Fifth Committee

Concluding its second resumed substantive session, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today recommended financial arrangements for 12 United Nations peacekeeping operations for the year beginning on 1 July 2014, which, once approved by the General Assembly, would total $5.6 billion, and authorized the first increase in reimbursement rates for troop-contributing countries in more than a decade.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) began its consideration today of the modalities of the upcoming Third International Conference on Financing for Development and the funding required to prepare for and hold the event.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today heard the introduction of a draft resolution on the financing of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for the 2014/15 fiscal year, but failed to take action on the text.

The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) would need $313 million to meet its immediate and essential start-up costs for the period from 10 April 2014 to year-end, a senior United Nations official told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today.

The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) would need $22.8 million net to carry out its mandate in 2014, a senior United Nations official told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today.

While welcoming the improved financial situation of the United Nations at year-end 2013 and further progress since then, delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today expressed concern over the lag in payments to countries providing troops and police to peacekeeping operations.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today heard a call to adopt a resolution on cross-cutting aspects of United Nations peacekeeping operations this year, as the body examined the Secretariat’s various reports on that matter.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) met today to discuss the 2012/13 budget performance and the 2014/15 proposed budget for the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

With demand growing significantly for United Nations peacekeeping, time had come to make a decision to increase the reimbursement rate for troop-contributing countries, delegates from those States today told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary).

Delegates expressed alarm today that proposed cuts to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti would thwart that struggling Caribbean nation’s gains towards stability and development, as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Financial) examined the budgets for the previous and current cycles of that mission and three other peacekeeping operations.