(3rd meeting) Executive Board of UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS (First regular session 2025)

A very good afternoon, colleagues. The joint segment will continue now, and I would like to declare open the 2nd meeting of the 1st Regular Session 2025 of the Executive Board of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS. This afternoon, we will continue the joint segment with agenda item 5, which is risk management. Under this item, UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS will provide updates on enterprise risk management and critical risks of strategic importance. I'm pleased to welcome to the podium once again Mr. Ha Liang Shu, Associate Administrator and Chief Risk Officer from UNDP; Mr. Andrew Sabaton, Deputy Executive Director for Management of UNFPA; and we also have Ms. Linda McGuire, Assistant Administrator and Director from the UNDP; Mr. Sam Choritz, Chief of Staff and Chief Risk Officer from UNFPA; and Ms. Ingvild Foss, Director of the Risk and Compliance Group of UNOPS. First of all, I would like to give the floor to Mr. Xu from UNDP for his comments.

Thank you very much, Mr. President. Distinguished members of the Executive Board, effective risk management is central to how UNDP works. It enables us to work in difficult contexts and helps us to be an agile and anticipatory organization. manages risks at all levels. Everyone is responsible for managing risks, from those implementing projects on the ground to senior managers thinking about corporate risks. We also have a strong system of oversight and support to help ensure effective mitigation of risks. UNDP is constantly improving and upgrading our policies, systems tools and culture for risk management, and we will continue to do so as part of the development of our next strategic plan. We presented 6 critical risks of strategic importance to the Executive Board for this session. They all relate to risks of the NDP being able to achieve our strategic objectives and meet partner expectations. First, Member States expect UNDP to be responsive and agile when shocks occur, and to deliver impact at scale. A continued decline in core resources will restrict UNDP's ability to meet these expectations. Treating this risk requires advocacy with Member States on the importance of core resources as well as sharpening our efforts. Mitigating this risk, however, can only be achieved if also the efforts come from increased core contributions. Second, incidents around fraud, sexual exploitation and abuse, misconduct, and non-compliance with safeguards can cause significant reputational harm that affect the trust partners have in us to deliver with accountability. Treatment includes creating robust policies and tools to monitor performance at all levels and respond resolutely. Third, the world is changing and partners' expectations for UNDP are also changing. Ensuring Our ongoing relevance requires the organization to change as well. UNDP is treating this risk by reviewing our business model, reflecting on the unique value we offer our partners, and improving our effectiveness and efficiency to remain a partner of choice. Fourth, the escalating frequency and severity of crises and climate disasters pose challenges to our operations. Managing these risks so UNDP can stay and deliver requires resources, which are becoming scarce. It also requires maintaining robust business continuity plans and proactive management of safety and security. Fifth, increasing technological threats, including Cybersecurity breaches and AI-driven misinformation. This can affect the results we are trying to achieve with partners as well as the integrity of our internal systems. Treatment includes improving processes to manage threats, prevent attacks, and address issues promptly with active monitoring, upgrading the skills The competence of our personnel is also a priority to manage this risk. Sixth and finally, increasing skepticism in multilateralism threatens the influence and the perceived legitimacy of the United Nations, potentially leading to reduced engagement in and funding for UNDP. Addressing this requires demonstrating tangible value and results while maintaining the highest transparency standards to rebuild trust. We have also presented the risks identified by the independent evaluation office as well as the Office of Audit and Investigation, which are closely aligned with the risks identified by the, by management. The NDP regularly uses evidence from audit and evaluation to help inform our decision-making. To end, risk management will continue to be a central function in UNDP. We will continue to invest in making UNDP agile and anticipatory, in part through continuing to evolve and mature our risk management. This will be incorporated into the development of our new Strategic Plan. And will help to ensure UNDP remains resilient and adaptable to emerging challenges and opportunities. Thank you very much.

Gracias, señor Chu, por su presentación.

Thank you very much for your presentation, sir. I now give the floor to Mr. Sabaton. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much, Mr. President. Mr. President, distinguished members of the board, members of the UN, ladies and gentlemen, I'm here today to provide an update on our enterprise risk management, ERM, system as mandated by the Executive Board Decision 2024/1. UNFPA is fully committed to a robust ERM system dedicated to strengthening its ability to effectively anticipate, assess, and mitigate risk. Risks, ensuring the organization can achieve its mandate and contribute to the 2030 Agenda while fostering a culture of understanding, adapting to, and mitigating risk, especially given the increasingly complex environment in which we operate. As part of this, UNFPA issued the ERM policy and a formal risk appetite statement, appointed a Chief Risk Officer, established risk committees, and rolled out targeted training sessions. We have also developed a dedicated ERM guidebook, a risk and controls catalogue, and trained hundreds of risk focal points, ensuring a shared understanding of risk management principles. UNFPA operates within a— with a comprehensive risk appetite statement that guides our approach to risk management across 6 key dimensions: external, delivery, operational, reputational, and safeguarding, and each with specific risk acceptance levels for each. Regarding the ERM maturity self-assessment, our progress in strengthening our ERM is assessed using the High Level Committee on Management, the HLCM's, reference maturity model. This model guides our self-assessment across 6 key dimensions of our ERM practices, and the following points reflect the results of our internal management evaluation. For the ERM framework and policy dimension, we assess our maturity at an established level. This indicates that we have a well-defined framework including the ERM policy and a formal risk appetite statement. While key elements are in place, consistent application across all units still remains a priority. For the governance and organisational structure dimension, we are at an advanced level with clear risk roles for the risk— Chief Risk Officer and the risk committees, but we still recognise the need for better inter-regional coordination. For the process and integration dimension, we are at an established level. This indicates that we use the ERM guidebook to standardise processes and Risk assessments are aligned with the country program document cycle, and we are working to further strengthen alignment with internal controls. However, deeper integration into strategic decision-making is still needed. For the system and tools dimension, we have assessed our maturity at a developing to established level, with the MyRisk application in place, but further integration, particularly with the Quantum and Quantum Plus still needed. For the risk capabilities dimension, we are at an established level, providing extensive ERM training, but having a risk mindset across regions still remains an ongoing challenge. Finally, for the risk culture dimension, we have assessed our maturity at an established level, with senior management actively promoting a risk-aware culture, but we still need to expand this reach across all levels of of the organization. Turning to critical risks and mitigations, we are actively mitigating several critical risks of strategic importance. First, we face funding constraints and sustainability due to potential declines in donor funding and shifts in aid priorities. To mitigate this, we are reinforcing resource mobilization, diversifying funding sources, improving efficiency and advocating for more flexible funding. We have also adopted a more conservative approach to core funding for the midterm review and the upcoming new strategic plan. Second, as is the case with other UN and public entities, we face reputational risks which could further erode public trust and impact funding. To manage these risks, we are implementing proactive communication efforts, strengthening safeguarding measures, measures, and enhancing data encryption. Third, we face the risk of escalation of conflicts, humanitarian crisis, and climate-related disasters which disrupt supply chains and compromise the safety of our staff. To mitigate this, we are enhancing our humanitarian response capacity and collaborating with our partners. Finally, we are addressing the risk of pushback against rights and choices which could hinder our ability to fulfill our mandate. To mitigate this, we are strengthening our normative role and advocacy efforts. Regarding our future direction, we're looking ahead. We are committed to advancing our ERM capabilities and integrating risk considerations into the next strategic plan. We will enhance our foresight and horizon scanning, embed risk management in strategic planning, promote a risk-aware culture, and strengthen partnerships and knowledge sharing. In conclusion, UNFPA has made significant strides in advancing our ERM maturity. Our maturity in risk management extends beyond the strict ERM parameters. Risk control matrixes, for example, are now embedded within each of the UNFPA's policies, and the project risk management approach has been applied to our major initiatives such as the Headquarter Optimization Project and the ERP Quantum implementation. Additionally, through certain outsourcing, we have successfully mitigated and transferred risk in certain key processes. We remain dedicated to building resistance and adaptability in our risk management, ensuring that our ERM practices are robust and responsive to the organization's evolving needs in a complex global landscape. I thank you for your attention. I look forward to your valuable input and feedback during this session, and I'm available to answer any questions from the distinguished board members. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. Sabaton. Now I'd like to give the floor to Ms. Ingrid Voss. Ms. Ingrid Voss, I understand you're speaking on behalf of UNOPS. You have the floor.

Thank you. Mr. President, honourable members of the Executive Board, I'm pleased to join you today to provide an update on the actions we have taken to further strengthen UNOPS' Enterprise Risk Management framework. I will also inform you of the critical risks of strategic importance we have identified in the report you have received, and what we're doing to address them. Please allow me to begin by providing some context on the UNOPS risk environment. We focus on offering practical solutions across the peace, security, humanitarian, and development pillars. As such, risk is part of our day-to-day operations. We take on high levels of risk by definition. 2/3 of our projects in fact, are delivered in fragile and special contexts. These are risk-prone situations where institutional capacity is limited, places that are highly exposed to the effects of climate change, humanitarian emergencies, or conflict situations. Often we operate when all these conditions occur simultaneously. We deliver where it's risky, but it's so— but so is how we deliver. Our procurement and infrastructure service lines account for nearly 6 out of 10 of every dollar in our delivery. These activities are highly vulnerable to risks like corruption, supply chain disruption, inconsistent supplier performance, design and supervision obstacles, to mention but a few. What we deliver is risky too. We support efforts in climate action, education, energy transition, food security, health services, and peacekeeping operations. Each of these fields carries its own multitude of risks. UNOPS builds roads, clears landmines, trains nurses, procures medicines, manages grants in complex environments where risks are high, but so is our value potential. Our risk environment is therefore quite complex. This is not by chance. It is due to our implementation mandate. We are exposed to high-risk circumstances where the needs for our services are greatest, where often others are not able or willing to operate, where we can maximize our impact. We take pride in working in high-risk environments. Esteemed members, I started sharing this context because we have developed our risk management capacity around it. UNOPS Enterprise Risk Management Framework is designed to enable us to deliver in highly complex circumstances, not to prevent us from it. Our management makes decisions and faces risks that affect our delivery every day. So we have centered our efforts on improving this very capacity and equipping ourselves to live with risk. And we have achieved significant progress by observing several key principles. First, alignment with United Nations practices. This is our foundational principle. We exist within a broader ecosystem in which we share objectives, challenges, risks, and responses with other agencies. Specifically, our enterprise risk management framework demonstrates an established maturity level in the High-Level Committee on Management reference maturity model, and we adhere to all of the 9 Joint Inspection Units risk management benchmarks. But our unique operating model poses distinct challenges. UNOPS is project-based, And our success depends on delivering with quality, integrity, and speed. Since our activities are also demand-driven, often we cannot choose which risks to accept and avoid a priori because our mandate drives us to take on high-risk projects. This is the case in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, or Yemen. For these reasons, operational agility, Strong risk governance and segregation of duties are also key principles that shape our framework. Finally, continuous improvement. As we come to the end of the Comprehensive Response Plan, we have completed, to plan scope, all 7 recommendations on risk management, but we are not stopping there. We are leveraging the Comprehensive Response Plan to further advance in our risk management journey. We have addressed past shortcomings and we are preparing for the future. In this spirit, the Executive Board's request for an update on critical risks for UNOPS is welcome and timely. We look outwards for sources of risk. Conflict, climate change, cybercrime, and fragile global economy affect our delivery, because they are being felt most severely by the most vulnerable, those that we exist to serve. We also look inwards. Following our objectives-at-risk principle, we scan for direct and significant threats to our restated Strategic Plan 2022-2025. This approach has yielded 5 critical risks of strategic importance. First, a shortage of talent. UNOPS needs to adapt to the new development challenges and our partners' needs. We will require expertise in climate action, cybersecurity, data analytics, risk management, supply chains, and sustainable engineering. In response, we have expanded flexibility on remote work to increase retention, and we will be launching a new platform to enhance recruitment. We have also strengthened our capacity to address another critical risk: sexual exploitation and abuse. UNOS is on the ground where this risk is highest, and we must continue to ensure duty of care for the people that we serve. To do just that, our 3-year prevention strategy strengthens accountability and responsibility for ourselves and for our external stakeholders by focusing on prevention capabilities at the country level. Our beneficiaries must be able to trust us. So must our partners. We have achieved progress in restoring trust and credibility in UNOPS, but we may still face a confidence gap. Hence, completing the comprehensive response plan has been our priority. To further mitigate this reputational risk, a second third-party review will assure our stakeholders of the plan's implementation, while our ambitious reform agenda is focused on our future sustainability. Sustainability. However, meaningful reform takes time, and the risk exists that in some cases our transformation agenda could slow us down. That is why UNOPS established a transformation board to govern the agenda and ensure resource optimization, as well as a transformation office tasked with managing potential change risks. The actions I mentioned seek to enable us to serve people better, But we can only do that if we adapt. This brings me to our 5th critical risk. UNOPS needs to advance its services, develop its portfolio, and meet new requirements. Yet financial constraints threaten our margins to adjust to funding cycles and invest in our future delivery capacity. In response, we are improving financial planning through better data and forecasting, training our leadership, researching how to scale up delivery, and shifting our partnership development approach to focus on value for money rather than cost. Honourable members of the Executive Committee, let me assure you that our risk management journey continues. Our risk environment is constantly changing and we will evolve to face it. The risks I shared with you today may persist and new ones will arise. UNOPS is committed to advancing its ability to live with risk. We are building a risk culture that embraces reporting. We are integrating risk management into every decision we make, and we are applying our risk management principles in all our delivery activities. UNOPS will continue to pursue risk management as a central function with adequate resourcing and strong organizational commitments. To assure our personnel, our partners, and member states that we have learned from the past and have emerged more resilient. Thank you very much.

Gracias, señora.

