2009 UN Pledging Conference

for Development Activities

AM Meeting

Conference Announces Pledges of $58 Million from 22 Member States

in Support Of 2010 United Nations Development Activities

 

Concerned about Shortfalls in Aid, Depreciation

Of Donor Currencies, Officials Stress Importance of Honouring Commitments

Twenty-two Member States pledged approximately $58 million today, during a pledging conference in support of United Nations development activities for 2010.

Opening the 2009 Pledging Conference, Nikhil Seth, Director of the Office of Economic and Social Council Support and Coordination in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said the development context had changed dramatically since the 2008 Pledging Conference, as multiple crises had created myriad needs and United Nations actions.

He said the General Assembly’s June Conference had underscored the critical importance of honouring existing aid commitments, and encouraged donors to increase assistance to developing countries and core contributions to the Organization at a time when it had been clear that some main donors would do the opposite in 2009 and 2010.  “The commitment of the international community is now under scrutiny”, he said.  “Your presence at the Pledging Conference today is a clear demonstration of your commitment to the global development agenda spearheaded by the United Nations.”

Development finance was under severe strain, he said, adding that most low-income countries had little room to secure more loans and raise revenue.  More aid was crucial for them to safeguard basic social safety nets and implement essential programmes for the poor and needy, but there were large gaps between aid commitments and aid delivery.  Official development assistance (ODA) had reached record levels in 2008 and now stood at 80 per cent of the projected 2010 level.

The shortfall in ODA, however, was significant and aid to Africa was falling well behind pledges, he continued.  The Development Assistance Committee’s latest Survey on Aid Allocation Policies and Indicative Forward Spending suggested a shortfall of nearly $30 billion in the country programme aid needed to meet the 2010 targeted increase.  The indirect impact of the crisis had also curbed development financing, he said, adding that, according to the World Bank, the depreciation of donor currencies could depress the value of aid by almost $8 billion.  Currency movements in 2009 had wiped out between $3 billion and $5 billion in aid.

Sylvie Lucas (Luxembourg), President of the 2009 United Nations Pledging Conference for Development Activities, recalled that, last year, 18 Member States had pledged approximately $65 million for development activities in 2009 –- an encouraging sign of solidarity, given that the pledges had been made during a time of crisis by countries already under economic pressure.

She noted that, traditionally, developing countries pledged the greatest amounts of resources, helping other developing countries.  That fact made the pledging mechanism an alternative channel for developing countries to promote South-South partnerships, she said, noting that the Organization was scaling up system-wide support for South-South cooperation.  The High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation, to be held next month, would provide updated guidance on the Organization’s role in supporting that.

Romesh Muttukumaru, Deputy Assistant Administrator and Deputy Director of the Partnerships Bureau at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said the Pledging Conference came at a critical juncture as the economic crisis threatened to undermine and reverse many of the hard-fought development gains of recent years.  The crisis was also affecting the overall ODA environment, causing much uncertainty about funding levels and commitments in many donor capitals.  In 2008, contributions to the UNDP and its associated funds and programmes had stood at $5.5 billion and contributions to its regular resources at $1.1 billion in nominal terms, slightly below the $1.12 billion of 2007.  However, current projections suggested that contributions to regular resources would drop to an estimated $1.05 billion in 2009, subject to exchange rate fluctuations, and be highly predictable for 2010.

He expressed concern that the UNDP continued to rely heavily on a limited number of donors, the top 10 of whom had given about 79 per cent of regular resources in 2008.  Broadening UNDP’s donor base and making its regular resources more stable and predictable would help underpin the Organization’s development presence and relevance.  UNDP’s Administrator had taken steps to begin to more systematically strengthen its partnerships with programme countries, particularly middle-income and net-contributor countries, on the premise that the traditional North-South donor-recipient perspective on development assistance was changing rapidly, with many non-Development Assistance Committee countries involved in development cooperation through regional and global arrangements.

With its new Strategic Plan now operational, he noted, the UNDP continued to give upstream policy advice and support to programme countries in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and reducing poverty, fostering democratic governance, the environment and sustainable development, as well as supporting crisis prevention and recovery.  Poverty reduction and democratic governance had accounted for two thirds of total UNDP programme expenditures in 2008.  During the annual session of the Executive Boards of the UNDP and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for member countries to announce their contributions, 17 countries had announced an increase for 2009.

Afshan Khan, Director of the Public Sector Alliances and Resource Mobilization Office at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said the agency had had to revise its income target from core resources because of the global financial crisis, and recent income trends from some of its key Government donors indicated a sharp drop in their core and non-core contributions in 2009.

