UN Transcripts — https://transcripts.un.org/en/asset/k14/k14inig9be 4th meeting - Executive Board of UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS (Annual Session 2026) — Economic and Social Council — 9 June 2026 Language: en Automatically generated transcript — may contain errors. Not an official United Nations record. --- President [0:00]: Colleagues, good afternoon. May I invite you to take your seats? Kavoi. Speaker 2 [0:10]: Kavoi. Kavoi. President [0:14]: He's not paying any attention. Speaker 4 [0:15]: Kavoi. President [0:28]: Thank you, Kavoe. Colleagues, I declare open the 4th meeting of the Annual Session 2026 of the Executive Board of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS. We will now continue the joint segment with Agenda Item 3. Internal Audit and Investigation. Under this item, the Board will consider the reports of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS reports on internal audit and investigation activities in 2025, as well as the related management responses. With me on the podium are Ms. Linda Maguire, Assistant Administrator and Director, Bureau for Management Services of UNDP, Mr. Chris Taylor, Director, Office of Audit and Investigations, UNDP. Mr. Andrew Saberton, Deputy Executive Director for Management, UNFPA. Mr. Monsef Grieb, Director, Office of Audit and Investigation Services, UNFPA. Mr. Carl Ludwig Sohl, Chief Financial Officer, UNOPS. And Mr. Abdul Dieng, Director of Internal Audit and Investigations Group for UNOPS. Joining us also via teleconference, video conference, are Mr. Rakesh Nanjio, Chair of the UNDP Audit and Evaluation Advisory Committee; Ms. Kumiko Matsura-Muller, Chair of the UNFPA Oversight Advisory Committee; and Mr. Naoiro Mowry, Chair of the UNOPS Audit and Advisory Committee. The representatives of the respective advisory committees will also briefly present the reports of their committees. Just reminding that this item is scheduled to proceed until 3:45 PM. While every effort will be made to accommodate as many interventions as possible, Delegations unable to take the floor may submit their statements to e-statements. Questions may also be shared with the Executive Board Secretariat, which will transmit them to the relevant entities. With that, I now invite Mr. Chris Taylor, Director of the Office of Audit and Investigations, UNDP, to introduce the UNDP report on internal audit and investigation activities in 2025. UNDP · Director, Office of Audit and Investigations · Chris Taylor [3:05]: Thank you, Mr. President, distinguished delegates. It's my privilege to present the annual report of the Office of Audit and Investigations. Time is short today, so I'll be brief. In 2025, the office continued to operate independently in accordance with international audit and investigation standards. Based on the work carried out during the year, The Office concluded that UNDP's systems for governance, risk management, and control were satisfactory, with some improvement needed. In short, UNDP controls remained resilient in the face of significant challenges. This assessment was based on a wide body of audit and investigations work. The Office issued 99 audit reports and 10 advisory notes, generating a total of 229 recommendations. These reports covered approximately $2.3 billion of expenditure. The office identified areas for improvement in the areas we most frequently reviewed, specifically project management, procurement, governance, and administrative services. Management main— uh, remained committed to addressing identified issues. By year-end, 81% of audit recommendations had been implemented. Indicating sustained follow-through on audit findings. The office experienced another year of record demand for investigation services. We received 457 new cases and closed 462, demonstrating sustained productivity in a high-volume environment. In 2025, there was an increase in reporting of workplace misconduct issues, including harassment and abuse of authority. This trend reflects emerging organizational risk and a growing willingness amongst personnel to report misconduct. At the same time, financial irregularities accounted for a substantial share of cases, underscoring the need for continued vigilance in high-risk operational areas. The office substantiated 57 cases of misconduct, resulting in disciplinary action, contract termination, and vendor sanctions. These outcomes reinforce the office's role in safeguarding resources and upholding accountability. Finally, a few words on the future. The fall in core contributions will impact OAI's budget from next year. OAI is relocating 31 positions from New York to regional offices to position its people closer to the global network that it serves, and to release annual savings of around $1 million. This will be disruptive in the short term, but it will strengthen OAI's operating model in the future. The office will continue to adapt its approach over the strategic period to provide relevant risk-based oversight and to support UNDP in strengthening accountability integrity, and performance across its global operations. Thank you, Mr. President. President [6:18]: Thank you, Mr. Taylor, for your presentation. I now invite Ms. Linda Maguire, Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau for Management Services, UNDP, to present the management response. UNDP · Assistant Administrator and Director, Bureau for Management Services · Linda Maguire [6:32]: Thank you, Mr. President. Good afternoon, distinguished members of the Executive Board, ladies and gentlemen. I'm pleased to deliver UNDP's management response to the 2025 Annual Report of the Office of Audit and Investigations, including the management note to the annual report of the Audit and Evaluation Advisory Committee. Let me begin by thanking you for your engagement during the 21st of May informal session. Several of the points I will touch on today respond directly to issues that were raised in that discussion. I thank OAI for its report. Its observations are taken seriously across the organization. And I thank the AEAC for the strategic advice it provides to the Administrator. 2025 was a demanding year. Core contributions declined sharply, creating one of the most difficult financial environments UNDP has faced in decades. Despite this, UNDP delivered a record $4.9 billion while our systems of governance, risk management, and internal control were again rated satisfactory with some improvement needed. Our recommendation implementation rate stood at 81%, with no long outstanding observations at year-end. We received an unqualified audit opinion, and procurement fraud continued to decline. Taken together, these results reflect an oversight architecture that continues to function effectively during a period of significant organizational pressure. On the question of recurring country office observations and whether management is adequately addressing underlying causes, while these findings are recurring rather than systemic, management continues to strengthen controls, guidance, and oversight. We also welcome OAI's shift towards risk risk-based audit opinions aligned with the organization's enterprise risk framework. In program and project management, where most observations are concentrated, we are strengthening controls and policy and embedding portfolio and risk-based approaches supported by automation in Quantum, our ERP, and capacity building. Targeted professionalization through PPM certification continues to reinforce monitoring discipline across country offices. In procurement, the Integrated Quantum Platform, revised thresholds, and automated controls continue to strengthen prevention and reduce fraud exposure, supported by continued investment in workforce capacity. Governance-related findings continue to reflect pressures on country office financial sustainability amid declining core funding, which management is addressing through budget discipline, workforce optimization, relocation, income generation, and targeted strategic investments. UNDP's updated corporate accountability framework and strengthened AML/CFT screening further reinforce the broader control environment. Regarding investigation caseload timelines and OAI resourcing, management views the increased level of reporting not as a control failure but as growing confidence the concerns will be heard and acted upon, including through referrals for management action. On resourcing, OAI's budget has remained broadly stable. Safeguarding adequate and independent assurance capacity remains a priority priority for management, and further detail is set out in our written management response. Regarding risks associated with organizational restructuring, we are closely monitoring trends in abuse of authority and harassment complaints, treating each case on its merits, and reinforcing prevention measures, survivor-centered response mechanisms, and PSEAH awareness, including dedicated victim support. Management notes with concern that OAI substantiated 8 sexual misconduct cases in 2025, compared with 3 in '24. At the same time, stronger reporting may also reflect growing confidence that— that concerns will be acted upon. Any substantiated case is taken seriously, and management reaffirms its zero tolerance commitment. Finally, we continue to value the AEAC's strategic advice. The committee's engagement on UNDP's preparatory work towards the statement on internal control over financial reporting represents a meaningful contribution to strengthening financial governance and accountability. This work also aligns with implementation of the new strategic plan for 2026-2029, which management will continue to monitor closely in partnership with the AEAC. Thank you for your attention. We remain ready to respond to any questions, and I hand back to the Chair. President [11:40]: Thank you very much, Ms. Maguire, for your presentation. I now invite Mr. Monsef Grieb, Director, Office of Audit and Investigation Services of UNFPA, to introduce the UNFPA report on internal audit and investigation activities in 2025. UNFPA · Director, Office of Audit and Investigation Services · Monsef Grieb [11:58]: Mr. President, distinguished members of the Executive Board, colleagues, I am honored to present the annual report of the Office of Audit and Investigation Services, OAIS. In 2025, we operated with independence and integrity under the guidance and strategic advice of the Oversight Advisory Committee and in full conformity with international professional standards, including the new Global Internal Audit standards. Based on the work performed in 2025, we issued an overall opinion of partially satisfactory with some improvement needed. This assessment reflects an organization whose core systems are functioning while recognizing opportunities to further strengthen performance. In 2025, OAIS achieved a record level of delivery. This year, issuing 32 audit reports and 6 advisory reports, the highest annual output in the history of the Office. This builds on the strong performance achieved in 2024 and demonstrates our commitment to providing timely, risk-based assurance and practical insights to management and to the Executive Office. Our audits covered a total expense of $418 million, our audits reviewed critical business processes like humanitarian assistance, ICT governance, and identified recurring issues in governance, implementing partner oversight, program supplies management, and procurement compliance. Most of these gaps and issues did not come from a lack of will or commitment they came from a lack of guidance, a lack of training, a lack of capacity. And that distinction matters, because it tells us exactly where to focus. Yet, our audits highlighted encouraging practices across UNFPA and the entire organization, including innovation in monitoring approaches, strong interagency collaboration, and sound ICT governance. Now let me turn to our investigations. We managed a massive caseload of 418 matters and closed 184 cases during the year, including every single case dating back to 2019 through 2021. These milestones are testament to the professionalism of OAIS investigators and the ongoing efforts to improve investigative processes and ensure that allegations of wrongdoing are addressed promptly, effectively, and fairly. Fraud and financial irregularities continue to represent the largest category of substantiated cases, with an associated financial impact of approximately $2.9 million. These figures reinforce the importance of preventive controls, fraud awareness, and a strong culture of integrity throughout the entire organization. Most investigations initiated by OAIS were based on reports submitted by UNFPA personnel, demonstrating their trust in OAIS and our determination in building a speak-up culture in UNFPA. I am particularly proud of the progress made in adopting a victim-centered approach in cases of sexual misconduct, because how an institution treats those who come forward with concerns or who have experienced wrongdoing, often at a time of great vulnerability, is the true measure of its character. I am also proud that my office led the development of a victim-centered approach manual, which was adopted by the UN system to strengthen system-wide coherence and guidance in this critical area. Looking ahead, OAIS will carry forward its strategy, Protecting Integrity, Enabling Results. The strategy seeks to strengthen assurance, advisory services, and a culture of improvement across UNFPA. OAIS faces a budget reduction that will affect the delivery of its strategy in 2026 and beyond. Investing in OAIS is critical. And key because it will help strengthen accountability and strengthen UNFPA resources. OAIS is collaborating closely with management to find solutions within UNFPA's overall budget. In closing, I thank the Executive Board, UNFPA senior leadership, and all staff. I also would like to recognize exceptional dedication, professionalism, and resilience of OAIS team. Thank you, Mr. President. President [16:46]: Thank you, Mr. Grieb, for your presentation. I now invite Mr. Andrew Sabaton, Deputy Executive Director for Management, UNFPA, to present the management response. UNFPA · Deputy Executive Director for Management · Andrew Saberton [16:58]: Thank you, Mr. President, distinguished members of the Executive Board, colleagues. UNFPA welcomes the 2025 Annual Report of the Office of Audit and Investigation Services and the report of the Oversight Advisory Committee. We appreciate the professionalism and constructive engagement of both bodies, and we value their continued contribution to strengthening accountability, oversight, and organizational learning across UNFPA. UNFPA takes note of the audit opinion that our governance, risk management, and control purposes— processes remain partially satisfactory, with some improvement needed. At the same time, the report confirms that these processes are adequately designed and operating effectively, and that the issues identified do not significantly affect the achievement of organisational objectives. In 2025, UNFPA continued to strengthen its oversight performance. Implementation of audit recommendations remains strong, reaching a 95% implementation rate for recommendations issued prior to 2025, despite a significant increase in the overall volume of those recommendations in recent years. Through the Oversight Compliance Monitoring Committee, chaired by the Deputy Executive Director, management continues to monitor implementation on a monthly basis with clear accountability across business units and regular engagement with senior management. Management also continue to address recurring issues identified by OAIS particularly in implementing partner management, program oversight, procurement, supply chain management, and financial controls. Actions taken include strengthening Quantum Plus, our ERP, embedding enterprise risk management into program planning, updating policies and workflows, and reinforcing assurance and second-line oversight mechanisms across regions and across headquarters. Including through the establishment of regional controller units and strengthened financial oversight capacity. Dedicated management discussions during the recent regional leadership meetings also continue to support closer follow-up, peer learning, and accountability on recurring oversight issues across the regions. We also welcome the significant progress made by OAIS in reducing the investigation backlog including the closure of legacy cases and strengthening of its investigative capacity. UNFPA remains firmly committed to a zero tolerance policy towards all forms of misconduct. And finally, we appreciate the valuable guidance provided by the Oversight Advisory Committee and remain committed to maintain a constructive dialogue as we continue strengthening governance, accountability, and internal controls across the organization. We thank the Board for its continued guidance and support. Thank you, Mr. President. President [20:01]: Thank you very much, Mr. Sabaton, for your presentation. And I now invite Mr. Abdul Dieng, Director, Internal Audit and Investigations Group, UNOPS, to introduce the UNOPS report on internal audit and investigations activities in 2025. UNOPS · Director, Internal Audit and Investigations Group · Abdul Dieng [20:16]: Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Distinguished, I'm very pleased to confirm that in 2025, UNOPS maintained its independence. We had no restriction in accessing data, information, and stakeholders. We comply with the IAEA standards and the CIA guidelines when it comes to investigation. We achieved full completion, 100%, of our annual plan with additional information or additional activities. Based on the work done, we issued an opinion of partially satisfactory, some improvement needed, meaning that UNOPS governance risk and control are established and functioning with some improvement needed. Here I want to pause quickly and elaborate a little bit. If you look at the Corruption Perception Index in 2025 and you go down to the 25 bottom countries, UNOPS operate in 21 of the 25 countries. This shows the context, challenging context, high risk where UNOPS operate, hence this rating. Otherwise, it might lean to satisfactory. I shared with you at the informal UNOPS strengths. Today, I will share just one or two. One is UNOPS agility and resilience. When you go to the field, you witness UNOPS capacity to deliver in very difficult context, deliver project with impact. On top of that, I want to highlight here the record performance in implementing our recommendation. 