UN Transcripts — https://transcripts.un.org/ar/asset/k15/k159cqxhot Informal meeting of the plenary to hear a briefing on the UN80 Initiative - General Assembly, 80th session — General Assembly — 27 February 2026 Language: en Automatically generated transcript — may contain errors. Not an official United Nations record. --- GA · PGA [18:22]: Good morning. I call to order the informal meeting of the Plenary to hear briefing on the UN AD Initiative. I would like to take this opportunity to warmly welcome all of you to this briefing. And we will begin with a statement from the President of the General Assembly. So myself Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to join you for the second in a series of monthly briefing of the UNAD Initiative. Before turning to the topic of our briefing today, I would like to briefly highlight three areas of positive momentum. First, the informal Ad hoc Working Group on Mandate review continues to advance in earnest and I welcome the constructive engagement of all delegations. I encourage Member States to sustain this level of ambition and engagement with a view to meeting the agreed timeline at the end of March. Second, I thank the Secretariat for publishing the UNAD dashboard to enhance transparency and accessibility of information. This is a valuable tool for Member States, as we discussed together, to follow developments across the work streams and particularly between our regular briefings. And I encourage all delegations to make full use of it. And third, the meetings of the Executive Boards over the past few weeks have revealed broad political support for the UNAD Initiative. And again, thanks. I think this is really through to the engagement we had here in the last months that also now in capitals and ministries and this regard then in the boards there's a new drive for implementing all the different reform steps. Delegations have been clear reform efforts must not be an end in themselves. They must translate into tangible improvement on the ground without sacrificing this organization's ability to deliver on its mandates and to deliver for the people. Ladies and gentlemen, today we will hear from Mr. Guy Ryder, under Secretary General for Pol Policy, who will provide a general update on the UNAD initiative as we have done before. Also from Tom Fletcher, Under Secretary General for Humanitarian affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator ocha, who will brief us remotely on the new Humanitarian Compact and will be complimented by Ms. Katherine Russells, Executive Director of UNICEF. By Ms. Amy Pope, Director General of IOM, joining in person. Thank you very much for being here today with us. And. And Mr. Boham Sali, High Commissioner for Refugees, and Mr. Matthew Hollingworth, Assistant Executive Director of the World Food Program. Joining virtually. We will also be joined virtually by Mr. Salidis Marwala, Rector, United Nations University Training and Research, and Ms. Michelle Gils McDonough, Executive Director, United Nations Institute for Training and Research, Onita for who will both brief on training and research. I would like to thank the Secretariat for circulating the pre briefing materials ahead of time again, something we discussed last time. So thank you very much that we follow up on all discussions in details and I hope all delegations have had an opportunity to look through them because you asked for them in advance. As the Secretary General's report emphasized, humanitarian action is stretched to a breaking point point. Conflicts are multiplying, disasters are intensifying, humanitarian workers are under attack and respect for international humanitarian law is eroding. Given this context, it is more critical than ever to deliver better for those in crisis context. In this regard, the vision of the new humanitarian compact aimed at delivering more effectively, more rapidly and with increased accountability, necessitates our careful consideration. Furthermore, training and research are Central to the UN's work in building knowledge capacity and evidence for informed decision making. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to ensure coordination and non duplication of these efforts across the UN system to produce high quality, accessible insights that strengthen the impact of our work. Excellencies, distinguished Delegates, unfortunately, since I last addressed you, the liquidity crisis is not as positive as the reform process. We are facing a situation we hardly faced before. This only adds more urgency to what I shared with the General assembly in my priority speech last month, which is that reform will have no meaning at all if this institution has no funds to function. I therefore call on every Member States, as ESG did and as I have in my recent travels and engagement, whether in Geneva, with capitals or with regional groups, to pay your dues in full. And for those of you who haven't paid yet on time. At the same time, we must also address the structural fraud in the current financial rules that requires the UN to return UNSPENT funds that were never collected, creating a self defeating and unsustainable cycle. I therefore count on you to stand up to make the difficult but necessary decision to find compromise and to make an efficient, effective United Nations a reality for for all the people it serves, especially in these times. This is the most noble thing we can do. By that we return again to our UN 80 reform process. And