Thank you, Ms. Voss, for your presentation. Now I will open the floor for any delegations who wish to take the floor if they wish to raise any questions or make comments. I recognize the United Kingdom, who will be speaking on behalf of a group of states. You have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. President. I deliver this statement on behalf of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and my own country, the United Kingdom. We would like to thank UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS for their engagement today and for their substantial contributions to date in strengthening risk management across their respective agencies. Risk management is an important priority for us, and we are glad to see it's substantively on the agenda for the first time. We hope that by creating a focused space for discussion, we will be able to strengthen how agencies assess and mitigate risks, identify and discuss specific or common trends, issues, and opportunities to better work together to tackle them. Risk management is central to guiding the actions, activities, and approaches taken by the agencies to deliver effectively, and especially in complex or fragile environments. We further understand that, as members of the Board, we have a shared responsibility to understand when and where risks are most severe, and to provide coherent practices and assurance principles to the agencies to facilitate collaboration, support, and partnership. We therefore encourage the agencies to use this recurring item to provide the Executive Board with a substantive, forward-looking risk profile covering the top external as well as internal risks that management consider critical for the achievement of its objectives. The purpose, in our view, is not only that the Board— it's not only to keep the Board informed, but also that for the Member States to engage open and frank dialogue and to be helpful in the deliberation on mitigation and risk appetites. In general, we have been surprised that in the reports there isn't significant focus on trends such as reducing core funds or non-earmarked funding, nor strong measures in place to mitigate the impact of this risk, where it is unlikely that donors can reduce funds to mitigate these risks. And we want to understand what this will mean for the agencies. What will they need to stop doing? What creates an unacceptable risk to stop doing? This is a discussion, not an exact science, and having this sort of conversation in the Executive Board, listening to the different perspectives here, will strengthen the advice and support that we can provide to the agencies. Another significant trend, which we are surprised not to see more highlighted in reporting, is funding and policy— is funding and policy decisions negatively affecting the protection and promotion of women and girls' rights. From a risk management perspective, neglecting gender equality exacerbates systematic vulnerabilities. Including increased exposure to reputational, operational, programmatic, and financial risks. Our clear expectation is that each of the agencies will both center gender equality in their strategies and leverage it as a driving force to promote economic growth, sustainable development, peace and security, effective climate action, and to underpin efforts to ensure that their operations prevent harms that disproportionately affect women and girls. We remain active and collaborative champions for gender equality. Without bold collective leadership from across the development system, we risk backsliding on gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights, threatening the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and reducing our commitment to global economic growth, which reduces— which risks reducing the global economy by $7 trillion. We have 4 further questions in this regard. Firstly, we would welcome more information on the agencies' risk appetite. What sort of factors do you consider in deciding if activities are low, medium, or high risk, and how is this applied in practice? Secondly, how do the agencies coordinate with other UN funds and programs to share information, discuss and assess and mitigate risks, especially those of strategic importance, such as protecting women and girls' rights and budget availability. Through what mechanisms does this happen, and how regularly? Would there be a benefit in agencies sharing some level of risk assessment at country, regional, and other levels? Thirdly, we underline the commendable work the agencies have taken in fragile and complex settings. In such environments, could you tell us more about how security risks are being assessed and mitigated? And finally, we appreciate your efforts to ensure you are well positioned to benefit from the substantial efficiencies and insights that artificial intelligence can generate, and are keen to understand how risks relating to information security, including privacy, and the robustness of AI are being identified and mitigated, both within your entities and across the UN development system.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. I'd like to thank the representative of the UK, and the next speaker will be Brazil, followed by the United States.

Gracias, señor presidente. As we gather to discuss this critical report on enterprise risk management and strategic risks, Brazil would like first to commend UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS for their dedication to enhance transparency and resiliency in an increasingly complex global landscape. The findings of the report serve as a stark reminder of the challenges we face collectively. Risks such as limited, limited flexible resources, reputational concerns, and the escalating impacts of climate change are not abstract. They are tangible obstacles that undermine the ability of these organizations to fulfill their mandates. For Brazil, as a committed partner to the United Nations systems, these challenges resonate deeply. In this context, it's imperative that risk management instruments evolve to address the realities of the current international landscape. Armed conflicts, for instance, have increasingly diverted financial resources that could otherwise be directed toward development, underscoring the urgency of adaptive strategies. These dynamics call, call for agile, integrated responses capable of anticipating and mitigating emerging risks while promoting operational resilience and enhancing the effectiveness of the UN Development System. So first, we must address the urgent need for increased flexible funding. As emphasized in the report, rigid funding structures severely limit the capacity to respond to crises swiftly and effectively. And second, risk management tools must adapt to the evolving international context. The growing complexity of global challenges, including climate change, geopolitical conflicts, social and economic inequalities, and disruptive technological advancements, requires a proactive and cohesive approach. These measures must not only anticipate and mitigate emerging risks, but also bolster the resilience of operations and the impact of UN actions. It is for this reason that Brazil has presented a proposal of an additional paragraph in the decision on the update of enterprise risk management. Gracias, señor presidente.

I'd like to thank the distinguished representative of Brazil, and the next speaker will be the United States. to be followed by Norway.

Many thanks, Mr. President. Good afternoon, colleagues. Many thanks to all the agencies today for their thorough and illuminating presentations. This is a great beginning to a longer and mutually beneficial conversation. A few questions. We heard a mention or two of AI. Could, could you elaborate on how AI can be both tool for risk management as well as a risk in and of itself. We did not hear terrorism cited as a risk by any of the organizations, but we do see the risk there on a number of levels, such as aid diversion and terrorists who somehow become employed by international organizations. Can you say a bit more about how you rate and address the risk of terrorism? UNFPA notes that each business unit at headquarters orders, regional and country office levels, has a designated departmental primary and alternate risk focal point to ensure alignment with ERM policy. Do UNDP and UNOPS deploy a similar approach? The United States appreciates UNOPS' approach in having the Chief Risk Officer sitting in the executive suite, as it widens the vision of risk beyond the financial. Where does risk leadership sit for UNDP and UNFPA? UNDP's risk dashboard is impressive and concise. Does UNFPA and UNOPS have plans to develop a similar risk dashboard? Finally, you stress your commitment to integrating ERM into strategic planning. Will that integration be visible to donors, and how can we partner with you on the integration? Thank you very much, Mr. President.

Thank you very much. The next speaker is Norway.

Thank you, Mr. President. I am making this statement on behalf of Norway. It's a national statement in addition to the statement read by my esteemed colleague from the UK. Over the last couple of years, the Norwegian delegation has repeatedly addressed risk management across the boards of the New York-based agencies. We are very pleased to engage for the very first time on this topic as it is introduced as a separate and recurring item on the Triple Board. Managing uncertainties is inherent, inherent to strategic management to be able to achieve results, make sure to deliver within mandate, and ultimately progress towards our common goals by 2030. The renewed attention to enterprise risk management coincides with the development of the new strategic plans of the agencies. Norway takes this opportunity to encourage the agencies to make risk management an integral part of the planning process for the strategic plans, to be able to identify major risks and take a forward-looking approach on mitigation during the strategic period. Norway underscores the importance of the executive leadership taking ownership to the risk management. Mechanisms for escalating critical risks to the right management levels should be developed and clearly communicated. A culture of openness is often set from above. Further, integrated structures and streamlined organization-wide processes are also essential features of a well-functioning ERM system that draws on timely information from all 3 lines of defence. We believe in using ERM as a proactive management tool, aiming to strike the right balance between calculated risk-taking with adequate responses and preparedness. This may in turn promote adaptation and resilience. We would ask the agencies to reflect on the status of the features of escalation and integration in their ERM systems and risk management processes. Norway would like to encourage a constructive dialogue in the board on risk profiles that are substantive, substantive, tangible, including both external as well as internal factors, and that are anchored in time and geopolitical contexts. We assure you of Norway's continuous engagement. Thank you, Mr. President.

Gracias al distinguido.

Thank you very much. I will now give the floor back to the representatives of the agencies. First of all, Mr. Xu, then Mr. Sapperton. And then Ms. Voss so that they can respond or react to the comments and questions that have been raised from the floor. So, Mr. Shu, first you have the floor.

Okay, thank you very much, distinguished delegates, for your questions. We had an informal last week on this issue. There were not many questions. I thought this session would be easier, so it's not the case.

Clearly.

Maybe my colleagues want to start first.

Andrew?

No? Okay, so let me try. Okay, let me try. So thank you very much for these questions, right? And I mean, again, to start, okay, you know, I would say that, you know, we really appreciate this dialogue, right? Because whatever risks we have, we face, We face this together, right? So we need to work together with the board, you know, with your guidance, right, to manage these risks. I mean, after all, we are spending public resources, so I think we need the confidence of our board, you know, in our ability to spend this money, you know, effectively and responsibly and to achieve results. So I think we welcome this, as I said in the informal as well. And so it's indeed, it's not just talking about risks but also about mitigating measures. So on some specific points that the UK colleague raised on behalf of a group of countries, I must defer, beg to defer on a couple of points I would say, okay? And I think on the first point, I think we have consistently raised alarms about declining core resources, right? I think the Administrator in every board session, I think, has raised this issue. So I think it's clearly a challenge that's becoming more and more acute because for last year, the share of core resources in NDP's overall expenditure, program and it has gone from 12% the year before to 11%. So I think we have really raised this question for quite some time. But the treatment, as I said, will require our collective action, right? So we have really significant challenges. I organized a briefing session with our member states on the findings of our business model review, right? And we shared a lot of information, right?

Whoever—

I think we sent to everyone, you know, who expressed interest or either came or even didn't come. I think we shared the presentation. So we have a concentration of core resources, you know, in a number of key traditional donors. The top 20 co-contributors already includes India and China. So we need to look at how our countries, both developed and developing countries, co-own UNDP and to perhaps change the model that we have had for 60 years and to co-contribute to the core resources of UNDP. So I think we can discuss further, we can have more discussions, group discussions about this issue. And on the second question of the issue, the investment, continued investment and emphasis on women's rights, gender equality, the rights of women, girls and so forth, I would think that our focus on this has also been quite consistent. And we have a very specific gender equality and women's empowerment strategies in our organization, right? And we have this work chaired at no other than the administrator's level, right? And our investment, however, our investment in this area, however, is also limited by the Declining core resources. As our board members will know that in our resource allocation formula, we do have a specific line for gender mainstreaming initiative, the GMI. But given the level of core resources, we we can only I think allocate about a million dollars a year, right? For a global challenge, right? That requires a lot more attention. So our ability to invest. Is really limited. We have tried, for example, to have flexible means of resource mobilization and use through the funding windows, but again, unfortunately, the contributions to this funding window have been extremely limited. But we thank a number of donors— I will not name them because if I name the number of donors who really contribute to this, I also, you know, maybe undermined, you know, the fact that the traditional core donors were not acknowledged as often as non-core donors, right? So I think— so we want to make sure that really we just express support for any donor who supported us, both core and non-core. So just on this issue of gender mainstreaming and so forth, you know, I want to say that we focus a lot on this, right? And we have a lot of recent progress over the last 2 years. We came up with a number of, I would say, really good products on so-called gender economics, for example, gender seals for both public and private sector. We focus on linkages of gender issues through national planning and integrated national financing frameworks and so forth. I can say more about it. So we are definitely focusing on this issue. So, but we're happy to really have further dialogues if there are specific issues we can address, and certainly whatever we do is not enough, it's clear, right, because if you look at the SDG indicators, it's not moving in the right direction. Probably 20% of the SDG targets are on track, so we have a lot of common challenges.

In this.

Now, on the 4 questions I think the UK posted, right, specifically on the risk appetite, you know, we can discuss certainly, right, because I think our risk appetite would be a reflection of the risk you want us to take, right? And so UNDP, for example, works in many, many different contexts, right? And we are— our largest donor, in fact, is the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis and malaria. It reflects the fact that the NDP is called upon to be the primary recipient when other systems do not work. So we take a lot of risks. But we take risks carefully, right? So I think I just want to mention, so we can have— really happy to have further dialogues on this. On the question of coordinating with other agencies, I think certainly we can do better. I think we, to my knowledge, there's technical-level coordination all the time. For example, Chief financial officers' level, at other working levels, there are constant exchanges of information. At our risk management teams, we have this one, but I think we can do this more consciously with this call from the Board. And on issues of safety and security risks, for example, with so many conflicts going on, really many contexts come to mind. It has become challenging. Because it is affected by the cost of doing business. For programme-related risks, we can legitimately, and with your support, with donors' consent, charge these costs to relevant projects and the programme portfolios. But there are other risk-related costs, security-related costs, that we cannot charge to programmes. And projects that relates to the safety and the security of office setup itself. I'll give you one recent example. When the conflict was raging in Gaza and when UNDP was asked by our country team, by our resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator, to also undertake PC1-level activities to support humanitarian operations in Gaza, We have to field a P4-level security officer in order to meet the security requirements of protocol requirements, security protocol requirements of the UN. We had to struggle to find the budget for that purpose. I'm just going to give you one example. And so I think for this issue, clearly the cost of doing business is increasing. But we do follow UN security protocol, right? The UN DSS sets the standards, and we're part of the UN Common Security System. And the fourth question, very quickly, on AI, which the US touched on as well, I believe, right, on AI risks. And so I just— you know that on the positive side, I think our colleagues in our Crisis Bureau published an op-ed today on how we're using AI as a tool to facilitate the deployment of people managing risks and so forth. We're using AI actively in our work. Our assignments of people, for example, are assisted by AI tools, because when we assign people, we don't just wait for people to apply. We're actively using AI tools to identify talent, to propose assignments proactively, for example. So we are using the good of AI for our work. But AI can cause challenges, obviously, but the advance of communications technology in general, ICT in general, can cause challenges with security breaches, information leaks, and so forth. So this is an issue I think we're working with our colleagues as well in the UN, right? And we're actively looking at this, understand the risks, look at our security abilities, you know, and the surveillance abilities. We do have surveillance capacity, you know, to look at, you know, ICT-related breaches into our system. So we're alerted often very quickly, you know, if there are breaches of attacks and so forth. So I can assure you that we're investing in this. Yes, but again, this requires resources, right? And so, on the question of Brazil, thank you very much for your statement and I share a lot of the points you raised and couldn't agree more on the need for more flexible resources and risk management tools. I touched in my statement that we are constantly looking at our systems and our tools and our culture as well, culture of risk management and so forth.

Agree with you on this, on all the issues you raised, the new context, climate change, inequality, AI, and there are many, many challenges that we face just this week, right? And so, and I probably know we're not getting into details, but when, for example, a lot of colleagues who are on track on contracts whose contracts have to be affected, right, terminated earlier, you know, it also proposes, you know, additional new security risks that we have not faced in the past, for example, right? So, so agree that we will work on all these issues, you know, and as a cohesive approach across agencies, agree. Right.

