General Assembly: Update on the UN80 Initiative - Informal meeting of the plenary, 79th session

Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to start. Please take your seats and we will start. I call to order the informal meeting of the Plenary on the Unity Initiative. As indicated in my letter dated 3rd June 2025, this meeting is being held in order to provide updates on the progress of this initiative. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, Last month we met in this chamber to hear a briefing from the Secretary General on the UN 80 reform initiative. During that briefing, many Member States expressed an interest in receiving regular updates on progress on this important initiative. So I am pleased to convene this second briefing today and welcome the Under Secretary General for Policy, Mr. Guy Ryder, as Chair of the Unity Task Force, and the Assistant Secretary General for Program Planning, Finance and budget, and Controller, Mr. Chandru Ramanathan, who will be briefing us this morning. Excellencies, in two days time we will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the signing of the Charter. A time to reflect on the last 80 years and all that this organization has achieved. And also a time to look to the future to make sure the organization is fit for purpose and is capable of responding to the challenges that will come in the next 80 years. I look forward to hearing the updates today. I now give the floor to Mr. Guy Ryder, under Secretary General for Policy, to deliver introductory remarks.

Thank you very much, Mr. President, Excellencies, dear friends. Good morning and thank you President for convening us today. And thank you to everybody for taking the time to engage in this exchange of information which I hope you will find of use on the UN 80 and initiative. Mr. President, as you've indicated, we will be giving a number of presentations to you this morning and this afternoon. And these will cover the three work streams of the UN 80 initiative. In a little while you'll be hearing from my colleague ASG Ramanathan on work stream 1 on efficiencies and improvements, and then from myself concerning the mandate implementation review. And just to give you a preview in the afternoon session from 3 o', clock, Mr. President, you will be hearing about work stream three, which is on structural changes and program realignments, from co facilitators of the seven UN 80 clusters which have been established to look into different areas of of our work. And let me just tell you who will be briefing you this afternoon on behalf of those seven clusters. You will be hearing from Jean Pierre Lacroix, USG for Peace Operations. On behalf of the Peace and Security Cluster, you'll be hearing from Ligia Noronha, Assistant Secretary General of UNEP for the Secretariat Development cluster. Then from Hao Liong Zhu, Associate Administrator of UNDP for the Development cluster from the UN System perspective. Then from Carl Skau, the Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the World Food Program for the Humanitarian cluster, from Ilse Brands Keris, the Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights for the Human Rights cluster, from Chiriz Mawala, the Rector of the UN University for the Research and Training cluster, and from Doreen Bogdan Martin, the Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union for the cluster on specialized agencies. And each of these will provide a concise presentation of the work of their respective clusters as they have progressed. In addition to those of us in the room, many colleagues from different duty stations, we'll be following your remarks online and we look forward to your guidance. But Mr. President, with your permission, and before we go into the three work streams, let me provide some initial contextual information as background to the UN 80 initiative. And of course, many of you will have heard the Secretary General's remarks on the 12th and 19th May. And of course, you have all been in receipt of his letter in March launching the initiative itself. What I thought I might do to flesh out the broad context is to give you some information which I think enables us to establish the big picture of the circumstances which the United nations confronts today. And I just want to share with you some graphics that hopefully will perform that purpose. So let's put up the first slide, please, colleagues. As the United nations is reaching its 80th anniversary, you will see that we have over the years adopted a formidable accumulation of resolutions, decisions and presidential statements by the principal UN organs, General assembly, the Security Council and ecosoc. And as you can see from the graphic before you, these now total around 40,000 decisions. And you'll see from the bar chart being displayed that whilst those year by year have increased, we are in a fairly steady state. The number of resolutions, decisions and statements adopted in recent years stands, grosso modo, pretty close to what was being done in the 1980s and the 1990s. Now then, that's the mandates you've handed to us. What is the system that has been established to implement those mandates? Here's the familiar chart. You probably all know it, it comes from the CEB