financing from major lending institutions, exacerbating their precarious situation.  That reinforced the need for continued international assistance; in particular, the urgent assistance needed for Haiti.

CLAUDIA BLUM ( Colombia) said the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review constituted a significant step towards a system focused on building national capacities, which served as a catalyst for progressively more predictable, transparent and results-oriented international cooperation.  The effective implementation of resolution 62/208 was a priority that demanded the commitment of the system’s different programmes, funds and agencies.  It was fundamentally important that the management process promoted concrete actions and progress in terms of national ownership, which was an essential element for the effectiveness and sustainability of operational activities.  The comprehensive policy review recognized the leadership of Governments in requesting and coordinating cooperation actions in specific areas, as well as in identifying priorities and preparing programmatic frameworks at the country level.

Reiterating the importance of the Paris principles and the Accra Agenda, she said the guidelines contained in those agreements constituted important progress in the area of financing for development, and should be taken into account not only with regard to the provision of official development assistance, but also international cooperation generally.  It was clear that middle-income countries were crucial multipliers of development.  Nevertheless, they also experienced challenges arising from situations of poverty and inequality, which made official development assistance essential.  Colombia believed in the potential to promote South-South Cooperation, and expected that the General Assembly would endorse implementation of the Fourth Cooperation Framework for South-South Cooperation, particularly the actions planned with a view to supporting the mandate of the Special Unit.

ALEXANDER ALIMOV (Russian Federation) called for full implementation of United Nations resolutions concerning operational activities for development, and expressed support for the proposal to move from a three-year to a four-year period of operational activities for development, in order to harmonize it with multi-year funding frameworks.  While the drop in overall official development assistance impacted the work of the United Nations, it was important to increase the effectiveness of the Organization’s development assistance.  It was to be hoped that the Fifth Committee’s consideration of that issue would lead to balanced, predictable assistance.

Describing South-South Cooperation as an important part of the development assistance architecture, he said it should supplement other assistance, an issue that merited close attention by the United Nations.  The Organization’s operational agencies, particularly UNDP, should have a more active role in supporting cooperation between developing countries.  The Russian Federation supported UNIFEM’s significant role in promoting gender equality in countries where it was needed.  However, its management system contained elements whose purposes were not clear, and which led to extra costs.  Those shortcomings would be eliminated during the reform of the United Nations gender architecture.

RAJA NUSHIRWAN ZAINAL ABIDIN ( Malaysia) said that for many States in the developing world, the United Nations was most visible and relevant in its operational and developmental work.  Across continents and in all spheres of human activity, the Organization’s development system had shown that it did indeed make a difference to the lives of millions.  While those millions who benefited from its activities were unfamiliar with the bedrock principles of its developmental activities, such as its voluntary and grant nature, its neutrality and multilateralism, those principles were translated into activities on the ground.  States must always remember that they were not just words in the realm of abstractions.

He expressed particular concern about some of the issues highlighted in the Secretary-General’s report, including the halt in 2006 in the upward trend of total contributions to operational activities since 2002, and the decrease in the total number of countries contributing to operational activities.  While the report mentioned the importance of promoting greater political will to equip the United Nations to better support the developing world, the more fundamental issue that must be addressed was the cause of the lack of political will to do so.  In addition, the success of the Organization’s operational activities in assisting the developing world depended, to a very large extent, on the dedication and commitment of United Nations staff in the field.  Malaysia, therefore, viewed with grave concern any situation that might imperil those field staff.

ARJUN CHARAN SETHI ( India) said developing countries valued the universal, multilateral and impartial nature of United Nations development operations, and India, like other developing countries, wished to augment the Organization’s capability as a development organization.  The Secretary-General’s reports made for depressing reading, as they showed that the share of global flows of official development assistance to United Nations development entities was more or less static at just over 10 per cent of global flows.  Moreover, the availability of funds for those entities had declined in real terms over the past year.  The Secretary-General’s report noted that the decline in core resources in the United Nations was of great concern because, coupled with the lack of an expanded funding base, limited the Organization’s ability to deliver coherently, relevantly and effectively.  Predictable core funding without conditionality was the key to making the United Nations deliver more, and better, assistance.  Greater political will was needed to ensure the Organization was equipped to deal with global development challenges.