On the point of the US delegate, you know, thank you very much as well. And on the question of AI, I think I tried to touch on that. Just on the question of terrorism, okay, you know, we have, for example, over the last couple of years stood up, I would say, strong capacity to deal with the anti-money laundering and the countering terrorism funding of countering terrorism, you know, capacity, right? Because, you know, we have, we have a new— we put a new policy in place, right, to deal with this. We stood up a team, right, to deal with this. This, you know, is requiring additional resources that we didn't plan in the past, right, from our existing resource base, right, to do this job properly, right? We calculated, you know, the, the uptake of the workload compared to the response time in order to meet the demands. So we constantly look at this issue, review this issue. And on the question of employment of people who could have been involved in terrorism, we again have very rigorous systems checking relevant lists according to UN standards. So we again have a very robust practice on this. By the way, I can assure you ENP's commitment to adhering to UN standards in this regard. And so on those statements, I think I agree with you on all the points you raised. I think in the informal session I elaborated in detail our 3 lines model, because everyone who owns the risk is the first line of defense, you can say, right? But we have a system of risk escalation from country level to regional level to global level, to the supervisory level. Then we have independent systems of checks and balances, our evaluation office, our audit and investigation office, and our ethics office to help us ensure accountability. So this is quite a long answer, but I think the issues are important and we welcome further engagement. If you have any question, please let us know at any time. Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Xu. Mr. Sabaton, you have the floor.

Sam Charitz, he's actually the Chief of Staff. And actually, that positioning was actually as a result of our ERM policy. Previously, the Chief Risk Officer used to be myself as controller. When we went to a mature— more mature level, we moved it up into the division to actually be the tone at the top. That's such actually a big foundation of any risk management system. And I will be deferring to Sam, Mr. President, on some of the questions after I've done through mine, if I may.

Thank you.

But just to respond to some of these questions here, I know from whenever I've been coming to the Board, we've— every Board session, UNFPA has raised the importance of core v. non-core resources and the concern about the declining proportion. that we are favouritism, that core resources do give us that flexibility, do give us that adaptability and agility, and that is a strong message we put through, not just in every Board session, but through various mediums as well. The Structured Funding Dialogue constantly raises this. The Executive Director raises this in their annual report. The Board approved last year our midterm review where we took— we again reiterated that and took a conservative view of our core resources projection for the remainder of this strategic plan. So it is constantly on our mind, and I'll say it again, core resources are our favoured form of receiving income for all the reasons we know. But because they have been declining in terms of absolute value and certainly as a proportion of total revenue, what risk mitigation What kind of measures did UNFPA take? Quite a number. I'll just list a few here. Firstly, we've been prudent, as I mentioned, in the MTR and we'll be prudent in our new strategic plan and integrated budget for the next cycle. We've looked to, at all times and purposes, diversify the income sources. For example, looking at the private sector, we've established framework agreements in the last 2 years with all the 6 IFIs. We look at the joint programmes, which are actually the biggest source of our income in 2023, was actually through joint UN programmes as being a partner, and we have our own individual giving programmes, as well as philanthropy. So we're looking at all stages to try and fill that gap from other sources. One thing I would just actually like to mention as well is Now risk management is a hot topic. It's been there from the start. Our financial regulations and rules of the UNFPA and most UNOAs establish the framework for some form of fiduciary, at least, risk management. For example, UNFPA cannot spend non-core financing until they're either in the bank bank or we've actually got a signed agreement. We don't take no risks with that, which is not essentially the best model for programming because it actually leads to stop-start programming, but that's what the Board has decided in approving its regulations— regulations designed by the Board and can only be changed by the Board. We can't borrow money, we can't lend money, so it's actually on that. Therefore, the money we have got to programme is only the core resources, and this year I think we're looking at below 25% of our resources, total resources, will be core, so we have lost a bit of that agility. But one thing I'm very happy that risk management will be a regular discussion point on here, but I would really emphasize that I would really like it becomes a discussion so that actually how we work together better, not as a bureaucratic to share that. And that's actually a good segue into the UNFPA's ERM policy, which I think was 2022, if I remember correctly. We included in there an annex to the risk appetite. The annex included a risk appetite statement, and it actually— there was a question, I think it was again from the UK, over what dimensions. We actually— 6 dimensions are in that risk appetite statement. External delivery, the external delivery, the operational, fiduciary, reputational, and safeguarding contexts. We have different levels of risk in each of those, which would be our normal level of risk appetite. But that is our normal level of risk appetite. We can move away from that. It is more risky to do programming and do delivery in humanitarian contexts, but you move away from it by balancing it by a countermeasure. For example, if you are delivering in a very difficult environment, you agree with the donor to accept a level of the losses that will actually take place, or you agree with the donor that you should actually be financed for increased operational support or a risk management officer on the ground to cover the— make sure you balance that risk out. I would encourage members that both our policy and the risk appetite statement are published on the public website. and are available to anyone to read, and we can actually discuss, you know, discuss that further. On some of the other areas regarding the AI, well, regarding management in internal AI risk, we've implemented internal guidelines and protocols for staff using AI tools, emphasizing responsible use, data privacy, and confidentiality, and this includes rigorous assessment of AI providers, contractual obligations, etc., etc. Regarding external, we've also got a framework regarding shaping global AI policy, and we're actively working together with different stakeholders to the development of ethical AI frameworks and standards at global levels. And we're working with the other AI parties in the UN system. So we're actually Secretary-General's high-level advisory body on AI and the UN Interagency Task Team on Science, Technology, and Innovation to actually develop them standards and frameworks. It's critical because we're actually moving into AI both from on our programming aspect to, to help it use it to deliver better programs, on our operational aspects to make us more efficient actually back-office operations. And also, it's a countermeasure to the cybersecurity as well. We use AI in actually making sure, you know, to keep the bad guys out, should I say. And also, most importantly, with the development and kind of post-stabilization era of the ERP, we want to use AI to generate that data and to generate that actually better way of moving forward rather than actually using business business intelligence rather than just having accounting systems and financial systems for record keeping per se. I would actually also say at that time we actually do also have a— there was a question about the comparative with UNDP. We do have an ERM system. It's called MyRisks. It's been around for a few years and we're working to integrate it to our results and what we call Quantum Plus ERP methodology. We do actually have risk management right throughout our planning process, from the strategic planning process right the way through down to the country programme documents as well. It's just that, as I mentioned last week in the informal, the country programme documents do have a very strict word limit and we only put a minimum amount in there in terms of what we actually do.

Thank you.

do, but basically everything we do is risk. It is part of our everyday. That is why I say it is not a bureaucratic issue. This is part of every day, every hour, particularly with our colleagues in the field and delivering those life-saving services and critical deliverables. I would also say regarding— very similar to UNDP regarding the terrorism, of course we vet our employees and suppliers against the official UN lists as regards the— we are with the OSC, the UNDSS security risk assessments in terms of how we actually act and behave and kind of work in particular countries. And actually, regarding diversion and hiring, I can actually say on there that we actually follow the We have a— they are managed within certain policies and risk frameworks that we actually already have in our system relevant. If you don't mind, Chair, if I may just pass to my colleague.

If you want to be very concise, because I think your response has been actually very comprehensive, so let's try to be very concise.

Thank you, Mr. President. Yes, I'll be very quick. That was very comprehensive indeed. Just 3 points from my side to add. In regard to the statement from the UK on behalf of the UK and some partners, indeed, the focus on gender and sexual and reproductive health and rights is referenced, and we would concur with the importance of that. It's in our documents, and of course, we're happy to share more information on our achievement against the UN's Agenda Swap, where we meet or exceed all the targets. Indeed, in response to the SG's Gender Acceleration Plan, we've also created a gender steering committee, so lots more to say around how important that is for us. On data privacy, in response, I guess, to the question from the US and that came up from Norway, we are doing a lot of work recently around data privacy to ensure compliance with different pillar assessments that we've received and to make sure we have different processes and procedures in place. So there's been a lot of work that's recently been undertaken, and we can— happy to talk more about that. And then finally, in response to the question from Norway, just to emphasize on this question of culture and openness, there's a lot of work around, which came up in the culture dialogue in the informal and will come up today, around tone at the top, trying to create also a speak-up culture so that colleagues feel free to use the existing systems that we have, including the internal audit and investigation The ethics office, the ombudsman office, the HR, etc., to make sure that those systems are in place so we can identify problems and address them as needed as well. Thank you very much, Mr. President.

Les agradezco por sus.

Thank you very much to you both for your comments and answers. I now give the floor to Miss Foss.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Chair.

I'll start with the question on the agency's risk appetite. statement. Rather than having a risk appetite statement that could bind us from delivering in high-risk contexts, where the needs are often the greatest, UNOPS takes a context-based approach to de-risking our projects and maximize their likelihood of success. Hence, we assess if risks are high, medium, or low based on the specific context of the project. However, at a corporate level, level. Our Engagement Acceptance Committee has established 16 key risk categories that we consider high, and whenever we face any of those risks in our projects, the engagement and, and the review is escalated to our HQ Risk Committee. Finally, although we don't have a risk appetite statement, we're currently developing a risk principle statement to guide our decisions, optimize our resources, and ensure that our portfolio remains within mandate and aligned with non-negotiable UN standards. As to the question of how we coordinate risks with other UN agencies and also the risks related to gender parity and the rights of women, UNOPS is an active member in the HLCM Risk Management Forum. We will attend the upcoming session on global risk scheduled for early February. We have contributed to active dialogue with sister agencies in recent times, including, as you'll see today, with UNFPA and UNDP, and we also really welcome this opportunity to collaborate more with them, but also with UNHCR and WFP, to name a few. Women's rights and gender issues was not one of the critical risks that we highlighted here today, but they are integral risks and feature in all our projects and portfolio risk matrixes. Wherever feasible, we prioritize gender issues in our projects, including in all-dominated sectors like infrastructure, which is one of the largest UNOPS service lines. In Ukraine, for example, an all-women construction team played a pivotal role in the restoration of a school in Kharkiv, one of over 80 schools rehabilitated as part of our European Union-funded initiative supported What have we done to manage security risks, and how are these being assessed and mitigated? The primary focus for that, of course, is the UNSMS, the Security Management System, which UNOPS is an active member of, both at the global and at the country level. We have recently taken steps to considerably strengthen our own security operations with enhanced resources, so more expert staff both at HQ and, and in the field. But this is a real challenge, and thoughts of course go out to our colleagues in, in DRC at the moment who are facing some real security concerns as we speak. Um, on the AI question asked by a couple of member states, UNOPS is actively exploring various use cases to leverage the opportunities presented by AI to enhance the speed and agility of our project delivery. We develop proof of concepts and engage with internal audiences to gather feedback informing our decisions to proceed with that, modify our approach, or discontinue the use case. We're also currently exploring how we can leverage AI to enhance our risk management and our internal controls and compliance through the introduction of smart compliance checks and automated or AI-driven internal controls. Controls. As for the risks related to AI, we prioritize security and privacy for all AI applications. We assess each case for potential bias and discrimination, transparency, and other ethical considerations. And as for the use cases that present high risks, particularly of bias and discrimination, we undergo a more thorough investigation before proceeding with a proof of concept or before engaging with the AI technology. This work is done within our Process Innovation and Digitization Program, guided by the Principles for Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence in the United Nations System and the UN Principles on Personal Data Protection and Privacy. We are in the process also of setting up a more structured data and AI governance framework for this purpose. To the very good question from our colleague, the delegate from Brazil, on flexible resources. As you know, UNOPS does not have core funding. We're fully project-funded. Hence, the question of flexible funding is even more challenging for us, and hence this was one of the 5 critical risks that we highlighted today. At the same time, we're seeing complexity— or the complexity of operations is becoming higher. So is the cost of compliance and operating in an ever more complex system. So we're needing to invest more resources in these areas at the same time as we're seeing our funding declining. And this is a risk that we're actively managing. On the financial and the flexibility that we have there, we're currently enhancing our financial foresight. We're strengthening our data management and our enhanced data analysis so we can manage our finances better. And we're also looking to enhance the quality of our data to allow us to do so. On the question of risk dashboards and whether we have those that UNDP has, we do have similar live dashboards, but we are also currently in the process of learning and collecting best practice from our UN colleagues on this front. But our dashboards, our project risk dashboards, are available to all UNOPS personnel, and they record risks and issues recorded across all the projects in our portfolio. These records are consolidated in dedicated risk and issues libraries and into separate risk and issue portfolio monitoring dashboards. These are very important tools for our project teams to learn from comparable projects and track their own key areas of exposure. On the question of enterprise resource management— on risk management integration into strategic planning, for the first time UNOPS has risk-informed its strategic plan and budgeting process. This has resulted in risks to the planning horizon being analyzed as part of our midterm review of our 2022-25 strategic plan. We have also articulated our baseline assumptions and and risks underpinning the budget submission both for 2023 and 2024 across all corporate units and regions. This work is continuing as part of our ongoing planning cycle for the '26-'29 period. Along similar lines, a new risk-informed and strategic approach to the quarterly management reviews has been implemented, engaging the management team on a quarterly basis on dialogue on performance and risk against our key objectives, balancing quantitative and qualitative insights. On the question of terrorism risks, um, are— we have recently considerably strengthened our due diligence measures to assess all third-party risks related to terrorism, including our recruitment processes. We're currently rolling out a new and much strengthened policy on integrity due diligence, which includes measures on terrorism and other key compliance risks that we face. On terrorism specifically, we implement a strict vetting process, process for all third parties, partners, contractors, suppliers, and staff under recruitment to ensure that they have no ties to sanctioned groups or entities involved in terrorist activities. Background checks are conducted in alignment with the UN Security Council sanctions list and other relevant databases. UNOPS ensures compliance with international sanctions and laws, avoiding transactions or engagements with entities linked to terrorism. And we remain— we maintain strict adherence to counterterrorism frameworks established by the UN in general. Likewise, our due diligence framework is being strengthened on all third-party compliance risks we face. Such as anti-money laundering, anti-bribery and corruption, tax evasion, etc. Finally, um, on the— we have strengthened risk-informed decision-making and capabilities across engagement opportunities and partnership develop—

development.