website. And you will see that we have a fairly large number of entities in a fragmented governance system. This is the architecture of the UN as it currently stands. Let's look at it from a slightly different angle. Here are the 140 plus entities that work across the system to deliver on the mandates that you have given to us, what I think is quite interesting is that the light squares at the top of this diagram, they represent the UN Secretariat's department and offices. The red colored ones are the peacekeeping operations and political missions. The green ones are funds and programs. You then go on to the specialized agencies and there are some others as well. You will I think, agree that this is a fairly numerous and complex constellation of entities. Now the underlying question in all of this is how do we resource this work? The funding as a whole and these figures relate to 2023, shows that the large, the lion's share of funding, some 45% goes to humanitarian action, about 30% to development, 13 to peace and security and hardly visible. But their human rights accounts were a little less than 1% of the budgetary allocations and 12% went to other areas of work on global and specialised agenda. Now that is where the areas where the money is being spent. The question then is where are the UN services primarily being delivered? And if you look at the map, you will see that we are present in, in about 1,100 locations around the world. 4,000 specific offices in 1,100 locations, a fairly impressive global presence of the organization. Now, if we move on, what are the impact of all of this work? Well, if you look at it schematically, we can say that in terms of its global norms, international law, we believe that the global population, in one manner or another, 8 billion, is connected to the global agenda of the United Nations. On the ground in our development work, some 440 million lives are directly impacted by the services that we provide. And 140 million people are reached directly in situations of crisis. And then to conclude this scene setting presentation, we have a look at our resource situation. Here you can see where we stand in 2025. What I think is most striking about this graphic is that having reached a peak in 2023 at a level of US$69 billion, the estimated level of resources available to the system this year, and I have to underline this is an estimate because we are working in a situation of significant uncertainty. Well, we're down to 50 billion and that represents a reduction of some 30% over the peak year of 2023. And I think that is something which needs to focus our attention and our thinking processes. What does this mean, this reduction in resources? It means that we are not able to reach the numbers that I previously showed you. In terms of the reach of the UN system on the ground, we're down to 380 million people who were able to reach directly in development work, and we're down to 110 million as a reduction in emergency situations of our humanitarian spending. That is the material effect of the situation that we're in now. Mr. President, in the light of that context, what is the UN80 initiative? Well, as you know, in institutional terms, the UN80 initiative is guided by a task force established by the Secretary General. I chair that task force. It is made up of 15 principles from across the UN system. We are organizing our work aligned and the three work streams that you will be hearing from and about today. Efficiencies and improvements, mandate implementation review and structure and program realignment. And we've established the seven clusters from whose coordinators you will be hearing this afternoon. We hope that we'll be able today to explain to you our progress to date and to receive your guidance on how we can move forward. And I think the question then that we might all turn our attention to is what a successful UN80 initiative might look like. I think the UN80 initiative is often characterized, but I think mischaracterized, simply as an exercise in downsizing in economy. But the Secretary General has been rather clear in saying that whilst we have to respond to the resource situation, which I've already outlined, the overall intention of the initiative is to strengthen and improve the workings of the UN system. And if we apply that to different areas of attention in the mandate landscape about which I'll be talking a little later on, maybe we can streamline the manner in which we implement the mandates you hand down. Maybe we can optimise the structures which form this archipelago of entities. We will need, I think, to look at how to prioritize resource allocations. And this is always the focus of our attention. The success of the Unity Initiative depends on us being able to increase the impact that our work in the UN system has on the people who we are here to serve. So, Mr. Chairman, that is the presentation that I wanted to put to you, and I think we can move on to the next stage of the meeting.

I thank the Under Secretary General for Policy. I now give the floor to Mr. Chandra Mooli Ramanathan Controller and Assistant Secretary General for Program Planning, Finance and Budget to Deliver remarks on UN80 Work Stream 1, on. On efficiencies and improvements.

