4th meeting, UN Women Executive Board, Annual Session 2025

Good morning, Excellencies and distinguished delegates, and welcome back to the last plenary meeting of the 2025 Annual Session of the UN Women Executive Board. Let us now continue our consideration of Item 10 on policy and program matters, during which the Executive Board will receive 3 different presentations, including A briefing on UN Women's operational response in Europe and Central Asia, an update on the implementation of General Assembly Resolution 72/279 on the repositioning of the United Nations Development System, and an update on UN Women policies and procedures to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment. Let's now turn to the first presentation, the briefing on UN Women's operational response in Europe and Central Asia. In addition to the Executive Director, Deputy Executive Directors, and the Executive Board Secretary, allow me to welcome the following colleagues to the podium: Shoko Ishikawa, Deputy Director, Program Policy and Intergovernmental Division, and Belén Sanz-Luc, Regional Director of Europe and Central Asia, joining us remotely. And now I'm pleased to invite Mrs. Belén Sanz-Luc, Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, for her presentation.

Please. Thank you very much, Madam President of the Executive Board, Ms. Nicola Klaas, Excellencies, and UN Women colleagues. I would like, on behalf of the Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, to thank the Board Secretariat for the opportunity to present UN Women's operational response across Europe and Central Asia in this very important annual session of the Executive Board. The purpose of my presentation is to outline and exemplify how UN Women translates its triple mandate into meaningful results for women and girls across Europe and Central Asia. I'd like to remind that in May 2024, we had the honor of receiving an Executive Board delegation to Ukraine and Moldova, where the Board had the opportunity to witness firsthand the deployment of our triple mandate and our engagement with different partners. Thank you to the Board for undertaking that visit. If we move to the second slide, please. The Europe and Central Asia region is a large and diverse region with respect to economic development, political systems, rights protection, culture, religion, and also vulnerability to natural hazards. Many of the countries in the region experience complex legacies of political and economic transition and significant development efforts. I'd like to underline that UN Women's universal mandate guides our normative engagement with 56 member states of the UN Economic Commission for Europe, of which we work operationally with 18 countries in line with the United Nations presence across the region. Our triple mandate is implemented from UN Women Regional Office based and hosted in Istanbul, Türkiye, and its UN Women offices across 3 sub-regions: the Western Balkans, and Türkiye, South Caucasus and Eastern Partnership countries, and Central Asia. Next slide, please. I'd like to reflect that although the geopolitical context remains fluid in the region and there is still the affection of, of course, global uncertainty, which in some cases has seen a stagnation in some progress on results, countries have continued to advance commitments to gender equality. To the empowerment and rights of women and girls. To give some examples, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Bosnia-Herzegovina have introduced recently legislations to tackle violence against women. Albania amended the electoral code in 2024, establishing a 30% electoral quota, and Uzbekistan established a 40% electoral quota in 2023, which has resulted in notable women's representation in parliament. Of 33%. Tajikistan has issued a decree reducing the number of professions where women were legally barred, and Ukraine has passed gender laws despite the ongoing full-scale war. Next slide, please. Across the region, gains have also been recorded in women's participation and representation in political and public life. Between 2000 and 2024, the share of seats held by women in national parliaments more than tripled, with 27% of seats in national parliaments, an increase from 19% in 2015. Women are best represented in local governments in the Eastern Partnership countries with 38%, and followed by the Western Balkans with 33%. In spite of this notable progress, what the data tell us, including through our recently launched Gender Snapshot, is that no country in Europe and Central Asia is fully on track to achieve gender equality by 2030. We need sustained political will investments now more than ever to deliver on Agenda 2030 and for achieving the commitment that countries have for gender equality in this region. Next slide, please. The progress in the region has not been uniform. Despite relatively high educational attainment among women in many countries in Europe and Central Asia, structural barriers remain to women's full free and equal participation. Some data indicate to us that there is a consistent gender gap of 25% in labor force participation. Women devote 3.4 times as much time to unpaid care work, and the gender pay gap averages 20%, though it varies widely across countries. And one signal of the structural barriers indicate that women are 2.5 times more likely to be in vulnerable forms of employment than men. With regards to violence against women, this remains high and underreported among many of the countries. Over a period of 12 months, 24 million women have experienced physical or sexual violence by their partner, and technology-facilitated violence is on the rise. With significant reports from women and girls across the region. If we move to the next slide, please. We cannot underline more than enough how the persistence and escalation of armed conflict in the region, most notably Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine, but also crises and conflicts in neighboring regions, continue to have a profound impact on gender equality, on women's rights, and also on regional peace and stability. These crises have disproportionately affected women and girls, and only in Ukraine, 3.6 million people remain internally displaced, of which 80% are women and children. Another growing concern that we are observing in the region is related to the backlash against gender equality and some erosion of the civic space, where many countries across the region have seen the emergence or consolidation of movements that are opposing gender equality and are challenging the legitimacy of international human rights standards. Next slide, please. I'd like to move to presenting the key results achieved across Europe and Central Asia over the last strategic note period, 2021-2025, based on our triple mandate. I'd like to underscore that at the normative level, UN Women's central role has been focused on setting and advancing normative standards with our key UN and national partners on gender equality, including through intergovernmental processes. This includes leading and supporting normative work on key international frameworks. Some key highlights from this work include the regional review meeting and report that was undertaken with the UNEC, where 95% of countries produced a National Report on Beijing+30. Can we move to the next slide, please? In our work on operational response, our first cluster of support focuses on gender-responsive governance. This includes strengthening women's leadership and political participation, working on gender-responsive budgeting, strengthening statistical systems to improve the availability and use of gender-sensitive data, and also supporting the accession countries to the European Union to integrate gender equality across all aspects of the integration and accession process. We have supported to increase the women's political representation and influence through our support and strategies with national partners, and we have deployed robust efforts in investing in gender-responsive budgeting, including at the national and local frameworks. Finally, in this very important area of gender governance, We have invested hand in hand and with other UN agencies in gender data systems to enable a better tracking of progress on SDG 5 and inform evidence-based policymaking, particularly in 3 critical areas: violence against women, unpaid care work, and femicide. In the next slide, I'd like to highlight how the Women, Peace and Security Agenda has advanced in the region significantly with regards to our engagement with 14 countries out of the 17 with whom we have direct interaction through their National Action Plans, and 82% of the UN Economic Commission for Europe countries have a National Action Plan. In Moldova, UN Women has supported community-based initiatives and advocacy for women's inclusion in peace processes, and almost 8,000 individuals, primarily women, including 2,000 refugees from Ukraine, enhance their employability through skills training, leadership engagement, and integration activities. And we have increased also our capacity to respond in humanitarian settings, including in Türkiye after the devastating earthquake, with whom we supported 15,000 women and girls to receive essential services as earthquake response and recovery. Next slide, please. On ending violence against women, institutions across Europe and Central Asia have advanced the implementation of the Istanbul Convention, and UN Women has supported integrated programming contributing to more survivor-centered accountability. Over 27 million people have been reached through our advocacy campaigns to address and transform gender stereotypes and For example, 6 countries such as Tajikistan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Georgia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina took deliberate action to improve the legislative environment for violence against women. On women's economic empowerment, in 2024, 6.2 million people were reached through our outreach campaigns, and 5 countries— Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Serbia, and Moldova— implemented reforms on care work, including very interesting examples from Kyrgyzstan introducing home-based childcare and a care voucher system, and Moldova introducing alternative childcare facilities at the workplace, and Serbia piloting innovative services like Octopus for rural women. In the next slide, I would like to highlight that all the work we undertake in the region is done in collaboration and coordination with the UN system, which we have strengthened over the last period by leveraging our triple mandate. We have worked hand in hand with the Resident Coordinators and the UN Country Teams, supporting the cooperation frameworks over this period and exceeding standards of the UNCT SWAP indicators in the region. 65% of the existing cooperation frameworks mainstream gender equality across all outcomes. And across the region, over 38% of our ongoing programs are implemented with other UN agencies, And in Kyrgyzstan and Bosnia and Herzegovina, 100% of our programs are implemented together with other UN agencies. At the regional level, we work closely with regional-level UN organizations, including with UNDP, with UNFPA, with UNEC, DCO, and other important sister agencies. And at the regional level, our role is very much to support and pivot to the countries work and also look at challenges that transcend national borders in order to advocate for regional integration, coherence, and joint solutions to issues that affect multiple countries, including through the generation of substantive knowledge, data, and policy influence. To move into the operational side of our work— and I'm coming to the end, Madam Chair— we have as a region implemented over the last 4-year period $190 million throughout the region, of which 17% have been core resources and 83% non-core funding. Nearly 70% of the total core resources have been allocated to country offices, ensuring the flexible needs-based support for a strategic note implementation in line with national gender equality agendas. In addition to these, the strategic notes direct funding by a number, an increasing number of funding partners, including in Albania, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, have supported our country offices to have flexible, demand-driven, and impactful interventions in the different countries. Our non-core resources have increased through the generosity and commitment of our partners by 28% over the period 2022-2024. I would like to thank the— in this opportunity, our funding partners for their very important contributions in the region, including the European Union, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Norway, Switzerland, UK, Italy, Canada, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan as host countries. And we also deeply thank the national committees in our region. We are exploring diversifying the sources of funding and fostering partnerships with the private sector, with the IFIs, including further government co-sharing contributions. And we have invested in this period to ensure compliance with accountability frameworks, including the undertaking of an internal audit, a functional review of the regional work, and over 20 evaluations of our programs and country-level work. I finish saying that we are in the moment of finalizing our existing strategic note and reform— and informing now our upcoming regional strategic note in line with the global strategic plan that is under consultation right now. We are developing a forward-looking and fit-for-purpose regional strategic note, including through the development of foresight and systems thinking that ensures proof of strategy that of course takes into account the SGs UN80 initiative and that seeks to optimize efficiencies and joint collaboration at sub-regional and regional level. We have undertaken a number of consultations, including a recent consultation with a number of member states in Copenhagen. Where we have received significant inputs about the focus areas of our work, including of course the increased focus on digitalization, humanitarian action, and the work with men and boys to support our thematic areas. With this, I would like to end my presentation, and thank you, Madam Chair and Excellencies, for your attention and for all your support. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Belen. And I now open up the floor for member states' interventions with respect to the aforementioned briefing. And I give the floor now to the distinguished representative of Moldova.

Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, I would like to start by acknowledging and appreciating the important activities of the UN Women, with whom the Government of the Republic of Moldova had had— has had a long and fruitful cooperation. We appreciate the activity of the country office, which delivers on its triple mandate and provides among its various activities technical assistance on the normative amendment amendments and leads the country team to increase accountability towards gender equality. In connection with today's topic, I would like to highlight our ongoing collaboration with the UN Women in Moldova, conducted under the operational mandate to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women. This partnership continues to make a visible impact across several key areas. Notably, it supports women leadership in and participation in governance, monitors the instances of violence against women in politics, and assists the government in mainstreaming gender into policymaking and budgeting purposes— processes. The UN Women Country Office also works closely with both the government and the private sector to enhance women's economic participation. This includes support for business development programs, the promotion of alternative childcare solutions in the workplace, and initiatives to encourage the involvement of women and girls in STEM fields. In addition, UN Women activities support civil actively supports civil society organizations and offers expert guidance to the newly established Gender-Based Violence Agency, operational since 2024. This cooperation has shown tangible results and we are confident in its further development. Distinguished delegates, despite multiple challenges that Moldova has faced— has been facing in the last few years, the humanitarian crisis, the energy crisis, and the economic instability caused by Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova has strengthened its gender mechanism, improved legislation, and promoted politics for an equitable and resilient society. The national institution framework in Moldova consists of a new— of a network of government and private sector institutions and mechanisms tasked with implementing gender mainstreaming, addressing cases of gender-based discrimination, and monitoring the implementation of the CEDAW and Istanbul Conventions. The Republic of Moldova reached a historic milestone in 2025 by ranking 7th globally in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index, making substantial national progress in closing the gender gap. This is the first time our country has entered the top 10, positioning us among the global leaders in gender equality. The most significant gains were achieved in the area of political empowerment, where the increased participation of women in decision-making roles led to women's representation raising to 42.5% in 2025. This represents a threefold increase in our score in this category since 2006, when the index was first introduced. This trend is also evident in the Moldovan government and in our judiciary system, where nearly half of the state secretaries and and Secretary-General positions are held by women, and more than half of all judges are women. I would like also to point some of the core successes recorded in '24. First, the introduction of the notion of femicide in our legislation, and we have expanded services to victims and survivors of sexual violence in all regions of the country. Establishment of a government agency for prevention and combating domestic violence and violence against women, expansion of services for survivors of violence. Establishment of a national coordination council for GBV and the GBV agency, enhancing oversight or alignment with the Istanbul Convention. Ratification of ILO 190 Convention on Elimination of Sexual Harassment at the Workplace, and many more. And here at the UN, we played an active role in Commission CSW 69, including in the negotiations of the Political Declaration 2025. Excellencies, these achievements reflect the long-term commitment and reinforced efforts of the Moldovan government and civil society, along with support from their international partners, to build a more inclusive society where women and men have equal, equal opportunities in public and professional life. The path to gender equality is not without difficulties, and process can feel slow at times, but by being united, governments international organizations, the civil society, and the private sector, we become a force for change. In this regard, our government is determined to work further to ensure gender equality, to combat the persistent gender norms and stereotypes, especially in the rural areas, and to eliminate all kinds of violence against women, including violence against women in politics, cases of hate speech, sexist speech, and smearing campaign recorded during elections. Together, with solidarity and empathy, we can make further progress and build a future where all have equal rights and opportunities, where everyone can fully realize their potential.

I thank the distinguished representative from the Republic of Moldova for his comments. And I now have 2 more speakers on my list, Sweden and the Federation of Russia. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative from Sweden.

Thank you, Madam President, for giving me the floor. And also thank you, Ms. Belenzans-Luke, for the update. And all of our congratulations to you and your team for your work helping member states turn global gender equality commitments into national actions. In May, Sweden welcomed Belén Sanz Luque and her team to Stockholm. They shared positive news about UN Women's work to boost women's leadership and political participation in Europe and Central Asia. Sweden strongly supports UN Women in the region with flexible strategic note funding, program funding, and political backing. And values the close cooperation between UN Women and our missions in the region.

I have a question.

In the context of rapidly changing global environments, with shrinking civic space and fiscal constraints on the multilateral system, how will UN Women articulate and deliver on its triple mandate, particularly its operational mandate? across Europe and Central Asia.

Thank you.

I thank the distinguished representative from Sweden for her comments, and I now give the floor to the distinguished representative from the Russian Federation.

Thank you, Chair. We thank UN Women for presenting the report on activities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. As is known, the situation in the region currently is extremely tense, and we thank this entity for its efforts to improve the situation of women and children in our region, especially those in vulnerable situations. At the same time, we call on UN Women in its reports to adhere to the principle of neutrality and not to use politicized language, such as, for example, the full scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, as written in the report.

This is repeated by today's rapporteur.

UN Women is an important specialized body for achieving gender equality and for empowering women. We're always prepared to work together with UN Women on specialized topics, including in the context of the upcoming 25th anniversary of Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. However, this one-sided assessment of our special military operation by UN Women does not at all help to establish constructive cooperation. Therefore, we once again call on you in the future to show restraint and neutrality in your assessment of the situation and to pay more attention to improving the situation of women. Thank you.

I thank the distinguished representative from the Russian Federation for his comments. And I have no further speakers on my list, so I therefore ask the Secretariat to respond.

Thank you, thank you, Madam President, on the report that we have presented and The comments from the member states, we want to appreciate the delegate from Moldova, and I will request my colleague Belén and our Deputy Director for Policy and Programme to provide further details and to appreciate also the comment from Sweden on how we seek to operate on the triple mandate in Europe and Central Asia in the context of the complexities and resource constraints that we have. Indeed, it's a comment to us and equally to the member states as you— to get directions from yourselves, as the last 2 days we have continued to affirm the triple mandate, and for us it's very important, the issue of impact in our countries and in communities. And we have noted the comment from Russia. Thank you very much, Madam President. I would like to defer to my colleagues, Madam Belén and Madam Shoko Ishikawa.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair and Deputy Executive Director. Thank you to member states for their comments and questions. I will refer directly to the question posed by the delegation of Sweden. Thank you very much for your support, but also for your question about how to ensure our operational support also in view of the current challenges that we are all facing in the region and globally. First of all, I would like to say that this is a region where we have seen, as I presented in my report, very important articulation between the United Nations sister agencies and UN Women, and we foresee that in the upcoming UN system cooperation frameworks, which are 12 countries under development, to ensure that these cooperation frameworks include a strong commitment to gender equality and women's rights and empowerment. And through this, we are already in close collaboration with the sister agencies in terms of deploying joint initiatives to respond to the gender equality challenges. In addition to this, we are working very closely in evaluating the programs that we have implemented in the different countries, and we have seen that it is extremely important to bring in an integrated manner our integrated triple mandate. And through our programs, we are bringing to the countries, and in support and partnership with the countries, the normative frameworks, uh, and informing these normative frameworks also from the national level, as well as leveraging our coordination response. So we do see that our forthcoming strategic note will strengthen our operational response, anchoring it very much in the UN coordination and normative mandate. And we do hope to build on the very strong examples that are being led by our countries with whom we work, including Moldova, who presented the very important strides that have been done on gender equality, and for which we really are very happy to see the increase of women's representation and many other areas that have been advanced in the country. So we do hope to engage also member states in the region as we tailor our operational response, building on the evaluations that we have undertaken and elevating our operational response in the context of our triple mandate.