97% has been implemented. Just one recommendation is pending. This shows UNOPS' willingness to improve and to adapt our recommendations. Now, moving to audit, we issued 76 reports and 142 recommendations. The budget was '72 report, and we went beyond our plan. What's come from our audit? I shared in details the issue we have found. Systemic issue one is a deviation from the design protocol mandatory, and strategic one is absence of the mechanism or framework to manage crisis. UNOPS manage crisis well. The problem is there is no structured framework that the organization can use across the board. Moving to investigation, we received 33% increase in our cases. We closed 133 investigation, a decrease of sexual exploitation by 10%, and 78% of our cases involve financial fraud. What is important to know here is 70% of the sexual exploitation cases involve IPs, implementing partners. It's a problem. Now, accountability. What come from our investigation? UNOPS sanctioned 100 vendors from our investigation. UNOPS separate 17 people from our investigation, of which 7 are senior leaders. Going forward, what the organization could improve? One, market intelligence. The— our executive director said this morning, We are not resident, but we are ready to deploy. We are good to deploy. What is missing here is market intelligence. Proactively, before we go to a country, it will be good to do a minimum of proactive market intelligence to avoid any challenges that might impact the implementation of our project. Due diligence of our sub-parties. I just said that we sanctioned 100 vendors. It means that there is a need, improve our third-party due diligence. In conclusion, Mr. President, I would like here to thank my dedicated team. I'm a very lucky director. I have a very strong, dedicated, and professional president team. I would like to thank them here. I'm thanking the executive board for your continued support, the audit and advisory committee for your— for the support and guidance. You know, senior leadership, we are independent because it's directed set the tone. It's important to mention it here. And finally, I would like to thank the entire UNOPS personnel for their support. Thank you. President [24:25]: I thank Mr. Dieng for his presentation. I now invite Mr. Carl Ludwig Soll, Chief Financial Officer of UNOPS, to present the management response. UNOPS · Chief Financial Officer · Carl Ludwig Soll [24:38]: Thank you, Mr. Chair, distinguished members of the Executive dear Board colleagues. I am pleased to present UNOPS management response to both the 2025 report of the Internal Audit and Investigations Group and the report of the Audit Advisory Committee . UNOPS management extends its sincere appreciation to the IAIG for their dedicated support and contributions throughout 2024. Speaker 17 [25:07]: 2005. UNOPS · Chief Financial Officer · Carl Ludwig Soll [25:08]: The group's comprehensive oversight and strategic guidance remain vital to safeguarding organizational integrity and driving operational excellence. It is encouraging to note that the IAEA IG has once again confirmed its organizational independence, free from interference. Mr. President, as noted by the Director of IAEA IG during our informal session, UNOPS continues to operate in exceptionally challenging environments. The year 2025 was a testament to the resilience of our agile and cost-effective fee-for-service model and the can-do mindset of UNOPS personnel who work in some of the world's most challenging contexts. In 2025, 64% of UNOPS' $2.7 billion implementation services of the processes were conducted in countries in special or fragile situations. In 2025, UNOPS management further strengthens its implementation of audit recommendations. There was a commendable rise in the implementation rate from 96% in 2024 to 97% in 2025. This underscores our dedication to reinforcing internal controls, and driving operational excellence. In addition, IAG's overall audit opinion on UNOPS governance, risk management, and control processes was partially satisfactory with some improvements needed. This means that the issues identified do not significantly affect the achievement of UNOPS objectives. Nevertheless, we remain committed to addressing the identified issues. I will now provide example of key actions being taken, noting that a detailed formal response has been shared with distinguished members and also discussed in the informal session. Regarding the restructuring of the Chief Information Security Officer's role, management has integrated the function into the Information Technology Group to centralize cybersecurity accountability. To mitigate risks, the CISO function retains a direct escalation path to the Deputy Executive Director and operates via a dedicated budget. UNOPS management acknowledges and appreciates the strategic prioritization by IAIG regarding complaints of sexual misconduct, specifically noting the expedited timelines for such investigations. Obligations. We take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to zero tolerance for sexual misconduct, harassment, abuse of authority, retaliation, and all other types of wrongdoing, including fraudulent and other proscribed practices. Regarding the Audit Advisory Committee, we extend our sincere gratitude to the 6 members of the committee for their high-level independent counsel which remains fundamental in refining UNEP's oversight and functional frameworks. We specifically value the Chair's proactive collaboration with the Executive Board and the wider network of UN advisory bodies. Management acknowledged the Committee's report and its timely emphasis on securing the sustainability of the self-financing, fee-for-service UNEP's business model and agrees that in the absence of core funding, establishing the Executive Director's ability to commit funding to multi-year projects supporting the 2026 to 2029 Strategic Plan is critical. In closing, UNSOPS management reiterates its commitment to working with both the IAIG and the AAC to develop and implement the action plans with the aim to integrate lessons learned for ongoing enhancement and accountability. Thank you for your attention. We remain ready to answer any questions. President [29:22]: I thank Mr. Soult for the presentation. Let's now turn to the respective audit advisory committees. I will now invite Mr. Rakesh Nanjiah, Chair of the UNDP Audit and Evaluation Advisory Committee, to present the annual report of the UNDP Audit and Evaluation Advisory Committee for 2025, and he will be joining us remotely. Rakesh, the floor is yours. We're not hearing you at all. Could we try that again, please, Rakesh? Can you hear us? Speaker 20 [30:19]: Kumiko, please speak. UNDP · Chair · Rakesh Nanjiah [30:22]: May I? Can you hear me, Mr. President? President [30:25]: We can hear you now. Thank you. Please go ahead. UNDP · Chair · Rakesh Nanjiah [30:27]: Perfect. Thank you so much, Mr. President. Apologies for the slight delay on the mic. And let me first present the broader overall context within which all of the oversight bodies and the UNDP itself is operating, and then present to you and distinguished delegates the 5 key areas which I'd like to bring to your attention. First, the broader overall context. One, the big elephant in the room is obviously the funding challenges for UNDP, not necessarily UNDP alone, but pretty much many of the developing organizations today. The core funding in UNDP continued to decline, and the only benefit we had was non-core replacing it. However, the core funding can be leveraged at least 7 times, and therefore the benefits are much higher in the case of core funding. If we're reading the tea leaves, the challenge does not seem to be going away anytime soon. Second, UNDP underwent a major leadership transition, as you all know, last year. During this time, the Associate Administrator held the fort capably, and there was a smooth transition. Third, over last year, the UNDP also re-examined its business model and strategic plans. And finally, with the overall context, while the system of the RCs was still maturing, the UNAT was introduced, providing other different changing challenges. It is remarkable that the independent bodies continued to adapt to these challenging and changing circumstances. Now, the key areas that I'd like to bring to your attention. First, on financial governance, uh, very pleased to report that UNDP and UNCDF received unqualified audits in the course of the year. And we all know that IPSAS 47 and 48, which are the new accounting standards that have to be implemented from January of this year, uh, UNDP has adopted these seamlessly, largely because of the proactive measures taken by the department headed by Ms. Maguire. Third, within this financial governance context, we had also requested the UNDP management to issue the statement of internal controls. Again, very pleased to report that, uh, the UNDP management has taken this seriously into consideration and has expedited the preparation of the statement, obviously offering further comfort to, to you as well as to the other stakeholders. I'm also very pleased to see that this was taken proactively even before the UN Board of Auditors brought this to our attention. Second broad area I'd like to cover is risk management. The risk appetite framework was approved by the Board last year. And I'm happy to report that implementation of that risk appetite statement is underway. This obviously means that risk registers have been established and they are being appropriately populated based on the portfolio that's currently under implementation. These things, as we know, take time to mature, and it is too early to say how well the risk management system is working. But from the current perspectives of AEAC, we see the maturity of this happening systematically, and I'm comfortable with how this is proceeding. Third, the area of audit and investigations, which Mr. Taylor presented. Uh, there is also a couple of other things in addition to the indicators that Mr. Taylor presented We see the performance indicators continually improving. They are also taking serious internal reforms to include— to, to look at improving the internal efficiency and effectiveness, as well as manage their declining budgets. The Social and Environment Compliance Unit made further actions and have done an excellent report on benchmarking across other agencies, including MDBs. This will hold us in good stead going forward. Fourth, on the question of the Ethics Department, again, what we see is an excellent example of value for money. The Ethics Department has introduced many new ideas, including ethics champions, and we look forward to their implementation of the anticipated data-driven approaches, which will be proactive in providing stronger comfort, bigger comfort to the, the overall bodies on the ethics function within the UNDP. And last but not least, Mr. President, the Independent Evaluation Department presented to you their new policy and are looking actively at how best the work program is adapted and resilient to the, the areas where UNDP is looking for most, i.e., where is the shoe pinching, and being proactive here would be helpful. We are working or suggesting ideas to them and look forward to further implementation of their programs. As a bottom line, Mr. President, distinguished delegates, I'd like to say that AEAC is very comfortable with the system of governance and internal controls and risk management within the UNDP. We believe the system is robust and working well and delivering appropriately towards all. Thank you very much for your time. President [36:39]: I thank Mr. Nangio for his presentation. I now invite Ms. Kumiko Matsura-Muller, Chair of the UNFPA Oversight Advisory Committee, to present the UNFPA Annual Report of the Oversight Advisory Committee for 2025. UNFPA · Chair · Kumiko Matsura-Muller [36:55]: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, distinguished members of the Executive Board, Executive Director, it is an honor to present the 2025 annual report of the Oversight Committee. The committee is composed of 5 independent external members. The committee confirms that it operated with full autonomy and enjoyed unrestricted access to all necessary information throughout the reporting period. The year 2025 was pivotal, marked by the approval of the Strategic Plan 2026-2029 and engagement on the UN80 reform agenda. As UNFPA launched its internal reform, the OAC closely monitored the relocation of headquarters unit to Nairobi. We commended management's disciplined risk mitigation approach, regarding staff attrition while stressing the absolute importance of protecting vital oversight roles such as evaluation during these transitions. The Office of Audit and Investigation Services, OAIS, achieved record output, issuing more audit reports and reducing lead times to 90 days. However, audits revealed recurring weaknesses in country offices stemming from inadequate supervision. We advise management to sharpen findings, uh, categorization to address root causes. To this end, UNFPA began conducting thematic analysis to identify broader organizational drivers. On investigations, OIA has closed 138 cases, significantly reducing longstanding backlogs. Financial irregularities and commodity diversion remain the primary risks across a pool of over 1,700 implementing partners. Consequently, the OECD recommended shifting fraud policy ownership to OIOS to ensure sharper operational alignment. Turning to ethics, the office achieved 100% compliance in financial disclosures and launched the Ethics Champions Network. While we commend these efforts, challenges remain regarding training fatigue and risks from soft power misuse. We advise to continue preserving the independence, independence of the ethics function alongside formal leadership endorsement of ethical values. Regarding evaluation, the Independent Evaluation Office is successfully embedding its work into strategic planning. As it pilots artificial intelligence approaches, the Committee emphasized the necessity to human oversight— of human oversight and ethical safeguards to maintain decentralized evaluation integrity. The OECD remains attentive to the supply chain management transformation. While progress is noted, External funding uncertainty and IT system constraints persist. Implementation of Board of Auditors recommendations remains slower than expected in this area. We have called for prioritizing high-risk, long-outstanding items to demonstrate quick wins, though we note good progress already this year in 2026. Finally, the 8% decline in global actual expenditures incurred by implementing partners, dropping from $477 million to $439 million, was driven by a combination of macroeconomic funding pressures, severe conflicts, and deliberate internal oversight tightening to address audit weaknesses. In conclusion, the OECD recognized UNFPA's significant progress in embedding enterprise risk management across the organization. Moving into 2026, our oversight will prioritize the execution of the new strategic plan, supply chain management transformation, ICT governance and cybersecurity, the UNAT reform agenda, implementing partner assurance, and the closure of Board of Auditors recommendations. On behalf of the committee, I thank the Executive Director and her team for their continued transparency and unwavering commitment to robust oversight. Thank you. President [41:43]: I thank Ms. Batsura Muller for her presentation and now invite Mr. Naojiro Mouri, Chair of the UNOPS Audit and Advisory Committee, to present the UNOPS Audit Advisory Committee Annual Report for 2025. UNOPS · Chair · Naojiro Mouri [41:59]: Mr. President, distinguished representatives, and members of the Executive Board, thank you for this opportunity to address you today. On behalf of the Audit Advisory Committee, I wish to convey a few key messages regarding our work and observations throughout 2025, as detailed in our annual report. Throughout 2025, the Committee executed its mandate to advise the Executive Director and the Executive Board on the functioning of oversight in UNOPS. The Committee maintained full independence, supported by a dedicated Secretariat and budget, which allowed us to provide objective and independent advice throughout the year. In 2025, I participated in the 10th Annual Meeting of the United Nations System Oversight Advisory Committee. To deepen our understanding of UNEP's operations in practice, I and members of the Committee visited the UNEP offices in Thailand and Myanmar. During the mission, the Committee observed firsthand the organization's agility, the efficiency of its global shared service center, and ability to enable sizable and cost-effective implementation in very challenging operational context while maintaining a robust control environment. Our work this past year was defined by a critical pivot, moving the organization from the stabilization phase of the Comprehensive Response Plan to a forward-looking perspective, preparing the Strategic Plan 2026-2029. Including areas for continuous transformation. The committee reviewed the 2024 report of the United Nations Board of Auditors and noted that the opinion on the financial statements remained unqualified. Regarding internal oversight, the committee noted the overall audit opinion of the Internal Audit and Investigations Group as presented in its annual report, of partially satisfactory with some improvement needed, indicating that systems are in place and functioning while requiring further enhancement. In this context, the Committee acknowledges management's continued efforts to address audit recommendations in a timely manner. The Committee notes the confirmation of the functions' adequate resourcing, independence, and unhindered access to information and to the Executive Board. In relation to ethics, 2025 saw the launch of a new code of ethics and whistleblowing mechanism. This leads me to my perhaps most critical message. Which relates to the UNOPS financial sustainability and the management of reserves. Mr. President, a central theme of our report is the financial policies and procedures required for UNOPS to remain a going concern. The committee noted that actions for the comprehensive response plan are now technically complete. However, as UNOPS commences implementation of the Strategic Plan 2026-2029, it faces a unique financial paradox. As a self-financing fee-for-service entity, UNOPS has no core funding and no access to commercial credit to fund the multi-year internal investments required to advance the strategic transformation commitments endorsed by this board. The current net zero requirement, coupled with the continued suspension of the executive director's authority to utilize part of reserves in excess of the minimum to invest in the future capabilities, represents a significant barrier to long-term sustainability. The committee finds that For UNOPS, as for any self-financing organization, it is essential to utilize part of past surpluses to build future capabilities. Thus, advice to the Executive Board is to consider reinstating the Executive Director's authority to utilize excess reserves for internal investments in accordance with the provision of the UNEP's financial regulations and rules. This is not merely a technical request. It is a fundamental requirement for the organization to pursue the strategic ambitions to scale up and speed up for impact set out in the Strategic Plan 2026-2029. In conclusion, as Chair of the Audit Advisory Committee, I am pleased to report that UNEP's By 2025 demonstrates notable institutional maturity. The Committee has observed a strong commitment to transparency, a robust response to prior audit findings, and a clear vision for the future. I and members of the Committee remain available to meet with members of the Executive Board to discuss these observations or any other aspects of the ASE Annual Report for 2025. Thank you for the opportunity and the ASE perspective and advice to the Executive Board. Thank you, Mr. President. President [47:55]: I thank Mr. Mori for his presentation. Colleagues, we have very limited time for this phase of the program. I'm going to open the floor now for statements or questions, but I urge you to be very concise in your interventions. We begin with the distinguished representative of Rwanda on behalf of the African Group, to be followed by Norway. Rwanda · Africa Group [48:22]: Thank you very much, Mr. President. A very good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of the group members of the Executive Board, the African Group thanks the Office of the Audit and Investigation for their presentation of their annual reports. and we appreciate continued efforts to strengthen oversight, accountability, and institutional integrity within all the agencies. Our focus will remain on those areas of the audit that we picked interest in. We note the overall audit opinion of the UNDP that governance, risk management, and control processes were assessed as