We now have a more effective escalation criteria and a stronger consideration of decision alternatives and risks before commitment decisions are made for complex engagements. Our escalation criteria mechanisms are aligned with our delegation of authority levels. Our Engagement Acceptance Committee is the highest decision-making authority and takes place on the basis of standard thresholds and lists of high triggers risks. And I think, given time, I will stop there. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Ms. Voss, for your answers. I would like to inform the board that a draft decision on joint agenda item 5 on risk management is currently being prepared. We will revert to this item later to adopt the decision. Given that we're running a bit late, we will need to quickly invite the members of the next panel up to the podium. We'll have a brief pause first.

Thank you.

Distinguished delegates. We're running a little bit behind schedule, so please take your seats. The podium is ready.

A good afternoon once again. We will continue with the joint segment with agenda item 6, organizational culture. Distinguished delegates, we'll proceed as follows under this agenda item. First of all, A joint update on organizational culture. Secondly, an address by the chairperson of the UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS, UN Women Staff Council. And thirdly, the presentation of the annual report of the Office of the Ombudsman for the UN Funds and Programs. Ms. Maguire, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. President, distinguished members of the Executive Board, colleagues from UNFPA and UNOPS, ladies and gentlemen. Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to present UNDP's update on our work to enhance organizational culture. Organizational culture, of course, is key to the effective and efficient delivery of our strategic plan. It shapes how teams collaborate. It drives productivity and performance. It ensures accountability, and it strengthens our ability to effectively manage innovation and respond to risks. A key vehicle for shaping and driving our desired culture is the People for 2030 strategy, launched in 2019. This multi-year, ambitious, and comprehensive strategy is aligned with UNDP's mission and goals. It recognizes the importance of investing in UNDP's greatest asset, our people, and has 2 objectives: improving our capacity and transforming our culture with a view to delivering better development results across its 10 focus areas. The strategy takes a comprehensive, holistic approach that addresses the root causes of issues related to people management and organizational culture. As a first step in achieving People for 2030 objectives, UNDP established its core competencies. These are aligned with UN values. They capture the attitudes and behaviors expected from every individual in the organization, built around collaboration and engagement, innovation and continuous learning, inclusion and respect. These competencies frame both our talent management system and our culture needed for a high sustainable organizational performance. As people are critical stakeholders in shaping a successful organization, UNDP introduced the UNDP Listens, a listening architecture that serves to collect feedback on workplace experiences, identify issues, shape action, and continuously monitor progress. Since 2023, both its engagement and inclusion surveys have shown tangible progress in creating a thriving workplace culture, people-centric leaders, and an engaged workforce. The engagement score, which rose from 72 to 74 out of 100 in 2024, and the inclusion score of 75 position UNDP on par with global benchmarks. Both UNDP Listens surveys include a voluntary demographic section to allow us to collect feedback on experiences of people with different identities. This helps us identify if any of our personnel are left behind and take action to close any gaps. While the specific workplace indicators tracked through UNDP Listens are critical for driving action, it is also important to understand how this action influences our organizational performance. This is about impact. With this in view, UNDP established a new People Index. Early data shows a strong correlation between this People Index and delivery. In other words, as engagement and inclusion rise, there is a measurable increase in programmatic delivery. This confirms that engaged teams drive programmatic success. And hence our approach captured in People for 2030 is sound and should continue. In late 2024, using data from UNDP Listens, UNDP commenced an organizational culture assessment using a globally recognized model. The assessment is analyzing culture through 8 markers: agility, collaboration, growth, inclusion, innovation, solutions, technologies, and transparency. The results, once ready, will inform further action to enhance UNDP culture. UNDP Listens collects an unprecedented amount of qualitative and quantitative data, which is complemented by insights we get from other sources, such as feedback from the Office of the Ombudsman. To respond to all this feedback systematically and holistically, UNDP is designing a new organizational development framework. This aims to provide customized solutions that would help teams to overcome structural, cultural, and people-related challenges and to drive performance. Excellence in leadership is crucial for shaping organizational results. As of today, over 300 leaders participated in our Leaders for 2030 program. Offices where leaders took part in the program were twice as likely to be performing as measured by our engagement scores. In parallel, UNDP introduced a new People Leadership Pulse to enable personnel to provide upward feedback on their leaders' performance. This tool is designed based on people management competencies and facilitates continuous improvement in the performance and accountability of people managers. Diversity and inclusion are critical dimensions of our culture. Building on earlier action, in 2023 UNDP launched its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategy, aiming to ensure UNDP is diverse, equitable, inclusive and free from discrimination. Progress is tracked through the Inclusion Survey, focusing on trust, psychological safety and belonging. The flagship initiative under the strategy is a Speak Up Culture Program. Piloted in 2023-24, it led to improvements in the performance of the respective offices and will be scaled up. On gender, UNDP continues to maintain full gender parity and now achieved prestigious EDGE Move and EDGE+ certifications for gender equality. Efforts are also ongoing to attract and support persons with disabilities, young talent from less privileged backgrounds, and to achieve a geographically balanced workforce. Paid internships in programs like the Graduate Program, the African Young Women Leadership— Leaders Fellowship Program, and the Young Professionals with Disabilities Program all expand opportunities for young talented individuals and are showing encouraging results. Another critical element at the heart of UNDP's work on culture is accountability. The UNDP Ethics Office is reinforcing the culture of integrity and accountability, empowering staff to uphold ethical standards and raise concerns without fear of retaliation. The Office of Audit and Investigation is part of a formal justice system to investigate and address misconduct. In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that UNDP remains committed to fostering an inclusive ethical, and high-performing culture, and will work to build progress to achieve even greater impact. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the board, for this opportunity, and I remain available, as are my colleagues, to answer any questions.

Le agradezco a la señora Linda.

Thank you very much, Miss McGuire, Assistant Administrator and Director, Bureau for Management Services of UNDP. I now give the floor to Mr. Andrew Sabaton, Deputy Executive Director for Management, UNFPA.

Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, Excellencies, distinguished members of the Board, observers of the Board, and colleagues. Good afternoon and thank you for your interest in UNFPA's organizational culture. In line with our Strategic Plan for 2022-2026, 2025, our People Strategy 2030, and our planning for the 2026-2029 cycle, UNFPA has undertaken various strategic actions to align our organizational culture and values with our program delivery. The UNFPA leadership and senior management has demonstrated a commitment to a tone at the top by communicating commitments to psychological safety and by establishing a clear vision and strategic direction that foster a positive workplace culture and an enabling environment for all personnel. UNFPA holds a zero tolerance stance on any wrongdoing, including sexual misconduct. In this context, UNFPA has established an integrity group to strengthen the speak-up culture through improved prevention and early resolution of workplace conflicts, increased trust in reporting existing reporting, accountability, and response mechanisms, and enhance support to victims, survivors, and affected individuals. UNFPA's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is integral to fulfilling our mandate. A diverse workforce enhances our ability to better understand the various needs of the stakeholders and populations engaged with our our services and expertise and enables UNFPA to design and implement more effective and responsive programs. In an increasingly interconnected world with persistent inequalities, diverse perspectives are essential to understand and respond to the challenges we face and to ensure our work remains relevant, impactful, and aligned with the communities we support. In 2019, Under the leadership of the Office of the Executive Director, UNFPA launched the Culture Initiative to promote culture change and ensure alignment with UN values. UNFPA identified 5 key principles: trust and respect, belonging, commitment and accountability, team spirit, and innovation. In line with these, UNFPA co-created the UNFPA Culture Charter. Thank you. 2030 People Strategy, whose strategic focus areas are building our workplace of the future, empowering our people, and improving our efficiency and effectiveness to enable our aspirational organisational culture. Diversity, equity, and inclusion is a key element woven across the UNFPA 2030 People Strategy and contains 3 strategic focus areas. Awareness, accountability, and allyship, and includes 5 dimensions— racial discrimination, disability, LGBTQIA+, gender, and generations— that rest on an intersectional approach. UNFPA's commitment to track and monitor diversity data and to foster a more inclusive organization has been tested against a set of rigorous gender and intersectional equity standards, EDGE and EDGE+, that are allowing UNFPA to authenticate DE&I claims. The EDGE standard offers a holistic framework which allows UNFPA to measure where the organization stands in terms of gender and intersectional equity. In 2022, UNFPA received the first level of certification, the EDGE Access. And in 2024, UNFPA reaffirmed its commitments and obtained EDGE Move, the second of 3 levels of certification. UNFPA is committed to improvement and continues to take actions that will better equip the organization to address inequalities that are evidence-based and data-driven. Programmatically, UNFPA is proving to be a leading agency in UN-wide DEI efforts when it comes to meeting or exceeding indicators, notably for the UN SWAP and the UN Disability Inclusion Strategy. In 2024, UNFPA reinforced its commitment by signing on to the UN Secretariat's Strategy on the Protection from Violence and Discrimination of LGBTIQ+ Persons, and UNFPA's Executive Committee endorsed a Gender Equality and Inclusion Steering Committee. In 2024, UNFPA completed its Global Staff Survey, which is a great opportunity for UNFPA personnel to be heard and to shape how the organization will develop. It achieved a 74% response rate. The results of this collective and anonymous evaluation will inform organization-wide and country or team-specific action plans to address any areas or opportunities to improve or commend workplace conditions. UNFPA's leadership has endorsed several staff-led employee resource groups. These include the Tangerines, a community of young professionals, Women at UNFPA, and Pride at UNFPA, as well as the disability diversity space. UNFPA leadership maintains regular communications with the Staff Council, And as a result, UNFPA has been able to promote better understanding between management and personnel. And since 2023, UNFPA has significantly expanded its enterprise risk management capacity building initiatives. UNFPA finds that a strong approach to risk management creates an enabling environment for a strong organizational culture where every employee actively participates. In 2024, UNFPA expanded its normative framework to also include a robust 2-year PSEAH strategy and work plan, outlining the strategic objectives and required organizational shifts that inform its protection from SEAH approach. In this area, UNFPA plays a leadership role in interagency efforts to address sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment. The UNFPA Executive Director personally demonstrated this leadership by assuming the role of PSEAH Champion for the Interagency Standing Committee in January 2021. UNFPA has actively and intentionally recruited with a view to reflecting gender equity and the diversity of the populations we serve. UNFPA will continue to monitor its representation of gender and geography. Across organizational levels and functional areas as part of its regular human resource system and reporting. In 2025, UNFPA will be drawing on an anti-racism and decoloniality accountability framework to enable the organization identity drivers of racism, racial discrimination, and coloniality in the workplace in order to ensure dignity, respect and equity for our personnel with an aim to create systematic change. Beyond numbers, UNFPA remains an organization where the tone at the top shows commitment and our personnel are engaged and committed. UNFPA remains committed to building a diverse, power-equitable and principled organizational culture where each voice is heard and confidently shared. These efforts start with each of us.

Thank you.

Gracias, señor.

Thank you, Mr. Sabaton. I now give the floor to Miss Valerie Kushata, Director, People and Culture Group of UNOPS.

Thank you, Mr. President, distinguished members of the Executive Board, dear colleagues, and ladies and gentlemen. The past few years have been a learning curve for UNOPS, where we have balanced challenges with opportunities to reflect, rebuild, and renew. Today, I am pleased to provide an update on the progress of UNOPS' organizational culture journey, a transformation initiated in 2024 that remains a cornerstone of our commitment to organizational renewal. As my colleagues in the sister agencies have mentioned, please bear with me as they— my presentation, my statement bears a lot of similarities but probably presented slightly different. We have made significant strides in fostering a dynamic and inclusive organizational culture since January 2024, when we first presented our strategic vision for cultural transformation to this esteemed In June 2024, this vision was formalised into a comprehensive culture roadmap addressing the 5 critical areas identified in the 2023 third-party review of our culture. Our approach to cultural transformation has been both systematic and thorough, and I'm particularly pleased to share some key achievements from this journey. First, in August 2024, we completed a comprehensive organizational culture assessment through an inclusive consultation process involving over 300 participants from across the organization. This assessment provided valuable insights, highlighting our strengths while identifying areas of improvement. As a result, we defined our cultural aspirations encapsulated in our new culture statements, which are deeply rooted in UN values. These statements emphasize trust, mutual respect, honest dialogue, teamwork, and the consistent delivery of excellence, accompanied by enabling behaviors. These principles now guide our daily operations and decision-making processes. Second, we have achieved significant progress across the 5 focus areas of our culture work work plan informed by the 2023 third-party review on culture. The first one, tone from the top. Leadership engagement has been enhanced through thematic town halls and regular information sharing sessions. Functional subgroups with regional representation now provide strategic guidance to the management team, fostering collaboration and alignment. Secondly, accountability. We have revamped our whistleblower framework and developed a UNOPS-specific code of conduct aligned with UN values and ethical standards, launched just last week, end of January, or rather this week in January. Updates to the leadership mindset and competencies to role model desired behaviors are on track for completion by March 2025. The third one, transparency and communication. A new internal communication strategy was endorsed in October 2024, ensuring clear and effective communication across the organization. The establishment of the first-ever Global Personnel Associations Forum has strengthened social dialogue and engagement with personnel representatives worldwide. Investing in our people, the 4th one, we introduced workplace adjustment guidelines, strengthened prevention of sexual exploitation exploitation, abuse, and harassment initiatives with a victim-centered approach, and react— reactivated the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Panel with senior leadership representation from all regions. The 5th one, future-proofing our culture. Clear cultural aspirations aligned with UN values, our strategic plan, and the Integrated People Strategy have been articulated. A network of 160 trained culture ambassadors supports leaders in embedding these values into team-specific action plans based on culture survey insights. These accomplishments reflect our ongoing commitment to creating a more inclusive, collaborative, and values-driven environment— organizational environment. The results of our 2024 Culture and Engagement Survey highlight a consistent recovery trend, with satisfaction levels steadily improving since October 2021. This revised survey will be a key tool for tracking progress against our Culture Index and engagement benchmarks. Over 400 leaders across the organization and teams have received tailored reports and will engage in culture conversations in the form of structured team dialogues to foster open communication, self-reflection, and collaborative action planning supported by the culture ambassadors. This approach will drive tangible culture transformation. To ensure leadership accountability, we are integrating cultural objectives into performance evaluations, placing greater emphasis on behavior metrics. Leaders will also undergo mandatory 360-degree feedbacks Feedback. Feedback process, peer reviews, and structured evaluations. Additionally, all managers and supervisors have been required to include PSEAH-related performance objectives in their individual goals for 2025. UNOPS maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards all forms of misconduct, particularly sexual misconduct. We have increased our resources dedicated to prevention and victim-centered responses while offering workshops for leadership teams to build capacity in preventing and responding to allegations. We are also enhancing our speak-up and whistleblower mechanisms to foster psychological safety with a revamped framework aimed at ensuring transparency and accountability, especially at senior levels. The Ombudsman's focus on transitioning from speak up against to speaking with reinforces our goal of creating a more inclusive and respectful culture. Notably, the 50% increase in personnel reaching out to the Ombudsman's Office in 2023 signals growing trust in these informal conflict resolution channels. Our whistleblowing overall adopts a victim-centered approach, ensuring that those affected by misconduct are supported throughout the administrative process and also protected against retaliation. These initiatives are key to fostering an inclusive, transparent, and accountable leadership culture, reinforcing UNOPS' alignment with its core values. As we celebrate UNOPS' 30th anniversary this 2025, we honor the resilience, and dedication of our personnel, past, present, and future. Their unwavering commitment enables us to deliver impactful solutions in the most challenging contexts. We continue to empower personnel, driving lasting impact with increased efficiency and effectiveness. A meaningful cultural shift is our top priority. Despite competing demands, we remain dedicated to ensuring that leadership and personnel, engage in honest culture conversations, and drive transformative change. This includes advancing diversity and inclusion through targeted recruitment, leadership training, and ongoing development programs such as the Junior Talent Program and the recently formed Global Youth Engaged Forum. In 2024, we launched a pilot affirmative action program in Latin America and the Caribbean, which will be expanded in January 2025, focusing on Indigenous populations in Brazil. We actively participate in interagency exchanges and collaborations to align practices and strengthen collaboration. UNOPS is also co-chairing the HLCM Working Group on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. These collaborations ensure UNOPS remains at the forefront of DEI advancements. Looking ahead, our focus is on turning aspirations into actions through targeted leadership development, tailored DEI training, and ongoing engagement with the Global Personnel Associations Forum. We will monitor progress through our Redefined Culture and Engagement Survey. The Process Innovation and Digitalization Program alongside our new Integrated People Strategy are key enablers in this cultural transformation. improving HR systems and empowering our personnel while reinforcing our commitment to UN principles. I would like to add as well, like my colleague who was here on the podium earlier on, that risk management is a critical component of our cultural transformation journey. Mr. President, distinguished delegates, UNOPS' cultural transformation is a long-term commitment to creating a resilient, inclusive and empowering environment. We recognize the challenges ahead but remain unwavering in our dedication to fostering a thriving culture that has a lasting impact on our partners and beneficiaries while upholding the principles of the United Nations. Thank you for your attention, support, and guidance throughout this journey, which has been turbulent sometimes, and we continue to thank the Executive Board for their support. I welcome questions and look forward to further discussions on this vital journey. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Ms. Kushata, for your presentation. The floor is now open for comments or questions.