Thank you very much. I have very little to add to what Belén has mentioned, but one thing that I would mention is that our triple mandate is really all 3 packaged in one, in a sense. So, for us to continue to be strong and agile and focused on our operational mandate, It is essential, and we are doing so in terms of stepping up on our coordination mandate, working hand in hand with the other UN agencies on identifying joint programming opportunities, also influencing how the joint programs are being formed, ensuring that gender is part of the operational activities of the other agencies. also is the way that we work on ensuring that the operational work of the UN system itself continues to deliver on women and girls. Thank you.

I thank the Secretariat for its response, and if there are no further comments or statements, we can move to the next presentation under this agenda item, namely an update on the implementation of General Assembly Resolution Resolution 72/279 on the repositioning of the United Nations Development System. In addition to the Executive Director, Deputy Executive Directors, and Executive Board Secretary, I welcome to the podium the following colleagues, namely Anna-Caren Jatfors, Director, Strategy, Planning, Resources and Effectiveness Division, and Alice Shackelford, Deputy Director, UN System Coordination Division. Today's Today's update on the implementation of the General Assembly Resolution 72/279 on the repositioning of the United Nations Development System will be presented by Deputy Executive Director, Mrs. Nyeransai Gumbanwanda. Madam Deputy Executive Director, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam President, and again, good morning, esteemed Board, delegates of UN Women, and colleagues, and good morning to my Executive Director.

Morning.

Before I begin with an update on our continued efforts in the implementation of UN repositioning mandates and provisions, I really want to take this opportunity to recognize and appreciate the adoption by the Member States last Tuesday of the ECOSOC Resolution E/2025/L014 on mainstreaming gender perspective into all policies and programs in the United Nations system. This resolution that you adopted— adopted by ECOSOC last week reaffirms the coordination mandate of UN Women, and indeed reaffirm the importance of the system-wide tools that we have developed, like the Sector-Wide Approach 3.0, which already incorporates 70% of the Gender Equality Acceleration Plan indicators. This significant achievement provides us clear guidance on the importance and value of systematically mainstreaming gender perspective across the United Nations system, with strong emphasis on coordination, on accountability, and sustainable resourcing led by UN Women to advance gender equality, the empowerment of all women and girls at every level, and at a time when such efforts are more critical than ever. Turning to my update, UN Women remains committed to supporting a reinvigorated resident coordinator system, and a new generation of UN country teams through our country and regional offices, as we have heard from our work in Europe and Central Asia. In line with our mandate to lead, coordinate, and promote gender equality accountability within the UN system, we provide crucial advisory and technical guidance to the UN country teams in their prioritization of gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN system coordination mechanisms are essential for prioritizing gender equality in ensuring UN actions are grounded in diverse country contexts. Towards this end, UN Women leads or co-leads gender theme groups and gender in humanitarian action working groups where we have a presence. And offers policy guidance and technical support elsewhere. These groups are further supported from our leadership engagement in multiple issue-based coalitions, our thematic advisors, and the regional collaborative platforms. At the global level, we lead the Global Interagency Network on Women and Gender Equality, addressing issues across mandate. We operate in full alignment with management and accountability framework. Our corporate strategic plan at the country level is integrated with the UNCT priorities and developed in cooperation with the resident coordinators. As part of consolidation of UN system reforms, we continue to engage in joint programming, as we have heard in the last session. In addition, we engage in dialogue with development partners, and work together around resource mobilization and funding compacts. The inclusion of mandatory gender equality marker in pooled funding mechanism elevates accountability and enhances collaborative initiative. As a result of longstanding partnership with UN Women and supported with the expertise across the system, the Secretary-General's Peacebuilding Fund allocated 43% of its approved allocations in 2024 towards gender-responsive peacebuilding, continuing the trend of exceeding its own gender funding marker and target of 30%. In 2022 to 2024, UN Women led the analysis and consultation in design of 6 out of 7 of the pilot countries, like in Niger, DRC, Guatemala, and Colombia. As stewards of global funding mechanisms, the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women. We are also the stewards of the Women, Peace and Humanitarian Fund and the Healthy Initiative. This UN Women-led, UN Women-facilitated fund exemplifies interagency collaboration and advances the goals of the Global Compact to ensure flexible, long-term financing aligned to localization and resilience agendas, and we continue to engage with the Spotlight Initiative and are actively supporting the Spotlight 2.0. Let me turn to support— how we support entities and the SDGs-related interventions at the country level. In 2024, we supported 116 country teams, 20% more than the previous year, and 75 UN entities in their implementation of UNCTE and UN sector-wide approaches on gender equality, respectively. What is very interesting is that each year different heads of agencies, entities, and funds actually report and write to UN Women on the progress they've made. There is an accountability at heads of agencies level through and to UN Women on the progress that they have made, and this for us is is very important. We are also, in this work, seeing very tangible results in various regions. We have, as UN Women, working with other UN agencies on scaling up the care systems, the care policies, especially in Latin America. That has been work led by UN Women, but working with other UN agencies. In Africa, we have supported, together with other UN agencies, the advocacy leading to the adoption of the African Union Convention on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls that was adopted last year. We also continue to engage within the SEEDS, the work with the Small Island Developing Nations, to ensure that gender equality was included in ABUS. That is work that we did together with other UN agencies and indeed the work in Central Asia and in Europe that has also been shared. UN Women's leadership is also important in critical cross-cutting issues, further advancing system-wide coherence on issues like disability inclusion, which is very critical and which, as member states, you have continued to raise. UN Women has been very active in championing gender-responsive disability inclusion across all UN programming. Our Global Task Team on Disability and Inclusion has dedicated communities of practice and systematic support to UN country teams in gender mainstreaming. We have also been active and very supportive to women, girls, and HIV and working closely as one of the co-sponsors And indeed, UNAIDS Secretariat reports to this board periodically on the progress. That is an example again of how we are leveraging the totality of the UN capabilities to deliver on the development goals. As Secretariat of the UN Secretary-General Systemwide Strategy on Gender Parity, we provide guidance to 140 entities. We also serve as Secretariat of the the SG Gender Equality Acceleration Plan, driving system-wide transformation, as you had also presented yesterday. Achieving greater efficiency and better business practices is also very important, and my colleague Didi Kesimadi can add further information on this. The reforms of the UN system, including in the current context, continue to strengthen our commitment in harmonizing business operations and lowering transaction costs. We continue to engage actively in multiple interagency business mechanisms, working to incorporate gender perspectives in business practices, such as in procurement and human resource. In some of the milestones we have reached, at least last year, is 90% country offices participating in business operations strategy. our use of the Global Shared Services and as a recipient, including for human resource management and treasury services, the co-location of over 72% of our offices in the UN common premises and 6 offices participating in back-office services. Excellencies, I reiterate UN Women's full commitment to reposition the UN system, demonstrating coherence integration, harmonization, and agility in adapting to challenging contexts. As we move forward, we continue to engage in UNAID, as the Executive Director indicated yesterday, leading the UN system contribution within UNAID for mainstreaming gender equality. We also continue to support the member states in the revitalization of CSW and the implementation of the Pact for the Future, and equally working together with the UN system as we prepare for CSW 70, which is focusing on access to justice. We look forward to working strongly together with colleagues for the high-level meeting on the 22nd of September as our heads of states gather to advance the work that we are doing on gender equality and taking forward the agenda action that we have. Developed as part of CSW69. Again, thank you, thank you very much. Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you very much, Madam Deputy Executive Director, for your comprehensive presentation. And I now open up the floor for member states' interventions. And the speaker, the first speaker on the list is the Netherlands, and currently the only speaker on the list. So I now give the floor to distinguished representative of the Netherlands.