satisfactory, with some improvement needed. While this is encouraging, the recurring nature of several findings suggested that need for stronger preventive and systematic approaches to address underlying weaknesses is needed. The Group noted that 229 new recommendations were issued during the reporting period, many in program and project management, procurement, governance, and finance, and administrative services. We would greatly appreciate further clarification on the context to which these findings are recurring, whether certain operational contexts are more affected than others, and what measures are being taken to address the root causes in a sustainable manner. In the same spirit, we welcome the 81% implementation rate of audit recommendations. However, the fact that nearly one-fifth remain outstanding raises important questions regarding follow-up and accountability, particularly for high-risk recommendations. The Group encourages strongly for monitoring and for more regular reporting on overdue recommendations. We also noted positively that the audit plan completion target reached 100%, but at the same time, we remain concerned by the increase in the average time required to issue audit reports, which rose from 105 days against the target of 75 days. Clarification for the operational and resource-related challenges contributing to these delays, as well as measures being taken to improve timelines, would be greatly appreciated. The group further noted the significant increase in investigation caseloads, with 457 cases opened in 2025, the highest number recorded to date. While this may be or reflect improved reporting awareness mechanism, it may also point to continuing weaknesses in internal controls, compliance systems, and organizational culture. We further noted We take note of the risk identified by OAI, including budget reductions, regionalization processes, and increasing operational demands. The group stresses the importance of ensuring that oversight functions remain adequately resourced, independent, and effective, particularly in the program countries facing increasingly complex operational environments. The African Group again encourages greater emphasis on preventive auditing, early risk detection, and capacity building to support country offices. We are also encouraged— we also encourage the responsible use of information AI tools to enhance efficiency and data protection. Finally, the Group appreciates the important work of the Office of Audit and Investigations and reiterates its support for continued efforts to strengthen transparency, accountability, and institutional effectiveness across all operations. I thank you. President [52:56]: I thank the distinguished representative of Rwanda and give the floor now to the distinguished representative of Norway. Norway [53:05]: Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you to all the presenters. I deliver this statement on behalf of Belgium, Switzerland, France, Ireland, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Canada, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Australia, Luxembourg, and my own country, Norway. We thank UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS for their continued efforts to strengthen internal controls, risk management, and accountability in their organizations. We take note of the reports of the audit and investigation offices of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS, express our continued support for these functions, and reiterate the importance of their full independence and direct access to the Executive Board. We also express We expect the organizations to provide the internal audits and investigation offices with sufficient capacity so they can discharge their mandate effectively and efficiently. Mr. President, please allow us to highlight a few elements. Firstly, we wish to emphasize the importance of independence in addition to capacity. Across the reports, we see strong commitment to organizational independence, which is welcome. but independence must also be matched by sufficient staffing, expertise, and financing. If caseloads increase while budgets and capacity tighten, this may also affect the delivery of the independent mandate. Protecting these functions is therefore not optional. It is a core part of managing institutional risk. Secondly, we wish to stress the importance of effective case processing in investigations and management follow-up of audit recommendations. The reports show both high investigative activity and the continued need for timely implementation of audit recommendations. This matters greatly. Strong oversight depends not only on identifying weaknesses but also on processing investigation cases of alleged wrongdoing efficiently, reducing backlogs, ensuring that findings lead to corrective action. In a high-risk environment, the ability to respond quickly and correctly is essential for maintaining donor trust and reducing exposure. Thirdly, we underline that internal audits and investigation must be seen as tools for risk prevention, learning, and institutional improvement. The common themes across the reports include recurring weaknesses in procurement procurement, partner oversight, financial controls, and governance arrangements. These are systemic issues that require sustained management attention. Oversight is most valuable when it helps organizations not only address individual cases but also identify patterns, strengthen controls, and prevent similar issues from recurring. For us, the overall message is clear: in times of increased In this context of risk and pressure, internal audit and investigation functions must be safeguarded as a critical line of defense. Strong oversight is a precondition for accountability, sound risk management, and credible delivery. I thank you. President [56:19]: I thank the distinguished representative of Norway. I give the floor now to the United States, followed by the Netherlands, and if you bear with me, we will close the list at that point. United States. United States of America [56:31]: Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. The United States welcomes the work of UNDP's and UNOPS' respective audit and investigations bodies. Their independent expertise is vital to the protection of the resources that member states and our publics entrust to the UN. We note that the overall adequacy and effectiveness of corporate governance, risk management, and internal controls was evaluated as satisfied satisfactory with some improvement needed for UNDP, and partially satisfactory, some improvement needed for UNOPS. We strongly support the expanding confidence, speak-up culture, and robust whistleblower network frameworks that had driven increased internal reporting across both organizations. We welcome continued control improvements that prioritize proactive prevention, ensure secure reporting channels, and guarantee survivor-centric responses to all sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment allegations. On the financial side, fiscal discipline and resource protection must remain paramount. UNDP has yet to recover the bulk of $548,627 lost to fraud last year, while UNOPS saw its substantiated— saw its substantiated financial losses expand sharply to $5.3 million $1 million severely impacted by a single 4.4 construction misrepresentation case in Africa. We expect unyielding— an unyielding approach to fund recovery, contract termination, and vendor disbarment, and we request an update on what specific steps are being taken and timeline to recover these funds. Across the organization's global operations, structural control gaps must be remediated immediately. At UNDP, 10 country offices and 1 corporate cybersecurity audit were evaluated as unsatisfactory or requiring major improvement. For UNOPS, 5 internal audits and advisory reports received major improvement needed rating, while 3 project financial audits received unqualified unsatisfactory ratings due to expenditure support gaps. Unsatisfactory findings must be addressed immediately. What steps are being taken to redress these findings, and when will we receive updates. The United States expects UN system-wide zero tolerance for waste fraud and misconduct. We will continue to monitor these high-priority recommendations closely and expect full implementation as quickly as possible. Thank you. President [58:52]: I thank the United States. I give the floor to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Netherlands (Kingdom of the) [58:58]: Thank you, Mr. President. The Kingdom of the Netherlands aligns itself with the statement delivered by Norway and wishes to make the following remarks in in a national capacity. We commend the internal audit and investigation functions of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS for the work undertaken in 2025, as outlined in their respective reports. The important oversight roles of these functions ultimately contribute to more effective governance, risk management, and control processes. We therefore call on UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS to continue to implement outstanding audit recommendations. Furthermore, we emphasize that adequate staffing and financing of these functions is key. Could the audit offices elaborate on the effects of the current resource and capacity constraints? Specifically, what can these offices no longer do as a result of these constraints, and what options are UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS management considering to ensure that these offices are able to deliver audit, investigation, and advisory services in an independent and effective manner throughout the strategic plan period. Mr. President, please allow us to make a few points based on the documentation provided at today's presentations. With regard to OAI's annual reports, we appreciate OAI's transparency about its constraints, its risk-based approach to both audits and investigations, and the clear prioritization of high-risk and SEIA cases, as well as the openness to to engage with member states on performance indicators and timeliness. In light of the growing caseload and the disruptions expected from relocation and budget reductions, what concrete safeguards are in place to ensure that high-risk investigation cases related to SEA and fraud are not delayed or deprioritized? And with regard to OAIS's annual reports, we commend OAIS for the results achieved in 2025. Including the highest output of audit reports to date, a 97% implementation of the 2025 Work Plan, and the significant reduction of the backlog of cases. The clear communication of OIAS to the board, including through its closed briefings on recurrent issues and risks, is much appreciated and allows us to conduct our oversight role more effectively. One recurring issue identified in the report relates to the management of implementing partners., which we note that UNFPA is currently addressing. When are the measures taken to improve this expected to yield the intended results? In other words, is the management and oversight of implementing partners likely to remain an overarching issue in next year's audit reports? Thank you. President [1:01:32]: I thank the representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. I now invite the entity representatives and the chairs of the audit advisory committees to respond, as appropriate. Please keep your responses brief, given the time available. Linda? UNDP · Assistant Administrator and Director, Bureau for Management Services · Linda Maguire [1:01:49]: Thank you. And thank you very much for the questions. For anything we don't answer, we're happy to do so in writing. But just a few, I'll try to group them together. So there were, I think, Rwanda and Norway on implementation rate. So just to say that for UNDP, that 81% what accounts for it. You know, the most outstanding recommendations are very recent, so they are within the normal timeline. So of the 189 outstanding recommendations as of December 25th, 82% of them are under 12 months old. So it's just to say that it's not as, as if they're growing, it's that we have a kind of a big chunk that we're working through, but they're very much in the normal timeline. And, of course, we want to implement them well and really think through how to improve. So, on root causes, there were a couple of questions about that, and also particularly weakness in program and project management, procurement were mentioned, I think, by Rwanda in the African statement as well. So, we are coordinating and looking at,, you know, what are the root causes instead, you know, is it root cause analysis or is it improving reporting metrics? We do think that it's— we're reaching the root causes, not just improving reporting, because our finance recommendations, our procurement, and our implementing, sort of national implementation figures have either improved or remained steady. On PPM per se, So 48 recommendations, 41% of country office findings. So this is a big group of recommendations. We're taking actions on PPM certification, on standardized quality assurance, on integrated risk modules in Quantum at project level. So these are just some examples. And corrective measures also extend into management, so how we see sit down, you know, the central bureau of management with each of the regional bureaus to go through in quarterly bureau dialogues what is going well, what is not going well at bureau and at country office level. Just another example. And then just finally, on adequate resourcing, I mean, you know, this is Norway, but not only— this is obviously a concern all around. We have managed to protect OAI's budget and ethics, I should add, in 2026. 2027 has not yet been concluded, our budgeting process, but OAI indicated, I think, planned relocations will hopefully free up some fiscal space there, maybe 4.5% or so of savings, and hopefully we'll be able to make do within that buffer. Thank you. President [1:04:49]: Mr. Taylor. UNDP · Director, Office of Audit and Investigations · Chris Taylor [1:04:52]: Thank you. Thank you, everybody, for your questions, and just more broadly, for your support to OIO and to my colleagues in the integrity functions. We do feel it, and we do appreciate it. I'm actually going to start just at the bottom quickly with the question from the Netherlands around the SEAH investigations, because it's an area that we take extremely seriously. In OAI. As we go through relocation, there will be some disruption, and that's— it's fair to say that, but we are very conscious that we owe those people, in particular on the high-priority cases, high-risk cases that come to us, to make sure that those cases are not dropped. There's a number of steps that we have in place. I mean, most important will be to make sure that as the team transition and relocate, we are either taking taking those same individuals with us, they're very, they're very proficient, they're very strong at what they do, and but if we're not, that we are forward planning to replace them like for like with people who are just as capable so that we're maintaining that capacity. And we're also training some of our other investigators within the function on how to do SEAH investigations because they are a different discipline and they do require different types of skills. They require a lot of emotional intelligence and so on to actually to do them properly. So we're training others in the team so that we've got some additional kind of resilience behind us. And then the third layer will be that if necessary, we will bring in, you know, short-term contingent investigators. There's plenty of people in the market that, that want to work for UNDP and that we can draw on that have experience on SEAH cases. So we are forward planning to try and minimize the amount of disruption that we get, and that's, that's the example on the SEAH SEAH side. There are similar plans in place for other types of investigation as well within the function, but I just really wanted to focus on SEAH because it is such an important area. I think Linda has already spoken a little bit about, um, the issue of recurrent issues, which was raised by colleagues from Rwanda. Um, I think in my mind there's a difference between the recurrent issues that we identify in the annual report and systemic failures. The way that we classify types of control issue in the report is quite high-level. For example, program and project issues. Of course, UNDP has 3,000+ different projects, and when we go to countries, we really look in detail at how effectively they're being managed. I think if you look at anything in the complex environments that we work in long enough and hard enough, there will be issues coming up. What we need to do in OAI to support the management team is to try and identify where there genuinely are areas where the same problem has arisen from one country office to the next. We do that in different ways. Linda mentioned the bureau briefings that we have, and we're also now experimenting with AI to see if we can more accurately identify where there genuinely are common threads. This is flashing at me. Can I answer one more question? Please. Okay, right, one more question, which is then just around recommendations and the recommendation rate. And again, Linda mentioned that a bunch of those recommendations— yeah, there was, there was one additional point that I wanted to make, which is that the recommendation rate as a single KPI is quite a sort of a blunt measure, because you can have a very high recommendation rate by, for example, making recommendations which are very compliance-focused and very easy to fix. What we're trying to do is we move towards a more risk-based approach to audit. What I mean by that is expecting the audit team to go beyond a compliance failure and really engage with the management team to understand why there was a compliance issue in the first place, and then create a recommendation which addresses that root cause. And often that root cause is more complex than there was an issue that you didn't do, you should do it. It might have an underlying issue to do with training or capacity or or maybe access to the right skills in the local market. Some of those things take longer to fix. So that's why the recommendations, I think, as we become more risk-based, sometimes they will naturally take longer to implement. So it's important to track that, but it is also important, I think, for us in OAI, and we'll take this away, to provide a bit more context around what that rate is really telling us in terms of kind of risk exposure for UNDP. There were other questions. I will refer to my notes and come back to colleagues if necessary. President [1:09:06]: Thanks. Thank you. We turn now to Mr. Nagio, briefly. UNDP · Chair · Rakesh Nanjiah [1:09:13]: Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I'd just like to complement what both Linda and Chris mentioned. First, in response to the Chair from Norway, let me reassure you that the independent functions are completely independent from all aspects, not just structural, but also from financial and behavioral aspects. And we have, including with the other oversight bodies, never had issues with documentation availability of those or the freedom to have discussions with, with staff and management. This has been completely open and we have always seen a receptivity on the side of management, and for that we are truly grateful. On the financial independence, you did mention the improving or increasing caseload and the budgets which need to be concomitant. We again had very open discussions with both Chris and the other oversight bodies, heads of the other oversight bodies, to ensure that the resources, both financial and human, are available for them to conduct what work they have to. We were convinced. We had long discussions with them, including the relocation of staff that Linda mentioned. And had this not been the case, we would have certainly gone back to the administrator to have broader discussions on the financial independence side. Last point, Mr. President, on the longstanding recommendations that Linda responded to. In our discussions with them, we've looked at both which ones are long-standing and more importantly, which one should be prioritized from a higher-risk perspective. Again, in discussions, we were comforted by the fact that management was targeting the implementation of the recommendations in an appropriate way and ensuring that the long-standing recommendations stay within targets. Thank you again, Mr. President. President [1:11:20]: Thank you. We now turn to UNFPA, Mr. Sabaton. UNFPA · Deputy Executive Director for Management · Andrew Saberton [1:11:27]: Thank you, Mr. President. And I'll race through, um, 3 of the points really. Um, firstly, I'm gonna have a shout out for management here because we did hear that this was a record year in terms of the audit reports and audit recommendations. In my intervention, this was a record year for management implementing the recommendations at 95%. 