(3rd plenary meeting) UNICEF Executive Board, 2026 Annual Session

May I kindly ask you to your seats, please?

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. Good morning to you all. Allow me to welcome you to the second meeting of this Annual Session for 2026. It is an honor to be presiding over the plenary meeting this morning. Before we start the discussions, allow me to share with you a brief procedural note. We kindly ask delegates to limit their interventions to 3 minutes when speaking on behalf of a single country, their own country, and this time is limited to 5 minutes. In the case of delegation speaking on behalf of regional groups of the United Nations, or when one or more member states are delivering a joint statement, the microphones will start to flash to indicate to the speakers that their time is running out 1 minute before—

Thank you.

The total time has elapsed and the microphones will be turned off either after 3 or 5 minutes. Distinguished delegates, the first topic that we will address this morning is item 7 of the agenda entitled updated information on protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, and that features in document E/ICEF/2026/15. The report describes how UNICEF is preventing and responding to its sexual exploitation and abuse and also to other risks related to protection in all of its programs and operations at headquarters and in the regional and national plans. The Associate Director Andrea Soule of the Office for Strategy and Data of UNICEF is going to deliver a presentation. Thank you. Presentation. Madam Sule, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. President. Distinguished members of the Executive Board, observers, and colleagues, I am pleased to present this update on UNICEF's continued progress in strengthening prevention from sexual exploitation and abuse, PSEA. UNICEF remains unwavering in its commitment to PSEA. Safeguarding the people we serve is fundamental to our mission, central to the organizational accountability and essential to maintaining trust in UNICEF. Slide, please. In 2025, UNICEF continued to scale and strengthen systems to prevent and respond to SEA across our global presence. A key priority has been expanding safe and accessible reporting mechanisms. Today, an estimated 74.2 million people have access to SEA reporting channels that meet UNICEF quality standards. This reflects growing awareness and improved accessibility to trusted reporting pathways. For example, in Palestine, awareness of available reporting channels increased significantly from 50% in 2024 to 85% in 2025. As of 2025, 80% of UNICEF country offices now meet organizational benchmarks for comprehensive PSEA system. This compares with 56% just 2 years ago. Slide, please. UNICEF continues to play a central leadership role in fostering interagency collaboration and advancing a system-wide approach to PSEA. UNICEF continues to contribute coordination capacity across interagency networks in numerous contexts. We contribute technically in numerous PSCA working groups across the UN and the Interagency Standing Committee. A central priority remains ensuring a central— a survivor-centered response. UNICEF is committed to ensuring that all victim survivors who come forward have access to timely, safe, and appropriate support services. In 2025, UNICEF provided assistance to to 39 victim-survivors connected to allegations involving UNICEF personnel or implementing partners. Most cases involved provision of psychosocial support, frequently combined with medical, and in fewer cases, legal assistance. Thus, our approach was consistent with multi-sectoral victim-assistance approaches. In addition, UNICEF provided assistance to victim-survivors as the provider of last resort for children. [SPEAKING SPANISH] UNICEF has sustained its leadership on victim assistance, supporting the establishment of coordinated referral pathways in 24 countries. While important progress has been made, significant gaps remain, particularly in financing and longer-term survivor support. Addressing these challenges will be a priority for the working group led by the victim right advocate in 2026. Slide, please. UNICEF continues to support broader interagency cooperation and system-wide reform efforts across the humanitarian and development architecture. In 2025, 28 countries incorporated PSCA provisions into their UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks. UNICEF continues to strengthen system-wide accountability by supporting common standards across the UN system. This includes implementation of joint partner assessment mechanisms that promote consistent safeguarding standards and strengthen prevention capacity across civil society implementing partners. Slide, please. In 2025, 71 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse were reported to the Secretary-General, the majority involving implementing partners. 4 cases involved UNICEF personnel. Thank you. 2 cases are currently under review with decisions pending. One investigation remains ongoing. One investigation was closed as allegations were not substantiated. Beyond formal accountability mechanisms, UNICEF continues to strengthen organizational culture and prevention systems. In 2025, 97% of personnel completed mandatory PSEA training, while enhanced vetting by using ClearCheck 2.0, strengthen reference checks, and improve performance management processes continue to reinforce the culture of integrity. We are also undertaking coordinated implementation of the management response to the 2025 Human Resources Baseline Assessment. Next slide, please. Our priorities for 2026 focus on sustaining progress while addressing structural and system-wide challenges. UNICEF will continue building on recent gains across PSEA, across our programs, operations, and organizational culture. We will continue actively contributing to system-wide reforms, including interagency efforts to address key issues identified through the Joint Inspection Unit and the comprehensive assessment. This includes continued contribution to the rollout of the joint UN government framework for PSEA. Leveraging UNICEF's existing entry points and relationships with the governments. While UNICEF remains fully committed to sustaining progress, the increasingly constrained global funding environment is placing growing pressure on specialized safeguarding capacity across headquarters, regional offices, and country programs. As part of organizational restructuring and consultations, UNICEF is carefully prioritizing critical actions while identifying opportunities to leverage complementarity expertise, particularly in social behavioral change and gender-based violence programming. Looking ahead, UNICEF remains fully committed to ensuring that PSEA remains a core institutional priority. Safeguarding, including PSEA, is fundamental to our mandate, to the trust communities place on us, and ultimately to our ability to deliver for children. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Sustained commitment and predictable support from donors remains essential to preserving the robust safeguarding architecture and technical expertise that is required to uphold these standards across UNICEF and the UN system. We look forward to continued engagement and partnership in advancing this essential agenda. Thank you, Mr. President.