Thank you, Madam President, and let me follow the good example of the DED in wishing the Executive Director a good morning. Morning. I deliver this statement on behalf of the following member states and observers: Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, the Republic of Moldova, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the EU as a donor, and my own country, the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Madam President, Madam Executive Director, colleagues, we are pleased to see the United Nations Development System reform is showing results. The UN, however, is operating in a context of growing demands and declining resources. This makes full implementation of UNDS reform indispensable to rebuild trust in the UN system and safeguard its global legitimacy. Ongoing reforms must continue with urgency and ambition. We welcome the Secretary-General's UN80 initiative and see clear opportunities to consolidate the learning and gains of the UNDS reform. We must ensure that the UN80 initiative builds on and not bypasses the reforms already underway. We would like to emphasize the following points. First, in light of persisting funding constraints, we see great potential in the further consolidation and increased use of shared services common back offices, and common premises. These are not just essential for efficiency gains, but also for further coherence and credibility. Cost reductions cannot be short-sighted and must lead to increased system-wide coherence and efficiency gains. Which actions is UN Women taking to further consolidate and improve joint business operations within the wider UN system? And could UN Women elaborate How they will keep member states informed of how current cost reduction measures are impacting further co-location and consolidation. Second, transparency and accountability are key to improving performance. We therefore note with concern that the Secretary General has signaled that progress in implementing the management and accountability framework has stalled. How will UN Women ensure improved implementation of the framework? Third, the dual reporting model is not yet sufficiently implemented, especially the number of resident coordinators that are requested to provide input on performance appraisals of heads of agencies lag behind. Could UN Women share what challenges you are facing in this regard? And since we would like to see full participation in this model, what can the Board do to facilitate compliance? Fourth, the system-wide evaluation on progress towards a new generation of UN Country Teams confirms that RC's estimates that 79% of entity-specific programming instruments are aligned with the cooperation framework. However, this alignment is very soft and does not translate into genuine derivation from the cooperation frameworks into agency-specific plans. We reiterate the importance of ensuring derivation of strategic notes from the cooperation frameworks. We request all agencies, including UN Women, to attach to each strategic note the confirmation from the respective RC of derivation from the respective cooperation framework. Fifth, last year the Board requested agencies to take further steps to ensure effective information sharing with RCs. We are pleased to note improvements in this regard. However, more work needs to be done to keep RCs better informed on agencies' outreach to funding partners. How does UN Women plan to improve this? And finally, preliminary findings of the system-wide evaluation indicate that, while more and more countries' configuration exercises are undertaken, they have not created a more tailored, needs-based country presence, and this is concerning. We call on all agencies, including UN Women, to connect ongoing business model reviews and reorganization exercises to the goal of needs-based country presence, rather than treat these processes in isolation. Madam President, Madam Executive Director, we acknowledge that there has been a lot of progress. However, in light of the current challenges and in the context of UN80, we call on all UN entities to go the extra mile together, to increase collaboration, joint programming, and integrated approaches in an ultimate effort in this last stretch to achieve the SDGs. I thank you.

I thank the distinguished representative from the Kingdom of the Netherlands for his comments, and there are no further speakers on the list, and I therefore invite the Secretariat to respond.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam President, and thank you to the Netherlands and the countries who put together the 7 critical points. We take some of the points as advice and guidance and others which require specific information. I will respond to 2 elements and then request to respond to the question related to efficiencies and how we can maximize on back office services within the UN system and joint business operations, and we'll request our Deputy Director for Coordination Division, Madam Alice, to then respond to the other issues.

Thank you.

First is to appreciate the guidance and the expectation with regards to UN Women within the UN reform. As the Executive Director said, there are 2 streams of work that we are strongly involved in. One is indeed the UN System Development Cluster within UNAID, which we will bring and continue to bring the issues of gender equality the cohesion issues you've identified, and the advice on how we can maximize on the mandates that we have without dropping the commitments of each of the agencies. The second is we are also quite involved in the review of the evaluation that has been going on around UN system coordination, and we are involved in that space with other agencies to contribute to the discussions, so we also take the point around alignments that you have raised. One of the issues that we are very— recommendations that we are making very clearly is that the UN system coordination cooperation frameworks needs to have a gender outcome at the cooperation level, so that it's not the activity project-based, but actually at the outcome level, and we work together as a UN system to define that and to resource that, including through joint programs. I would like to also share with the Board that last year you significantly requested us to strengthen our coordination mandate, and we've been doing exactly that. We have been developing a theory of change which really builds the cohesion inside the organization and together with other UN agencies to position into the issues that you have raised, and indeed that becomes even much more important now. I would like to defer to DED Kessimadi to respond to the other issues that you have raised through you, Madam President.

Thank you, thank you so much, Madam President, and good morning to all the delegates and all the colleagues on the podium and in the room and virtually. Thank you very much for the question on how we can make sure that we are really taking the opportunity for greater business efficiencies overall. And just to perhaps start off, just to reassure you again that UN Women, in fact, has a very large part of various services and functions outsourced already. So we actually have a UNDP who is a service provider for many different elements, whether it's entitlements, whether it's payroll, whether it's the treasury, and so on. So actually, from UN Women's perspective, a lot of services already are not done in-house, and that has been the business model that the organization adopted from the beginning. Meaning to ensure greater efficiency. Now, in terms of the UN-wide process, we of course have the— within the UN SDG group, we have something what is called Business Innovation Group, which currently is co-chaired by UNFPA and UNOPS, and we actually have had a couple of meetings just now in the last months. One of the outcomes of the conversations have been indeed really focused on how we can better use global shared services. That has been identified as the one that will have the greatest potential, most likely more potential than the work that has been done on the common back offices. We, of course, continue work on that too, but it was very interesting in our discussions that as we reviewed the experience with common back offices, The countries where we have had those, it actually had not brought, in terms of financial savings, too much to the organizations. So similarly, of course, we are always committed to common premises. We will be looking at working all possible fronts, but I think I just want to underline the message that the global shared services across the UN system seems to be really the most efficient way for us to collaborate, pool resources, and show increased efficiencies. Now, as part of the— under the Chief Executive Board, CEB, you have 2 subsidiary mechanisms, and one of them is High Level Committee on Management, which is chaired by USG Catherine Pollard. And as part of the HLCM conversations and work, there have been now an identification of 17 so-called far-reaching efficiency initiatives that are now being reviewed by all the agencies. We have all the agencies across the UN system as part of the HLCM, and we will be looking at which ones we can move forward fastest. And you will be hearing certainly also as part of the UNAIDS efforts over the coming months much more on progress on that. But you can count on UN Women's strong commitment commitments to always, both internally— we are continuously reviewing, streamlining, and looking at how we are doing things more efficiently internally— but also our very, very strong commitment to ensure that we are working in a joint, collaborative manner with the rest of the UN system.

Thank you.

I thank the Secretariat for its response. Oh, sorry. Yes, Alice, please.

Thank you.

Good morning. Thank you, Madam President, Madam Executive Director, Excellency. Just quickly, just trying also to touch directly on some of the questions, on the specific ones. It's also true that, apart, naturally, from the commitment of UN Women at the global level, at the country level, UN Women country offices participate in operation management teams, which are the key body that really translates the commitments of the BIC at the UN SDG level. Into concrete actions that can really deliver changes at the country level within and under the direction and the leadership of the Resident Coordinator. On the Management Accountability Framework, this is a very important tool for the UN Development System reform, and UN Women is very committed. We have been really directly engaged also in the update and review process of the Management Accountability Framework to make it more explicit and more strongly clear around especially the accountability on gender equality and in general human rights, and how really UN Women can play a role in supporting and collaborating and accompanying the Resident Coordinator in this important task. We are also developing a guidance, a specific guidance. Now we are waiting for the review of the MAF, and we will update the guidance to Regional Directors and representatives on the implementation of the MAF and the expectations also in terms of their performance around the MAF itself. On the dual reporting model, it's a work in progress for sure. I think in this regard it is important that you keep calling the attention for that as the Executive Board and really asking Resident Coordinators and representatives of UN Women to comply with that. We have a good compliance, around 90%. There is space for improvement, as we discussed also in the informal negotiations. The UN system-wide evaluation is in fact being now finalized. We are working now internally on the management response, and there are various discussions that will have to take place because there are some recommendations that in reality are bringing us to a change of some of the things that we're looking at. So there will need to be a big discussion in the Sustainable Development Group around that. But the derivation of the strategic notes of UN Women from the cooperation framework is completely institutionalized in UN Women, and it is part of a guidance that we are giving, where we are providing to country offices, and we are working together exactly in strengthening that in all the programmatic development. And this always naturally requiring and working together with the Resident Coordinator, and we welcome the proposal that you have put on the table. Information sharing with Resident Coordinator for UN Women is much beyond just information sharing. It's about working together to advance the gender equality agenda. UN Women cannot do it alone, needs the leadership and the role of the Resident Coordinator, and vice versa, the Resident Coordinator needs the role of UN Women and the rest of the UN system to advance this important agenda. For us, it's really not only about information sharing, but really working together and really strengthening this collaborative approach now with the Resident Coordinator and the UN system and the UN country teams. On the country configuration, This is also a work in progress. We have, I think, also in the UN SDG system-wide evaluation, it comes out very clearly that this process has not been very well implemented across the UN SDG. It's something that needs to be relooked at and see how to better really make it efficient and effective. And actually, very often, when even UN Women has decided to close offices, Naturally, balancing that with the request and the pressure also from the Member States is something that also needs to be brought to attention. So, we keep engaging in all of those processes and have also developed different presence and different ways for UN Women to support the UN system, like, for example, also gender advisors to the Resident Coordinator's Office. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Alice. And now I give the floor to Anna-Karin Hjertfors.