Execution and better delivery of development operations and outcomes should not become hostage to nebulous structural obstacles, he said, adding that programme content was as important, if not more important, than administrative matters.  Different countries had different development objectives, and the aim of “delivering as one” must not negatively affect the choices available to recipient countries in terms of agencies and programmes.  India supported gender empowerment, gender parity and gender mainstreaming, as well as United Nations measures to improve the Organization’s operational capability in those areas, including the creation of a gender entity.  However, they must be held to account by the General Assembly, and be adequately resourced.

HIRUT ZEMENE ( Ethiopia) said the recent uncertainties in the world economy cast a shadow over further scaling up of funding for the United Nations.  The growth rate in developed economies was projected to slow down, which would undoubtedly affect total official development assistance, in general, and contributions to the Organization, in particular.  That, coupled with the decline in core resources and growing reliance on voluntary, extra-budgetary and earmarked contributions to fund United Nations operational activities, was a great concern for the poorest countries.  The trend exacerbated the unpredictability and unreliability of resources.  Multi-year funding frameworks had not significantly advanced the predictability of funding, and the number of donors providing specific payments did not do so according to the expected schedule.

Though the Secretary-General’s report pointed to various obstacles that deterred the United Nations from improving the quantity and quality of financing, she said, strong political will was still crucial to the Organization’s support for the implementation of various international commitments.  However, Ethiopia concurred with the report’s view that broadening the donor base was important to the enhancement of long-term financial sustainability of operational activities, which should be strengthened further in order to support development activities in the developing world, particularly in the least developed countries.  Their contributions could be as effective as they should be if only they were well-equipped with adequate resources, squarely committed to support Governments in implementing nationally owned development programmes.

THANOP PANYAPATTANAKUL ( Thailand) said that in order to overcome the challenges facing developing countries, Member States and the United Nations system must exert concerted, effective efforts.  In that regard, the Organization must play a more proactive role by implementing reform, so as to enhance its capacity and promote greater coherence, coordination, effectiveness, and efficiency.  It was also important for the United Nations to strengthen its operational activities in order to make its development assistance more effective and timely at all levels, especially at the regional and country levels.  As the host of a regional arm of the United Nations in Asia and the Pacific, Thailand believed that regional commissions could serve as hubs where countries could learn from one another and exchange views on policy options, strategies and good practices in an integrated and inclusive manner.  It was crucial that a regional commission deliver its mandates efficiently to the countries in its coverage region.

While South-South Cooperation was increasingly important as a mechanism for sharing experiences, knowledge and lessons learned from the South, it could also play a complementary role to traditional North-South cooperation to establish a trilateral North-South-South cooperation.  Such trilateral cooperation could be a platform for disseminating the advanced knowledge and technology of a developed country through the experiences of a developing country to meet the absorptive capacity of other developing countries.  Additionally, at a time when there was great concern about helping developing countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals by the target year of 2015, it was necessary to redouble efforts to ensure that development did not become a casualty of domestic interest.  In that regard, donor countries must honour their commitments to meet the official development assistance target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income.

OLIVIER CHAVE ( Switzerland) said that, through the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review, the General Assembly was playing a stronger convening and policy-setting role.  Switzerland welcomed the adoption by the Economic and Social Council of resolution E/2008/L.12 on the management process for implementation of resolution A/62/208, and appreciated initiatives taken by some programme countries to promote greater coherence at the field level.  In particular, the General Assembly should welcome the outcome of the Maputo Workshop as a concrete effort by Member States to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their interaction with the United Nations operational system.  Switzerland also welcomed the Secretariat’s 2006 comprehensive statistical analysis, as no other organ had compiled comprehensive, sustainable and consistent financial data on operational activities.  However, including information on United Nations system technical cooperation expenditures would improve the efficiency of the analysis.

He said that although non-core contributions represented an important supplement to regular resources, they were not a substitute for core resources, and stressed that regular resources must remain the “bedrock” of operational activities for development.  A “systematic culture of evaluation” should also be encouraged in order for the Organization to gain credibility among donors.  Two other recommendations were also paramount in improving the funding of operational activities for development:  an effort to gain political visibility and authority at the centre of debates on such emerging issues as climate change; and increasing peer pressure among multilateral donors.  Regarding the implications of aligning the strategic planning cycles of United Nations funds and programmes with the comprehensive policy review, Switzerland supported the second option, which called for the General Assembly to extend the duration of the current cycle immediately and hold the next quadrennial review in 2011.