85%, and that was over 220 recommendations, that record number in a year. I just want to give a shout out in the sense of, if I go back 4 years, you know, on the trial cap, we had less than half that number of recommendations issued in a year, and we had a lower implementation rate. So very clear how seriously management takes the implementation of this. I also want to put another perspective on the funding issue. Obviously, we're all aware of the funding environment we're currently in at the moment. I would just like to say that the OAIS budget for the next 4 years is $43.8 million. This is only marginally lower than the budget for the previous 4 years, which was $43.9 million. That's less than a million. That actually equates to a quarter of a percent reduction. So no other part of of the UNFPA organisation has got away with less cuts in this time. So it's very serious that management tries to sustain, quite rightly, the financing for the independent audit services. We can't compare the last year of a budget for the independent audit services with the first year of a new one, because in UNFPA's rules, any unspent balance in any year of the 4 years in the independent services can be carried forward right the way through. That can't happen in any other part of our organisation where you would give up your institutional budget figure at the end of every year. So by default, that last year of a budget has everything unspent from the previous year, which is more than we can give at the start of the beginning of the first year. We have— despite that, we are working hand in hand with the colleagues to to try and make more funding available wherever we can. But I just want to put one figure out there, because I know this kind of comes up. Since I have joined UNFPA, that's in 2009, the actual budget increase for the independent audit and evaluation services has had a 155% increase. That's at the time when we've actually had a 57% increase in revenue. Again, No other part of the organisation has grown so materially in that period of time. And the final question, the final thing to refer to, yes, I hope that we will not be returning year after year with the same questions on the implementing partners. Some things we're trying to do, in my intervention we mentioned we are actually creating, and the board approved the budget last year, the creation of regional controller units, which will have units which will have people in the region monitoring the assurance activities of our implementing partners. We are actually doing a more differentiated risk management process, concentrating on where the risk is. We are putting in risk at the point of programme creation and evaluation, and we're starting to look now, given we're in increasingly humanitarian environments, at a much larger— we want to come back to you with much more risk-sharing models. It is a risk riskier environment we are actually operating in at the moment and we're required to take bigger risks. Thank you, Mr. Chair. President [1:14:52]: Thank you very much. Mr. Grieb. UNFPA · Director, Office of Audit and Investigation Services · Monsef Grieb [1:14:55]: Thank you very much and many thanks to the distinguished delegates. I will focus my response to probably to the main issues that have been highlighted. To the distinguished delegate of Norway, I wish to reconfirm that our office is independent. And this has also been re-emphasized in our new charter that was approved by the Executive Director and was submitted to the Executive Board. And this is also a tribute to the office and the role that it plays within UNFPA. The other aspect also related to the implementation of the audit recommendations. We have an excellent dialogue with management. Management takes also all recommendations seriously. I can tell you throughout the last, or in the last 3 years that I've been with the organization, I haven't seen any recommendation disagreed by management. They take on board all recommendation and they start implementing them. So many thanks to management. Let me now turn to the distinguished delegate of the Netherlands on the budget issue and also on the implementing partners. On the budget issue, Unfortunately, yes, we had a budget reduction which had also some impact on our delivery as an office. First of all, we had to reduce the number of consultants that were dealing with a certain number of investigation cases. This also had an impact on the number of cases per investigator. If I take the GIU standard, it calls for any investigator has to deal with between 5 to 7 cases. Now we have a standard in OIAS. We have investigators dealing cases between 15 to 20 cases, which is really hard for them. We also had to cut the number of audit— of the time on the field for audit missions, moving from 3 weeks to 2 weeks, also reducing the number of members in any audit mission. So it has also an impact. So we have moved also and implement a certain number of stopgap measures, including prioritizing when we can remote audits, also using artificial intelligence and data to help us get the assurance that we need. But I must say that those are the things we did, but the things that we will never do as an office is to pause an investigation, pause an investigation related to sexual misconduct That's a no-go. Every case we receive, every allegation we receive is promptly reviewed, assessed, and investigated. So I can give you all the assurances needed that this has never happened. Also, we will not— we will always continue supporting the victims. So this has not stopped. We will continue supporting the victims. And also, we will hold the perpetrators accountable. So this has not stopped. On the implementing partners, I can also inform you that we are conducting a cross-cutting audit on all implementing partners. Why do we have these recurrent issues? They are— so these issues on implementing partners, they are highlighted in every country office audit. What we did this year is we are conducting right now an audit of UNFPA implementing partners, overall audit, and we are questioning the data. We want the story behind the data. we are not stopping at just using the data, but what is the behavior? Why do we have these issues? And it turns out we have elements of policies, we have also elements of capacity in country offices, and there will be a certain number of recommendations that will help UNFPA strengthen its controls over the selection, assessment, monitoring of all implementing partners. And I hope that the number of issues will decrease in the upcoming years,, but this we will have to come back to you. Thank you very much. President [1:18:44]: Thank you. We now turn to UNOPS, starting with Mr. Sol, then Mr. Dieng, and then Mr. Mori. UNOPS · Chief Financial Officer · Carl Ludwig Soll [1:18:51]: Thank you, Mr. Chair. With respect to the questions raised by the distinguished delegates from Norway and Netherlands, it's absolutely important for us that management recognizes independence and funding and— of both audit intervention and investigation functions. UNOPS had a lot of reductions and restructuring in corporate functions management budget, but since 2022, we have not reduced any funding for the management expense on the independent functions, particularly on IAIG. So because this is a very, very high commitment on our side. Just to be brief on the To the question with respect to the overall recognition of how important this function is, we have achieved a 97% implementation rate, and that's another increase in the implementation. It's just a sign how serious we take this implementation of internal audit recommendations. With respect of the statement made by the Distinguished delegate of the USA, yes, we had losses in certain environments. We have— we take these very, very seriously because we are directed by our partners to work in these most special and fragile environments. And as the Executive Director said, this is where a disproportional size of our business is actually conducted. Projects are conducted. That's why we have to introduce risk measures to work in these environments, and we investigate these and address the findings on these projects and the recovery of funds and particularly the mitigation measures in order to avoid these losses in the future. But it is very much essential to our business model to work and be able to work with fiduciary responsibility in those environments. Thank you very much. UNOPS · Director, Internal Audit and Investigations Group · Abdul Dieng [1:20:55]: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will respond to two questions. One is related to our independence. Since 2022, the board has been monitoring IAG independence through two aspects. One, our functional independence. Are we— do we have unrestricted access to the board, to the audit committee, Do we have closed session? Yes, you have— can confirm it. The second aspect is our operational independence. Through our charter, the process to approve our budget, we do not go through UNOPS process to approve our budget. We have specific process. I deal straight with the Executive Director. And the next one is our annual work plan. Our Executive Office and the senior management has no say on our annual work plan. They can give us input, but we decide what to do. So if there is any interference in the future, and I think it will not happen, I'll report it to the right channel. On budget and resources, for your information, I have relocated 22% of the personnel last year of IIJ, leading to a lot of savings that I'm using for two things: one, to add one more investigator and to invest on artificial intelligence without asking for more budget. Just because I relocated the team, I save money for salary, I save money for travel costs, and I invest it in artificial intelligence and in the— in recruiting one more person. So that's what I do, and if there is any need in the future, I'll reassess it. But for that, I want to tell you that we are embarking artificial intelligence. When you embark Artificial intelligence, you need to pause, assess the maturity of the artificial intelligence, and see how it impacts the time you take to investigate, the time you take to audit, and then reassess the resources needed. In the future, the way you work will not be the same, and then the resource needed will not be the same. I need to be prudent. I need to be accountable of the financial budget I have and reassess when needed and come back to the right the General before asking for additional resources. On recovery, you have the experience on this area. UNOPS is very strong in monitoring the recovery, and our job as investigators is to investigate and to pass it on to our General Counsel. So for that, I will just pause here because the CFO has responded on recovery purposes. Thank you. President [1:23:18]: Thank you to both Mr. Sol and Mr. Deng. We now go to Mr. Mori. UNOPS · Chair · Naojiro Mouri [1:23:22]: Thank you, Mr. President, distinguished representatives. As you know, UNOPS operates as a self-financing fee-for-service entity, so even though it is part of the UN agency, it actually behaves like a private industry organization in which that constant cost efficiency, and then reducing the cost is the paramount activity. However, as the Audit Committee, we protect the independence, budget, and activities of IAIG, as Abdul has indicated. So this is very important to us as a function of the UNOPS operating as a self-financing fee-for-service entity. So I can assure you that every meeting that we have with AAC, this is something that we discuss. In terms of the implementation partner, and then there was a question about the construction project. UNOPS has recognized those issues, and then they have established the Portfolio Oversight Committee, which actually looks at the systemic issues. That could potentially impact the operations of the UNOPS. And we do pay attention from the AAC point of view on systemic issues, not the individual cases, but what actually breaks the organization, and also individual significant cases such as construction projects. Yes, those are very unique, as Abdul and then Carl mentioned, that We are operating in a very difficult and fragile context, so these things could actually happen. So, but I can assure you from the AAC point of view that we are continuing to look at these, and then we will report back to the executive committee and respective— this thing is representative— if we see anything that we need to report. Thank you, Mr. President. President [1:25:34]: Thank you, Mr. Mori. We're going to go back to Ms. Komiko Matsuri Muller, Chair of the Oversight Advisory Committee of UNFPA, to close us out. UNFPA · Chair · Kumiko Matsura-Muller [1:25:44]: Thank you very much for the floor. I think I don't have much to add, but I would like to address the issue of IP management audits. It is true that the implementation of the recommendation of I OIAS has been really advancing a lot, and especially now in 2026, it has been even more accelerated. There were areas that we were concerned, for example, in the supply management, but huge progress has been made since then. Regarding the IP management, I think the OIAS has been able to identify the key weaknesses area, like in the area of selection compliance, financial monitoring, oversight, and assurance activities. But it also concludes that there is a big issue on the capacity of the field in the country offices. We have insisted that— I mean, the audit— the oversight committee insisted that it is very important that the root cause of the systemic issues are identified and addressed. And in this regard, the Committee is quite pleased to see that the OAIS included in the strategy— its strategic plan for 2026-2029 a number of cross-country audits like Moncef just mentioned. Of course, this root causes changes because the whole environment changes. UNFPA operates in a number of countries with one conflict, hit by one conflict after another, and sometimes with health issues. So I do note that UNFPA is adapting the audit and also the findings, addressing the findings in accordance with these risks that UNFPA is exposed. In regard to IP management, I would like to inform that this year the IP Committee is meeting in the summer and we have one specific session dedicated to address the IP management issues, particularly with focus on assurance activities. And we also have a joint session with Oversight Coordination Office together with OAIS to specifically to address the cross-country issues with focus on IP management. Thank you. President [1:28:55]: Thank you. I thank all of the representatives for their responses and the delegates for their questions and comments. And this concludes the consideration of Agenda Item 3, Internal Audit and Investigation. Please be informed that the Board— I wish to inform the Board that a draft decision on the Agenda Item 3, Internal Audit and Investigation, is under consideration and will be presented for the board's consideration later in the session. We're going to now proceed to agenda item 4 on ethics. 30 seconds for a quick podium change and then we'll be right back. Speaker 54 [1:30:16]: Who's better? Um— President [1:30:45]: Thank you, colleagues. If you could retake your seats, we will now continue the joint segment with Agenda Item 4 on ethics. Under this item, colleagues, We have resumed. Under this item, the Board will consider the reports of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS on the activities of their respective ethics offices in 2025, as well as the related management responses. I'm very pleased to welcome back to the podium Ms. Linda Maguire, Assistant Administrator and Director, Bureau, UNDP. Mr. Alessandro Maggi, Director Ethics Office, UNDP. Mr. Sabaton remains with us. I also welcome Ms. Miriam Baile, Ethics Advisor for UNFPA. Ms. Valerie Kushata, Director People and Culture Group, UNOPS. Mr. Birkan Manaygo Fekel, Director Ethics Office, UNOPS. I'm going to read verbatim from my notes, which says, please note that this item is scheduled to proceed until 4:30 PM PM. Please check your clocks. While every effort will be made to accommodate as many interventions as possible, delegations unable to take the floor may submit their statements to e-statements, and this is highly encouraged. Questions may also be shared with the Executive Board Secretariat, which will transmit them to the relevant entities. So we're asking for your collaboration, your cooperation, in being very tight, including from the podium, in this segment. Without further ado, I give the floor now to Mr. Alessandro Maggi, Director, Ethics Office, UNDP, to present the report on the activities of the UNDP Ethics Office in 2025. UNDP · Director, Ethics Office · Alessandro Maggi [1:32:28]: Thank you, Mr. President, for the opportunity to introduce this report. The Ethics Office activities help manage risk, strengthen organizational culture, and reinforce the integrity of of UNDP's accountability system. Allow me to highlight 3 points from the report. First, the UNDP Ethics Office is delivering at scale across a large, decentralized organization. Second, the data demonstrates that we are having concrete impact. Third, we are continuing to strengthen our efficiency and effectiveness. Effectiveness through innovation and forward-looking improvements. On delivery at scale, the Office supports more than 23,000 personnel across 130 offices, as well as UNDP-hosted entities. In 2025, this included 143 awareness sessions delivered and nearly 2,000 financial disclosure files reviewed. The Office also continued to contribute its expertise beyond UNDP, including through support to the International Civil Service Commission's review of the Standards of Conduct. In short, this report demonstrates that this is a well-established function that is able to deliver activities at a significant scale. On impact, the ethics offices responded to the Board's invitation for stronger measurement, as reflected in the report. For example, following our activities in one bureau, 96% of respondents reported improved awareness of ethical standards, and 82% reported greater confidence in using internal channels for advice, reporting, and protection against retaliation. Training efforts in several offices also increased demand for confidential ethics advice, an important indicator of trust and a pathway to earlier risk identification and management. On continuous improvement, the Office is investing in approaches that increase the reach and strengthen the responsiveness. The Ethics