Good morning, Mr. President. Excellencies. I have the honor to speak on behalf of the Under Secretary General for Management Strategy, policy and compliance, Ms. Pollard, who is currently meeting with staff representatives at the Staff Management Committee to discuss the UN 80 initiative. And she has asked me to extend our appreciation to you, Mr. President for convening this important briefing and to thank all Member States for your continued engagement. I'm pleased to update you today on the progress of Work Stream one of the UNAT Initiative Task Force, which is focused on administrative and operational efficiency within the Secretariat, particularly the work of the UNAT Working Group, which began meeting in March 2025. As you know, the Secretary General launched this initiative earlier this year to ensure that the United nations remains effective, relevant and capable of delivering on its mandates in an increasingly complex and resource constrained environment. Work Stream 1 is led by a dedicated Working Group composed of Secretariat entities with administrative and operational mandates. Its focus is to develop concrete proposals to enhance efficiency, reduce duplication, standardize services, and relocate functions to existing, lower cost duty stations where appropriate. These efforts build on the Secretariat's management reform and continuous improvement efforts undertaken since 2019. Before 2019, there was no Secretariat Department with a global mandate for providing policy or operational support to the entire Secretariat, irrespective of the funding source. The Department of Operational Support and DMSBC now have these global mandates, which allow us to look at strategic direction and service provision more holistically. Additionally, the investments that you have made in ICT infrastructure and the ERP system UMOJA enable us to make common sense improvements in service provision to the Global Secretariat. The Working Group therefore focused on identifying concrete ways to deliver services more effectively and at a reduced cost. The proposals are proceeding at a different pace and may come to Member States in different phases. The initial proposals under this work theme are being developed for inclusion, subject to the Secretary General's decision in the revised estimates for the 2026 proposed program budget. These could include, not an exhaustive list, the common administrative platforms, starting with New York and Geneva. These platforms will consolidate all Executive Office office services, hr Finance, procurement into unified support hubs, delivering standardized services across Secretariat entities based in those two locations. This would allow programmatic entities to focus on their mandates instead of on administrative service provision. This means moving administrative functions from several departments and offices, including programmatic ones in New York, to the Department of Operational Support in Geneva. It would mean that these services would be provided by the Office in Geneva to all Secretary entities in that location. We are focusing on New York and Geneva in the first instance because these duty stations host the largest number of Secretary entities and staff. In future stages, we will look at other locations where more than one Secretariat entity is located. Through consolidation, we hope to achieve economies of scale, thus potentially reducing the overall number of staff providing these functions over time as they get better at servicing a larger client base. Second Consolidation of administrative services for example, payroll operations would be centralized in three global processing centers with integrated governance, increased automation and stronger links to HR and finance functions. Currently, payroll is processed in 10 locations. Third relocation of functions Secretariat entities in New York and Geneva were asked to undertake a functional review to identify those functions that could be performed from existing secretariat lower cost duty stations or that could be abolished altogether. Select functions, particularly those that do not require proximity to intergovernmental bodies, oversight bodies or clients in New York and Geneva are in the scope of this exercise. Through relocation, we could reduce our commercial footprint, real estate in more expensive locations, and also reduce staff costs over time. The Working Group is now finalizing the above proposals to be submitted to the Secretary General. If approved, they will be incorporated into the revised estimates for the 2026 proposed program budget for the consideration of the General assembly by the 1st of September. In phase two, we are also looking at additional areas for further development. The Secretary will continue working on a second phase exploring additional efficiencies in administrative and operational areas, and I'm outlining some of these. Expansion of the network of the common administrative platforms to be able to provide a comprehensive architecture of services. These platforms will be considered in other locations where we have more than one sector entity. Further improvements in administrative, hr, transactional and support functions. Example Consolidation of nine independent central review bodies and multiple local panels under a single global Secretariat with a streamlined membership to ensure transparent, quicker and more consistent staff selection processes. Consolidation of background verification services under one global service provider in line with a harmonized UN system wide approach. Other opportunities for consolidating human resource administration services will be explored. For instance, we will be reviewing the independent contractor modality for greater consistency and make them more fit for purpose. We are looking at ICT consolidation into a unified global ICT structure centered in four global digital hubs, alongside the consolidation of numerous data centers all around the world. We're looking at travel services consolidation again into regional hubs with centralized coordination to enhance efficiency, standardize the policies, reduce vendor complexity and improve service delivery through increased automation and global coverage. We're looking at accounts payable Establishing a global lead to streamline and harmonize functions across the Secretariat