FILIPE CHIDUMO ( Mozambique) said he valued the crucial role of United Nations operational activities for development, particularly in supporting achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.  However, the decrease in the total value of contributions received by the United Nations in recent years was a matter of concern.  Net official development assistance from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries had dropped to 0.31 per cent of donors’ aggregate gross domestic product in 2006 and to 0.28 per cent in 2007, affecting the share of core contributions to the United Nations system.  Mozambique urged developed countries to continue and step up their efforts to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent and between 0.15 and 0.2 per cent to least developed countries.  The increase in official aid should help address the growing imbalance between core and non-core resources, and thus, increase the volume of resources available for operational activities for development.

Lauding the fact that multi-donor funds or pooled resources were expected to grow in coming years, he thanked the Government of Spain for setting up the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund in 2006.  It channelled substantive resources through UNDP to support Mozambique’s efforts and those of other developing countries.  The Fund was a good example of the strong commitment and valuable contribution of donor countries to attaining the Millennium targets, and Mozambique encouraged other donors to join the initiative.  Mozambique was fully committed to achieving the Millennium targets, as set forth in its national poverty reduction strategy, and was using the “One United Nations” approach to ensure coherence and the development of synergies, fill gaps and build partnerships to support national development programmes and priorities.

IGOR MISHKORYDNY (Belarus), describing General Assembly resolution 62/208 as a solid legal framework for the effective operational activity of the United Nations system, said the Economic and Social Council resolution adopted in July provided guidelines for the implementation of that resolution.  A priority identified by the Council was assistance in modernizing technology, and UNDP, UNFPA and other agencies should facilitate access by programme countries to modern technologies, including those relating to energy efficiency and alternative energy options.  The thematic debate initiated by Belarus and other countries on technology, energy efficiency, new and renewable sources of energy was a great opportunity for Member States to discuss requests for capacity-building assistance in that regard.

He called for the special needs of middle-income countries to be addressed by the United Nations development system, pointing out that a draft resolution on the matter would be presented during the current session of the General Assembly.  By mandating the United Nations system to assist middle-income countries, the consensus adoption of such a draft resolution would benefit the sustainable development of middle-income countries and, through improved trade and investment cooperation, other programme countries as well.

NADIESKA NAVARRO ( Cuba) said operational activities for development had extraordinary relevance in light of the current global financial events, which threatened, as never before, the efforts of developing countries to implement national strategies and plans, as well as achieve the Millennium Development Goals.  Amid such difficulties, United Nations funds and programmes must continue to play a field-level role, particularly in providing priority assistance to developing countries.  Those entities needed adequate, predictable financing, particularly concerning their core resources, and Cuba hoped the current financial crisis would not become a pretext for denying developing countries much-needed resources in the quantity and quality required.

Expressing concern about the existing imbalances and obstacles faced by United Nations funds and programmes in raising the quality and quantity of financing, she said the formula for increasing resources to those agencies must be based on the demands of beneficiary countries and rooted in their national priorities, rather than on the desire of donor countries to finance specific areas of interest.  The upcoming Doha Review Conference should focus on those issues.

She stressed the importance of intergovernmental guidance and supervision for all United Nations agencies, particularly concerning the terms of the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review.  Cuba was concerned about recent attempts to politicize operational activities, particularly regarding the work of UNDP, which had caused serious damage.  Cuba also rejected the indiscriminate disclosure of audit reports produced by United Nations funds and programmes, which were considered confidential, for political purposes based on selectivity and double standards.  That contravened the Organization’s fundamental objectives of poverty eradication and sustainable development.

MR. ALI ALHURAI ( Saudi Arabia) said economic prosperity and development were the keys to a better future, and that was true for all countries.  Saudi Arabia had participated in the development process in developing countries and least developed countries, and had agreed to provide them with generous assistance to deal with poverty and underdevelopment, among other things.  Although itself a developing country with its own financial needs, Saudi Arabia had provided assistance and credits at preferential rates, particularly in the areas of education and infrastructure, amounting to more than $90 billion, or 4 per cent of its gross domestic product, which was far greater than the rate agreed to by the United Nations.