I thank Madam Mr. Souley, for those remarks. Distinguished delegates, the floor is now open for you to deliver your own remarks. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the United Kingdom.

Muchísimas gracias, señor presidente.

Thank you very much, Chair.

Mr. Chair, I deliver this statement on behalf of Albania, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, the EU as a donor, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Mexico, Zambia, and my own country, the United Kingdom. We thank UNICEF for its continued efforts to strengthen protection from and response to sexual exploitation, abuse, and sexual harassment. As we made clear in board discussions last year, SAHR prevents— SAHR prevention and response is a non-optional core accountability commitment, even amid resourcing constraints. Leadership is critical to protect gains and drive further change. We are at a critical juncture. Across the system, financial pressures and staffing reductions are weakening protection systems, limiting prevention efforts and access to survivor support, and risking hard-won progress when needs remain high. The erosion of gender-based violence services is particularly concerning, as these constitute essential entry points for reporting. Underreporting remains a systemic change— challenge driven by fear, lack of trust, and perceived inaction. These challenges are acute for children, who are among the most vulnerable and depend on specialized, child-sensitive approaches. We would welcome greater clarity on how agencies are ensuring their prevention, response, response and victim-survivor support approaches are child-sensitive. The important 2025 JREU review on SEA underlined the need for dedicated expertise, clear accountability, and sustained resourcing. We urge agencies to protect the good practices that the review identified, fully implement the recommendations, and prioritize sufficient human and financial resources for SEA prevention and response, particularly at country level, recognizing the importance of building country-level capacity and strengthening national safeguarding systems. How will the agency report to the board on implementation of the recommendations of the JIU report and the comprehensive assessment commissioned by the Special Coordinator? The JIU reviews rightly highlights that tackling SEER requires a coherent and consistent system-wide effort. With shrinking resources, collaboration should increase, not diminish. We encourage UNICEF to strengthen interagency collaboration and improve efficiency and impact through mechanisms such as the Common Approach for Protection, from SEA and the misconduct disclosure scheme. UNAT and the Humanitarian Reset offer unique opportunity to embed a strengthened, well-resourced, sustainable, system-wide approach to protection from SEA. We urge agencies to work with member states and each other to influence these reform processes to ensure that this happens.

Thank you.

Last year, the UNICEF Board asked management to ensure dedicated, adequate, and sustainable staffing, expertise, and funding to tackle SEA. This year, we are concerned that recent changes to UNICEF's approach may have significant implications for this work. As UNICEF implements its future-focused initiative, Protection from SEA, must remain a distinctly priority, a distinct priority, not diluted within broader safeguarding or risk frameworks. Integrated systems can add value, but are not a substitute for dedicated expertise and capacity. We are concerned that UNICEF has moved towards a decentralized approach, with significant reductions in dedicated roles at headquarters, regional, and country levels, removing vital expertise needed to manage— Say a risk. In programs and operations and creating accountability gaps. This is particularly serious given UNICEF's child-focused mandate and the fact that around a third of allegations concerning UNICEF staff or partners involve children. Finally, we encourage UNICEF to continue to play a leadership role in strengthening system-wide approaches. We welcome continued dialogue to support UNICEF's work on PISA. I thank you.

Doy las gracias al distinguido representante.

I thank the distinguished representative of the United Kingdom. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Nigeria, to be followed by Guatemala and the United States.