Thank you very much. I believe my colleague Alice already elaborated specifically on the involvement of UN Women's strategic notes and their alignment with the cooperation frameworks. But maybe just to add a small additional piece on that is that in line with our new planning, monitoring, and reporting policy, we also have a mandatory step of soliciting inputs throughout the process from the Resident Coordinator, as well as a sign-off and approval of the Resident Coordinator of the strategic notes. So, that's on top of the fact that all outputs and outcomes are fully verbatim in our cooperation framework, in our strategic notes, in line with the cooperation frameworks. And maybe just also on ensuring that any change presence processes make— are in line with having needs-based country presences, there's also something that We are looking at leveraging the strategic note process where discussions on affordability and sustainability of footprints are part of the approval process. And we are working very closely with the regional directors, of course, in collaboration with relevant divisions in headquarters, to proactively manage within available resources the regional footprint. So all resources are deployed or redeployed to maximize results for women and girls based on where the needs are the greatest. So, again, this is not a static solution, but very much something that we do on a regular basis, including yearly validation of our footprints to make sure that we can be agile and responsive in ensuring that the resources are deployed for maximum impact.

Thank you.

Thank you very much to the Secretariat for its response. So if there are no further comments and statements, we can now move on to the next presentation under this agenda item, namely an update on UN Women policies and procedures to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment. And in addition to the Executive Director, Deputy Executive Directors, and Executive Board Secretary, I'm pleased to welcome welcome the following colleagues to the podium: Prasanna Chakrabarty, Director of Human Resources, and Shoko Ishikawa, Deputy Director, Policy Programme and Intergovernmental Division. I now invite the Executive Director, Mrs. Sima Bahus, for her presentation. Madam Executive Director, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam President, Ambassador Nicolas Klaas, our able and steadfast President. Good morning to you all. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, esteemed colleagues, it is an honor to update you today on our continued action to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse, SEA, and sexual harassment, SH. UN Women remains steadfast in every country where we serve, in every space we operate. We carry this mission with urgency and with care. Because this is not only a moral imperative, it is a matter of trust— the trust of the women and girls we serve, especially those living through crises, conflict, and systematic inequality. We act across 5 fronts: prevention, response, accountability, partnership, and cultural change. Each one essential, each one interlinked. Excellencies, let me share our internal progress. Over the past year, we strengthened safeguards to ensure reporting mechanisms are trusted, accessible, and centered on the needs of survivors. The 2024 UN System Perceptions Survey shows that over 90% of UN Women personnel know how and where to report SEA and SH. This is encouraging, but it is not enough, and we will continue to strive to ensure that 100% of our workforce know how and where to report. We are also becoming more precise in how we prevent. Today, 98% of our risk owning units are integrating SEA and SH risks into their assessments. This allows us to anticipate where harm may occur and to act before it does. To reinforce accountability, we operationalized a hybrid investigation model. It complements OIOS with internal capacity, ensuring timely appropriate responses. Beyond our own walls, we are also deepening engagement with the communities we serve. Our SEA focal points are active in every duty station. They are raising awareness, sharing tools, and helping communities navigate what can feel like an overwhelming system. A new outreach guide tailored for civil society and local actors is now in use. Step by step, we are closing the distance between policies and people. Excellencies, in 2024, we reached several critical milestones. We helped shape the first-ever SEA and SH indicator under UN SWAP 3.0. It is evidence-based, survivor-centred, and aligned with the Gender Equality Acceleration Plan. We are preparing to transition to ClearCheck 2.0, expanding vetting to include racism, racial discrimination, and other forms of misconduct. And in 2025, we will pilot the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme as per Executive Board direction— another step forward in due diligence and accountability. UN Women is also helping lead system-wide efforts. As a member of the UN Executive Group to Prevent and Respond to Sexual Harassment, we lead the work stream on knowledge sharing and collaboration, the backbone of policy coherence across the system. As part of this engagement, UN Women is responsible for key deliverables, including the UN system-wide knowledge hub on addressing sexual harassment, and an upcoming assessment informed by input from 36 members of the Executive Group, more than 120 UN system gender focal points, and external partners. We also support solutions beyond the UN, from Safe Cities, gender-responsive policies with WHO and UNODC, to joint policy advocacy with UNESCO and ILO. Whether in the world of work, sport, or the digital space, we help partners build safer environments and stronger systems of redress. Let me end where I began, with resolve. We will continue to deliver on this agenda with clarity, with accountability, and with dignity. Thank you to the Executive Board for your steadfast partnership. Together, we will uphold the trust placed in us, and we will work to ensure safety, dignity, and justice for all. I thank you.

Thank you very much for your comprehensive presentation, Madam Executive Director. I now open the floor for Member States' interventions with with respect to the aforementioned agenda item, and the one and only speaker on the list so far is Mexico. So I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Mexico.

Thank you, Madam President. I deliver this statement on behalf of Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Luxembourg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, the European Union as an honor, and my own country, Mexico. We would like to thank UN Women for its continued efforts on ensuring the protection from and response to sexual exploitation, abuse, and sexual harassment. Important steps have been taken to reinforce a victim-survivor-centered approach and zero tolerance for SIA, and we underline the continuous key role of leadership in setting the tone at the top. Additionally, we welcome the efforts of UN Women to ensure an inclusive diverse and safe organizational culture in order to help address the root causes of SIA. We will ask some specific questions on the information shared in the report, but first, Madam Chair, we would like to discuss the bigger picture. With current funding cuts leading to resource constraints, we understand that prioritization decisions must be made. In our view, protecting and serving marginalized populations should remain essential and should be treated as a core function and responsibility rather than as an optional activity. We therefore expect UN agencies to protect hard-won gains and prioritize the prevention and response to SIA. This includes ensuring that sufficient resources, both human and financial, are structurally made available to effectively prevent and respond to SIA, especially at the country level. We know that SIA risks are likely to be increasing as funding goes down. So how will the United Nations Women ensure SIA prevention and response? Funds continues to improve amidst funding pressures. Collective action to streamline work, reduce duplication and fragmentation, and realize efficiencies is more relevant than ever. Further resource pooling, collective tools, and harmonized approaches can be instrumental in achieving further efficiencies and impact. Interagency collaboration on, for example, risk analysis, community engagement, and implementing partner capacity assessment and training are positive examples. Overall, where does UN Women see further opportunities for interagency collaboration in a manner that is both efficient and effective? Additionally, we would like to emphasize the importance of drawing from existing expertise within agencies and the system as a whole, specifically on GBV. Victim survivors of SIA suffer from the same root causes and are in need of the same services. Therefore, the mapping and further expansion of GBV services, especially in those areas where services are not easily accessible, would be very helpful. Beyond UN interagency efforts, broader multi-stakeholder tools and resources such as a common approach to protection from SIA and the misconduct disclosure scheme can also help. Noting the positive signals in the UNSG's 2025 Special Measures Report on both CAP-SIA, and we encourage all UN agencies to consider Formally endorsing it. We appreciate that UN Women will pilot the misconduct disclosure scheme by the end of 2025. In this regard, is UN Women planning to implement the scheme more widely beyond the initial pilot? Madam President, please allow us to highlight an element based on the background note provided. We note UN Women highlighting the important role that organizational culture plays in preventing SEA and encouraging safe reporting. It is noted that a 2024 PSEA perception survey was conducted, which provided insights into SEA-related issues and broader aspects of organizational accountability. Could UN Women share what the most important outcomes of this survey have been and what areas of improvement were identified based on this survey? We therefore welcome a continued dialogue on what is working and what can be improved and continue to support UN Women in its work on SIA. I thank you very much.