through greater automation and centralized oversight with the aim of improving efficiency, consistency and service quality. And this is an area that can also benefit immensely from collaboration across the UN system. Consolidating contractual, translating and documentation services it's obvious supply chain management and procurement projects to implement significant cost savings throughout the Secretary's operations. Again another area in which in future there can be more efficiencies across the UN system separately from the UN80 initiative. We are also reviewing the program budget proposals for 2026 with a view to achieving between 15 and 20% reductions for 2026, including a 20% reduction in workforce or post reduction, but with a focus on preserving capacity at entry levels and reducing senior level positions, P5 and above wherever feasible. The revised estimates will reflect the results of this ongoing exercise. We are also focusing on staff support and mitigation measures because changes of this magnitude require a strong support framework for staff. A dedicated staff support framework provides guidance for managing restructuring, relocation and the abolition of posts. In the event of abolition of posts, the downsizing policy will be activated to ensure fairness, transparency and adherence to UN rules and of course, due process. The Secretary General is committed to consulting with staff representatives on those areas that fall within the scope of the Staff Management Committee. And as I indicated earlier, Ms. Pollard is currently participating in an extraordinary meeting of the Staff Management Committee dedicated to discussing these matters. Let me now turn to what is happening on the UN System wide level. This is separate to the UN AT Working Group on Efficiency, which is limited to the Secretariat, but this operates instead under the auspices of the High Level Committee on Management. UN system organizations have identified efficiency measures in areas such as finance, human resource management, supply chain management and procurement, and several other shared services. Concrete project plans have been developed, including identifying services that system organizations can provide quicker, at a lower price or through more competitive contracts. Project plans are being developed into proposals that are expected to be finalized by mid July. In closing, Mr. President, Excellencies, the Secretary General is committed to modernizing the Secretariat in a way that's principled, transparent and respectful of the mandates given by Member states. Work Stream 1 is an essential part of this journey. It's grounded in evidence, informed by past reforms and ongoing continuous improvement efforts. And it's oriented towards improved delivery, cost effectiveness and service to our global stakeholders. It is the next logical step for us. Thank you.

I thank the Controller. I now give the floor to Mr. Guy Ryder, under Secretary General for Policy, to Deliver remarks on UN80 Work Stream 2 on the mandate implementation review.

Thank you again, President. So we move on to this second work stream on mandate implementation. And to begin with, a little bit of, can I say, historic perspective. Those with a longer institutional memory might recall that at the 2005 World Summit, leaders instructed the General assembly and other relevant organs too, and I quote, review all mandates older than five years, unquote, and requested the Secretary General to facilitate that process with analysis and recommendations. And in response to that mandate. The Secretary General delivered a report. It was a 60 733. And I give the reference because that report is still worthy of attention, because much of what it said then, some 20 years ago, still resonates today. The Secretary General at the time said that Member States would, and I quote again, need the tools and information to enable them to serve as better custodians of their mandates and to analyze the effectiveness of those mandates and how they contribute to the achievement of the overall priorities of the organisation, unquote. And that is also in broad terms, what we are seeking to do today in the UN80 work stream too. The 2006 report highlighted many challenges that have a familiar ring today. For example, the burdensome reporting requirements, an unwieldy and duplicative architecture for implementation, gaps between mandates and resources. Now, the process undertaken in 2006 was comprehensive. It yielded many useful insights, but ultimately it did not lead to a significant change or reduction in mandates or to substantial change in how we implement them. And the question is if we can do a little better in 2025 and the work that we've done in preparation is aimed towards producing that type of result. So, turning to the substance of this work stream two of the Unit initiative, what is our methodology for for this mandate implementation review? Well, as a first step, we decided to map out our current mandate landscape. Since the first challenge for both Member States and UN entities is to identify the universe of mandates that we are all tasked to implement. And we started our process by focusing on the mandates of the UN Secretariat and if we can see what that means. I've shown you this graphic before, but the initial review covers only those entities which are shaded in in this graphic. So it leaves out a significant part of the system. We're looking now in the first instance at the Secretary of departments and offices at peacekeeping operations and political missions and the regional commissions and other bodies, we would like to move on from this first step to a system wide examination of mandate implementation. Now, how did we proceed? Next slide, please. What we did was to look at our program and budget documentation. Please don't worry about the details of this graphic. It's probably familiar to you, but we subjected some 2000 pages of program budget documentation with a view to extracting from that documentation the mandates and background and the legislative mandates that UN secretariat entities cite in order to justify their 2026 proposed program budget requests. So these are the mandates upon which our entities rely in seeking resource allocations. Now, many of you are familiar with the documentation that I've showed But what