Organization’s Development System Needs Responsive Capacity to Prevent ‘Cascade’ into Multiple Crises, Deputy Secretary-General Tells Executive Boards

Following is UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks at the Joint Meeting of the Executive Boards of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UN-Women and the World Food Programme (WFP) today:

Thank you for the opportunity to join you once again for the Joint Meeting of the Executive Boards.  This is an increasingly important platform for us to address issues that require coherent action across major operational entities of the United Nations development system.  Taken together, UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS, UNICEF, UN-Women and WFP account for approximately 55 per cent of operational activities for development — so what happens here matters tremendously.

I commend the Presidents and my colleagues in each agency for approaching this Joint Meeting as an opportunity to galvanize action in the area of climate with the ambition of leaving no one behind.  This is one of the key areas that will make or break our ability to rescue the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  The Secretary-General has been putting a spotlight on key transitions in energy, food systems and digital technologies — alongside human capital investments — that can propel us towards 2030.

Advancing just transitions to green economies will be at the heart of the upcoming twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), but these are also shared objectives of our United Nations country teams, day in and day out.  We all know such transitions must be purposely designed to increase economic growth, employment and equality.  This is central to our Agenda 2030 promise of leaving no one behind.

It is clear that no agency can support this alone.  No single agency has sufficient capacities or know-how.  But together, I am convinced we have unparalleled capacities.  If we are able to channel assets across the system in a coherent way — and assemble the right partners around the table — we can change the game and deliver on the SDGs in the next eight years.

This spirit of coherence, efficiency and results is at the heart of the reforms we have been advancing, together, since the Secretary-General took office.  Beyond the operational mechanics — the management and accountability frameworks, dual lines, new guidelines and methodologies — it is ultimately our ability to support the SDGs and its transitions at a greater scale that will define the success of our reforms.

The results we collectively achieved in 2021 are clear demonstrations of what the repositioned United Nations development system can achieve.  The leadership demonstrated by resident coordinators and United Nations country teams in the preparation of — and follow-up to — global summits is a good example.  These include the follow up of the Food Systems Summit, the work on energy compacts, as well as the preparations for COP26.  All are critical to translating global priorities into tangible and ambitious actions at the country level.  We must see the same resolve ahead of Stockholm+50, the Biodiversity COP and COP27 in Egypt.

At the ECOSOC Operational Activities Segment last month, Member States gave a clear direction to the United Nations development system in that regard.  They called on us to keep pushing forward with the reforms, building on the results we have achieved so far.  But it is also clear that maximizing the impact of the reforms will require active engagement by governing bodies across all entities of the UNSDG — whatever side of the Atlantic it may be.

The Executive Boards represented here today have been leading the way in that regard.  With your support and the leadership of the UN entities principals represented today, UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS, UNICEF, UN-Women and WFP have made significant changes to adapt their strategic orientation to our reform efforts.  I hope today’s Joint Meeting can be an opportunity to build upon these significant successes, and consider the actions and support needed from the six entities and their Executive Boards.  It’s time to pick up the pace on the remaining elements of the reform and deepen our efforts to accelerate action towards the 2030 Agenda.

Allow me to outline three areas where the ongoing attention and support of the Executive Boards is needed.  First, my colleagues and I look forward to guidance from Executive Board members on how the six entities can support programme countries’ needs and priorities to achieve the SDGs and accelerate climate action.  This may in some instances benefit from revising their business models.  Under your guidance, the entities have a breadth of expertise that can make a meaningful contribution to our efforts, including in ensuring tailored and expert advice to countries’ specific needs.  Our reconfigured multi-country offices can play a critical role in this regard — especially in SIDS.

Second, the Executive Boards have an essential role to play in ensuring that strategic documents and business models support entities as they make full use of the reform efforts in support of the Sustainable Development Goals and climate action.  The recently adopted Strategic Plans are an important step forward.  We must now take this to the next level.  Concretely, this means that the agreed priorities in the cooperation frameworks are operationalized much more effectively through the entities’ country programmes.

This includes ensuring that United Nations country teams have the right skillsets and expertise, and that resident coordinators are contributing to their performance appraisals.  In this regard, I want to thank the six entities covered by the Joint Meeting of the Boards for being among the 19 entities that have formalized reporting requirements between their representatives and resident coordinators as part of their performance appraisal systems.

Third, the role of Member States will be essential to ensure agencies are adequately supported — financially and within the Boards to progressively shift into more integrated policy advice and collaboration with other entities.  To be effective and at the desired scale, this shift must be backed up by sustainable, predictable and flexible funding.  We have ample evidence that joint funding and programming are critical to provide the right incentives in this regard.  The six entities you oversee have already made good use of these.

I am very concerned, however, that we are starting to see a shift in the opposite direction, with the recent decisions and proposals by some Member States to markedly cut official development assistance (ODA).  These extraordinary times call for extraordinary efforts.  The United Nations system must be capacitated to respond to both the surging humanitarian and development needs.  This is the only solution to prevent the current crisis from cascading into many others.  Member States must invest additional resources to honour their ODA pledges.

I am calling for tailored discussions by all Executive Boards as part of their structured funding dialogues — including on how entities are engaging in integrated programming and pooled funding arrangements.

I will soon introduce for your consideration a checklist on the implementation of the United Nations development system reform, in response to the request by the General Assembly.  In the coming days we will be holding consultations with United Nations colleagues in this regard, and we want to engage you closely in this effort.  The checklist can be a powerful tool for agencies and their boards.

The ultimate objective is to ensure agencies have a clear, comprehensive tool to guide and report on their efforts.  And that governing bodies have more visibility on the main elements of the reform of the United Nations development system that Member States have requested alignment on.  These include efforts to strengthen accountability, results orientation and the effectiveness of the United Nations development system as essential elements of Member States’ oversight.  I count on your support in maximizing the potential of this new tool to increase accountability, transparency and drive the ambitious results needed.  We are determined to get it right.

Four years into the reforms, we can see clearly the leadership of an independent, impartial and empowered resident coordinator system alongside a new generation of country teams.  Together, we have begun to move from resolutions to results on the ground.  But we also see a gap, at times, between ambition and reality; between expectations and delivery; between perception or fact on the ground.

It is time to move from results to impact, at unprecedented scale and pace.  Your leadership as Executive Board members will be key.  We simply cannot do it without your leadership and interrogation of the work we do.  When I look back at the road we have charted together, I am humbled and grateful.  I thank my colleagues, the Executive Heads, for their engagement, commitment and efforts to make the reforms a reality.

And our deepest gratitude to Member States, for your continued guidance and strong support — to the Secretary-General, to United Nations entities and to the system as a whole.  Together we have come a long way.  But there is still much to do.  The world is in troubled times, climate crisis, recovery from COVID-19 and the impact of the Ukraine war.  I believe we can turn the multiple crises to an advantage, to an opportunity.

We must build on our success to ensure a sustainable recovery in our efforts to rescue the SDGs, leaving no one behind.  I am counting on your full support as we reach this important goal by 2030.