I thank the distinguished representative from Mexico for her comments. And I now give the floor to the Secretary to respond. And Kirsti Madi, please, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you for this really, really, really important statement and insightful statement and the questions. And I wanted to just take an opportunity to update you a little bit, share some more information. It covers some of your questions. and then my colleagues will come more into the specific questions. What I wanted to brief you— I was actually earlier this morning, before we started, I was briefing the Executive Group to Prevent and Respond to Sexual Harassment. I was updating them on the work that UN Women is doing on leading the work on knowledge sharing and collaboration. And I just thought it might be relevant to share a little bit more detail, because it links very much to the issues that you have just in your joint statement raised. One other— on a very positive note, I want to share that we are hosting the UN system-wide Knowledge Hub on addressing sexual harassment. We have had this in place for a couple of years now. We have recently made enhancements to it, such as translating the hub into the 6 official UN languages, and we also improved the accessibility for persons with disabilities. We've been promoting the platform, and actually that resulted in a record-high 16,000 clicks now in May. And this is very much also demonstrating what we have as part of the work stream in our discussions with the members of the Executive Group and also with the Gender Focal Point. Plus, in our conversations with partners outside the UN system— multilateral development organizations, financing organizations, civil society, private sector partners— we've been pulling together both on the challenges as well as opportunities. And we are, as part of the Executive Group, we are in the process of putting together a report that we will be discussing in detail in the Executive Group. This report will have a comprehensive assessment as well as clear, actionable recommendations. It will provide insights on current policies, tools, practices, and also identify key challenges and capacity gaps. We've looked at key tools and policies like the UN System Model Policy, the Code of Conduct, the ClearCheck Manager's Guide, the victim-centered approach, as well as the Knowledge Hub, and how they are being used across the UN system. In the feedback that we have received, most of our agency partners are applying the tools, but there is a variety how they are being applied depending on the agency, on location, and also the type of personnel. Common issues include limited coverage for some of the non-staff, like consultants; in some cases, outdated policies across the UN system that may not reflect the latest standards; unclear guidance that may make the tools hard to use; and in some cases, low awareness of the personnel. Important element that comes across the feedback that we have received, his persistent fear of retaliation, and in some cases inconsistent leadership support, then of course weakens trust and accountability. But at the same time, there are very promising practices across the UN system, and these practices are also demonstrating that real progress is achievable when the tools are up to date, when they are made accessible, accessible, they are tailored to the real needs, and when there is strong leadership and clear communication in place. So I want to just highlight that as an update to you, because this is an example, really, of agencies coming together, of strong interagency collaboration to take this critical issue forward. A key proposal that is emerging from this report is indeed, to look at how we are integrating the work on prevention of sexual harassment and prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse within a unified survivor-centered framework. And we will have a dedicated discussion in the Executive Group to discuss that further. So I just want to give that broader example for how the UN system as a whole is working and how UN Women is contributing to that critical work.

Thank you.

And now, if Deputy Executive Director Gumbuzwana, if you want to say a few words.

Yes, thank you. Thank you so much, President, and to just add a few points building on what Dkd Kesimadi has shared. From a programming point of view, the programmatic work, the investments made in our work on ending violence against women, is part and parcel of doing the prevention work on SIA, because it means the partners we work with have an awareness of the behavior expected of the United Nations. So from their point of view, we raise the awareness on the information and provide the information on what is the expected relationship behavior and what measures they can take. I was very much deeply encouraged when I was in Pasto in Colombia to see an interagency training of our colleagues doing training on SEA together with the grantees and partners and communities. So this is one aspect which is very important. Secondly is our support to member states. for access to justice, for law enforcement work. This is also very important because we are also talking about a crime. If it's sexual abuse, at times it's actually a crime under national law. So yes, there are measures we take inside the UN for the UN itself to uphold codes of conduct for the UN staff, but also we are making the clear linkage with the importance that when a crime is committed, it's not sufficient to just deal with it with our own UN system law because at times it's a violation of national law. So that support and relationship that we have with the member states in supporting member states for the critical institutional support and that is capacities that are necessary is very, very important. very important for us, and equally the reporting that we expect from our partners when we work with them, to say our partners in their reporting, can they provide further information on any instances. Thank you very much.

So now I invite the President to say a few words.

Thank you, Madam President. I wanted to address specifically a few questions that were raised as part of the joint statement. On the funding question, UN Women remains fully committed to prioritizing PSEA— response to PSEA-SH, and will continue to ensure that the work is sustainably resourced. In this context, we are also recruiting. We had a vacant position of our PSEA-SH specialist. We are continuing to finalize the recruitment for that position as a priority. Addressing SCASH is also key to strengthening our organizational culture, and it will continue to remain a strategic priority under our strategic plan. On the question regarding the rollout and the pilot of the misconduct disclosure scheme, indeed, as we have committed, that 2025, we will be rolling out as a pilot both the MDS and we will also be transitioning to ClearCheck 2.0, which has an expanded scope in terms of the misconduct that it covers, in terms of the reporting. And of course, drawing on the lessons learned after the pilot and considering the capacity and the resource requirements for such, we will also explore feasibility of a broader rollout beyond— I mean, in terms of once we have done the pilot. So that was on the MDS rollout. There was a question on the perception survey. The PSEA perception survey, as you are aware, is led by the Office of the Special Coordinator, and the primary purpose of that survey is to help organizations assess how effective their efforts are are in preventing and responding to SEA and also identifying persistent challenges. As was noted in the statement by our Executive Director, we had a positive outcome through the survey results. Basically, 96% of our respondents did say that they were able to distinguish, first of all, between SEA, SH, They were also aware of the existing policies. They were also aware of the recourse mechanisms and the reporting mechanisms. So we will continue to see how we can actually improve on this and do more awareness building, because the one area which was also highlighted as needing continued attention is access for training and also strengthening some of the mechanisms for the reporting in terms of addressing any fear of retaliation. So these are the key summary or the highlights coming out from the survey. We have taken note of that and we'll continue to build on that and work on it. Thank you.

Thank you. And Shoko, would you— okay, okay. So I thank the Secretariat for its response, and if no further comments or statements, we can then conclude our discussion on this item. The Executive Board will now consider Agenda Item 11, Other Matters. Does the Board have anything to add? I see no calls to intervene. So, as no additional issues have been brought to my attention, we will move to the adoption of decisions. For this item, I would first like to invite the facilitator to read out the draft Decision 2025/5, entitled Annual Report of the Under-Secretary-General/Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women on the Implementation of the Strategic Plan 2022-2025 as Negotiated. Mr. Enian Lamptjie, you have the floor.

I had the privilege to facilitate draft decision entitled Annual Report of the Under-Secretary-General, Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women on Implementation of the Strategic Plan 2022-2025. Um, the process was very smooth. I thank all delegations for their constructive engagement, which made the process smooth, and I'm happy to inform— should I read the decision?

Okay.

So, the Executive Board takes note of the report of the Under-Secretary-General/Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women on progress made on the implementation of the Strategic Plan 2022-2025, and further notes strong performance by UN Women to date in meeting its annual targets. Paragraph 2 encourages UN Women to take into account lessons learned from the implementation of the Strategic Plan 2022-2025, including its midterm review, as well as from its previous strategic plans. Paragraph 3 urges UN Women to continue to align, as appropriate, its results framework with the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Sustainable Development Goals. Paragraph 4 decides to transmit the report to the Economic and Social Council. Madam President, I'm happy to inform that we achieved consensus and agreed ad ref on this draft decision, so the draft decision stands ready to be adopted. Thank you.

Thank you. May I take it that the Executive Board then wishes to adopt Decision 2025/5 on the Annual Report? I see no objections. It is so decided. Thank you very much, Enian, for your skillful facilitation. Next, I would like to invite the facilitator to read out Draft Decision 2025/6 entitled Report on the Evaluation function of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women 2024, as negotiated. Ms. Celia Nabeta, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam President. I was privileged to facilitate the agenda item on evaluation and function of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women 2024. The process were smooth and all the paras were agreed to. And let me take this opportunity to read out the report. The Executive Board takes note of the 2024 Report on the Evaluation Function of UN Women and the Independent Evaluation Service 2025 Program of Work and Budget. Takes note of the report of the Corporate Thematic Evaluation of UN Women's support to women's participation in peace processes and the management response and requests the implementation of its recommendations in order to strengthen UN Women's support to women's participation in peace processes. The Board takes note that UN Women continues to maintain an independent, Credible and useful evaluation function, and of its contribution to system-wide gender-responsive evaluation efforts and national evaluation capacity development, taking into account national plans, needs, and priorities, and encourages UN Women to continue to make use of evaluation results, including in its decision-making processes. Four, recalls. Previous executive board decisions on the report of the evaluation function and requests UN Women to continue its efforts to achieve a high evaluation performance in order to reach all of the 2025 targets. Five, requests UN Women to increase investments towards allocation of at least two percent and up to three percent of its total program expenditure to the evaluation function. And requests UN Women to continue to safeguard the independence of the independent evaluation service and ensuring evaluation expertise in the Advisory Committee on Oversight, ACO. It also expresses continuing support to this for strengthening the evaluation function in UN Women and the use of evaluations in line with the evaluation policy as endorsed by the Executive Board in 2020. I submit.