Champion Network, for example, grew by 60%. The Office also launched an AI-enabled guidance tool that addressed more than 45,000 low-risk queries, allowing the— to focus on the higher-risk matters. Further improvements are underway to support a more anticipatory ethics function. Overall, the report presents a mature ethics function delivering at scale, showing measurable results, and continuing to evolve to remain future-ready. This contributes to and enables the oversight and good governance to be expected from stewards of public funds. I take this opportunity to thank my colleagues in the UNDP Ethics Office for their dedicated work, management for its support to this independent function, and the Executive Board for its continued engagement. Mr. President, this concludes my statement. I am pleased to address any questions. President [1:36:13]: Thank you very much, Mr. Magi, for your presentation, and I give the floor to Ms. McGuire for the management response. UNDP · Assistant Administrator and Director, Bureau for Management Services · Linda Maguire [1:36:22]: Thank you, Mr. President, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. I am pleased to deliver our management response to the annual report of the Ethics Office. UNDP appreciates the Ethics Office's work in strengthening ethics, accountability, and organizational integrity. Management commends the Office for its outreach in 2025 with the highest ever participation level in ethics learning activities and welcomes the continued expansion of ethics services, including increased demand for confidential ethics guidance. Management recognizes the Office's innovation in deploying AI-enabled tools to handle routine low-risk queries. Allowing the team to focus on higher-risk and individualized advice. This is a meaningful efficiency gain in a function that operates at significant scale. Management is pleased to note that the financial disclosure program achieved 100% compliance in UNDP, an important control that reflects the seriousness with which personnel approach their disclosure— disclosure disclosure obligations. Management welcomes the strengthened whistleblower protection framework reflected in the revised policy and recognizes the Ethics Office's role in supporting a safe reporting environment and strengthening institutional accountability through its work on protection against retaliation. Management also values the Ethics Office's engagement in system-wide ethics collaboration and supports its ongoing efforts to strengthen case management and analytics capacity through innovative tools. Allow me to close by reaffirming management's commitment to a strong culture of ethics, integrity, and accountability across the organization, and to an independent and well-supported ethics office. The constructive partnership is central to ensuring this behavior behaviour and principled decision-making and accountability. Thank you. And back to you. President [1:38:28]: Thank you very much, Ms. Maguire, for your concise presentation. I give the floor now to Ms. Maryam Bayeli, Ethics Advisor, UNFPA, to present the report on the activities of the UNFPA Ethics Office in 2025. UNFPA · Ethics Advisor · Miriam Baile [1:38:41]: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, distinguished members of the Executive Board, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honour to present to you the report of the UNFPA EA Ethics Office activities for 2025. While 2024 was a year of transition and strategic reorientation, 2025 has been a year of strengthening and expansion of the Ethics Office work to fulfill its mandate. This included developing a new Ethics Office strategy established on four strategic pillars: fit for purpose, hub for excellence, inclusive ethics, and accessible communication. Our primary objective in 2025 was to move beyond policy and reach our global workforce directly. We more than doubled participation in our training and outreach activities this year, reaching a total of 2,514 personnel in 23 duty stations around the world. In addition to virtual training sessions, I personally conducted 3 in-person missions to the Asia-Pacific region. —Arab states, and the Latin and Central America region, connecting directly with regional and country offices. Further, to increase visibility and trust, we also created the Ethics Champions Network to provide an in-person reference for colleagues navigating ethical dilemmas. To expand our virtual and in-person live training, we launched several multimedia communication materials such as bite-sized interactive training videos, brochures, and monthly newsletters, which are available in multiple languages. Parallel to this awareness-raising and outreach, we have remained steadfast in our compliance mandate. For the financial disclosure program, I'm proud to report 100% compliance among the 950 participants identifying and resolving previously undisclosed conflicts of interest. —of interest. We are also seeing a sustained increase in proactive disclosures in 2026, showing a shift from reactive protection to proactive prevention. In 2025, we continue to receive a higher number of PAR—Protection Against Retaliation—requests, showing enhanced psychological safety and colleagues feeling empowered to submit complaints without fear of reprisal. We recognize that 2025 was also a period of organizational restructuring, which increases the risk of workplace friction. In response, the Ethics Office developed and disseminated practical guidelines to help staff identify and address workplace issues and promoted a bystander capacity. We remain a primary advocate for the informal resolution of workplace conflicts to avoid escalation and prevent misconduct and provide staff with guidance and referrals to other resources. Throughout this period, the Ethics Office continues to function with full independence and impartiality. I am happy to report that all of our recommendations to the Executive Director, including protective measures for whistleblowers, have been fully implemented. Looking toward 2026-2029, we have updated our long-term strategy to align it with the UNFPA's broader goals. 2026 will be dedicated to ethical leadership, ensuring those in management positions set the highest tone at the top. In closing, we are committed to collaborating with a broad range of stakeholders and to advise the Executive Office and to help organization achieve its mandate. By doing so, we are safeguarding UNFPA's reputation and most and importantly UNFPA's mandate. Thank you, Mr. President, distinguished members of the Executive Board. I look forward to your guidance and questions. I thank Ms. President [1:42:28]: Vaele for her presentation. I give the floor now to Mr. Sabaton for the management response. UNFPA · Deputy Executive Director for Management · Andrew Saberton [1:42:34]: Thank you, Mr. President. Excellencies, distinguished members and observers of the Board, colleagues, it is a privilege to present the UNFPA management response 2025 Ethics Office, uh, report. Uh, UNFPA remains steadfast in our commitment to a zero tolerance policy for wrongdoing and to fostering a culture of integrity. We are greatly encouraged by the growing trust our staff place in the Ethics Office. In 2022, 2025, requests for ethics advice rose to 703, reflecting a proactive work for workforce that seeks early guidance. Furthermore, our protection against retaliation mechanism remains robust. We fully implemented all recommendations for temporary protective measures this year, demonstrating our unwavering commitment to protecting whistleblowers and maintaining a safe speak-up culture. UNFPA leadership fully supports the unique independent mandate of the Ethics Office, and to safeguard this, we exempted the office from our 2025 budget reduction measures and travel restrictions, ensuring that their vital work continues despite a challenging funding environment. We achieved a 100% completion rate for our financial disclosure program among the designated staff and maintained a high 86.2% compliance rate for mandatory training. Moreover, to modernize our outreach, we expanded our interactive digital modules and proudly piloted the Ethics Champions Network to provide peer-to-peer ethical guidance directly to our field personnel. Looking forward to 2026, we are excited to, to automate the financial disclosure platform to reduce manual workloads, and we welcome the new Support and Connect tool for streamlined workplace conflict resolution. Management will continue to work closely with the wider with Integrity Group to ensure coordinated staff support. We thank the Ethics Office for their rigorous work and look forward to our continued collaboration. Thank you. I thank Mr. President [1:44:42]: Sabaton for his concise presentation. I now give the floor to Mr. Berkan Manaigo-Vekel, Director, Ethics Office, UNOPS, to present the report on the activities of the UNOPS Ethics Office in 2025. UNOPS · Director, Ethics Office · Berkan Manaigo-Vekel [1:44:56]: Thank you, Mr. President, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, colleagues. I'm pleased to present the work of the Ethics Office as outlined in our annual report covering 2025. Let me begin by confirming that throughout 2025, the Ethics Office was free from undue interference in the execution of its mandate and remained fully compliant with the applicable GIAU standards on operational independence. Turning to our day-to-day operations, the Ethics Office's service delivery remained largely consistent with the previous year. Allow me to highlight some key aspects of our work. In 2025, the Ethics Office launched an overhauled speak-up and whistleblowing mechanism supported by the Integrity Portal, which serves as a one-stop shop for reporting allegations of misconduct, for accessing information on UNOPS's UNOPS' internal justice system, whistleblower processes, and related services. Since its launch, the Ethics Office has observed a substantive increase in the utilization rate for requests for protection against retaliation compared to the previous system. Last year, the Ethics Office also launched UNOPS' first Code of Ethics, which serves as the foundation for this new mechanism. The Code is based on the Standards of Conduct for the International Civil Service and applies to all UNOPS personnel, including non-staff. During 2025, the Ethics Office also overhauled the previous Speak Up approach by introducing a more preventive framework grounded in behavioral psychology and visualized through a new poster. Under this framework, personnel are encouraged to engage in dialogue by speaking with each other, speaking out for UNOPS' values enshrined in the Code and speak up against misconduct. To embed these reforms in day-to-day operations, the Ethics Office initiated a range of training and awareness-raising activities in 2025, which continue to be a priority this year. Among them are UNOPS' first Ethics Dialogues, designed as a series of management-led discussions reaching over 3,200 personnel last year in more than 310 sessions across UNOPS' operations. In November 2025, the Ethics Office also launched the Global Ethics Starts with Me training campaign aimed at contributing to broader culture transformation using scenario-based learning on topics such as the Code of Ethics, the Integrity Portal, and the Speaking With, Out, and Up framework. With regard to whistleblower protection, the Ethics Office finalize its first standard operating procedures for the implementation of the Protection Against Retaliation policy, further professionalizing day-to-day operations. In this context, during 2025, the Ethics Office handled a total of 45 matters relating to protection against retaliation. Of these, 31 were advisory matters, while 14 were categorized as formal cases. Of these, 9 formal cases were closed in 2025. 6 resulted in findings of no prima facie retaliation, as they did not meet the standard required under the policy. 3 cases were referred for investigations, following which retaliation was not established in 1 case, while in 2 cases retaliation was established by the Ethics Office. For these, recommendations were made to the Executive Director for appropriate corrective measures. Referrals were also made to the General Counsel for consideration of possible disciplinary or other procedures. Finally, in 2025, the Ethics Office also continued its partnership with the United Nations Secretariat Ethics Office in the implementation of its financial disclosure and conflict of interest program. During the year, a total of 1,263 personnel, including non-staff, were designated to file under the policy, achieving a compliance rate of 99.9%. All members of UNOPS' senior management team were fully compliant with the program. In closing, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, I would like to thank you for your continued support of the work of the Ethics Office and also of our independence. I also want to thank my hard-working team who is watching right now, for their hard work and dedication throughout this year. Thank you, and back to you. President [1:49:26]: I thank Mr. Manago-Veckl for his presentation, and I give the floor now to Ms. Valerie Koshiato, Director, People and Culture Group, UNOPS, for the management response. UNOPS · Director, People and Culture Group · Valerie Kushata [1:49:36]: Thank you, Mr. President, distinguished members of the Executive Board, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of UNOPS management, I am pleased to address the Board on our response to the 2025 Annual Report of the Ethics Office. I wish to thank my colleague, uh, Bekan Manaikovekio, and his team for their continued professionalism and for the quality of this year's report. Management confirms that the Ethics Office operated entirely free from interference in 2025, with full access to this board and the Audit Advisory Committee. We responded positively to 9 critical recommendations during the year and reaffirm our commitment to that standard of engagement. 2025 was a year in which the structural reforms in this board has long supported became operational. The Integrity Portal and the first UNOPS Code of Ethics went live in January 2025, completing the overhaul of the Speak Up and Whistleblowing mechanism mandated under Decision 2022/24. The Standard Operating procedures for the Protection Against Retaliation policy were finalized in November. Management regards these as significant milestones, while the real test lies in their use. The data emerging from the first year of operation— growing portal traffic, increased number of cases submitted directly, higher participation in ethics training— are early signals that personnel are beginning to engage with these mechanisms. Management takes note of this with measured confidence, recognizing that awareness and trust must continue to be actively built. On protection against retaliation, management accepts the Ethics Office assessment of the increase in formal cases. What matters to us is the quality of our response. Where interim protective measures were recommended, we implemented them. Where retaliation was ultimately established, corrective measures were approved and applied without delay. This is the standard we hold ourselves to, and we are clear that any erosion of it would undermine the credibility of the entire framework. On financial disclosures, the 99.9% compliance rate and the reduction in identified conflicts of interest are encouraging. Management sees in these figures evidence of gradual shift in how personnel understand and act on their obligations. This commitment is especially important for cross-cutting protection priorities such as prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment. The Ethics Office works with PSEH and the Navigation Support Function and Workplace Conduct colleagues, reinforces a coherent, survivor-centered, and people-focused approach to reporting and supporting— and supporting ensuring our speak-up channels link to practical protection and remedial measures for for those most vulnerable. I see my time is almost, Mr. President, but I'll go to the last paragraph. We will continue to respond to the Ethics Office recommendations in a timely manner and to make ethics a living part of UNOPS culture. President [1:52:36]: I'm so sorry, but thank you so much for wrapping up. Thank you very much, Mr. Kushata, for that. Colleagues, I now open the floor for statements or questions. I implore you to be concise. We have currently 3 delegations on the speakers list. If there are any others who wish to take the floor for very brief interventions, please indicate now or I will close the list. I give the floor to Tunisia, speaking on behalf of the African Group, to be followed by Rwanda and the United States. Tunisia · Africa Group [1:53:17]: Thank you, Mr. President. I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of African members of Executive Board, namely Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Zambia, and my own country, Tunisia. The group welcomes this opportunity to reflect on the importance of ethics within the work of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS, and we reaffirm our collective commitment to the principles and values that guide the UN system. The group believes that strong ethical culture is fundamental to fostering trust between Member States, staff, and wider public. Ethics should not be understood solely as a matter of compliance, but rather as a guiding framework that informs leadership, decision-making, and organizational conduct at all levels. In this regard, Several elements deserve particular attention. First, accountability and transparency remain indispensable to sound governance. Second, the importance of promoting an inclusive and respectful workplace culture. Third, the importance of maintaining strong and independent and adequately resourced ethics functions across the organizations. Fourth, the importance of continued efforts to strengthen ethical ethical training and awareness across all categories of persons. The African Group also wishes to highlight the close relationship between the ethics and the credibility of the multilateral system. At a time when confidence in international institutions is being tested, the conduct of organizations and their personnel matters greatly. Upholding ethical standards reinforces trust in the UN system as an impartial, principled, and reliable partner. In this regard, the African Group encourages continued efforts to strengthen internal justice systems, leadership accountability, prevention of misconduct, and protection against sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment across all entities of the UN development system. To conclude, Mr. President, the African Group encourages enhanced cooperation among the ethics functions of UN UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS in order to promote coherence, exchange of best practices, and reinforce a common culture of integrity while fully respecting the distinct mandates and governance structures of each organization. President [1:55:32]: And I thank you. I thank the distinguished delegate of Tunisia and give the floor to the distinguished delegate of Rwanda and then the USA. Rwanda [1:55:43]: Thank you, Mr. President, and we align ourselves with the statement delivered by Tunisia. Just in short, I think the statistics, the numbers, the reports we read from all the agencies are really encouraging to see that there is trust. That's what we see from the numbers we're seeing. There is confidence in these ethics offices. There is even confidential approach to the ethics office. This is incredibly very useful, and I think it speaks to one fact. The fact that as you grow, as you invest in, there is confidence, and this is very important, like