If developing countries were able to achieve any economic progress, it would be due to their own efforts, he said.  Consequently, developed countries should take into account the concerns of developing countries in dealing with the world economic order, and with regard to the opening of markets, particularly those for commodities exported by developing countries.  States must avoid protectionist trends of a unilateral nature, including trade barriers, because such trends handicapped the capabilities of developing countries.  Given the importance of Saudi Arabia’s role in the oil markets, it had not ceased to work for the stability of that market in order, so as to serve the interests of consumer and producer countries.  That was reflected in world economic growth.  Saudi Arabia had altered its production of oil to avoid any shortages in supplies.

JANIL GREENAWAY (Antigua and Barbuda), speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 developing countries and China, said the importance of adequate and predictable funding for the United Nations system -– and for operational activities in general -– had been emphasized extensively during previous sessions, both within the Committee, and in various other United Nations bodies, most recently the Economic and Social Council substantive session in July.  However, despite much discussion and several resolutions and decisions on the issue, there had been no significant improvement in the adequacy and predictability of funding for operational activities.  That situation was now compounded by a number of new challenges, not the least of which was a negative global economic outlook.

It was lamentable that, in several years of robust global economic growth, official development assistance had never reached the level required for achieving even the most modest of the internationally agreed development targets, she said.  Aid levels had even stagnated or dipped, while major funding gaps persisted.  Recent developments now magnified those challenges and increased the urgency of meeting commitments.  The Group of 77 and China continued to bemoan the fact that most donors were not on track to meet commitments to increase assistance.  Since the Group of Eight Summit of 2005, where donors had pledged to increase aid to $130 billion by 2010, assistance had increased at only half the rate needed to meet that target.  There was an obvious paucity in honouring commitments to raise aid to the requisite levels for the attainment of internationally agreed development targets, including the Millennium Development Goals.

She warned that without significant increases in the levels of funding for operational activities in support of development goals, the international community would fail miserably to accomplish basic, but fundamentally important, goals and objectives that were common to humanity.  The Committee should ensure that the General Assembly undertook the necessary actions to avoid such a disastrous failure.  The Group of 77 and China reiterated the call for the United Nations system to play a greater role in supporting countries in their pursuit of economic and social development according to their national plans and priorities.  It was now up to Member States to ensure that the requisite resources were provided on an adequate and predictable basis to carry out those mandates.  While recognizing that, in order to be effective, implementation should favour coherent and coordinated system-wide actions, the Group of 77 and China stressed that such initiatives must avoid “one-size-fits-all” approaches.  The United Nations system should ensure that operational activities responded flexibly to the development needs of programme countries, and that they were carried out for the benefit of programme countries.

LIU ZHENMIN (China), associating himself with the Group of 77, said that because the world was facing unprecedented difficulties and challenges, including an imbalance in the global economy, climate change, environmental degradation and disease, many developing countries were yet to get any real opportunity for development.  With the gaps widening between rich and poor, and North and South, poverty eradication remained an elusive dream for hundreds of millions of people worldwide.  Among an array of daunting difficulties, the United Nations development system must give priority to those major issues impacting the overall situation.

Offering recommendations for improving the chances of development, he said United Nations funds, programmes and specialized agencies should make full use of the political consensus reached at the recent high-level event on the Millennium Development Goals, which meant according top priority to their development functions.  In that regard, improving the current funding situation of the Organization’s development system was the sine qua non for enhancing the global partnership for development.  Thus, national capacity-building should become a priority of the Organization’s operational activities for development.  To better meet the specific development needs of particular countries, operational activities should be reformed to enhance their integrated capacity and flexibility.  For its own part, China had launched an initiative to expand South-South Cooperation, in order to share its development experience with other developing countries and provide them with result-oriented assistance.

PIRAGIBE TARRAGO (Brazil) pointed out that the Secretary-General’s report on contributions noted that the need for resources for operational activities must be viewed against global trends in development cooperation, and was linked to the overall performance in achieving the official development assistance target figure of 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product.  Most donors had failed to meet their commitments to increase aid.  The present financial crisis would not apply pressure to increase aid flows, thus discouraging efforts to reverse the decline in official aid flows of the last decade.  The report also noted ominously that aid had become less multilateral -- only 40 per cent of global flows -- and that more resources had been earmarked for specific initiatives, thereby making aid less neutral, impartial, predictable and secure.  It was frustrating to see that, out of the $5.6 billion in United Nations development assistance, only $965 million constituted core resources.