Thank you very much, Celia. May I take it that the Executive Board wishes to adopt Decision 2025/6 on evaluation? I see no objection. It is so decided. Thank you very much, Celia, for your skillful facilitation. And next, I would like to invite the facilitator I now have the privilege of introducing the facilitator to read out Draft Decision 2025/7 entitled Report on Internal Audit and Investigation Activities for the Period from 1st of January to 31st of December 2024 as negotiator. Mrs. Mio Akita, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam President. I had the privilege of facilitating the Decision 2025/7 Report on Internal Audit and Investigation Activities for the period from January 1st to December 31st, 2024. And I'd like to thank all the delegations for their constructive engagement and flexibility during the informal consultations. Let me read out the paragraphs. The Executive Board, one, takes note of the report and related annexes on internal audit and investigation activities activities for the period from January 1st to December 31st, 2024. 2, takes note of the Advisory Committee on Oversight's annual report. 3, takes note of the management response to these 2 reports. 4, urges UN Women to expedite the implementation of the long-outstanding internal audit recommendations. 5, Continues to encourage UN Women to ensure sustainable and long-term funding of UN Women's internal investigation function. 6, request UN Women in advance of the first regular session 2026 to include as part of its informal briefing on organizational culture, anti-discrimination, and anti-racism information on the use of contractual modalities for affiliate personnel. Thank you once again.

Thank you. May I take it that the Executive Board wishes to adopt Decision 2025/7 on audit? I see no objections. It is so decided. Thank you very much, Mio, for your skillful negotiation facilitation. Next, I would like to invite the facilitator to read out draft decision 2025/8 entitled Annual Report on the Ethics Function as Negotiated. Mr. Glentis Thomas, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam President. Madam President, I am pleased to inform that after 3 consultations, member states agree at REF on decision number 2025/8. Annual report on the activities of the of the UN Women Ethics Function. Executive Board One takes note of the report on the activities of the UN Women Ethics Office for the period first January through thirty-first of December two thousand and twenty-four. 2, takes note of management's response to this report. 3, takes note of the continued progress made by the ethics function in promoting and strengthening the ethics culture of UN Women. 4, recall decision 2023/10. 10 and 2024/6 and requests, requests UN Women to take steps to ensure sufficient long-term resources to the ethics function to enable the sustainable and independent implementation of ethics functions mandates. Madam President, all was agreed by consensus. Thank you.

Thank you very much. May I take it then that the Executive Board wishes to adopt Decision 2025/8 on ethics? I see no objections. It is so decided. Thank you very much, Glentis, for your skillful facilitation. Now, next, I would like to invite the facilitator to read out Draft Decision 2025/9, entitled Implementation of General Assembly Resolution 72/279 on the Repositioning of the United Nations Development System as Negotiated. Mrs. Fanny Lilandi, you have the floor.

Thank you very much, Madam President, and I want to start by thanking all colleagues for the constructive engagement and also to thank you to the Secretariat for your support throughout the negotiations. I'm happy to announce that we managed to address all paragraphs, and I will be happy to read out the decision. 2025/9, Implementation of General Assembly Resolution 72/279 on the Repositioning of the United Nations Development System. Paragraph 1 welcomes the update provided by UN Women on the implementation of General Assembly Resolution 72/279 and related mandates concerning the repositioning of the United Nations Development System in the context of the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review and operational activities for development of the United Nations system. 2, welcomes the progress of UN Women in implementing the United Nations Development System Reform Checklist, which is included as an annex to the update. And requests that remaining areas of uneven progress be addressed. 3, recalls Decision 2024/7, reaffirms the strong commitment to the United Nations Development System reform, and in this regard welcomes UN Women's commitment to said reform and the Resident Coordinator System, and encourages UN Women to fully leverage its comparative advantage and system-wide coordination mandate in implementing reform processes.

4.

Request UN Women to contribute to the United Nations Country Team Configuration Exercises and the implementation of their outcomes, to ensure that its presence at the country level is tailored to meet the specific challenges, priorities and needs of Programme Countries. 5. Request UN Women to intensify its effort to contribute to system-wide and interagency efficiencies, including through expanding the use of global shared services, common back offices and common premises, prioritizing the most cost-effective and resource-efficient efforts. 6, further requests UN Women to continue to pay in full its cost-sharing contributions in support of the Resident Coordinator System. 7, recalls Decision 2022/6 and 2024/7 and requests UN Women to take further steps to ensure its strategic notes are derived from the cooperation frameworks including: a) to attach to each strategic note the Resident Coordinator's confirmation of alignment with the cooperation framework, and b) to inform the Resident Coordinator in a timely manner of new programs and financial agreements signed to implement the strategic note, in line with the management and accountability framework.

8.

Request UN Women to continue to work with other UN agencies United Nations entities to scale up joint programming with relevant targets and indicators in the UN Women Strategic Plan 2026 to 2029, and at the country level, in line with its mandate and in line with national priorities and needs, and implementation of the QCPR of operational activities for the development of the United Nations system.

9.

Request UN Women to adhere to all elements of the management and accountability framework and to constructively engage in the review of the framework. 10, takes note of UN Women's role as the Secretariat of the UN system-wide Gender Equality Acceleration Plan and requests UN Women to continue supporting the acceleration of gender equality in coordination with the UN system. Thank you.

Thank you. May I take it that the Executive Board wishes to adopt Decision 2025/1? On the implementation of General Assembly Resolution 72/279 on the repositioning of the United Nations Development System. I see no objections. It is so decided. Thank you so much, Fanny, for facilitating this decision. Next, I would like to invite the facilitator to read out Draft Decision 2025/10 entitled Update on UN Women Policies and Procedures to Tackle Sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment as negotiated. Mrs. Marie Grebstad, you have the floor.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Madam President. I had the privilege to facilitate decision 2025/10, and I would like to thank all delegate delegations for their constructive engagement. I will now read out the decision. Update on UN Women policies and procedures to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment. One, yeah, the Executive Board, one, welcomes the update provided by UN Women on policies and procedures, procedures to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment. 2, urges UN Women to continue its efforts to implement the Secretary-General's zero tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse. 3, requests UN Women, with firm commitment and support from leadership, to continue to strengthen efforts to ensure a victim-survivor-centered, system-wide, and coherent approach to the prevention of and and response to sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment. 4, requests UN Women to continue to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of prevention, protection, and response through interagency and system-wide collaboration, including through conducting joint assessments and capacity building of implementing partners and joint community engagement. 5, requests UN Women to contribute to and include in the update a brief collective summary outlining the joint progress and shared challenges of UN Women, UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS, and UNICEF in preventing and responding to sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment. 6, Encourages UN Women management to ensure dedicated, adequate, and sustainable staffing, expertise, and funding to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment. 7. Recalls decisions 2023/7 and 2024/8 on piloting the misconduct disclosure scheme. Welcomes the UN Women welcomes that UN Women plans to pilot the scheme in 2025 and requests the agency to report on results and lessons learned within existing reporting and contribute to ongoing efforts by the United Nations Secretariat to explore whether the misconduct disclosure scheme and the UN ClearCheck database can serve as complements to each other.

Thank you very much. May I take it that the Executive Board wishes to adopt Decision 2025/10 on policies and procedures to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment? I see no objections. It is so decided. Thank you so much, Marie, for your skillful facilitation, and many thanks to all the distinguished delegations for your diligence and constructive efforts in achieving consensus. Now the Board will again turn to Agenda Item 1, Organizational Matters, to address the approval of the provisional agenda and work plan for the Second Regular Session 2025. I now invite the Secretary of the Executive Board to outline the agenda as contained in UNW/2025/CRP.2. Mr. Secretary, over to you.