we've done is to extract each of the mandates from this material and to produce a mandate source registry which is online. We sent the link to this registry to you in the invitation and background note to this meeting, and I hope that you'll familiarise yourself with this tool. It is a result of quite a lot of hard work by my colleagues and it enables you to look at the 3900 mandates which are cited in the 2026 program budget proposals and search them through different filters and get an idea of what this mandate source landscape looks like. This is the basis of the analysis that we are proceeding with and we think this is an important tool for you to look at. Now, what have we found to date? Well, we found, as I've said, that the UN secretariat cites some 3,900 resolutions, decisions and other documents in their program budget proposals. But what is interesting that the upper graphic there is the one I showed you at the beginning of my presentation. But the second, the blue bar chart is quite interesting because this shows you the 3900 mandates President that the Secretariat cites in their program budget proposals. And you will see that they are relatively recent over the last 20 years or so and that they're on an increasing trajectory. So those are the mandates which are reflected in our program budget proposals. Now, that said, it's worth remembering next slide, please, that what we're looking at is only the UN Secretariat budget, and that's the shaded part of the total on the right hand side of this graphic. This amounts to 15 billion, of which 62% is assessed contributions. But the greater share of the overall system budget is to be found in agencies, funds, programs and other entities of which the great majority, some 93%, is voluntary rather than assessed. We. We show you this graphic to give you, I think, the necessary perspective on the work that we are putting before you. If we move on, what are the source of these mandates that we quote in our programme budget proposal? Well, this graphic gives you the answer. 42% of the mandates cited come from the General Assembly, 12% from the Security Council, 9% from ECOSOC and 15% from the Human Rights Council. If we move on now, what is perhaps interesting is that some of the entities cite a large number of resolutions and decisions in their resource requests, some much less. And this graphic shows you that concentration of citations. You will see that ohchr, the Human Rights High Commissioner for Human Rights, cites a very large number of mandates. I just note it without making any comment upon it. What is interesting, I find in this Graphic is that comparable entities in many respects, the different regional economic commissions have quite different habits when it comes to citation of mandates. You can see that eclac, our Regional Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, cites a large number of mandates, 638, whilst at the bottom of the graphic ECA, the Economic Commission for Africa, only cites 178. And the other thing which I think this, this graphic is interesting for is saying that some 50% of all citations of mandate documents are made by 5 of all UN Secretariat administered entities. There is quite a concentration there. Move on to the next slide, as I think is quite proper. There are a number of mandates that are very widely cited, the most frequently cited mandates, and I think we can all understand why this is the case, as you see at the top of this diagram is the Pact for the Future, followed by the 2030 Agenda, followed by the QCPR for 2024, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the Mainstreaming Agenda and so on. And I think it's important that we dig down and recognize that it is quite proper for some mandates to be the object of broad citation because they provide the broader guidelines in which the system is supposed to operate. Moving on. Now, this document is a little bit difficult to absorb, but I'll try to explain and may have a chance to linger over it later on. I hope you'll get the full impact. This is what we call a heat map of cross citations. Now we've seen that some mandates are cited by multiple entities. And where you see the darker patches, the darker squares on this heat map, this is where multiple entities cite the same mandates. And you will see there is one obvious area of concentration here. It is the top left hand corner of the graphic which refers to the development pillar of the system, where there is a heavy concentration of cross citations, multiple citations of the same document, resolution, decision by several entities. It's quite suggestive, is it not, of some of the digging down that we may have to do to see if there is margin advantage in looking to see whether our current practices of specialisation, coherence and collaboration are all they would need to be. It's a starting line. Now, Mr. President, what does all of this mean in terms of the work that we do and the servicing that we provide to Member States in the implementation of mandates? This is perhaps the bottom line in several senses. As a result of all of these mandates, as a result of the landscape I've set out for you, we service some 400 intergovernmental organs, we service some 27,000 calendared and non calendared meetings each year. We process 2,300 pages of documentation on average, every day. And the bottom, bottom line of this is that this amounts to a cost of some US$360 million per year. So that is the evidence that we have so far surfaced in respect of mandate implementation. Mr. President, what do we think this should lead us to focus upon? Next slide, please. Well, perhaps. And this is what occurs to the Secretariat, and this is what we seek your guidance upon. Three questions sort of occur to us as a result of the work that we've done so far. And I would remind you that the Secretary General has given a commitment to you to produce a final report. This is a progress report, a final report on mandate implementation by the end of July. But the questions that we are grappling with as we move towards formulating that report is in respect of the mandate landscape which I've attempted to outline to you. Can this complex landscape be streamlined to enable more impactful delivery? And if so, how, in terms of structures, can delivery structures be optimized to improve results