In primer lugar, first of all, I would like to give the floor to the DPR of Austria, who will be speaking on behalf of a group of countries. You have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. President. I deliver this statement on behalf of Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the EU as a donor, and my own country, Austria. Today marks a milestone for the Board with the first designated item on organizational culture. Culture is at the core of the topics that we, we as an Executive Board discuss with the agencies. Whether we talk about implementation of the Strategic Plan, risk management, effectiveness and efficiency, UNDS reform, protection against sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment, Diversity, equality and inclusion, countering racism and racial discrimination, or adequate oversight and accountability systems. A determining factor in all of this is staff. Agencies cannot fulfil their mandates unless all personnel feel respected, treated equally, valued, safe and included. We emphasize the importance of leadership. A healthy inclusive culture requires strong and accountable leadership at all levels. Executive heads must ensure that all forms of harassment and discrimination are addressed. All staff in a management position should receive the necessary and continuous training to engage their personnel in all of its diversity meaningfully, fairly, and respectfully. We count on the Staff Council, the Ombudsman, and other independent offices to help hold agencies accountable and signal concerns to the Board. The Executive Board has a responsibility to hold the UN to its standards and values. In a world of continuous change and adaptation, what needs to be a constant is the principle of putting human capital first. Without staff, there is no delivery, no oversight, no progress. Today's contributions of the Staff Council and the Office of the Ombudsman provide valuable insight into culture, norms and behaviours. The yearly report of the Office of the Ombudsman and the Staff Council Address shed light on whether policies on paper are in place and sufficient, and whether they translate adequately into reality. While we commend the efforts of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS to establish structures, policies, and networks, we are more interested in the impact and results these guidelines, policies, procedures, and processes have. How are the different elements that constitute organizational culture brought together to see the big picture? Could the agencies share with the Board results frameworks for their strategies and policies on organizational culture? What indicators and methods, beyond surveys, are used for monitoring, measuring, and learning? We call on management at all levels to effectively and meaningfully engage with all personnel, to continuously consult, inform and engage the full workforce, and to ensure that everyone, including staff representatives, experiences the space and safety to speak up and speak out. This is especially important when managing organizational change, noting the current backdrop of ongoing review, reform, and optimization processes, as well as pivot to countries and regions initiatives. Reliable data is essential for monitoring whether all personnel regardless of their contract type, experience diversity, equity, and inclusion. But engagement levels and adequate questions in surveys ultimately determine whether data obtained is useful and what insights can be derived from them. How do the agencies ensure that they reach everyone and ensure everyone's voice is heard? We applaud initiatives designed to listen and engage staff. But equally note that these do more harm than good if the collected feedback is not followed up on visibly. Lastly, creating a safe, respectful, and inclusive culture requires cooperation across the entire system. How is interagency collaboration, information sharing, and system-wide learning on organizational culture and diversity institutionalized and measured? And how do the agencies concretely contribute to enabling system-wide coordination, particularly at the country level? And lastly, how do oversight offices cooperate on these matters? Mr. President, we stand ready to support agencies in this important work and look forward to today's and future discussions. I thank you.

I thank the distinguished representative of Austria for that statement. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the Dominican Republic.

Señor Presidente, Excelencias.

President, Your Excellencies, distinguished delegates, friends, a very good afternoon. I would like to begin by commending the recently elected members of the Bureau. Under the leadership of Ambassador Montalvo, you can have— you can rest assured of the constructive participation of my delegation during our stint on the board. We'd like to thank you for all of the briefings that you've held before this session, which have helped us a great deal to understand the work that you've been doing around the issue of the organizational culture of the bodies that we're examining. We'd also like to thank all of the presenters for their briefings today. We're interested to hear about the measures that the various agencies have been taking. On the strategy of diversity, equality, and inclusion, we have a few thoughts we'd like to raise. We certainly agree that these principles must always be applied provided that they bring us towards genuine meritocracy. In my delegation's eyes, this strategy should begin before staff are hired. And I see that this is already happening in some agencies and I'm happy to see that. In our eyes, diversity in all meaning— in all senses of the word is without doubt a competitive advantage. At the same time, equity must refer to equal opportunities for all. And when we talk about inclusion, we must ensure that we really do not leave anyone behind. This includes when appointing people to leadership positions. Consequently, a strategy on DEI—

Thank you.

as good as it may look on paper, will be useless unless there is transparency in the processes and procedures that are used. Thank you.

Thank you very much. The next speaker is the representative of New Zealand who will be followed by the UK. New Zealand first.

Thank you, Mr. President. New Zealand aligns with the group statement delivered by Austria. We also wish to make some brief remarks in a national capacity. New Zealand appreciates the substantial work underway to ensure that UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS are inclusive places to work, places where staff are enabled to uphold the highest professional and personal standards of integrity. In a global operating environment, it is crucial that employees from all job families are safe to deliver their best work and to raise any concerns that they may have. In that regard, New Zealand would like to understand whether there is any follow-up undertaken either by the organisations or by staff representative groups to evaluate the experience of staff who have spoken up and any short or medium-term impacts that they may have felt as a result of doing so. Reporting channels only reach their full potential when all staff, from those with temporary contracts to those with long-term careers in an organization, feel safe to speak up freely without retaliation or other negative repercussions. I thank you.

Gracias al distinguido representante.

Thank you very much. The next speaker is the UK.

Thank you, Mr. President. The UK would like to thank UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS, the Office of the Ombudsman, and the Chair of the Staff Council for their engagement and for their substantial contributions to date in strengthening organizational culture across their respective agencies. This is an important topic, and we're glad to see it as a standalone item on the agenda for the first time. We align fully with the group statement delivered by Austria. Organizational culture is at the heart of all the agencies do, and it's impossible for them to deliver effectively on their mandates unless all personnel feel valued, respected, and safe. A strong organizational culture improves both effectiveness and transparency, fostering an environment where staff feel able to challenge the status quo and come forward to raise concerns. We would also like to underline the critical role senior management play in this conversation by setting the tone from the top, by driving standards, and and by ensuring action is taken and communicated. It's important that they are held accountable in doing so. We have 3 further questions in this regard. Firstly, we note the backdrop of ongoing review, reform, and optimization processes, as well as Pivot to the Regions and Countries initiatives. It's critical that staff are engaged throughout. For example, ahead of UNFPA's move to Nairobi, how are the agencies ensuring that staff are actively engaged, that their views are considered, and most importantly, that their concerns are responded to through these periods of significant organisational change. Secondly, we would welcome more information on how the agencies are measuring their own performance with regards to organisational culture. What do they consider to be the most pressing challenges, and what does success in addressing them look like in the short and longer term? And can they share what work is being undertaken to obtain more qualitative data to inform their responses, noting that survey results don't necessarily paint a wholly accurate picture? Thirdly and finally, We underline the important roles of the agencies' independent functions in this conversation, particularly ethics offices and audit and investigation teams. We would specifically welcome more information on how the agencies work with them to address sexual abuse, exploitation, and sexual harassment, and bullying, harassment, and discrimination, noting the agencies' particular focus in tackling these issues and the unique data held by the independent functions.

Thank you.

Gracias a usted.

Thank you very much. I will now give the floor to the Netherlands, followed by the Russian Federation.

Muchas gracias, Mr. President. We align ourselves with the statement delivered by Austria and have a few additional questions and comments in our national capacity. We would have appreciated to first also hear the address of the the Staff Council and Ombudsman, whose perspectives provide a valuable addition to this discussion. And perhaps in future years this discussion can follow after all the speakers. A few words have been said on leadership already. On this, how do the agencies hold their personnel at all levels accountable if their actions negatively impact organizational culture? We heard UNOPS touch on it somewhat already, but can the agencies elaborate on how they are adjusting their performance appraisal processes to include elements of culture, in general, but in particular for staff with a management role? In the informal briefing earlier this month, the agencies indicated that they do not necessarily experience a link between contract modalities and culture. However, the Staff Council and other experiences that have been shared with us point to the contrary. Do the agencies measure if the differing rights and entitlements of contract types play a role in staff experiences, and if so, how? And how do the agencies address the inherent difference in experienced security of a person with a permanent contract versus someone on a temporary one with regards to speaking out and speaking up? Finally, we echo the call for more comprehensive and analytical reporting. We appreciate and value the work the agencies do on the various dimensions of organizational culture. Much like our discussions in the Board on the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment, we would like to elevate our deliberations on this topic beyond activities and outputs. What we are interested in is impact, results, and identified obstacles or success factors that the Board can support taking down or amplifying. We look forward to continuing this important discussion with you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. The next speaker is the Russian Federation.

Mr. President, we are grateful for the information about the agency's efforts to strengthen the organizational culture. Nonetheless, we wish to point out the following. Aspects of organization— an aspect of organizational culture that most people have not mentioned. I'm referring to equitable geographical representation. The need to broaden geographical representation among the staff was noted in a decision by the Executive Board last year. This is also in keeping of the principles and the spirit of the United Nations. In this regard, we recall the conclusion of the Joint Inspection Group in the UNFPA. That's the joint review of the UNFPA management. That decision on the disproportionate representation of the Western European group in leadership positions, the share of that group's representatives was 42% in leading positions. Before, we also noticed the imbalance in the geographical distribution of the leadership in UNOPS. We call upon the agency to continue its efforts to broaden geographical representation to ensure genuine diversity among staff and to inform the Executive Board about the results. I thank you.

Muchas gracias.

Thank you very much to the representative of the Russian Federation. Now I will give the floor back to the representatives of the agencies. But I hope they will be as concise as possible because we're short of time.

Miss McGuire first, Mr. President, and thank you for the comments, which are are great. I mean, it shows the the dynamism behind the topic and the interest. So looking forward to this being a standing item. So just very briefly because we can't cover everything, but just a few points. I mean, on the big pic.

picture.

You know, this is why we're trying to link engagement and inclusion with performance, because that has a tangible impact on people's lives at country level. And the cultural assessment that we're doing will certainly help us with more insights and in implementing the next phase of Our People for 2030. Second— and I only have 3 points— secondly, on different staff having different experiences. You know, it's interesting, in, in the feedback, or different personnel— these surveys I mentioned are open to all personnel, so all contract types, and we don't see a very large difference in the experience of personnel. Now, there are some nuances. For example, career progression. For some colleagues who are on, you know, less, or sort of, you know, permanent or fixed-term contracts. Obviously, that's on their minds, and we've taken actions to try to make sure that more contract types have this kind of career path. But we didn't— perhaps as a surprise, we didn't see a big difference in the level of inclusion or engagement depending on contract type. And then just lastly, on DEI, and, you know, precisely to the Dominican Republic's comment and question You know, the idea, or it's in line with our— the policy is in line with our commitment to leave no one behind and to really make sure that we're getting the best of the best, no matter where they happen to be and no matter what kind of life trajectory they may have come from. So it's really a matter of, you know, looking at our operations, our programs, and making sure that, you know, everyone has opportunity.