Thank you very much, Mr. President. Mr. President, Nigeria thanks UNICEF for the presentation of its updates on protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, and commends the organization for its continued efforts to strengthen safeguarding measures, accountability mechanisms, and survivor-centered approaches across its operation. Sexual exploitation and abuse represent grave violations of human rights and fundamental breaches— breaches of trust placed in humanitarian development and peacekeeping actors. We therefore reaffirm our unequivocal commitment to a policy of zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse in all circumstances. My delegation welcomes UNICEF's ongoing efforts to strengthen prevention measures through enhanced risk management, staff training, awareness raising, community engagement, and improved reporting mechanisms. We particularly commend the emphasis placed on fostering an organizational culture that prioritizes integrity, accountability, and respect for the rights and dignity of all individuals, especially children and vulnerable populations. Nigeria recognizes that effective protection from sexual exploitation and abuse requires a comprehensive and coordinated approach involving governments, United Nations entities, civil society organizations, implementing partners, and local communities. Preventing sexual abuse of children is a shared responsibility that must be integrated in all stages of program design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. We also underscore the importance of ensuring that survivors remain at the center of all prevention and response efforts. Accessible, safe, confidential, and survival-focused reporting and support systems are essential in promoting trust, facilitating access to justice, and ensuring that victims receive the assistance they need without fear of stigma or retaliation. As humanitarian and development actors increasing— increasingly operate in fragile conflict-affected and emergency settings, it is imperative that safeguarding measures continue to evolve to address emerging risks and vulnerabilities. We encourage UNICEF to continue strengthening partnership with national authorities and local actors to build sustainable capacities for prevention, reporting, investigation, and response. Nigeria further supports continued transparency in reporting, accountability for perpetrators, and robust oversight mechanisms that reinforce institutional integrity and public confidence in the United Nations operations. In conclusion, Mr. President, Nigeria remains steadfast in its commitment to supporting collective efforts aimed at preventing and addressing sexual exploitation and abuse in all its forms.

Doy las gracias a la señora I thank the distinguished representative of Nigeria. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Guatemala.

Thank you, President, Madam Executive Director. Guatemala is grateful for the report and we reaffirm our firm commitment to a zero tolerance policy to all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse, The trust placed in the United Nations system requires acting with the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and accountability, and placing dignity, well-being, and rights of victims and survivors, especially children and adolescents, at the center. We recognize the progress made by UNICEF in strengthening institutional safeguards, expanding safe and accessible complaint mechanisms, and improving investigation and response processes. In addition, we highlight the expansion of training and outreach, strengthening of risk management, and the incorporation of a victim-centered approach. We think it is fundamental for this progress to be sustainable. Financial constraints should not result in a reduction in prevention, protection, or assistance—

Assistance.

Especially for the most vulnerable. Protection from SEA should not be considered an ancillary component of humanitarian and development action. Rather, it is a fundamental obligation for the protection of human rights. We would also encourage them to continue strengthening capacities and institutional mechanisms for prevention, reporting, and response. And ensuring that these are safe, accessible, and adapted to the needs of children and other people in vulnerable situations. The credibility of the multilateral system depends on its ability to prevent, investigate, and punish such acts in a timely manner while always ensuring the protection, dignity, and rights of victims and survivors. Guatemala reiterates its support for UNICEF's effort to strengthen institutional safeguards and to ensure that no one is left behind in in access to protection and assistance. I thank you, President.

Doy las gracias a la distinguida—

I thank the distinguished representative of Guatemala. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the United States of America.

Thank you, Chair. The United States strongly supports UNICEF's continued efforts to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse. We welcome the expansion of safe reporting channels, now reaching more than 70 million adults and children, as well as improvements in investigative timeliness by the Office of Internal Audit and Investigations and strengthened oversight of implementing partners. We commend UNICEF's leadership in advancing UN Victims Assistance Protocol, ensuring that survivors receive timely and appropriate support, and we appreciate the organization's role in enhancing coordination across high-risk contexts. Risk remains despite progress. Progress. By UNICEF's own account, 67 of the 71 allegations last year involved implementing partners. This is where oversight is weakest and more involvement— more involvement is warranted. Safeguards on paper do not mean success. 93% of partners were rated full capacity, but that category of partner also produced the most allegations. We ask that UNICEF report partner accountability as an outcome to include cases detected and perpetrators removed, with attention focused first where funding is greatest. The report notes a high turnover among the staff conducting these investigations. This work takes an excruciating, well-documented mental toll on staff. Work— turnover can't be addressed by training. We ask how UNICEF is also considering the welfare of locally employed staff and frontline workers, not just its headquarters staff. At the same time, the United States must be clear: our support for UNICEF's operational progress does not imply endorsement of terminology in the report that is inconsistent with U.S. policy positions. As we have made clear, the United States does not endorse and has serious concerns with the use of gender, gender-based violence, or related terminology. We wanted to emphasize the importance of accountability, rigorous vetting and strengthened workforce screening through tools such as ClearCheck. Consistent safeguards are essential when working with implementing partners and vendors. Finally, we encourage UNICEF and UN partners to sustain interagency coordination, including through joint risk assessments, and to ensure that safeguarding capacities remain protected even amid resource constraints. Thank you.