I have the honor to give the floor to Mr. Guy Ryder, under Secretary General for Policy. Please, you have the floor. UN Secretariat · USG Policy · Guy Ryder [24:32]: Thank you very much, Madam President. Excellencies. Firstly, Madam President, thank you for this new opportunity. And thank you to Member States for your engagement, your presence here today. I do hope that the written materials that have been prepared will help the interaction today. Madam President, we're coming up to the one year anniversary of UN80 in two weeks, in fact. So my job is to give you a little bit of an overall perspective on how far we have come. And then of course, we'll dive into the different work packages in more detail. Let me just recall that when we launched this initiative a year ago, we produced reports on the three work streams with which you are familiar. And then in November, we produced this consolidated action plan, which is really what we're working on. And from now you recall 31 work packages grouping together 86 separate actions in a single framework. Single framework which over 30 UN leaders have designated responsibilities of leadership and more than 70 UN entities are actively involved. My point here, it is genuinely a system wide team effort. And overall we are making real tangible progress across a very wide range of issues. And we are, I think, now very much in the phase of moving from concepts, from ideas to implementation and to action. And this you can see reflected in the milestones tracked in the public dashboard that the President has made reference to available to you@un80actions.un.org just a couple of examples of the progress that we are making on that work stream one, that's the one on efficiencies. Payroll operations have been consolidated from 10 decentralized units into three global services centers in New York, Nairobi and Entebbe. And more work is ongoing across back office functions on Work Stream 2 on mandates. And you've said this already, Madam President, many of you would have heard the co chairs of the informal Ad hoc Working Group on Mandates, Jamaica and New Zealand, present their first revised draft resolution on mandates earlier this week. And we're looking very much forward to the outcome of the deliberations to be concluded by the end of next month in parallel. And I said this in my remarks to the working group on Wednesday, the office has made progress on the Secretary General's commitments set out in his Mandate Implementation Review Report. For example, we're rolling out new features in the mandates registry that's available@mandates.un.org allowing you all to explore how the frequency, the length and the similarity of resolutions has evolved over time. Madam President, Excellencies, let me just turn now and focus on what probably matters most to today's session. That's Work stream three on structural changes and programmatic realignments. And I want to offer just a couple of broad observations before you, Madam President, invite my colleagues to go into the individual work panel packages. What you all know is that the actions under this work stream three are very diverse. They go into different areas. They are subject to different decision making pathways and timelines. And we recognise, and you're telling us, that this complexity, this dispersion, can be challenging for Member States. You want full, clear information, full vision of this process and fully understandably so. Let me say this morning that we have heard you on this. As a consequence, the Secretary General intends to consolidate information on Work Stream three into a single comprehensive report. And this report will outline the progress made across the different work packages. But it will also set out the forward pathways for decision making by the relevant intergovernmental bodies where that is required. In other words, when and through which bodies decisions, your expected decisions, are expected to be taken for each work package. You will have the full picture for where and when we intend to, where and where we intend to go and how we're going to get there. I hope this is going to facilitate the job that we all want to get done, Madam President. In addition to this comprehensive report, you will receive of course, individual reports relating to specific work packages as relevant and as timely. Beyond these written reports, we will continue our contribution to these monthly engagements convened by the President of the General assembly, which we appreciate greatly to seek your guidance as proposals evolve. You have also underscored the importance of meaningful engagement and participation in civil society sectors to the UN80 process. And in response to that, we have now established a structured civil society engagement plan to ensure that their expertise and perspectives inform our process. And in that context, I will hold a second UN 80 civil society town hall in late March. And preparations are underway for a high level event co designed with civil society around the high level political forum. And a series of targeted substantive engagements will take place in the months ahead. Madam President, excellence is to conclude. The months ahead will be decisive and we will begin work immediately on the comprehensive report to which I have referred. That report will, inter alia, be tabled at the next meeting of the UN System Chief Executive Board for coordination. It meets mid May with a view towards final alignment.