Gracias, señora Maguire. Y estoy seguro que ahora—

Thank you. I'm sure that Mr. Sabaton will also be concise in his attempts to answer the questions that were raised.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'll be very concise. Firstly, I'll agree with the comments, the 3 comments made by my colleague on here. And if you don't mind, I would just ask my representative from HR to respond to the more specific UNFPA questions, which will be a bit more—

Please go ahead.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. I'd like to respond to the question on data beyond surveys. So UNDP and ourselves are using EDGE, and what EDGE does is it actually audits— you have an external auditor auditing your payroll to check whether whether the statements that you have made around equity and diversity are actually real. And then it goes ahead and looks at your policies to see whether they are actually inclusive. And then thirdly, it asks staff for their perceptions, so to check whether the perception of staff is equal to what it is that you have stated in your policies and what it is and what you're actually practicing. And when you have those 3, you start to see the differences. Now beyond that, it requires you to demonstrate certain action plans that you're going to take over the next 2 periods in order to maintain that status or certification. Those action plans include things like focus groups, conversations, and UNFPA has done a lot of that, bringing on board different— we talked about this— different employee groups to help us really understand and delve down to what does inclusion look like for people who are young, or what does inclusion look like for people who are in the LGBTQI family. So some of that is what we are trying to do. I agree that DEI is just a piece of paper unless you actually put it into place, and a lot of this work that we're trying to do is to make sure that we're trying to pull it all together. The question on different staff categories, I agree with my counterpart in UNDP. Yes, the questions look— the perceptions are more or less the same except in particular categories. For example, our non-staff personnel will be very curious about learning and growth, something that they may not get because they have 6-month contracts or they have 1-year contracts compared to others who have longer-term contracts. So yes, there are slight differences, but those are due to the nature. But when it comes to, um, well-being, when it comes to commitment, when it comes to teamwork and collaboration, we're not seeing a lot of difference depending on the contract type. So beyond— I'd like to just reiterate, beyond staff surveys, we are doing lots of webinars, educating, discussing, opening up, expressing, just to ensure that we create this inclusive workplace. I'd like to just also remark on the geographical representation. I think you'll find post our 2021 reports on the GIU that these numbers have started to shift significantly, including in leadership geographical representation.

Thank you.

Agradezco a los representantes.

I thank the representatives of the UNFPA for those answers. Lastly, I give the floor to Miss Kushata.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President, and As you mentioned, in view of time, I will focus on 2 or 3 succinct points because I think UNOPS, as you know, because of our delivery model, we probably have the highest number of non-staff modality. What we have put in place, Mr. President and the Executive Board, is we have not seen any difference in the modalities affecting how staff come across. Over the past year, 2023-2024, So we have created a rebuttal system on performance for non-staff modality, an administration of justice process where they can even submit a management evaluation, access to the ombudsman where they can also get mediation done for them. And as a result, most of our results are mostly— when you look at the attendance, it is mostly non-staff modality.

Okay.

our non-staff colleagues who are responding. I would like to speak a bit about what my colleagues have spoken to, and we spoke about it in the informal sector. UNOPS, I think, is kind of the latest joiner on the bandwagon of organizational culture, and we all were catapulted into this journey coming from a different space than probably where other agencies were coming from. The last 2 years, if not in half of this year probably has been to put tools in place that we need now to start on the implementation stage. So I wouldn't want to sit here and give you a glorified place that we are doing implementation, we have measured impact. We are starting on the journey. Collaborating with UNFPA and UNDP has really been of immense help because we are learning a lot, including the EDGE certification, which we learned from our colleagues and we are already putting in place. measures to be certified in that age certification. On the initiatives, I just want to talk a bit about how the experience of colleagues that have reported on what we're doing. I think our advocacy and support or our victim support role has played a critical role, and we've even expanded the resources for that. So they literally are holding hands of the colleagues from the time they report right up to the end of the matter when the matter is dealt with, giving them support, access to wellbeing support, and making sure that they are also comfortable in following through the processes that we have laid in place. And our feedback process from those colleagues has come at the end where our workplace conduct team gets information on how they've experienced it, and it has helped— that feedback is continuously helping us strengthen and helping that process. And we are hoping that the revamping of the whistleblowing mechanism that has just been launched this month, which also involves members of our Internal Audit and Investigation Group, Ethics Office, Legal Counsel, and People and Culture Group, and also from the Executive Office, the group that leads that, to actually continue to reiterate— kind of adopt it adapt as we move on. Lastly, on the UNOPS leadership, on leadership's involvement, if the board recalls last year when we started talking about this journey, our mantra in UNOPS is that leadership starts at the top, it is felt in the middle, and it is lived at the bottom, and that drives all the initiatives that we are doing, and we are making sure that people managers have objectives in their performance to be measured against how they are driving the culture transformation and how they are leading people. So in 2025, this year 2025, probably at the Annual Session or probably later in the year, we will come back and tell you how implementing those initiatives is going and what challenges we are facing. We have many challenges because, as you can from a delivery model perspective, where we scale up and scale down in terms of our projects, it does affect morale. It does affect colleagues, probably when you have to lay off some colleagues. So we are aware of some of those challenges, and there's a lot of pressure on delivering projects that sometimes culture becomes an added kind of demand on our personnel. But we are keeping on momentum, starting with executive director and and the Executive Office work constantly. They are talking about how cultural transformation has to happen. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Ms. Kujata. I'd like to thank you and all of the representatives of the 3 agencies very much for your answers.

The board at the draft decision on joint agenda item 6 on the joint update on organizational culture is being prepared. We will revert to this item later to adopt the decision. We will now proceed immediately with the statement by the chairperson of the UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS, UN Women Staff Council, and I'm pleased to welcome Ms. Reka Das, Chairperson of the Staff Council. I will give you the floor also to to try to be concise and direct, to the point, because of time constraints. Thank you very much. Welcome, and the floor is yours.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Distinguished members of the Executive Board, dear colleagues, it is my pleasure as the Chair of the UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS, and UN Women Staff Council to address the Board. Let me begin by paying tribute and honouring our colleagues who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service of humanity. The brutality of conflicts and their impact on civilians have caused sorrow and alarm amongst all of us. We have a duty to really care for our personnel, and we call upon you, our Member States, to ensure the safety and security of all our colleagues in your territories. Mr. President, thank you for the opportunity to address the Board again today. I will share updates about well-being, engagement, and voice of our personnel, while also outlining some of the challenges that we see in front of us. The United Nations relies on the hard work and dedication of a healthy workforce, a workforce that is heard and empowered to speak up for what is right. UNDP Engagement Survey in 2024 had a record response of 65%, which is great. The survey showed that many find work meaningful and take pride in being part of UNDP. Colleagues have a strong sense of belonging to the organization. UNFPA's mentorship program aims to inspire and empower people to learn from each other. It intends to reinforce its commitment to build a culture of trust, respect, and team spirit. UNFPA also launched its PSEAH strategy, which aims to promote a safe and protective environment so all personnel feel empowered to speak up and have better access to information and support in the wake of an incident. As part of a commitment to improved well-being, UNOPS introduced 160 cultural ambassadors to ensure the Personnel Engagement Survey translates into real impact for its people. UNOPS also converted 130 positions from non-staff to staff contracts, demonstrating that management listens to colleagues and values their voice. The conversion will boost loyalty and sense of security. And with significant involvement of the Staff Council, UNOPS also revamped its whistleblower function. The Staff Council is pleased I'm pleased to report we jointly organized a series of very well-attended webinars to promote DEI and foster a culture of belonging across our organizations. We also convened a global forum of our local staff associations to align our agendas and empower our collective voice. Nevertheless, despite the progress made, improvements are still needed. Overall, Colleagues across our agencies are calling for open and honest communication between managers and personnel, more learning and growth opportunities, and an environment of psychological safety to confidently speak up and be heard without fear of retaliation. For UNDP, it is worrying that women particularly report high workloads and unmanageable demands. Gender parity in numbers is not enough. We must also ensure balanced workloads for all. While UNFPA waits for its results of the 2024 Global Survey, colleagues emphasize the importance of addressing mental health needs. Leadership that listens and acts with kindness is imperative for a healthy organizational culture. Such leadership fosters trust, accountability, and ethical behavior, creating a workplace where people are valued, empowered, and heard. Mr. President, organizational change and the ability to adapt to ever-evolving landscape is a prerequisite for successfully achieving our goals. But change brings about stress and anxiety, and if not conducted with the utmost level of integrity and transparency, can have a negative impact on morale and productivity. The voice and inclusion of personnel are vital to any organizational change process, and the Staff Council is one channel for people to be heard. As UNFPA begins its move to Nairobi and initiates other alignment processes at headquarters and in the field, morale is low. UNFPA is at risk of losing valuable expertise and dedicated colleagues. Staff are worried about the potential risks and negative impacts on programs and how risks will be managed. At UNOPS Headquarters, several positions were terminated at the end of last year with limited notice and no consultation with Staff Council representatives. As new alignment and change processes take off, the Staff Council reiterates the need to make the reasons for change clear. Ensure senior management maintains open and honest communication and involve the staff council from the start. It can help mitigate confusion and, and potentially reduce anxiety and nervousness and above all, strengthen engagement. Speaking of organizational change, we must talk about artificial intelligence. I know we've talked about it earlier today. We embrace AI. It is already transforming the way we work, from big data analysis for decision-making to talent search, recruitments, and job matching, and indeed also speechwriting, although not this one. While there are many advantages and efficiencies with AI, its larger impact on people and our functions is unknown. More discussion is needed on its use in programming, in operations, to fully understand and manage its its implications. This can help us be prepared and skilled for the new opportunities AI will create. We hope you, our member states, will welcome an exchange with us on what AI means for our future workforce. Turning to composition of our workforce, over half of our collective workforce are on non-staff contracts such as personnel, consultants, volunteers, interns, etc. We are arguably transforming towards a gig economy or consultancy model, which might have unintended consequences for people and culture, and it is creating a transient workforce, an unequal workplace with significant differences in salary and compensation, and lack of representation in the staff council. While staff Contracts are our preferred modality. We understand the need for lower-cost models in this difficult funding environment. However, at minimum, we must ensure that non-staff contracts have proper medical insurance, clarity on taxation rules, and cost-of-living adjustments to stay competitive. Organizationally, we need to understand what the high number of non-staff means for talent retention, growth, and learning. Culturally, we need to decide the right balance between staff and non-staff to maintain our ethos and identity as a United Nations entity. Mr. President, thank you for the opportunity to address the Executive Board. Our newly elected Staff Council will include some of these issues that I have raised here in our next Programme of Work. We would like to thank our top management from our agencies for their open door and attentiveness to concerns we raise. We hope managers at all levels of our organizations will follow their good example. 2025 poses many challenges to the UN and its workforce— conflicts, disasters, climate change impacts. It will all increase demands on staff. There is greater pushback on our mandates and reduced funding when we need it the most. To meet these challenges and maintain a strong and healthy workforce, we must invest in our human resources. We rely on you, our Member States, to ensure an enabling and safe environment so we can serve people in need. We call on you to fulfill your responsibility to fund and sustain the United Nations system. And lastly, We count on our leadership to invest in its strongest asset, people, to ensure the highest performance in an ever complex and uncertain world. I thank you.

Gracias a usted, señora Das, por la—

I thank you, madam, for that statement. I now invite the representatives Of the organization's management to provide any remarks they may have. I give the floor to Mr. David Beerfield.

Board, colleagues, thank you for this opportunity to speak to you today and address a number of the issues raised by our Staff Council. Our personnel is central to UNDP's mission, all of them. They're the drivers of our results and the value that we bring to our partners around the world. And as we saw in the discussion on culture, since 2019, when we launched phase 1 of our People for 2030 strategy, we've made very significant investments in revamping our people management and transforming our culture. Since then, we've made a lot of progress in the way we manage people, and the Staff Council has been a very important partner for us in this journey and continues to be so. Their feedback has been very valuable for us in identifying identifying challenges and things to improve, but also developing and implementing solutions. And I would like to use this opportunity to express our appreciation for this ongoing collaboration. I'd like to pick up on a few of the issues mentioned by the Chair and provide the Board with a number of updates. When it comes to advancing gender-inclusive policies and practices, gender equity is a core priority for our organization, and we continue to make a lot of progress towards gender parity at all levels. Through our gender parity strategy, we've achieved already 50% representation of women among all of our staff and specifically among senior managers, including our resident representatives. And our corporate executive management committees are also gender balanced. While parity and representation is important, we recognize that true gender equality goes beyond numbers, and it means equity and access to opportunities. Opportunities to do meaningful work, to contribute ideas, and to grow, to build careers, and to be in leadership roles. And to ensure that's the case, we've made a series of critical investments, including putting in place dedicated learning and development programs, additional flexibility in the way personnel can work, and introduce gender-neutral parental leave and other family-friendly policies that help all of our personnel to be most productive. To benefit from opportunities to develop their career and balance professional and personal responsibilities. And these initiatives ensure that everyone, regardless of gender, has the support they need to thrive and to advance in their careers. Concerning change and the role of AI, as we navigate a very rapidly changing landscape, AI and digital tools actually represent real opportunities make us more efficient and enhance impact, particularly in the way we do our work in the area of human resources. One example where we're very successfully leveraging AI is our capacity mapping and internal talent marketplace initiative, which we've recently launched, using advanced AI technology to match personnel to relevant opportunities. That includes non-staff personnel. It automates vacancy identification so people don't have to constantly trawl through vacancy notices to see if there's something for them, to promote transparency, agility, efficiency, and fairness in connecting people to roles. Open to everyone, it supports access to these new roles and temporary assignments and career opportunities, while integrating with our capacity mapping tool ensures that we know what we have, what skills and data we have, and we can ensure that we have them to meet our organization's needs. So supporting personnel in benefiting from these opportunities and effectively dealing with any risks, we're focusing on several areas, primarily building on digital literacy right across the organization and ensuring the ethical use of AI to make sure it's used both ethically and responsibly. Concerning contract modalities and the need to balance flexibility and fairness, it's important to note that we've always had different contract modalities. Which provide us with the flexibility to respond to program and project-based demands and funding opportunities. But we introduced a new non-staff modality in 2021, Personnel Service Agreement, both national and international, to replace or complement older contract types. The NPSA, the national PSA, replaced the service contract modality, and the international PSA largely replaced individual contractors or consultants. These changes brought real improvements for non-staff personnel, including better benefits, more consistency in pay, access to leave, to parental leave, to sickness insurance, pensionable contributions, and other things. And these contracts are designed to be aligned with specific project needs, and that's why there is some turnover expected as contracts and programmes end. But we have not designed these to reduce our staff complement, and we have very clear criteria for selecting which kind of personnel contract should be used for a particular type of work. And indeed, that framework was praised in a recent JRU inspection. And we've also given non-staff PSAs access for the first time to learning and development opportunities at and to our talent marketplace. So while there are some concerns about workplace equity which the Staff Council have flagged, it's important to note that our contracts are not designed to replace staff roles but to complement them, enabling our organisation to be agile and responsive. To conclude my remarks, let me note that we remain strongly committed to strengthening our organisational culture and people management. By optimizing contract modalities, embracing technological advancements, and working to further improve the staff experience, we're ensuring that our people not only have the right capacities and are resilient and high-performing, but operate in a safe, respectful, and inclusive work environment where they can perform at their best. In doing so, we will continue to engage positively and constructively with the staff representatives and continue to build on our successful collaboration. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the Board, for this opportunity to share some responses and updates with you.