I thank the distinguished representative of the United States, I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Sweden.

Thank you, Mr. President. Sweden fully agrees that a strong and effective safeguarding framework for protecting against sexual exploitation and abuse is critical for public trust in UNICEF and for preventing harm to children., and it's good to hear from you that this is the top priority for UNICEF. The impact of budget constraints on the operational capacities of UNICEF's PCEA efforts is concerning. We would appreciate detailed information on the number of positions dedicated to PCEA that have been cut and how many remain. We would also be grateful if you could elaborate on the possibility of safeguarding capacity through increased interagency collaboration. The report mentions that system-wide budget reductions threaten the sustainability of the 30 existing coordination posts. Could you say something about the possibility of pooling expertise, going beyond coordination, creating joint positions on PCA between agencies?

Agencies as a way of preserving capacity in the context of limited funding. Thank you.

I thank the distinguished representative of Sweden. I now invite the Secretariat to respond.

Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Executive Board members, for your thoughtful feedback Thank you, um, and your continued interest in this critical area of work. We are, um, very clear in our position that PSEA remains fundamental and a core priority. We are looking across our operations and our staff where to prioritize our efforts most, but, uh, prioritization doesn't mean doing less. It means deciding what to do first. What is most impactful and where to focus our efforts. Our consultations across partners on the ground in countries, across our offices, and with many of your colleagues have identified core areas of work, many of which you spoke to today, that are critical to sustain systems and sustain impact. First and foremost, strengthening community awareness and access to safe, trusted reporting channels. Several of you spoke to the importance of that today, and we could not agree more. It will remain a priority in our efforts. Enhancing government engagement and ownership— Nigeria, you spoke of this. This is critical. We are very happy with the number of governments that adopted the PSEA clause in the new cooperation frameworks, and we look forward to working with government and local partners on the ground critical for making sustainable change. Effective capacity building for our staff and implementing partners. Our mandatory training, the numbers have gone up. We continue to broaden more technical training across all staff to ensure that we have robust prevention and response mechanisms across our country offices where it matters most. On the implementing partners, Certainly our first line of assessment is joint assessments done with other UN agencies to understand capacity. However, that is not where it stops. We do verification of those capacity assessments when we're doing our monitoring and our ongoing review with partners. It is an area that we do need to strengthen, and we're complementing that with increased program monitoring and more training to our staff including the technical experts that exist in our country offices to ensure that joint assessments are verified and followed up on. And ensuring effective victim-survivor assistance and support systems are in place, a huge priority. I spoke to some of the numbers of our— of the support that we provided, but in addition to the support we provided to victim-survivors impacted by UNICEF implementing partners or personnel, we continue to provide child-sensitive support to many survivor victims as a provider of last resort across our operations. The— the UK, you spoke of child-sensitive service provision. That's at the core of everything we do. We continue to look forward to work with our partners on the ground to support other agencies, to support support local actors, local civil society, and governments to ensure that all services being provided to children, including survivors of sexual exploitation and abuse, are child-sensitive. UK, you also spoke to concerns around the implementation of some of the measures that you spoke of before in last year's decision, and that being the misconduct disclosure scheme. We're pleased to announce that we've now launched the implementation of the misconduct disclosure, disclosure scheme. We recognize that it's taken a little bit longer than anticipated. The delay reflects the need to ensure that implementation was legally sound, aligned with data protection requirements, and fully integrated into UNICEF's existing safeguarding and HR processes. It's very sensitive. Some of the information that goes through those misconduct disclosure schemes. We've now initiated a pilot, the implementation planned for the last quarter of 2026. This phase will allow us to ensure that the approach is operationally robust, fair, and effective before scaling further. We remain fully committing to advance this work and provide regular updates to the board. Sweden, you requested detailed information on staffing numbers. We'll provide that to you after in writing. So that it is detailed in response to your question, and we look forward to remaining engaged in discussion with you and your feedback. Your ongoing support and feedback is critical to this essential area of work.

Muchas gracias, Secretaria General.

I thank the distinguished Deputy Director for those remarks. I do not see any other request for the floor. So given that there are no other speakers under this item, we will return to the report under Item 19 in relation to approving draft decisions.