Thank you very much, Madam President. So the 2nd Regular Session of the Executive Board of the Union will start on the 9th of September with the consideration and adoption of the annotated provisional agenda and work plan of the 2nd Regular Session 2025, as well as the report of the annual session of 2025. Under this item, the President of the Executive Board and the Executive Director will deliver their opening statements, followed by the statements from Member States. Once this plenary discussion has concluded, the Executive Board will turn to Agenda Item 2 on the Strategic Plan of UN Women 2026-2028. Lunchtime will be, as always, reserved for informal consultation on the draft decisions. In the afternoon, still on the 9th of September, the Executive Board will consider Agenda Item 3 on the Integrated Budget Estimates for the biennium 2026-2027 and the related report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, ACABQ, and the management response to this report. The Board will then consider the revised UN Women Financial Regulations and Rules. Next, the Board will continue with item 4 on the report on the Structured Dialogue on Financing, and according to Decision 2024/10, paragraph 6, the Board will also consider the Joint Report of UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women on the implementation of the Cost Recovery Policy. Next, the Board will turn to Agenda Item 5 on the GIU Review of Governance and Oversight of the Executive Boards of UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS, UNICEF and UN Women to receive an update on the progress made on this The following day, Wednesday the 10th of September, the Board will consider Item 6, Field Visits— Field Visit, sorry— where the Executive Board will be presented with a report of the UN Women Executive Board field visit to Zimbabwe this year. The Board will then address Item 7, Other Matters, followed by the adoption of the draft decisions. Turning to agenda item 1, back on organizational matters, the Board will consider the approval of the provisional agenda and work plan for the first regular session of 2026. And as always, the session will conclude, Madam President, with your statement and the statement of the Executive Director. I thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Are there any comments or questions? The floor is I see none. So may I take it that the Executive Board wishes to approve the provisional agenda and work plan of the 2nd Regular Session 2025? I see no objection. It is so decided. This concludes our consideration of all agenda items for the Annual Session 2025 of the UN Women Executive Board. Distinguished delegates and guests, I now invite Mrs. Sima Bahus, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, to give her closing remarks. Madam Executive Director, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Madam President, Excellencies. Let me begin by extending heartfelt thanks to Her Excellency Nicola Klaas, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sweden, for exceptional leadership as President of the Executive Board. Your calm resolve, Madam President, your clarity of purpose, and your unwavering commitment to gender equality have shaped our work this session. So we thank you. To the Vice Presidents of the Bureau, thank you for your invaluable support and dedication across the session. The strength and unity of the Bureau continues to guide us through an increasingly complex global landscape. I would like in particular to thank Her Excellency Suela Djanini, PR of Albania and Vice President of our Board, for chairing our morning session yesterday. Thank you, Your Excellency. To Jean-Luc Boris, Secretary of the Executive Board, and his remarkable team. Your professionalism, Jean-Luc, your precision and behind-the-scenes coordination ensure this work not only happens, but happens with thoroughness. We are deeply grateful. I know this appreciation is widely shared by the membership. And to all of you, Member States, thank you. Thank you for your presence, for your persistence, presence and for your partnership, both here in New York and on the ground where our shared mission is being tested every single day. Your commitment, especially in complex and crisis-affected contexts, brings our mandate to life every day. Excellencies, thank you for the adoption of decisions during this session, each one a meaningful step towards strengthening UN Women. I heard from the Secretary that all delegations have demonstrated maximum flexibility during the negotiations, and I deeply thank you for this and this testimony to effective multilateralism. So thank you again. These decisions not only reinforce our strategic direction but enhance our accountability, operational effectiveness, and ability to respond in the most challenging contexts. Your leadership, your thoughtful deliberations, and your sustained engagement ensure that we remain agile, focused, and fit for purpose. With your support, we are better equipped to deliver for women and girls everywhere, especially where the stakes are highest. Excellencies, we all understand the significance of this year and the unique nature of this very moment. The reform discussions underway in the context of UN80 are an opportunity to reimagine and to reset the multilateral system, a system that must deliver for women and girls. Be assured that my message and UN Women's message has been and will remain clear: gender-blind reform will be failed reform. That is why we will ensure that reform succeeds and delivers for women and girls, that gender equality is at the heart of all transformations. We also look towards the high-level meeting on Beijing+30 this September. It will be a moment to reflect, but also to renew our resolve. To refocus our efforts and to correct our course where we need to, to redouble our efforts where we do not. As we heard from you, it must be a launchpad for commitments to ensure that ambition translates into action and that no woman or girl is left behind. Because from every village to every capital, from refugee camps to negotiating tables. Their futures depend on what we do next. We look forward to working closely with you all in the lead-up to the High-Level Beijing+30 meeting, to bring forward the voices and solutions of women around the world and making them the North Star of our collective commitment. Excellencies, over the past 3 days, You have worked through a robust and forward-leaning agenda. You reviewed progress on our ethics, oversight, and internal audit and control mechanisms. Your oversight strengthens our accountability. We thank you for your trust, and we do not take it for granted. You provided clear guidance on the importance of a realistic, sustainable funding model for UN Women. We welcome your recognition of the resource constraints that we are facing, and we thank you for continuing to advocate for predictable, flexible and adequate financing so that we can deliver on our Triple Mandate. You examined our work to advance governance reform, ensuring that UN Women remains fit for purpose, efficient, transparent and responsive in a changing UN development system. You reaffirmed your commitment to anti-racism, diversity and inclusion, as well as to sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment prevention and mitigation, not as optional, but as integral to our effectiveness and legitimacy. You upheld the centrality of gender equality across all pillars of the UN's work, from peace and security to human rights and development. You reviewed our annual report and provided reflections that will guide our continued efforts. Your feedback and your strong engagement across the consultative process on the draft Strategic Plan 2026-2029 will shape the direction of UN Women going forward, including through our coordination and normative efforts. We thank you for the important inputs you have provided, and we look forward to its adoption at the September session. Most importantly, we look forward to working together to ensure its full and effective implementation, including through the 2026-2027 Integrated Budget. These decisions Every single one of them chart a path forward for this entity that we cherish together, both Secretariat and Executive Board side by side. I have no doubt that we will deliver on them side by side also. Excellencies, we pride ourselves on the honest dialogue we have with you, our Board. And we have been honest about the challenging financial environment within which we operate. We have been clear about the positions we are advocating for in the UNAT process. We have shared the measures we are taking to adapt prudently to that environment. Our commitment to you is, as we always have, to embrace reform, to both shape it and embody it. You heard in my annual report the results we achieve, and you heard this morning from our Europe and Central Asia region. You know the modest resources with which we achieve them. It is always our ambition to model the reform we advocate, to be efficient, effective, transparent, and most of all, impactful. That is why my commitment to you is not to do more with less, nor to tell you that we will do less with less. Rather, as you heard me say on Tuesday, we will seek to do better. The commitment to do better with less is one reality of reform, and we owe it to our mandate to be as realistic as we are ambitious. So, Excellencies, as we enter into the final 5 years of the 2030 Agenda, Let me repeat the critical point that I also made in my opening remarks on Tuesday. SDG 5 is not an isolated goal. It is the thread without which the entire tapestry of the 2020-2030 Agenda will unravel. That the environment around us is ever more challenging does not change that. Over the past 3 days, you have reaffirmed this— the criticality of our triple mandate, and gender equality as a multiplier. We will carry this with us, both as we mark the gender equality anniversaries ahead of us, and as we look to Seville and the 4th Conference on Financing for Development, to UNGA 80, to Doha and the 2nd World Summit for Social Development, to COP30 in Belém and beyond. The trust you place in us, that you placed in us, at this session is wind in our sails. To our Bureau members, to every delegation, to the experts, to the Secretariat, and to the UN Women teams here in New York and across the world, I thank you. We will continue to move forward together, with courage, with clarity, and with conviction. We will make the vision of the UN Charter a reality for all women and girls. And we will deliver on the mandate we have been given, because gender equality remains the best hope and the best solution for a world that needs both more than ever. I thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Executive Director, for your statement. Now, Excellencies and distinguished delegates, we have come to the end of a very productive and enlightening annual session. And I'm very pleased to see that we managed to successfully consider the entire agenda in a very efficient manner without compromising the quality of our discussions in the session. And throughout the session, I find that we've had very focused, interactive, and rich discussions on each agenda item. So congratulations to you all. I would like to thank again our Bureau members, the Vice Presidents, and their experts for their excellent support during and in lead-up to the session. I especially wish to thank the delegations of Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and Uganda for their very skillful facilitation during this annual session. Your hard work is truly appreciated. I wish also to thank profoundly the Executive Board and its observers for their constructive engagements on and contributions during this meeting.

meeting.

I also would like to thank the Secretary of our Executive Board, Mr. Boris, and I'm not going to comment on your dance moves, and his team for providing all-out support to me, the other members of the Bureau, and our delegations. At the opening segment, we have heard interventions from numerous member states, including regional group statements, and I thank my fellow ambassadors for their kind presence in the room and for the generous support expressed to the organization. Itself. Over the past 3 days, we've heard several briefings from the Secretariat colleagues, and I must acknowledge the quality of the presentations have been extremely rich. I would like, therefore, to congratulate the Executive Director as well as all other briefers from the UN Women Secretariat for their hard work and efforts in ensuring the high quality of our deliberations. And on this positive note, I once again thank you all for your cooperation and collaboration and support in making this a very successful session. And now I wish to declare closed the Annual Session 2025 of the UN Women Executive Board. This session is adjourned.