Thank you very much. I give the floor to Ms. Josephine Mbithi, Director, Division of Human Resources of UNFPA.

Mr. President, I'll take the floor if I may instead of Josephine. Yeah, I'll be very—

Please, Mr. Subberton.

Thank you, Mr. President. Um, thank you for the, um, statement by the Staff Council, and I just want to say UNFPA greatly appreciates the— and values the work and support of the Staff Council and appreciates their ongoing engagement, advocacy, and participation in matters relating to all aspects of staff welfare. UNFPA senior management and leadership continuously and consistently engages the Staff Council to better promote understanding between management and personnel. UNFPA appreciates the ongoing efforts of the Staff Council to support UNFPA's zero tolerance stance to all forms of harassment and discrimination, and in all efforts to prevent and respond to wrongdoing, retaliation, and staff welfare needs, and to facilitate and foster a cooperative culture aimed at strengthening an open and transparent communication culture within the workplace, which ultimately leads to a more healthier and more productive work environment. The Staff Council's active participation and presence has become integrated into the organisation-wide town halls, change management initiatives and decision-making processes. While prioritising business continuity and people first, UNFPA management remains deeply committed to being transparent and systematic in the process and listening to the support of our colleagues. And throughout these organisational transitions, staff mental health and wellbeing is of utmost priority, or has always been, is of utmost priority now and for the future to management. And we have prioritised facilitating access to psychosocial support and counselling sessions that staff and all personnel can participate in, with 7 regional psychosocial counsellors, in addition to the resources available under the coverage of our staff insurance programmes. If I might just actually just respond very quickly to a couple of the points I heard from Staff Council. I would just like to say, as a member of the senior management, I don't see the low morale at UNFPA. In fact, I actually see very high morale at UNFPA and a staff force absolutely dedicated around the world to achieving its fantastic mandate. So I don't, unfortunately, agree with that. I will actually wait to see the results of our global staff survey, which was done at the end of last year. The results will be out in the upcoming weeks. I'm not led to believe there's any deterioration overall from an organizational perspective. On the move to Nairobi, I must also point out that I— and I come from actually having 20 years in the private sector as well, I've never seen an organization actually take the interests and views of its staff into consideration during such a move. We've had 18 months from the announcement of this program to the actual— before we start actually moving staff to Nairobi. We're actually giving them a 6-month window to move to Nairobi after those 18 months preparation. to prepare themselves, their family, and make it more into their own business in their own personal timeframes. We've introduced staff counselling, we've had Living in Nairobi series, we've had a very successful job match and job fair, and at the moment I think only one staff member has not been matched or otherwise— international— to their job. So I actually think we've actually done a showcase effort in doing this. I invite any comments from the Board. Remembering at the day, the move to Nairobi was to enable our organization to deliver our programs better to people who need us most and where we are actually delivering the most of our programs, which is actually in the continent of Africa. I probably would just actually like to share one thing that actually staff wellbeing, we prioritise, we always will do, and we'll do everything we can and do everything we can. But it is also a mixture of circumstances, sometimes beyond our control. The world's environment means there are more risky contexts now where we have to send staff. There are safety concerns, there are wellbeing concerns. That's the nature of the world we have to deal with.

day.

There are very— obviously, with staff wellbeing, with funding issues, these also, which we have very little control of, will affect our staff if we don't know if the funding will continue for certain programmes and get very short notice. We have to make decisions based to actually assure of our fiduciary responsibility. So it is actually a process which we will lead on, but actually, I want to say there are also external factors.

Thank you.

And very finally, sir, if you don't mind me, I'd like to actually use my last statement to actually recognize Ms. Henia Dhaka, who was previously the— or is now about to retire from UNFPA and was previously our Staff Council representative until very shortly. She's done an excellent job, including actually being on the working group which actually designed or was part of the actual design, the organogram for the move to Nairobi. But she's actually built an excellent relationship, and I want to wish her all well and appreciate very much her efforts as she retires this Friday. So thank you, sir. With that, I return the floor. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Saverton. I give the floor to Ms. Kuchata.

Thank you, Mr. President, distinguished members of the Executive Board, Mr. S, and members of the Staff Council. I will pick on a few things just to highlight some of what UNOPS is doing and not follow through my full statement. Mr. S, thank you for your thoughtful and candid statement. Your insights grounded in the lived experiences of our personnel are invaluable as we navigate the challenges and opportunities ahead. We deeply appreciate the Staff Council's dedication to advocating for well-being, inclusion, and professional growth of our personnel. I extend our sincere congratulations to the newly elected 2024-2026 Staff Council. We are proud to see 2 UNOPS colleagues assume their roles as Staff Council representatives and look forward to closely working with them as they contribute to the Staff Council's programme of work, advancing our shared objectives and fostering dialogue and collaboration. We are lucky today to have the 2 members actually in the auditorium today at the back of the Staff Council retreat. This partnership is essential for building an organization where inclusion, equity, and collaboration form the foundation of our culture. In this spirit of collaboration, UNOPS has taken significant steps to strengthen our alliance with all personnel A key milestone was the establishment of the UNOPS Global Personnel Associations Forum in July 2024, representing a strategic evolution in our engagement approach. This forum serves as a platform for meaningful dialogue between HR management, the Staff Council, and local personnel associations, reflecting our commitment to working hand in hand towards meaningful solutions. For our personnel and our organization. I would like to highlight a bit that the past year has been one of significant transformation at UNOPS, given by— driven by our commitment to building a more resilient organization. The recent resizing initiative that you mentioned, Mr. Das, was an essential step towards aligning our resources with strategic priorities for 2025 and beyond. This was a difficult leadership decision required comply with our net-zero revenue approach and affected less than 1% of our current workforce. I specifically want to address the points raised about transparency and communication. We prioritized clear communication through director-level engagement with impacted personnel, organized dedicated global and headquarter town halls, and shared the resizing guidelines and relevant documentation with the Staff Council to ensure they were well prepared to address any concerns. Our HR team implemented extensive support measures including extended notice periods, career support, well-being resources, and priority access to vacancies through a dedicated roster. We encourage continued involvement of the Staff Council in supporting affected personnel, respecting their privacy and confidentiality when they reach out for assistance. As a demand-driven, project-based organization with a net-zero target, net-zero revenue target, it is inevitable that such exercises do occur. I want to mention that UNOPS remains committed to ensuring equitable and sustainable employment practices. In compliance with the 2021 UN Board of Auditors recommendation, we have converted actually 167 now, not 130, what we call mission-critical roles from non-staff to staff contracts. This ongoing process aims to balance the organization's operational agility with workforce stability. We hear you about the well-being of our workforce, that well-being of our workforce is fundamental to the success of our mission. Mental health supports— support remains a top priority, and we are in the process of recruiting a workplace counselor at this moment. Building on existing initiatives, the UN Mental Health Strategy and UN intergency collaboration will expand resources, destigmatize conversations about mental health, and equip managers to create psychologically safe environments. Thank you for highlighting the importance of listening to our workforce, a principle at the heart of UNOPS' commitment to a thriving organizational culture. As we move forward, UNOPS remains committed to investing in our personal growth and development, particularly in building leadership capacity that provides strong role models for our personnel. We recognize that our success depends on maintaining a skilled, motivated, and well-supported workforce capable of adapting to future challenges while upholding the UN's core values and mission. We appreciate Staff Council's observations on the use of AI. I will not dwell much into that. And as we navigate complex challenges and embrace opportunities for growth, UNOPS will remain steadfast in its commitment to personal well-being, continuous promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and our unwavering stance against racism and any form of discrimination. We value the Staff Council's attention and dedication to these important matters and share the commitment to maintaining a strong, resilient workforce that can adapt to challenges facing the United Nations and its workforce in 2025. UNOPS remain steadfast in this support for the Staff Council's mandate, and we will continue working closely with you to ensure that the concerns of our personnel are heard and acted upon. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Ms. Kushata. I now open the floor for any comments. That concludes. The review with UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS before we move to the presentation of the annual report.

Thank you.

Bienvenido, señor Voigt.

Welcome, Mr. Voigt. You have the floor for your presentation, which— you have 5 minutes for your presentation.

Mr. President, distinguished members of the Board, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues in the room, some of which I work quite regularly with, I thank the Board for your invitation to present the annual report of the Office of the Ombudsman for UNDP. UNFPA, UNICEF, UNOPS, and UN Women for the very first time. The purpose of the Office of the Ombudsman is to make available impartial and confidential services to address work-related issues and conflicts. According to our Terms of Reference, the term conflict is to be construed in its broadest sense and includes issues related to employment conditions, administration of benefits, managerial practices, professional and staff relations. Our guiding principles are 4: informality, confidentiality, neutrality, and independence. Services by our office include providing a safe and confidential space for colleagues to be heard, identifying and exploring options, conflict coaching, shuttle diplomacy, mediation, and team processes, as well as providing feedback and observations on trends and systemic systemic issues, to which I will come in a minute. In a reporting period of 2023, our office handled a total of 565 cases, which presents a rise from the previous year. And of these, 248 relate to UNDP, 65 to UNFPA, and 57 to UNOPS. The office actually welcomes growth in cases as it indicates increased familiarity with our services, as well as the organizations and colleagues confidence to put informal resolution first. This upward trend has continued through 2024 as well. Just for a brief snapshot, where the Office managed a total of 713 cases, a 26% increase. Of these 713 cases, 267, 76, 80, and 87 relate to UNDP, UNFP, and UNOPS respectively. Our training and outreach activities in 2023 reached a total of some 7,000 personnel, enhancing awareness and familiarity and capacity for conflict resolution. Mediation cases also increased in 2023, with a total of 90 mediations resulting in a 30— in an 85% successful resolution rate. Of these, UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS together saw 54 mediations in that year. The post-mediation surveys that we conduct consistently show high satisfaction ratings, and all respondents confirmed that irrespective of the actual outcome of the mediation, they would recommend mediation to a colleague. For 2024, we saw 120 mediations, so up from 90, with 71 from UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS, a 33% increase. As per our mandate, the report highlights some systemic observations. These include, for example, the following areas. On workplace well-being, cases indicated mental health as a relevant component of conflict situations faced by colleagues. Contributory causes reported to the office were workplace stress, heavy workloads, interpersonal conflicts, and non-harmonious work environments. Many reported being afraid to ask for help in the context of mental health. The Office also observed that the topic of mental health concerns is at times seen as uncomfortable and avoided in conversations. But our team, together with other partner offices within the different organizations, helped address these issues during the conflict resolution processes. On fear of reprisals, the Office observed that the— this fear remains a notable barrier for some individuals or teams facing conflict. We observed that personnel at times hesitate to allow our Office or myself to take further steps with managers or the administration due to their fear of potential repercussions, usually in the context of job security concerns. Addressing this perception remains an ongoing journey that the Office hopes to further contribute to and collaborate with different organizations. On relational and interpersonal conflict, the Office observed conflicts that had these 2 elements relational and interpersonal disputes as components, and reiterated in the report the importance of addressing conflicts early. Delays tend to lead to deterioration in conflicts and relationships, and that makes it much harder for our office to work on those. In this context, the office has provided conflict coaching as well as learning sessions on effective communication in conflicts. On performance management, the office observed, as it did in prior reporting cycles, conflicts linked to the performance management process. Also here, early feedback on any performance shortcomings, a supportive environment, the ability to take on board feedback, and respectful communication can mitigate conflicts from escalating later. On diversity and inclusion, the office continued to receive cases with claims relating to feeling discriminated or not included. Some cases comprised interpersonal differences as well as perceptions of a lack of respect or perceived favoritism at the workplace. Our office was and remains available as a confidential and safe space to raise such concerns and to explore options on how to best address them, including within the existing support infrastructure offered by the different organizations. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the dedicated members of my team who often work beyond regular schedules to allow colleagues to speak with them when they feel safe and comfortable, even if that means outside of working hours or on weekends. I also thank all visitors among our colleagues, all stakeholders, partners, and colleagues in UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS who have engaged with us through 2023 and 2024 in resolving conflicts informally. Their courage, trust, and collaboration are the cornerstone of our success, and I'm looking forward to our direct engagement here with the Board as well as other colleagues in the future. Thank you very much again for the invitation.

Thank you, Mr. Voigt. Now I open the floor if anyone has any comments or questions. I recognize Switzerland. Can you hear me?

Switzerland would like to thank the respective HR offices for their leadership and efforts on organizational culture, as well as the Ombudsman Office for its important preventive work, especially at a time when there is a surge of requests reaching the office. Following on the report of the Ombudsman Office and the statement by the chair of the UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS, UNV Staff Council, Switzerland would like to encourage agencies to anticipate the positive and negative impact of AI on organizational culture. In relation to the report of the Ombudsman Office, we have 2 questions we would like to raise. Could the Ombudsman update Could you update the Executive Board on the various measures and initiatives that were planned for 2024 and mentioned in the annual report? What results were achieved? Could entities explain how they consider and address recommendations included in the annual report of the Ombudsman's Office? What is the process and to what extent are the recommendations implemented? I thank you.

Muchas gracias.

Thank you very much, Mr. Voigt. Could you please answer?