Tunisia mentioned before, the credibility, accountability, but also effectiveness of our organization, but particularly the agencies now we speaking to. And we also like the fact that we spoke to protection of the whistleblowers, which is very, very important. If that is not done, then even these statistics, you may see them backsliding. I think there's a need to continue investing in all these success numbers. But also the report, again, across all the agencies, we saw that there's where they highlight what needs to be done. I think there's something that probably you need to do to follow up, and then probably in the future report that we're going to see, also see what has been done. But also, more importantly and lastly, I think What these numbers are suggesting is that there is a need to protect the gains, there is a need to protect where you are, what these offices are doing, there's a need to scale up, there's also a need to be provided with resources. We saw that you reached out to, I think, 143, you know, across 48 countries. That's very impressive. We would wish to see even more than that, and then even other agencies. So a very good job. I think there's trust for the Ethics Office, and for us, we really, really support the office because the importance of the ethics, the foundation of the very working of these agencies, is extremely very important. If we go less, then even the investment we put in in terms of resources, we will not see to see it done. But again, thanks very much. We are very much appreciated. President [1:58:00]: Thank you. I thank the distinguished delegate of Rwanda. I give the floor to the United States. United States of America [1:58:07]: Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. The United States welcomes the work of the ethics offices. While 100% compliance in financial disclosure is a baseline expectation, the sheer volume of ethics inquiries demonstrates the offices' work both offices' work is crucial. Regarding technological modernization, we note the deployment by UNDP of the AI guidebot to manage low-risk inputs. As a question to the UNDP Ethics Office, at what specific stage or risk threshold does this automated system hand over users to a human? We also note that UNOPS has started to develop an AI tool to automate its outside activity screenings. We support these digital tools to the extent that they streamline routine processing and reduce administrative overhead, but caution that adjudication and appeal rest within the ethics office personnel. And finally, we reject the ethics office's involvement in ideological culture markers and DEI-driven strategies. Our support is for an ethics function that ensures accountability. Thank you. President [1:59:14]: I thank the delegate of the United States. We now invite the entity representatives to respond as appropriate. I heard one question for UNDP. I don't know if the others feel like they need to comment on anything else. That's good. So then we give the floor to Ms. Maguire of UNDP or Alessandro. Alessandro. UNDP · Director, Ethics Office · Alessandro Maggi [1:59:40]: Thank you, and thank you to the delegations for those expressions of support, and, and to the U.S. for, for the question on our deployment of AI-enabled tool. We're very excited about it. We did see this as an initiative that needed to be launched fully consistent with the frameworks that we developed at UNDP for use of this technology. So we worked very closely with our colleagues in, in Linda McGuire's team and ITM, as well as our Chief Digital Officer's team, to make sure that we were consistent with the safeguards and parameters for this type of technology, and decided that for this initiative we'd really use it just for the guidance queries that we receive. So we— there's quite a few individuals who come to the ethics office for this role that we have in directing them to the most relevant resource or tool. It's an important function, but it's one that can be primarily addressed through this sort of technology. Of course, we wove in an escalation procedure, and we're continuously monitoring the tool to see what sort of feedback we get from it to make sure that we're keeping the human in the loop as is appropriate. Thank you. Nariyoshi Shinomiya [2:01:16]: Dr. Nariyoshi Shinomiya: Great. President [2:01:17]: I thank the delegates for the questions and comment— question and comments. And I thank the representative for their responses. This concludes the consideration of Agenda Item 4 on ethics. I would like to inform that the board— inform the board that a draft decision on the Agenda Item 4 ethics is under preparation and will be presented for the board's consideration later in the session. Speaker 77 [2:01:45]: Thank you very much. President [2:01:48]: We will now take another 30 seconds for a quick podium change before we move on to Agenda Item 5 on protection against sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment. Thank you. Thank you. Colleagues, we are ready to resume. So we will now continue the joint segment with Agenda Item 5, Protection Against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and Sexual Harassment. Under this item, the board will consider updates from UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS on efforts to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation Exploitation and Abuse and Sexual Harassment. We have back, or remaining on the podium, Ms. Maguire, Mr. Sabaton, and Ms. Kushato. This item is scheduled to proceed until 5:15, so we have made up a little bit of time, but we need to keep that pace going, please. The last segment was excellent. Let's try and match that with this one. So while we will make every effort to take as many interventions as possible. Delegations unable to take the floor may submit their statements to e-statements, and questions of course may also be shared with the Executive Board Secretariat. First, let me give the floor to Ms. Maguire to deliver remarks on behalf of UNDP. UNDP · Assistant Administrator and Director, Bureau for Management Services · Linda Maguire [2:03:50]: Thank you, Mr. President. Good afternoon again, distinguished delegates, colleagues from UNFPA and UNOPS. I am pleased to provide an update on UNDP's efforts to prevent and address sexual harassment and sexual exploitation and abuse, PSEAH, including key results achieved in 2025 as outlined in our information note. I will also reflect on issues raised during last week's very helpful informal discussions and highlight UNDP's priorities going forward. In 2025, we intensified outreach and training, reaching more than 6,700 personnel in 169 workshops. Following training, participants' confidence in reporting sexual misconduct increased by 24%. This outreach also drove demand for guidance and support, with more than 1,000 request requests received in 2025. Since 2024, we have reached 15,000 personnel and will continue to prioritize this critical prevention work. Sustained funding remains essential to driving meaningful change, as highlighted by the Joint Inspection Unit in its recent review of sexual exploitation and abuse across the UN system. Funding cuts are already affecting PSEA efforts, including victim support services at country level. UNDP continues to invest in PSEA, notwithstanding this difficult climate, including recruiting a new victim support officer in 2025, in line with our victim-centered approach. However, continued declines in core funding will ultimately impact on our capacity to deliver. Building trust in the internal justice system remains critical, as victims will only come forward if they believe the process is credible. Our dedicated sexual misconduct investigators continue to prioritize SEAH cases. In 2025, we placed 31 individuals in ClearCheck, up from 25 in 2024. We expanded our Misconduct Disclosure Scheme pilot to 10 countries and continued screening all personnel through ClearCheck to help prevent the rehiring of individuals with a history of sexual misconduct. We remain actively engaged in interagency processes at all levels, as collaboration is often the most effective way to deliver services such as victim support, particularly at a time of funding constraints. We have made important progress in 3 critical but challenging areas: engagement with implementing partners, strengthening victim support, and identifying and managing SH and SEA risks across our operations and programming. These are all high priorities in our corporate strategy and action plan. Going forward, we will continue to embed PSEAH across UNDP, ensuring that prevention, protection, accountability, and response remain integral to our governance, operations, and culture, underpinned by strong and active leadership and continuous learning. Thank you for your attention. I look forward to the discussion. Back to you. President [2:07:24]: I thank Ms. Maguire for her presentation and give the floor now to Mr. UNFPA · Deputy Executive Director for Management · Andrew Saberton [2:07:28]: Sabaton. Mr. President, distinguished members of the Executive Board, observers, colleagues, I am pleased to provide an update on UNFPA's unwavering commitment to protection from sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment. Over the past year, we have translated this commitment to strategic and intentional action, completing our first strategy and finalizing its next iteration. Our approach remains evidence-informed and impact-driven. We have operationalized a new impact-focused M&E framework and a digital dashboard to ensure actions are driven by data and analysis. Our efforts have been bolstered by successful resource mobilization, including securing two staff secondments, as well as a €1.5 million grant for an interagency SE— H Prevention Toolkit and Knowledge Hub. Protection from sexual misconduct is now formally embedded in our strategic plan and emergency response procedures, reflecting a deep integration into our organizational culture. In 2025, we strengthened survivor center support and saw a significant increase in implementing partners rated at full PSEA capacity. And across our country offices. Utilization of the sexual misconduct support focal point rose by nearly 63% compared to the same reporting period last year. We also addressed investigative timeliness, with cases completed on average in under 4 months. By elevating GBV program as critical to our PSEA-H architecture, we have enhanced sexual misconduct response, prevention and interagency coordination. However, we remain clear-eyed about persistent challenges. Global disruptions and funding cuts have scaled back sexual misconduct-focused programming and have reduced dedicated staffing. In many contexts, structured interagency coordination has weakened, requiring us to merge efforts with GBV and accountability to affected population workstreams. We also face ongoing resistance to reporting across the aid sector. Fear of retaliation, loss of assistance, or job insecurity have impacted personnel and communities' willingness to come forward, and there remains a deep concern across both groups that reporting will not lead to meaningful action. These challenges offer vital lessons. Protecting personnel and the people we serve requires a shift from from box-checking to demonstrable impact. We must leverage in our innovative prevention methods, strengthen the survivor support ecosystem, and ensure that PSEA systems are sufficiently resourced. We are building proactive measures and accountability for sexual misconduct into UNFPA's architecture as core to our mandate. Our strategic direction for 2026 focuses on transformative change. We are pivoting from reaction to proaction, emphasizing meaningful prevention, enhancing reporting enablers, and providing technical support to high-risk hotpots— hotspots. We will continue to execute high-impact strategic partnerships using our expertise in GBV and gender equality to drive collective action. Our goal is system-wide accountability that extends far beyond awareness, raising, or simply responding to reported incidents. Our commitment to personnel and the people we serve is absolute. We look forward to your continued support as we work to ensure UNFPA remains a safe, protective, and accountable organization for all. Thank you. I thank Mr. President [2:11:17]: Saberton, and I now give the floor to Ms. Kushato on behalf of UNOPS. UNOPS · Director, People and Culture Group · Valerie Kushata [2:11:22]: Thank you, Mr. President, distinguished members of the Executive Board, and colleagues. It is my pleasure to address you on this— on our steadfast commitment to the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment, PSEAH, and to report on the substantive progress achieved during 2025, the challenges that persist, and the strategic priorities guiding our efforts moving forward. UNOPS maintains an unwavering resolve to protect both our personnel and the communities we serve. This commitment extends beyond a mere compliance obligation. It is fundamental to our mandate, our institutional credibility, and the trust reposed in us by partners and affected populations alike. Throughout 2025, we undertook a deliberate transition from raising awareness towards achieving strategic and operational impact. We moved from policy commitments and training completion to measurable advancements in organizational systems, behavioral standards, and accountability. Such progress has been predicated upon sustained engagement across all levels of the organization. Our PSEAH focal points at the regional and country levels have been instrumental in this endeavor, serving as technical advisors and catalysts for institutional change. Through their dedicated efforts, supported by headquarters, water functions, we continue to strengthen the foundations of a system increasingly capable of effective prevention, early detection, and victim-centered response. The 4 strategic achievements that stand out in 2025: first, through a working group co-chaired with the UNDP, we developed the first-ever minimum standards for commercial partners now being embedded into our contracts. Secondly, we expanded implementing partner assessment assessments. 81% of partners were assessed, moving us towards— toward active capacity building and follow-up monitoring, including piloting a new methodology to evaluate the quality of completed assessments. Third, prevent— prevention of rehiring perpetrators. The misconduct disclosure scheme is now fully integrated into all our recruitment processes, complementing the comprehensive application of ClearCheck across all all contact modalities. Fourth, leadership engagement has transitioned towards proactive prevention. In environments where senior leaders consistently— senior leaders consistently model expected behaviors and facilitate reporting, we observe increased reporting rates, more robust team cultures, and safer environments for open dialogue. Notwithstanding this progress, I wish to address several persistent challenges. Reductions in global funding, particularly for gender-based violence services, are exacerbating the gap between reporting and survivor support. The resulting lack of essential services risk eroding trust in the system, particularly in regions where the need is most acute. Our focal points are stretched, oftentimes one person carrying PSCAH duties for an entire country or region alongside a full-time role. Sustainability risk is real and we are actively advocating for change on this. And no single agency can close these gaps alone. Our joint work with UNDP and UNFPA, the shared assessments, joint training, coordinated policy updates is more critical now than ever and we are proud of what we've built together. Our 2026 Agenda focuses on consolidating gains while addressing structural issues and further cultivating a speak-up culture. We must remain vigilant and avoid complacency addressing specific structural priorities. Enforceable standards for commercial partners. Commercial partners' toolkits developed with our supply chain network will establish PACH requirements that are contractual. Rolling out role-specific training such as bystander intervention and an updated leadership induction on PACH PSEH, emphasizing scenario-based learning tailored to various geographical contexts, and structural support for our PSEH support, and strengthening trust in reporting, acknowledging that the underreporting of allegations remains a challenge that hinders our progress. Furthermore, we remain dedicated to the full implementation of the Joint Inspection Unit recommendations to ensure alignment with system-wide standards. The challenges before us— before us is one of culture as much as systems. Policies, training, and procedures are necessary, but not sufficient alone. Lasting change requires an organizational culture where prevention is proactive, reporting is safe, and accountability is consistent. UNOPS remains fully committed to this transformation. We will continue to learn, adapt, and contribute to collective UN efforts to eliminate sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment. Thank you, Mr. President. I return the floor for any questions from distinguished members. I thank Ms. President [2:16:13]: Koshata for her presentation. I'm now going to open the floor. I have 4 speakers on the list. I'm going to invite any other who wishes to take the floor for a very short intervention to indicate so now. Otherwise, we will go ahead and close the list. We have Nigeria, to be followed by the United Kingdom, who will both speak on behalf of groups, followed by Sweden and the United States. Nigeria, you have the floor. Nigeria · Africa Group [2:16:48]: Thank you, Mr. President. I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the African members of the Executive Board, namely Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Madagascar, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tunisia, Zambia, and Nigeria. The African members of the Executive Board thank the Administrators and Executive Heads of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS for their joint update on protection against sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment. The African members of the Executive Board unequivocally condemn all forms of sexual exploitation, abuse, and sexual harassment. These are not merely procedural failures. They are profound violations of human dignity and a betrayal of the trust that communities, beneficiaries, and Member States place in this organization. We cannot speak of development, humanitarian action, or peacebuilding whilst these— sorry, while those entrusted with delivering them harm the very people they are meant to serve. We acknowledge the steps taken by UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS to strengthen safeguarding systems. And we recognize that this work is neither simple nor complete. Reinforcing reporting mechanisms, deepening staff accountability, and building genuine investigative capacity requires sustained political will, not just at headquarters, but at every level where these organizations operate. The African Group reaffirms its support for a victim- and survivor-centered approach. Policies and procedures matter little if those who have suffered cannot access them, do not trust them, or fear that coming forward will cost them more than staying silent. Accessible reporting channels, credible protection against retaliation, confidentiality, and timely support services are not optional features. They are the floor. Mr. President, progress has been made across the United Nations system, and we acknowledge it. But progress is not the same as adequacy. Prevention remains our most powerful tool, and it demands more than training, models, and awareness campaigns. It requires a genuine shift in organizational culture, one in which leadership models and standards— it expects field realities are taken as seriously as boardroom commitments, and those in positions of power understand that accountability applies to them as much as to anyone else. We also welcome the strengthening of interagency screening mechanisms to prevent individuals who have committed misconduct from simply moving between United Nations organizations. This is a basic safeguard, and its full implementation is long overdue. The African members of the Executive Board further underscored the importance of transparency with Member States. Regular, honest reporting on allegations, investigations, outcomes, and institutional reforms is not a bureaucratic exercise. It is the basis for extending or withholding confidence in these safeguarding frameworks. We expect this reporting to continue and deepen. Mr. President, Africa hosts a significant share of United Nations development, humanitarian, and peacebuilding operations. The people in these communities are not They are the measure of whether this work succeeds or fails. Safeguarding mechanisms must be designed with them in mind—accessible, culturally informed, and built on genuine partnership with national authorities, local institutions, and civil society. Mr. President, the African members of the Executive Board remain committed to constructive work with UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS, and all member states toward a United Nations that is truly worthy of the trust placed in it. President [2:21:07]: I thank you. I thank the distinguished representative of Nigeria and give the floor now to the United Kingdom. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [2:21:16]: I deliver this statement on behalf of Albania, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, the EU as a donor, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Moldova, Monaco, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Zambia, and my own country, the United Kingdom. We thank UNDP, UNOPS, and UNFPA for their continued efforts to strengthen protection from and response to sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment. As we made clear in board discussions last year, while we recognize agencies are facing resourcing constraints, the effective prevention of and response to sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment is a non-optional core accountability commitment. Leadership is critical to protect gains and drive further change. Across the system, financial pressures and Staffing reductions are weakening protection systems, limiting prevention efforts and access to survivor support, and risking hard-won progress when needs remain high. The erosion of gender-based violence services is particularly concerning, as these constitute essential entry points for reporting. Persistent underreporting remains a systemic challenge driven by fear, lack of trust, and perceived inaction. These challenges are acute for for children, particularly girls, who are among the most vulnerable and depend on child-sensitive safeguarding approaches. We would welcome greater clarity on how agencies are ensuring their prevention, response, and victim-survivor support approaches are child-sensitive. The important 2025 JI-U review on protection from sexual exploitation and abuse underlined the need for dedicated expertise, clear accountability, and sustained resource We urge agencies to protect the good practices that the review identified and fully implement the recommendations for areas of further improvement. This includes the need to prioritize and protect sufficient human and financial resources for sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment prevention and response, particularly at country level, recognizing the importance of building country-level capacity and strengthening national safeguarding systems. How will the agencies report to the board on implementation of the JIU recommendations and the Office of the Special Coordinator's comprehensive assessment? The JIU review rightly highlights that tackling sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment requires a coherent and consistent system-wide effort. With shrinking resources, collaborations should increase, not diminish. We encourage agencies to strengthen interagency collaboration and to improve efficiency and impact through mechanisms such as the Common Approach to Protection from Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Harassment and the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. UNATI and the Humanitarian Reset, Reset, constitute a unique opportunity to strengthen protection from sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment efforts and embed a well-resourced, sustainable, and accountable system-wide approach. We urge agencies to work with Member States and each other to influence these reform processes to ensure this happens. Mr. President, please allow us to highlight a few elements based on the Joint Background Note. We welcome the important progress that has been made across agencies and recognize the efforts being made to maintain and improve protection from sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment, harassment systems in these challenging times. We note that while appointment of protection from sexual exploitation and abuse focal points is positive, dedicated expertise remains scarce with limited specialized personnel in the field. We urge UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS to continue to protect and resource dedicated protection from sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment capacity in the context of ongoing funding constraints. We welcome the continued support for interagency efforts shown by all agencies, including implementation of key priorities of this CEB Task Force on Sexual Harassment and JIU recommendations. We commend the agencies for showing leadership on innovative, innovative and collaborative PSEA approaches, in particular taking a holistic approach, expanded focus on due diligence and engagement with implementing partners, improving reporting mechanisms, commitment to victim-survivor-centered approaches, and rollout of the misconduct disclosure scheme. Looking ahead, sustaining progress will require renewed commitment to PSEH as a core accountability commitment. We welcome UNOPS has identified, um, PSEH as an organizational risk, and we encourage consideration of dedicated protection audits. We welcome UNFPA's work to develop an interagency prevention toolkit and digital knowledge platform. We welcome UNDP's UNDP's efforts in promoting PSEAH through expanded awareness-raising mechanisms, as we encourage UNDP to continue developing effective local reporting mechanisms. President [2:26:15]: Thank you. I thank the distinguished representative of the United Kingdom. I give the floor now to Sweden, to be followed by the United States. Sweden, please. Sweden [2:26:42]: Now it's on. Thank you. Sweden attaches great importance to the protection against sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment and aligns itself to the joint statement delivered by the United Kingdom. In addition, we noted in the Joint Information Note that almost 42% of UNFPA personnel in 2025 chose not to report when they are aware of instances of sexual misconduct. We would appreciate, appreciate it if UNFPA could please elaborate on how you are following up on this important and concerning finding. Thank you. President [2:27:22]: I thank the distinguished representative of Sweden and give the floor to the United States. United States of America [2:27:36]: Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. The United States notes the findings provided in this joint report and recognizes critical vetting progress, including UNOPS fully integrating the misconduct disclosure into its recruitment platform, the expansion of ClearCheck tracking, and UNOPS averaging a 3.5-month case closure timeline. These are essential areas of progress. We note that the total sexual misconduct caseload at UNDP increased, and note that while increased reporting can be a good indicator of progress, the report also highlights several concerning barriers to PSEA, including deficiencies in policy lengthy investigative timelines at UNDP. Are these challenges attributed squarely to funding constraints, or are there other policy and institutional factors at play? We also noted that 27% of cases at UNDP were closed early due to lack of survivor consent. As another question for UNDP, what steps is UNDP taking to address the barriers, including retaliation concerns, distrust in system, and the lengthy investigation process? Process and perceived limitations on accountability. Finally, it appears you and the UNDP country offices with interagency processes in place to receive and respond to allegations has decreased from 63— or from 70 in 2024 to 63 in 2026. As a final question to UNDP, can we ask for more information on what led to this reduction? And then just a final point, while I very much appreciate given the time constraints we have today, this segment on essential oversight functions and the interactive nature of it, we find particularly valuable. So I want to make sure we give this segment its due diligence and time. But again, I know we are under strict time constraints. Thank you. I thank the representative of the United States. President [2:29:24]: I give the floor now to the representatives of the entities to respond, beginning with UNDP. UNDP · Assistant Administrator and Director, Bureau for Management Services · Linda Maguire [2:29:32]: Thank you very much for all of the questions and the comments. I'm going to try to group them again. So, on— maybe starting with the U.S., and I think there were some from the U.K. statement as well, on, you know, barriers to reporting and formal reporting mechanisms. So, we do— I mean, there are two sides of it. There's barriers and then there's accessibility. So we do make our confidential reporting channels open in 26 languages, and they are— those channels are supported by a team of trauma-informed sexual misconduct investigators. There is also a question, I think, in the UK statement about the child-sensitive protection and prevention, and this approach too is embedded in our, in our safeguard standards. So on the 37 former formal reports, so while reports have increased, we still find in terms of barriers that there is a fear of retaliation, concern over the length of investigations, absolutely, and perceived limitations for holding perpetrators accountable. So we need to call out those barriers and do something about them. So on the prevention side, together with existing accountability measures, we are trying to strengthen the support to victims. That's why we have the Victim Support Officer, and we do think that that's a good mechanism to, to build trust. Now on the timeline for investigations, You know, OAI was here, and we do have a 13-month average. So that is from receipt to closure, and that's— so that's everything included. And it reflects— this figure does reflect the complexity of these cases. In some cases it's shorter, in some cases it's longer, but that, that is our average. And so we are trying to reduce the timelines. We're focusing on prioritization. On capacity strengthening, on process efficiencies, while ensuring that the investigations do maintain, you know, due process and quality and have that victim-centered approach. So the 13-month average, I would say, isn't fully representative of the current performance, and timelines really, really do vary. So on— nope. Sorry, I'm running out of time. But let me just see if there was anything else. I mean, on interagency, just, I did want to flag that, you know, the cooperation with UNOPS and UNFPA is really exemplary. And just want to, you know, highlight that as an excellent example. I think I spoke to the MDS and also ClearCheck and how we're applying that, and we're expanding the MDS pilot. President [2:32:36]: Thank you, Ms. Maguire. Andrew? UNFPA · Deputy Executive Director for Management · Andrew Saberton [2:32:42]: Thank you, Mr. President. Yes, picking up on some of the points I heard, yep, and the delegate from Nigeria, on behalf of Nigeria and others, no response was needed, but thank you very much. We appreciate the commitment and the support to this very— very vital area of our work. On the comments made on behalf of UK and others, all our country offices have reporting systems that are child-friendly. GBV programs are designed specifically to meet the needs of child survivors. We have indicators in our M&E framework that will enable us to track progress on this specific aspect of our work. We co— just to also integrate, we also co-lead many multiple interagency work streams, and we participate in all the JRU-focused work streams, and indeed lead on the prevention and survivor response working groups for the IASC. Resourcing is, of course, critical for us, and I'm very interested— and I'll come back onto one other point that was picked up from the presentation presentation we done last week, but which was the 42%, but next to that in the presentation was the fact that 34% of GBV programs have just been suspended across the aid sector in total. Uh, 29% of IASC organizations reduced or suspended their PSEA activities. They are under pressure. I must admit, through what I also covered in our intervention, we've been able to secure two secondments from member states, one based at headquarters, one based in the regional— sorry, one based in headquarters. So actually at the moment, the current level of staffing and resources allows us to maintain our existing PSEA approach. Our strategy document, the second iteration of which I was referring to earlier, actually has a kind of bronze, silver, gold standard of what we can do with the minimal funding we given at the moment, but what we can actually do and achieve more and have a wider reach across more and more in-depth reach across all our country offices and regional offices if we are able to secure some more funding. So I'd implore that again because I would— and I hope you won't find me be cheeky here, but I'm in my third formal session this afternoon and everyone has referred to lack of funding funding, and I would like to give every area more funding, but I have to also balance the books. But we are doing the best. This is a critical area of work, and we'll continue to do it. As regards Sweden, analysis tells us that the resistance to reporting is primarily around the fear of retaliation, loss of jobs, and belief nothing will be done. And of course, that always is amplified qualified when we actually have a more austere funding environment, I'm afraid. But we do know that those people do speak to people— —and through GBV programs. And we intend to build on these as enablers and to improve our reporting. Additional resources would enable us to expand that presence across the world. I would also point out in my iteration as well, we did actually carry out 15 missions to countries and regional offices this year. We are not just sitting in headquarters trying to work out this problem. We're going to the ground on there. And yeah, also our M&E framework will also allow us to measure our impact on reporting barriers as well as those enablers across the organization. Thank you, Mr. President. President [2:36:23]: Thank you very much for that. Valerie. Thank you. UNOPS · Director, People and Culture Group · Valerie Kushata [2:36:27]: Thank you, Mr. President, and I would like to reiterate what my colleagues from UNDP and UNFPA mentioned about the comments that have been made and the further enriching things to look out for. We appreciate that. Regarding the delegate from the UK, I think your specific question around UNOPS and the need for child-friendly prevention,— and response mechanisms. We do recognize that and we welcome this. We work very closely with child well-being entities such as UNICEF on the ground, both in support when child allegations arise to ensure that we have adequate investigation approach to work with children, but also on the prevention and risk mitigation best practices to ensure we are able to provide child-friendly reporting mechanisms and project design as two examples. On the JIU question, UNOPS has accepted all JIU recommendations and we will report regularly using existing audit reporting mechanisms, and we are fully engaged with and actively participating in the Office of Special Coordinator's interagency working groups. Operationally, we have deployed cross-functional internal task teams drawing from the PSEH team, our policy team, IAIG, and the legal group. And these cross-functional teams, they really comprehensively map internal policy gaps and ensure strict compliance with an immediate focus on executing milestones tied to the 2026 deadlines. We also underscore our commitment to interagency collaboration. I think I've been talking about this matter since I joined UNOPS 2023, and I think we joined— we're delighted to join us to this subject, and I really want to thank colleagues from UNDP and UNFPA because without the collaboration and sister agency learning, we wouldn't have been where we are as UNOPS at the moment. Just to reiterate and to emphasize on the ClearCheck and misconduct disclosure scheme, we are actively participating participating in the interagency working group to harmonize clear check procedures, and we already apply both clear check and misconduct disclosure scheme to all our contract modalities for staff and non-staff modalities. President [2:38:44]: Thank you, Mr. President. I thank the representatives of the entities for their responses, uh, and this concludes the consideration of Agenda Item 5 on protection against sexual exploitation and abuse sexual harassment. A draft decision on the agenda item 5 is under preparation and will be presented for the board's consideration later in the session. Colleagues, we're going to take 30 seconds literally for a podium change. We still have 15, 17 minutes for the entire segment that we have left. We will lose translation at some 6 o'clock. We're hoping to maintain at least microphones, but please bear with us. We do want to be able to wrap this up within the allotted time, if at all possible. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, colleagues. We will now continue with Agenda Item 2, update on the implementation efforts on the repositioning of the United Nations Development System. Under this item, the Board will receive updates from UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS on their respective implementation efforts related to the repositioning of the UN Development System. I'm very happy to welcome to the podium Mr. Haoliang Zhu, Associate Administrator UNDP. Mr. Sabaton remains with us, and I also welcome Ms. Hillary Balbuena, Chief of Staff of UNOPS. This item is scheduled to proceed until 6:00 AM. We've been given until 6:05 PM. While every effort will be made to accommodate as many interventions as possible. If you are unable to take the floor in the allotted time that we have, you can send your statements to e-statements or share your questions with the Executive Board Secretariat. Without any ado at all, I now invite Mr. Haoliang Zhu, Associate Administrator, to deliver remarks on behalf of UNDP. Thank you very much, Mr. UNDP · Associate Administrator · Haoliang Zhu [2:41:25]: President, Excellencies, distinguished delegates. It is my pleasure to I would like to update the Executive Board on UNDP's efforts on the repositioning of the UN Development System. As we move closer to 2030, the urgency of delivering on Sustainable Development Goals is evident. In this context, the importance of a coherent, effective, and responsive United Nations Development System is indisputable. We cannot afford non-delivery. This is UNDP's premise for advancing UN General Assembly mandates on UNDS repositioning, reinforced through the Quadro Comprehensive Policy Review and the UN80 Initiative. Excellencies, for UNDP, reform is not an end in itself. It is a means to ensure that the system is able to deliver integrated country-owned solutions at scale and with impact. UNDP's commitment is reflected in substance and in practice. Our contribution to the UNDS reform is focused on four key elements. First, UNDP advances the UNDS reform by fostering policy coherence through practice. UNDP's integrated policy support to our governments and partners. Roles assigned to us by the General Assembly in 2018 and reaffirmed in the 2025 ECOSOC Resolution is at the service of our governments, RCs, and the UN teams on the ground. From the SDG push to SDG financing to the climate promise, UNDP helps translate global commitments into nationally level policies and investments aligned with national priorities. We need and can do more in this regard, but we need more support. Secondly, the NDP continuously ensures accountability for reform implementation. All NDP CPDs are fully aligned with and derived from cooperation frameworks. Or confirmed by the Resident Coordinators. We continue to be the largest participating UN organization in pooled funds, and we ensure compliance with the provisions of the management and accountability framework. Third, UNDP supports the RC system despite a constrained funding environment. UNDP remains the strong supporter of a sustainable adequately funded Resident Coordinator System in UNDP in 2025. UNDP remained the largest single entity contribute to the UN SDG cost sharing arrangement with a total contribution of $22.2 million, even though our core resources declined by 24%. Fourth, UNDP delivers efficiencies in support of UN-wide reform objectives. We lead 3 of the 5 active common back offices and manage over 40% of common services across 132 UN country teams. Due to time constraints, I will not get into more details in this regard. To close, the UN80 Initiative offers an opportunity to build on the progress achieved. In doing so, it will be important to draw on experiences from implementation over the past years. A key lesson is that impact is driven by strong, empowered country-level cooperation, driven by national agendas and the ability to adapt to evolving development needs. The NDP remains committed to engaging constructively under the member states' guidance and oversight, including through this Executive Board. President [2:45:32]: Thank you very much. I thank the Associate Administrator for his remarks and give the floor now to Mr. Sabaton on behalf of UNFPA. UNFPA · Deputy Executive Director for Management · Andrew Saberton [2:45:41]: Thank you, Mr. President. Excellencies, distinguished members of the Executive Board, colleagues, I am pleased to join UNDP and UNOPS to update you on UNFPA's contribution to the 2024 QCPR and UN reform agenda. We fully support the Secretary-General's vision for an agile, coherent, and impact-oriented UN development system, shifting focus from processes to measurable country-level impact. Our new strategic plan sets out our commitment for system-wide coherence anchored in our mandates— sexual and reproductive health and human rights, gender equality, and demographic resilience. Our plan introduces demographic resilience as a fourth outcome, integrating analysis into cooperation frameworks and strengthening collective UN support through the HLCP task team. Human rights, gender equality, and SRHR must remain the structural core of system-wide action. These rights-based mandates are fundamental to achieving the SDGs and ensuring reform delivers for those furthest behind. Sustained country presence is the foundation for effective delivery, especially in fragile settings. We remain committed to a strengthened Resident Coordinator system, supported by our $4 million contribution in 2026. RCs are strategic conveners, but reform must not dilute specialized capacities or fiduciary accountability. We must preserve country programme documents as essential governance and oversight instruments approved by the Board. At the regional level, we support reforms that improve access to specialized expertise and surge capacity without creating new coordination layers. Expertise on demand can strengthen country teams, while it cannot cannot replace the contextual understanding, trusted relationships, and sustained engagement required to deliver effectively, particularly on normative issues and in fragile and humanitarian settings. In humanitarian settings, UNFPA welcomes efforts to drive efficiencies through integrated supply chains, common operational services, and stronger coordination. At the same time, specialized entities must remain the expert— UNAIDS must retain the expertise and operational capacity needed to deliver life-saving services, including on sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence, and HIV. This includes safeguarding HIV-related data and coordinating functions as discussions on the future of UNAIDS continues. Operational transformation is central to UNFPA's value proposition.. As co-chair of the UN SDG Business Innovation Group, we actively advance system-wide efficiencies. We have generated over $105 million in measurable efficiencies since 2019 through common services and simplification, gains we reinvest directly into programme delivery. Sustainable reform requires sustainable financing. Flexible and predictable core funding is a essential for mandate delivery and agile responses. While resource mobilization is stable, our core funding is below the Funding Compact target, and we urge Member States to close this gap. A strong commitment to reform requires equally strong predictable resources. UNFPA remains fully committed to working with Member States and UN partners to build a coherent, efficient, and impact-oriented UN system. This system must safeguard rights-based mandates, protect our specialized expertise, and ensure sustainable delivery for women, girls, and young people. Thank you. President [2:49:28]: I thank Mr. Savaton for his remarks and give the floor now to Ms. Hillary Balbuena of UNOPS to deliver her remarks. UNOPS · Chief of Staff · Hillary Balbuena [2:49:38]: Excellency, honorable members of the board, I'm pleased to provide an update UNOPS' continued engagement and efforts in support of the UN Development System repositioning. In late April, a detailed information note was published on the UNOPS Executive Board website, and for the third year in a row, the note is complemented by an annex with detailed reporting and a complete UN Development System reform checklist. UNOPS listened carefully to your comments and questions at the Joint Informal Consultation presentation last week, and we closely followed the ECOSOC Operational Activities for Development segment. To put our efforts into perspective, the UN Haiti Initiative provides a critical opportunity to build on the recent gains under the UN Development System repositioning, to address remaining challenges and further strengthen coherence, effectiveness, and delivery across an increasingly complex operational environment. UNOPS aligns directly with these overarching priorities through our Strategic Plan 26-29, positioning the organization as an agile implementation partner to maximize impact on the ground. Our model remains flexible and demand-driven, enabling UNOPS to respond efficiently and at scale, including in fragile and crisis-affected settings. In 2025, UNOPS delivered in more than 130 in 130 countries, with the majority of our portfolio implemented in close collaboration with our sister agencies. From the outset, UNOPS has been a steadfast supporter of the reinvigorated Resident Coordinator System, actively participating in 102 UN Country Teams last year, and engaging consistently in country-level coordination and planning processes through our lean and often non-resident presence. As part of our ongoing commitment, already in late November 2025, UNOPS contributed to this year's cost-sharing arrangement for the RT system in the amount of $2.58 million. UNOPS attaches great importance to the Management and Accountability Framework, the MAF, and continues to engage constructively in its review to simplify it, improve clarity, and to remove hurdles implementation. UNOPS has operationalized the MAF requirement to consult with the Resident Coordinator at key stages of strategic planning by capturing this obligation within the individual performance assessments of UNOPS UNCT members, ensuring institutional accountability for framework alignment. The recent system-wide evaluation reaffirmed important progress while underscoring the need to to further strengthen collective delivery on the ground. UNOPS has accepted all recommendations and has since been heavily involved at interagency level on the necessary follow-up actions. This comes at a time when the system is continuing to adapt to evolving operational and financial realities. In this context, the UN80 Initiative has created vital momentum. As part of the UN80 Work Package 5, and under the coordination of the Deputy Secretary-General, the Executive Director of UNOPS has facilitated the reconfiguration of UN country teams, which strengthened, strengthened RC leadership in close collaboration with other work packages to enable more contextualized, tailored country footprints anchored in the cooperation framework in support of national priorities and needs. Efficiencies have always been at the heart of the UNOPS operating model, as echoed by Member States of the Operational Activities Segment, expanding common back offices, common premises, and global shared services is vital to reducing duplication and costs. UNOPS continues to play a key role in advancing these system-wide efforts through its co-chairing of the UN SDG Business Innovation Group alongside UNFPA. In this capacity, the UNOPS Deputy Executive Director for Management and Policy, also co-leads the UNAT Unified Services Roadmap work package. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, the repositioning of the UN Development System has delivered meaningful progress. UNAT now provides a transformative opportunity to consolidate these gains and build a more effective, efficient, and integrated UN Development System that delivers measurable results on the ground. Thank you. I thank Ms. President [2:54:05]: Balbuena for her remarks. Colleagues, we are running plum out of time. We have three requests for the floor. I want to go straight to the distinguished Permanent Representative of Zambia, to be followed by Switzerland and Nepal. I have to say that we are not going to have time for responses from the podium, so any questions that are embedded in your presentations, we will take and you will get responses in writing to those. Tsholo. Zambia · Africa Group · Permanent Representative [2:54:36]: Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I'm very mindful of the time, so I'll take less than the allotted time. I speak on behalf of the African members of the board. I have 4 comments and then 3 questions. I'll get responses in writing. All right then, thank you very much. Okay, so, for comments, firstly, just 4 priorities. The first, national ownership must remain the foundation for the repositioned development system. Cooperation frameworks should continue to guide UN engagement while remaining firmly anchored in national development plans and priorities. Coordination should reinforce leadership and not replace it. Second, reform must translate into better delivery. Coordination has value when it reduces fragmentation, accelerates implementation, and helps countries access integrated solutions to increasing complex development challenges. Third, coherence must not come at the expense of mandates and comparative advantages. UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS each bring distinct expertise and capabilities. A stronger UN development system is one that better combines strengths in support of nationally defined results. Fourth, efficiency gains must serve development impact. Efforts to streamline business processes, expand shared services, and improve operational effectiveness should ultimately free up more resources for programs and strengthen support to program countries. We wish to underscore that adequate, predictable, and flexible funding remains indispensable. Expectations for greater coherence and stronger delivery must be matched by the resources required to achieve them. The African members welcome continued reporting on implementation. Going forward, we would appreciate more evidence on how reforms are improving country-level delivery, strengthening the use of national systems, advancing joint programming, and ensuring that efficiency gains are invested in development results. In this regard, we would welcome the views of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS on three questions. First, how are the entities aligning their repositioning agenda with UNAT while assuring country-level delivery is not disturbed? Second, how will we preserve institutional mandates and comparative advantages while strengthening system-wide coherence? Third, what mechanisms are in place to ensure efficiency gains and ensure that resulting savings are redirected in development programs and national capacity. I just want to point out here that indeed reforms are not the end in itself. The value lies in its ability to strengthen delivery and improve development outcomes at country level. Thank you. President [2:57:17]: I thank the distinguished PR of Zambia and give the floor now to the distinguished PR of Switzerland. Switzerland · Permanent Representative [2:57:25]: Mr. President, Excellencies, I deliver this statement on behalf of the following member states: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Kingdom of the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the European Union as a donor, and my own country, Switzerland. We share the ambition to make the UN development system more coherent, effective, efficient, and impactful at country level. Since the adoption of General Assembly Resolution 72/277, 2007-09, progress has been made and UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS have played a constructive role. Yet the system is still not delivering on its full potential. Fragmentation, competition for funding, and weak incentives for collaboration continue to undermine collective impact. In a context of lagging SDG progress, growing humanitarian needs, and constrained ODA, this is is not sustainable. We need a UN that acts as one UN at country level, under the leadership of an empowered Resident Coordinator, with UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS as fully engaged and supportive partners. The UNAD Initiative offers a unique opportunity to accelerate and strengthen the implementation of the repositioning of the UNDS launched in 2017. We ask all UN entities entities, including UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS, to actively engage in and show ownership of efforts under UNAID Workstream 3 through concrete steps. First, ensure that UN sustainable development cooperation frameworks are the real drivers of country work. The cooperation framework should be the single costed system-wide strategy at country level in line with national priorities. Entity-specific country programme instruments must be genuinely derived from and not only loosely aligned with cooperation frameworks. We encourage UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS to ensure that their country-level reporting clearly captures contributions to the cooperation framework results and joint UN outcomes, and not only to their agency-specific outputs.. It is also key that the three agencies ensure life-work plans and resource pipelines to be visible to the RC throughout implementation. One question here would be, what more could UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS do at global, regional, and country level to further elevate the cooperation frameworks as central strategic frameworks? Secondly, it is important to consistently and fully support Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator leadership. This includes recognizing the RCHC as the default strategic interlocutor for high-level engagement with government and donors, systematically involving the RC in major strategic decisions, and ensuring that project proposals agreed directly with donors are fully aligned to the cooperation framework and are shared with the RCHC in advance. Question here: Can you share which challenges the three agencies face that limit their ability to do so. We also support a stronger role for RCs in the selection and performance assessment of country representatives. We call on UNDP, UNOPS, and UNFPA to more systematically request and integrate RC feedback into the performance assessments of their country representatives. Third, tailor agency in-country presence to national contexts, comparative advantage and the needs identified in the cooperation framework in consultation with RCs and host governments. We encourage UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS to draw on the system-wide evaluation on progress towards a new generation of UNCTs and meaningfully contribute to the UN Country Team reconfiguration. Fourth, advance shared services. We are encouraged by the system-wide efficiency gains of over $980 million in 2025 and count on UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS to build on this progress to make shared services, common back offices, and co-location the norm. However, the number of common back offices at country level remains limited. Question: What, in your view, are the main obstacles to establishing common back offices, and do you have suggestions as to how these obstacles can be overcome? Finally, we acknowledge that as member states we also have an important role. Funding practices must incentivize collaboration rather than fragmentation. The current imbalance between core and earmarked resources and the proliferation of short-term project-based funding undermines strategic planning and joint work. Question here: beyond funding, what is the one key change member states can enact that would enable you to reduce competition and better align Thank you. President [3:02:41]: And without further ado, I am releasing the interpreters. Thank you for staying a few minutes extra with us. I give the floor now to Nepal. Nepal [3:03:00]: Thank you, Mr. President. Nepal thanks UNFPA for the comprehensive information note on UNDS Reform 2026. We welcome the strong alignment of the new priorities: maternal health, gender-based violence prevention and response, humanitarian, sexual and reproductive health. President [3:03:27]: We have lost the text of our— I was reading one part of it, I was able to find the subject, the statement, inviting and we will have it uploaded. If there are any questions, and then we'll be back when we pass all the things up to the executive board secretary. The question will be passed on to the entities for their responses to you in writing. We have no, no other tech to support the rest of the meeting at the moment, so that's the best we can do. So it was made for me to speak loudly. I'm sure you will Thank you so much for staying with us, and thank you, Representative, for asking questions. Um, the, the draft decision on Agenda Item 2 will be presented for the board's consideration. Nepal [3:04:21]: President, we can't hear you. President [3:04:23]: I know, we don't have any microphone, and I can't talk any louder than this. This meeting is adjourned.