for the people that we serve? And if so, how? And finally, in relation to resources, which was the last point I referred to, can our finite resources be better allocated to the areas of greatest impact? And if so, how can we do that? And finally, Mr. President, just a timeline to share with you. This is not new. We have already, if you look at the left side of this graphic, produced a mandate source registry. We hope it will be of use to you. And those of you I should add here between parentheses, would like us to take you through it and to perhaps explore the full potential of that registry. Have available to you the services of the Secretariat to do that. What we intend to do in the course of the coming month is to produce on the basis of that mandate, source registries, that is the resolutions, the decisions, the operative paragraph, registry, that is to say, a compilation of the operative instructions you give us derived from those mandate sources that will be ready, we hope, in the month of July. As I've indicated, the report of the Secretary General on mandate implementation will be with you, we trust, by the end of July. And perhaps going a little bit more broadly into the UN80 calendar, obviously in September, we have the general debate of the General Assembly. In September, we will be giving you the revised UN Secretariatariat proposed program budget for 2026. And of course, in spring of next year, we'll be doing the same for 2027. As regards the mandates review itself, the Secretary General hopes that the evidence we'll be in a position to present to you at the end of July will be sufficient for you to reflect on how we might move forward. An obvious option that we have before us might be, should you see fit, the establishment of an intergovernmental process to take us forward to address whatever issues you consider appropriate. I've already pointed to some, Mr. President, but perhaps I'll leave it at this point and look forward to answering any comments that may be arising.

I thank the Under Secretary General for Policy. We will now proceed to hear from Member States. Please note that there is no pre established list of speakers. If you wish to speak this morning, please press the microphone button and approach the Secretariat. If you are speaking on behalf of a group of States in order to allow maximum participation by all in the limited time available this morning, I strongly encourage you to be as brief as possible. As detailed in the letter circulated last week, there will be a separate meeting this afternoon. We will be proceeding in the same way as this morning with a separate list of speakers for the afternoon. As announced in the Journal. Delegations are requested to limit their statements to three minutes. Time limits will be strictly enforced. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Iraq who will speak on behalf of the G77 and China.

Mr. President, I have the honor to deliver this intervention on behalf of the Group 779 China. We thank you for convening this meeting and we particularly thank USG Mr. Reiner for providing us with an update on the UN Initiative Unity Initiative as well as the Work Streams 2 and the ASG Mr. Ramadan for presentation on Work Stream 1. The group believes it is important that we reflect on the course of actions undertaken in previous reforms, especially to gain insight into what were beneficial and what were not. So that in this exercise we would not make similar or exactly the same errors, but would be able to enhance the objectives on this reform. Reforms must not be reactive but must be grounded in the sound and sound well throughout facts that will drive on objective of the reform. Regarding the presentation by USG Rider on Work Stream 1 on Efficiencies and improvements, we are concerned about the proposed 15 to 20% budget reductions and 20% reductions in regular budget post across the organizations. We would like to have more insight into how that figure was agreed upon. What were the scope and methodologies used? This is important since we know that the departments, divisions and the organizations funds, programs and agencies vary greatly. We are concerned that such generalist approach may result in an unfair and imbalance in the cats. We must also protect the geographical and gender balance in the context of any downsizing. As the Group has retreated several times, the measure of transparency, accountability and inclusivity are paramount during this process. We welcome today's engagement and we look forward to being regularly consulted, especially noting that this year the intentions is to present a revised estimate report to the General assembly in October and in this regard we welcome that the revised estimates will be presented through the ACAPQ to the Fifth Committee. We take note that there will also be efforts undertaken to identify opportunities for efficiencies across the UN systems. However, the Group suggests that these efficiencies gain must be pursued in a manner that uphold the delivery of mandates and Safeguards Staff Welfare Mr. President, in relations to the presentation on Workstone 2 on Mandate Implementation review, the Group notes the static focus on enhancing implementation without altering the substance of existing mandate. We welcome the development of comprehensive online registry starting with the dashboard of relevant mandate source documents of the UN Secretariat on the basis of program budget. In this regard, we underscore the central rule of intergovernmental bodies such as the Fifth Committee, acc, APQ and CPC in maintaining coherencing across mandate implementations, program planning and budgetary allocations. We highlight the importance of avoiding any unintended impact on mandate integrity or prioritization and encourage the Secretariat to ensure that assessment of delivery challenges are undertaken in the close coordinations with the relevant governing bodies. Mr. President, we are encouraged to hear that Wolkes Team 2 is conducting an in depth review with the help of data analytics tools to review the current mandates implementation landscape with identified potential areas for improvement. And in this regard, we look forward to the Secretary General report at the end of July 2025 outlining the key funding for our further considerations. I thank you Mr. President.