He said UNICEF’s income from core funding was likely to be down 10 per cent from the 2008 level, and the current economic crisis meant the Fund would have to work closely with all its partners to ensure that progress towards the Millennium Goals was not lost.  An improvement in core funding in 2010 would be crucial for predictable programming for children, and the recent economic crisis carried a lesson about how volatile exchange rate markets posed a challenge in terms of the predictability of funding for programmes.

Klaus Simoni Pedersen, Senior Resource Mobilization Adviser at the UNFPA, said that contributions to its programmes were vital to improving the lives of millions of people in the developing world and, because the agency was voluntarily funded, advance planning and early distribution of resources were crucial.

The UNFPA estimated that contributions to its core resource for the calendar year 2009 were approximately $460 million compared with $428.8 million in 2008, an increase of $31.2 million or 7.3 per cent over the previous year, he said.  The increase was attributed to three key factors:  increased contributions from some donors, including Belgium, Finland, Luxembourg, New Zealand Sweden, United Kingdom and Japan; the impact of a favourable exchange rate against the United States dollar; and the decision by the United States to restore funding to the Fund.

Ines Alberdi, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), said that, because of the contributions from Member States, UNIFEM had been able to help women in more than 100 countries worldwide.  Contributions were the bedrock of its work, a regular resource that sustained existing programmes and reaffirmed Governments’ commitment to women’s rights.

Without support from Member States, UNIFEM would be unable to play its vital role of advancing gender equality and empowering women, she said.  The contributions enabled the Fund to advance women’s comprehensive engagement in society, an essential requirement in efforts to meet the Millennium Goals and other international development targets.  Financial commitment by even more Member States, however, was crucial to fulfilling UNIFEM’s mandate, and the Fund looked forward to fostering new partnerships.

At the outset of today’s event, the Conference elected Ms. Lucas its President and adopted its draft report.

Mr. Seth pointed out that the Conference would be governed by the Rules of Procedure for the United Nations Pledging Conferences (document A/33/580).

Ms. Lucas also called attention to the report of the Secretary-General on comprehensive statistical analysis on operational activities for development for 2007 (document A/64/75-E/2009/59); a note by the Secretary-General on operational activities for development of the United Nations system (document A/CONF.208/2009/1); another note on contributions pledged or paid at the 2008 United Nations Pledging Conference for Development Activities as at 30 June 2009 (documents A/CONF.208/2009/2); and background information on programmes and funds.

The representatives of Algeria and Saudi Arabia said they would announce their pledges at a later date.