Noting with interest that the Secretary-General was launching a good multilateral donor initiative as part of the follow-up to the outcomes of the Doha Review Conference and the Accra High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, he said his country would be willing to examine his proposal in that regard.  Also, his proposal to change the three-year cycle of strategic planning of funds and programmes to a four-year cycle had merit, in terms of cost reduction and ensuring sufficient time to conduct a more informed review of the implementation of United Nations funds and programmes.  Brazil’s South-South Cooperation was a major feature of its foreign policy, demand-driven and adhering strictly to the principle of national ownership.  The Brazilian Agency for Cooperation was carrying out 246 projects in agriculture, cattle breeding, biofuels, public health, urban development, information and communication, sports and democratic institution development, among other areas.

HOSSEIN GHARIBI ( Iran) aligned himself with the Group of 77 and China, particularly the Group’s long-standing position on the overarching importance of General Assembly resolution A/62/208 and the need for its comprehensive, effective and faithful implementation.  The Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review, as an intergovernmentally agreed framework, should determine the course of action for United Nations operational activities.  It should not be superseded or pre-empted by other processes.  The United Nations should have a stronger role in advancing the development agenda of developing countries through the full realization of all internationally agreed development targets.

Planning and implementing the United Nations development agenda should remain apolitical and free of any conditionality, he said, stressing that attempts to politicize operational activities by prioritizing certain cross-cutting issues would undermine that principle, as well as those of neutrality and impartiality in the delivery of development assistance.  The tendency for official development assistance to become less multilateral was also disturbing.  The increase in non-core funding far outstripped the growth in core funding.  Given the current global economic outlook, the United Nations Conference on South-South cooperation, to be held in 2009, should be used as an opportune occasion to formulate strategies to uphold and further invigorate the status of the South as a strong engine of global growth, as well as necessary and practical guidelines for the role of the United Nations system in promoting and scaling up that modality.

CARLOS ENRIQUE GARCIA GONZALEZ ( El Salvador) stressed the importance of tackling the question of operational activities at a time when the world was facing financial, energy and food crises.  Fear was the main threat to the economy, and the international community must work collectively to overcome it and restore confidence.  The time had come to confront the challenge of profoundly renewing the entire global financial and monetary system.  The Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review must be adhered to, and it was also important to increase the accountability, predictability and effectiveness of the United Nations system.  The legitimacy of the Organization’s operational activities lay in the national sphere.

Highlighting the importance of continuing to support the efforts of middle-income countries to combat poverty, and exploring new and innovative mechanisms to provide them with better and more focused cooperation, he recalled that the El Salvador Consensus had been adopted in his country at the Second International Conference for Development Cooperation for Middle-Income Countries.  It emphasized the international community’s commitment to achieve the Millennium targets, and the upcoming Doha Review Conference would be a valuable opportunity to demonstrate international political commitment.  There was an urgent need to scale up official development assistance substantially.

TIRTHA RAJ WAGLE (Nepal), aligning himself with the Group of 77 and China, said the United Nations system should strengthen its effective role in the development agenda, and emphasized the importance of continued and effective use of the wealth of United Nations system expertise gained at the national and regional levels.  Development activities should be defined in accordance with national priorities and leadership.  It was also important for the system to be operationally efficient, neutral and accountable.  Operational efficiency mattered, and even more when States expected results-based management and promised development outcomes.

It was equally critical to have authoritative and readily available data, so as to facilitate the effective monitoring and reporting of the resource requirements and results-orientation of operational activities, he continued.  The United Nations system should continue further to strengthen its work in that regard.  Overall development and sustainability was critical to achieving the Millennium Development Goals and other internationally agreed development targets, particularly ending poverty and promoting sustainable development.  Concerted national and international efforts, as well as effective support and follow-up, were needed for the timely implementation of specific partnership programmes, such as the Brussels Programme of Action for least developed countries, and the Almaty Programme of Action for landlocked developing countries.  Development endeavours should be matched with resources, while adequate resources and sustained support from development partners were needed for the effective implementation of development activities.

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For information media • not an official record