I thank the distinguished Representative of Iraq. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the European Union.

Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. Under Secretary General, Mr. Controller, distinguished colleagues, I deliver this statement on behalf of the European Union and its member States. The candidate countries, Turkey, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia, as well as Andorra and Monaco align themselves with this statement. Thank you Mr. President, for convening us today. And we also thank the Secretary General for his continued leadership and the Under Secretary General as well as the Comptroller for their useful information as shared with us today, including some fascinating graphs as well as the documents you shared with us last Friday. Today's overlapping global crises are putting multilateralism under severe pressure, geopolitical tensions, conflict, climate change and inequality are on the rise. We have a shared responsibility to address these challenges together through effective multilateral solutions. The Pact for the Future and the FFD negotiations are testimonials to our joint commitment and to what multilateralism can deliver. Allow me to highlight three key elements as we move forward with the UN ad reform process. First, this reform process must be inclusive and provide for innovative solutions. In doing so, the EU fully supports the UN's firm leadership with the active and constructive involvement of UN Member states. We encourage the Secretary General to present bold and courageous proposals for a stronger, more agile, efficient and accountable UN adjusted to the financial realities of today. These efforts must continue to primarily support those most in need and those affected by crises, disasters and conflicts, while preserving the integrity and balance of the three UN pillars on an equal basis. As we review, restructure and revitalize, we have an opportunity to address weaknesses. We must improve the capacity of the UN to support sustainable development, maintain international peace and security and strengthen human rights. Second, as we proceed with this reform, we must look at past reform efforts and thank you for referring us back to the SG report A16 and we must genuinely learn from them. Together, we need to work on the basis of data driven analysis and a guiding assessment of mandate implementation. We must ensure coherence between UN80 and other ongoing reform strengths such as the humanitarian reset and the acceleration of UN development system reform gains. We also need to protect the core normative mandates. Third, we need to draw on the expertise and experience of UN entities, capitalize on available data and oversight expertise and strengthen coordination and collaboration at country level through the Resident Coordinator system and UN country teams in a cost effective manner. Meaningful involvement of stakeholders, including civil society organizations is also crucial. At the same time, bold and evidence based decisions with significant efficiency potential have to be taken. The goal is to enhance transparency and accountability, address fragmentation and explore opportunities for greater synergies and effectiveness in implementation. Only with a result oriented approach and impact on country level will we be able to ensure the enduring viability of a resilient UN. And in this context, Mr. President, allow me to ask three follow up questions. First, the current focus in the context of UN80 seems to be mainly on the reduction of UN posts. And there seems to be limited discussion on the reduction of staff costs per post beyond staff relocations as were mentioned by the Controller. So looking into measures that also affect for example compensation packages could help preserve critical functions, ensure continuity and maintain the organization's delivery capacity. So the question is, have such options also been explored by the Secretariat? Second, the SG has repeatedly underlined the importance of a balanced approach across the UN three pillars and we fully support this. How does the Secretariat intend to operationalize this balanced approach? And third, while the budgetary impact of many of the cost cutting measures on the table is obvious, we are wondering whether the UNAD proposals will also include a comprehensive assessment of the impact implications of those cost cutting measures. Because we want to ensure an adjusted but effective mandate delivery. Mr. President. To conclude, some of us may feel uncertainty about what reform could bring and we recognize these concerns. However, while change can be challenging, reform can bring positive change if it is based on a clear system wide vision, highlighting our shared commitment to a stronger, more effective UN that delivers with more impact for all, leaving no one behind. The UN we want and the UN we need. We look forward to you and the Secretary General's ensuring regular communication and inclusive engagement with the UN membership like you are doing today. The EU and its member States will remain unwavering in their commitment to the United nations and you can count on us to continue to be constructive. And the longer version of this statement will be uploaded to the system. I thank you.