Pledges Made for 2010

Djibouti
UNDP	$1,000
UNICEF	$1,000
UNIFEM	$1,000
Indonesia
UNITAR	$10,000
INSTRAW	$20,000
UNCITRAL	$20,000
UNFPA	$35,000
UNDP	$50,000
UNIFEM	$50,000
UNICEF	$100,000
Turkey
UNDP	$1,100,000
UNDCP	$500,000
UNICEF	$150,000
UNFPA	$150,000
United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Fund	$150,000
United Nations Trust Fund for African Development	$100,000
UNCDF	$100,000
UNIFEM	$50,000
INSTRAW	$25,000
UNITAR	$30,000
United Nations Volunteers	$10,000
United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture	$10,000
United Nations Youth Fund	$10,000
United Nations Voluntary Fund on Disability	$10,000
United Nations Trust Fund for Ageing	$10,000
Drylands Development Centre	$10,000
United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery	$6,000
Bangladesh
UNDP	$400,000
UNDP local office	1,100,000 taka
UNICEF	$34,500
UNFPA	$25,000
UNFPA local office	3,000 taka
UNEP	$653
United Nations Volunteers	$1,000
UNDCP	$1,000
UNIFEM	$1,000
United Nations Fund for South-South Cooperation	$1,000
Luxembourg
UNDP	2,950,000 euros
UNDP thematic contributions	2,850,000 euros
UNFPA	2,650,000 euros
UNFPA thematic contributions	2,140,000 euros
UNICEF	2,650,000 euros
UNICEF thematic contributions	2,450,000 euros
UNCDF	900,000 euros
UNCDF thematic contributions	600,000 euros
UNIFEM	1,005,000 euros
Singapore
UNDP	$300,000
UNICEF	$50,000
UNIFEM	$50,000
OCHA	$20,000
UNHCR	$10,000
UNFPA	$5,000
UNDCP	$5,000
Trust Fund for the UNCITRAL Symposia	$2,000
Group of 77 Account for Economic Development	$5,000
Fund of the UNEP	$30,000
Trust Fund of the East Asian Seas	$10,000
Kazakhstan
UNDP	$50,000
UNFPA	$50,000
UNICEF	$50,000
UNIFEM	$50,000
Trust Fund for Support of Activities Related to the Preparation and Organization of the International Ministerial Meeting of Landlocked and Transit Developing Countries	$50,000
Central Emergency Response Fund	$75,000
United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific	$10,000
Trust Fund for Alliance of Civilizations	$20,000
Afghanistan
UNIFEM	$100
UNFPA	$100
UNDP	$100
OCHA	$100
United Nations Volunteers	$100
Morocco
UNDP	1,700,000 dirham
UNICEF	$80,000
UNFPA	$10,000
UNIFEM	$4,000
United Nations Voluntary Fund on Disability	$4,000
UNDCP	$3,000
United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture	$3,000
United Nations Fund for African Development	$3,000
United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Fund	$2,000
India
UNDP	$4,500,000
WFP	$1,920,000
UNRWA	$1,000,000
UNICEF	$900,000
UNFPA	$500,000
UNIFEM	$20,000
INSTRAW	$1,100
UNEP	$100,000
UN-Habitat	$80,000
UNDCP	$100,000
United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Fund	$3,000
Bhutan
UNDP	$15,750
UNICEF	$15,450
UNDCF	$4,000
United Nations Volunteers	$2,000
UNFPA	$5,950
UNEP	$1,450
Central Emergency Response Fund	$1,500
UNIFEM	$500
Kuwait
UNDP	$570,000
UNICEF	$200,000
UNEP	$200,000
Central Emergency Response Fund	$50,000
UNITAR	$20,000
UNIFEM	$20,000
United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture	$10,000
UNFPA	$10,000
UNDCF	$5,000
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
UNDP	7,800,000 won
UNDP local office	$100,000
UNICEF	12,000,000  won
WFP local office	12,600,000 won
FAO	1,940,000 won
China
UNDP	$4,450,000
UNDP local office	2,500,000 RMB yuan
UNFPA	$1,050,000
UNFPA local office	300,000 RMB yuan
UNICEF	$1,200,000
UNICEF local office	500,000 RMB yuan
WFP	$3,000,000
WFP local office	400,000 RMB yuan
UNIDO	$710,000
UNIDO local office	950,000 RMB yuan
UNEP	$500,000
UN-Habitat	$120,000
UN-Habitat local office	500,000 RMB yuan
UNIDCP	$200,000
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS	$100,000
UNIFEM	$30,000
UNCDP	$30,000
United Nations Volunteers	$30,000
OCHA	$20,000
Perez-Guerrero Trust Fund for Economic and Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries	$20,000
UNITAR	$10,000
United Nations Voluntary Fund on Disability	$10,000
Jordan
UNIFEM	$3,600
Russian Federation
UNDP	$1,100,000
UNICEF	$1,000,000
Fund of the UNODC	$500,000
UN-Habitat	$400,000
UNFPA	$300,000
Viet Nam
UNIFEM	$12,000
UNDP	$29,035
UNCDP	$1,000
UNFPA	$4,256
UNICEF	$13,709
Samoa
UNDP	$6,000
UNICEF	$1,000
UNFPA	$3,000
UNIFEM	$1,000
Madagascar
United Nations Fund for Democracy	$5,000
Central Emergency Response Fund	$2,000
Perez-Guerrero Trust Fund for Economic and Technical Cooperation	$1,000
UNIFEM	$1,000
UNCDF	$1,000
UNDP	$1,000
UNICEF	$3,000
UNITAR	$1,000
UNFPA	$2,500
UNODC	$1,000
United Nations Trust Fund for African Development	$1,000
United Nations Fund for South-South Cooperation	$1,000
United Nations Fund for Indigenous Peoples	$1,000
United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Fund	$1,000
Various thematic forums	$1,000
United Nations Trust Fund on Family Activities	$1,000
International Fund to Grant Travel Assistance to Developing Countries Members of the UNCITRAL	$1,000
Mauritania
UNDP	15,000,000 ougiya
UNICEF	4,000,000 ougiya
UNFPA	3,000,000 ougiya
UNEP	2,000,000 ougiya
UNIFEM	1,000,000 ougiya
Central Emergency Response Fund	1,000,000 ougiya
Benin
United Nations Volunteer	$2,000
UNFPA	$2,000
UNICEF	$1,000
UNIFEM	$1,000

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For information media • not an official record