Sure. Thank you very much to the delegate from Switzerland for the question. I'd have to speculate a little bit what you mean with measures in the report because there are different sections that address different different areas. So if if this is related to some of the collaboration with the organizations on, for example, looking at making mediation more accessible. We're looking into exploring that in particular with UNOPS also for the non-staff or affiliated personnel arrangement, and we're looking at a very fruitful collaboration on that front. Other organizations still in discussion on where we stand with that. Other measures in this in the sense of what we were planning for 2024, if that's what you're looking for. We've been in touch with the different organizations on part of the more administrative components of it that were mentioned in the introduction of the report, including on making sure that the cost share agreement is implemented so that we have access to the resources, essentially. That's an ongoing conversation because it's a complicated setup, to be honest, with 5 different organizations. We've gone through some of our audit recommendations in terms of a structural review for the office that we've shared with the organizations for further input to discuss what that would look like to be fit for purpose in a, you know, within the existing resources that are being made available to us or otherwise. If you meant recommendations, and I'm not sure that that was the context of it, then I would pivot here. The recommendations are being given for the different organizations to review within their own internal framework, their policies, and we are available to discuss this with them. The level of exchange and engagement there differs by organizations. We have some where we essentially went through the different recommendations and others there haven't been at that stage yet. So, but we are usually there for everybody to engage in making sure that our recommendations are understood in the context of the information we have, which is essentially case observation driven by these individual experiences, and then discussed at the management level with the different organizations. Otherwise, I may need to have a little bit more clarity what specifically you mean with measures in the report.

Gracias, señor Boit.

Thank you, Mr. Voigt.

Presentation of the annual report of the Office of the Ombudsman for the United Nations Funds and Programmes.

I would like to say that we have one more agenda item and we'd have to end Agenda item 7, addressing racism and racial discrimination in no more than 15 minutes or so. This, of course, is an important issue that has been broadly discussed and it could also be discussed in a— the annual session and this is a verbal update really. So I would like to ask all to be very efficient with the time so that we can complete this agenda item quickly. Mr.— Ms. McGuire.

Thank you, Mr. President. All protocols observed. Thank you for the opportunity to present a brief update on timelines for implementation of the recommendations from the Joint Inspection A note on addressing racism and racial discrimination within the United Nations system. The JIU note includes 2 recommendations, numbers 1 and 4, which are not in the sole purview of one entity but require UN system-wide collaboration and cooperation. I will provide an update on these joint recommendations on behalf of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS And we'll then turn to a brief update on timelines for UNDP's entity-specific recommendations. So going back to numbers 1 and 4, recommendation 1 calls for the development of a common set of racial categories for voluntary self-identification of UN personnel. The UN Secretariat's Anti-Racism Office, under the auspices of the Strategic Action Plan report of the Secretary-General's Task Force on Addressing Racism and Promoting Dignity for All is in the process of developing a proposal on racial categorization, with the understanding that this proposal will form a basis for a joint UN system solution. UNDP, UNOPS, and UNFPA will be contributing to this work through the High-Level Committee on Management's Working Group on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Which currently has the formal representation of most UN organizations. More details on progress in this area will be available at the annual session of the Executive Board in June. Recommendation 4 calls for an interagency standing mechanism to oversee anti-racism efforts. As mentioned, the High-Level Committee on Management currently includes the formal representation of most UN organizations in its Group on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Therefore, UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS are of the view that formalized interagency coordination through this working group would be appropriate. As such, UNDP expects to have more clarity about the timelines at the annual session again. So let me just briefly go to the entity-specific recommendations. UNDP welcomes the JIU note and recognizes it as a critical resource for thoughtful guidance and actionable recommendations. In June of last year, as part of the interactive dialogue with the UNDP Administrator and midterm review of the UNDP Strategic Plan, UNDP presented its report on the recommendations of the JIU in 2023. In that report, UNDP highlighted that it considers the entity-specific recommendations of the note, including Recommendations 2 on creating learning and development opportunities, and Recommendation 3 on ensuring anti-racism efforts are well resourced, and Recommendation 6 on strengthening equal opportunities, to be implemented, and is now actively working to mainstream these efforts. UNDP has made substantial progress in these areas since 2023. We maintained a comprehensive suite of anti-racism learning tools, and we have rolled out dedicated opportunities for dialogue and education in line with Recommendation 2. On Recommendation 3, through UNDP's People for 2030 strategy and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy, we have and will to effectively resource initiatives to establish UNDP as an anti-racist organization. UNDP has specific programs that continue to promote equal opportunities for underrepresented groups in line with Recommendation 6. Such initiatives include, for example, the UNDP Young Talent Program, which provides young professionals from underrepresented groups opportunities to enter our workforce. Regarding recommendation 5 on establishing an accountability framework for addressing racism, in the annual session, as mentioned, efforts to address racism were confirmed and, and said to be not standalone but rather part of a broader diversity, equity, and inclusion framework. Leaders have an obligation to create inclusive workplaces where any kind of discrimination is expected explicitly prohibited, prevented, and addressed. So our strategies have clear results frameworks and performance indicators mapped to a maturity model. The completion of Phase 1 of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy is targeted for December 2025. In this context, UNDP will draw on lessons from implementing past accountability frameworks And we recognize that racial bias often manifests in subtle ways and is rooted in organizational culture, ways of working, and interpersonal relations. As such, it requires a holistic approach to organizational culture transformation, which of course we just discussed in the earlier session. To be able to track progress and evaluate impact, we've launched, as I mentioned, the UNEP Listens architecture, and this will enable us to evaluate and monitor results in culture transformation, including anti-racism initiatives. And maybe just to conclude, let me reiterate UNDP's unwavering commitment to address racism and racial discrimination through our existing strategies and by continuing to actively engage in interagency coordination bodies. We're committed to drive collective progress. Further details regarding ongoing initiatives will be reflected in the report to the Executive Board during the annual 2025 session. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Ms. Maguire. I give the floor to Mr. Sabaton, and I ask him once again to be brief. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'll be very brief. I'll try and be very brief, and I apologize if it doesn't sound as smooth as it perhaps should have done. But thank— the JIU note includes 2 recommendations, number 1 and 4, which require UN system-wide collaboration and cooperation. and they've been addressed in the joint update delivered by our esteemed UNDP colleagues. As per the UNFPA-specific timeline for the remaining JIU recommendations, Recommendation 2 calls for a high-impact and integrated curriculum to improve awareness, learning, and performance to address the various forms of racism and racial discrimination in the workplace. UNFPA's dedicated DEI team has led and supported the delivery of over 50 webinars and workshops for all personnel, with engagements from all regions across the agency. These programs seek to dismantle systematic biases, promote equality, and empower marginalized communities. As part of this effort, UNFPA established the People of Africa Descent Initiative, powered using a human, human rights-based approach and aligned with existing UN-wide texts and frameworks. Regarding recommendation 6, which calls for strengthening the equal distribution of opportunities in human resources management for all personnel, recognizing that entry into the UN system is not equal, in 2022 UNFPA invested in a Young Professionals from Africa and of African Descent program as a starting point for an exciting career with the United Nations, aiming to attract motivated young professionals with diverse academic academic and professional backgrounds. 10 young professionals of African descent have since walked through UNFPA's doors and are receiving hands-on experience in a fast-paced international environment. UNFPA is confident that these carefully selected young professionals will grow into impactful leadership roles in international development. Recommendation 3 calls for the provision of sufficient resources to support efforts and actions for addressing racism and racial discrimination, and in 2020 UNFPA's Executive Committee leadership and senior management demonstrated that commitment and set the tone at the top by endorsing strategic initiatives that UNFPA conducted globally to engage the organization. We have initiated several events and programs to increase awareness on anti-racism, for example, and have invited external speakers to participate in discussions such as Calling in the Calling Out or Black Health Matters National and Transitional COVID-19 Impact, Resistance, and Intervention Strategies. With recommendation 5, UNFPA calls for the establishment of an accountability framework with expected results, outcomes, and key performance indicators for addressing racism and racial discrimination. And in 2025, UNFPA will be drawing on an anti- racism and decoloniality accountability framework developed in '24 to enable the organisation identify drivers of racism, racial discrimination, and coloniality in the workplace in order to ensure dignity, respect, and equity for our personnel, with an aim to create systematic change. This framework underscores the importance of data collection and accountability as critical to understanding the impact of racism and discrimination, on productivity and meeting the goals of an anti-racism culture. In agreement with fellow United Nations entities, UNFPA looks forward to sharing a more detailed update in June 2025 and remains committed to engage with other UN organizations, including participation at interagency levels, to anti-racism and decoloniality. Excellencies, distinguished members and observers of the Board, With this, I thank you for your attention.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for your concise presentation. Ms. Kachuta.

Thank you, Mr. President. I will try to be as brief as I can. UNOPS accepts the recommendations presented in the review, the JIU review, which align seamlessly with our commitment to continuous improvement and transformative actions on this important topic. As my colleagues have already outlined the system-wide approach for Recommendations 1 and 4, which require UN system-wide collaboration, I'll focus on our organization-specific timelines for implementing Recommendations 2, 3, 5, and 6. On Recommendation 2, which focuses on development of learning programs and increased awareness, UN observations are targeting implementation timeline of June 2025. Part of our culture transformation journey, we are developing an integrated diversity, equity, and inclusion DI learning package. This includes anti-racism focus and is designed to bridge knowledge gaps and provide foundational support across all organizations. On recommendation 3, it calls for dedicated resources to support anti-racism activities. As part of a broader organizational strategy, we have prioritized the allocation of our resources to support capacity-building efforts and have engaged a supplementary workforce with DEI expertise in anti-racism and discrimination to provide additional support and strengthen the operations of our employee— of our employee resource groups, ERGs. We remain committed to maintaining these resources and implementing the necessary structural changes by June 2025, ensuring sustained support for our anti-racism efforts. For Recommendation 5, UNOPS has developed an anti-racism accountability plan for 2025, which will serve as interim guidance for addressing organizational racism. This plan lays out the groundwork for a comprehensive DEI strategy scheduled for adoption and launch in 2026. Regarding Recommendation 6 on human resource management, diversity, equity, and inclusion continue to be a consideration in talent management and learning initiatives, including but not limited to leadership development, succession planning, and talent benches to identify internal candidates for future leadership roles. The implementation process will also begin in June 2025. In conclusion, UNOPS reaffirms its strong commitment to combating racism and racial discrimination in alignment with the Joint Inspection Unit recommendations while advancing its broader DEI agenda. This approach is firmly rooted in inclusivity, evidence-based decision-making, and goal alignment with broader UN system. Through strategic partnerships, capacity-building initiatives, and strengthened accountability mechanisms, we aim to create lasting impact within UNOPS and contribute to transformative change across the United Nations Thank you, Mr. President, for the opportunity to speak on this matter. I hand it back to you. I hope I've tried to be as brief.

You were also very brief. Thank you very much. I'd also like to thank the interpreters for sticking with us. I'd like to open up the floor for any comments or questions. I see that Norway and the Netherlands are asking for the floor, and I ask them to be brief as we only have 5 more minutes left. First of all, I'll give the floor to Norway.

Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you also to the organizations also for your presentations on this very important topic. And this is exactly why I want to address this, because we have now rushed through this subject with very little possibility for discussions. Um, I think— believe that it is a shame, especially that this is the first time that we're addressing this on the board, and that the item is truncated to 15 minutes. I thank you for the efforts you're making, but it is a shame that we don't have time to discuss this more.

Thank you.

I thank the distinguished delegate from Norway. I give the floor to the Netherlands.

Thank you, Mr. President, and we too hope that the agenda at the annual session allows for a less rushed discussion. Discussion that does this topic justice. The JIU review on measures and mechanisms for addressing racism and racial discrimination in the UN system and in UN organizations contained concerning findings, such as that 1 in every 5 surveyed respondents experienced racial discrimination and harassment, and that in itself warrants a more dedicated and longer discussion. The report reiterates the negative impacts that racism and racial discrimination discrimination within the United Nations have on individuals, teams, and entire organizations. And the Kingdom of the Netherlands strongly encourages the agencies to continue implementing the recommendations of the JIU report in order to prevent and address racism and racial discrimination and advance the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We would like to thank UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS for the information provided today and for elaborating on their joint efforts on various recommendations. As this session is focused on the timelines of implementation, we have only one question at this point, and that is, have you worked together to define your implementation plans of entity-specific recommendations, and if so, how? We look forward, as said, to hearing more about the agencies' individual and collective efforts to address racism and racial discrimination within the UN in line with the JIU recommendations at the Annual Session.

Thank you.

I thank the distinguished representative of the Netherlands. I give the floor to Colombia.

Thank you very much, Your Excellency President. I'd like to echo what Norway said. It's the first time that we have the the forum to discuss substantive elements on this issue. And this is a particularly critical item for my delegation and for my entire region. So we would just like to express our deep regret about how little time we have for this agenda item and we are Disappointed that the Secretariat wasn't able to allocate more time for this, but we nevertheless would thank the representatives of the agencies for the information they provided. And we hope that going forward, and we will certainly try to ensure this as members of the Bureau, we hope that going forward we'll be able to go into more detail about specific elements on this issue. Progress has been made to counter discrimination, but there are major challenges that remain to be overcome. And so that is why we'd like to discuss this issue a bit more. For instance, we'd like to know more about the substantive efforts that the agencies are making to combat racial discrimination. For instance, how has the UNDP taken on board the recommendations of the CERD committee, in particular with regards to the rights of persons of African descent? How have those recommendations been implemented? That was one question we'd like to ask. Thank you.

The President, I'd like to thank the distinguished representative of Colombia. Before I conclude the consideration of this matter, I would just like to say Depth that the matter deserves. And I hope that we'll also be able to adopt a decision. I think there was just one question that was asked, so I hope that that could be answered now. Thank you.

And indeed, looking forward to giving this topic a fuller treatment in the next session. So just to say on collaboration, you know, on all aspects really, we collaborate through the HR network, through the High-Level Committee on Management, where, you know, the anti-racism and combating racial discrimination items are discussed, including through the DEI committee. So I would just say that the short answer is yes to that question. And then on, you know, on the references to the JIU, just say that we in UNDP at least will be doing a deep dive into the issues of harassment and discrimination and in our next inclusion survey, which is scheduled for March, I think it is. It's on a yearly rotation. So I think we would have more data to really report by the next session on this. So watch that space.

Thank you very much.

Agenda item 7, on addressing racism and racial discrimination. Tomorrow at 10 AM, we will continue the first regular session with the UNOPS segment. The afternoon meeting Es adjornada. La sesión está clausurada.