Distinguidos— distinguished delegates, the Executive Board will now consider Agenda Item 6, The extensions of ongoing country programs, Document E/ICEF/2026/P/L.10. In accordance with Executive Board Decision 2009/11, proposed extensions of country programs of more than 1 year, or multiple extensions that in aggregate access 1 year, are submitted by the Executive Director for approval by the Executive Board on the basis of a short proposal document, including the reasons for the proposal. In accordance with Executive Board Decision 20009/11, the Executive Board is being requested to approve an additional 1-year extension of the Country Program of Lebanon, following a previous 1-year extension, and to approve the additional 1-year extension of the Country Program for South Sudan following a previous 1-year extension. Are there any objections? I recognize that U.S. is asking for the floor; please proceed.

Thank you, Mr. President. The United States must take the floor to call into question the transitional government's investment into the CPD. The transitional government's failure to allocate public resources appropriately towards basic services has severely crippled South Sudan's health, education, and social protection systems, leaving millions of vulnerable children completely reliant on international donor support. Rather than act as a partner, transitional government officials at all levels create impediments, including the collection of illicit taxes and fees, extortion and harassment of aid workers, and the denial of humanitarian access. To safeguard the lives and future of South Sudan's children, the transitional government must work with UNICEF and prioritize transparent domestic investments in essential services, while immediately guaranteeing safe, unimpeded access for humanitarian programming. We strongly urge UNICEF and the transitional government of South Sudan to work together to ensure these counterproductive practices cease, and that the country program is fully implemented in full compliance with UNICEF's rules, regulations, and operating procedures. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any objections? I see no objection. It is so decided.

Distinguished delegates, we will now consider item 13, 16 on our agenda, the annual report of the OIOS to UNICEF's Executive Board in relation to 2025 and the response in accordance with the decision 1997/28 of the Executive Board and later decisions In this document, you will find general information about the office, including the main issues highlighted in its internal audit investigation, and a summary of the follow-up of implementation of recommendations made in it, and you will also find information about the dissemination of the report in 2025. The report that features document E/ICF 2026/AB/L3 accompanies— is accompanied by two additions, one where they provide details of the measures agreed for internal audit that were still pending 18 months following the 31st of December 2025, EICF 2026/AB/L3 Add 1, and another where the cases closed following investigation of cases closed following an evaluation where financial losses were found in 2025. Document EISEF 2026 ABL 3 Add 2 is that document, and there was also a response from the administration found in Document EISEF 2026 6A(B)(L)(4). 6A(B)(L)(4). Additionally, the annual report of the Advisory Committee for Audits of UNICEF to the Executive Board in relation to N25 is available on the website of the Executive Board today. We have with us a representative of the Advisory Committee who will also share some remarks with the Committee. First, allow me to invite Mr. Stephen Zimmermann, Director of the OIAS, to introduce the annual report on the work of that office. You have the floor, sir.

Muchas gracias.

Thank you.

Members of the Executive Board and colleagues, I have the pleasure of sharing with you an overview of the 2025 Annual Report of the Office of Internal Audit and Investigations, or OIAI. Next slide. I can confirm that OII was independent and free from management interference in determining the scope of our work, performing our duties, and communicating our results throughout 2025. Let me share highlights from our work last year. 2025 brought significant disruption to UNICEF in a rapidly shifting risk landscape. We adapted our oversight approach in real time, providing targeted advisory support to senior management. We also developed a new 4-year strategic framework for the next quadrennium that will focus our work where it matters most, but within the available resources. This year, we compiled recurring findings from both audits and investigations into a single synthesis. I'll highlight some of the key themes during this presentation. We also worked with other UNICEF divisions to develop several new critical key policies, including a new donor notification policy, a new anti-fraud policy, as well as a new mechanism to sanction implementing partners found to engage in misconduct. On the technology front, we expanded our use of AI and data analytics to help our teams conduct research and planning faster than before. These efforts have put us among the leading oversight functions in the UN system. I can report that based on the scope of work undertaken in 2025, the Office did not identify evidence that would lead it to conclude that UNICEF's governance, risk management and control processes were overall inadequate or ineffective in supporting the achievement of the organization's objectives. The basis for this opinion, for the first time, also considered insights from our advisory engagements and investigations. Next slide. OII issued 20 audit reports and 6 advisory reports, reports last year. Of the overall conclusions of the reports issued, 60% had a rating of either satisfactory or partially satisfactory. 74% of agreed actions from the prior 4 years, '22 to '25, were implemented as of last December 31st. 22 agreed actions remained open for over 18 months as of the end of last year. We published 2 thematic audit reports, one on investment management and a second on business continuity management. Advice from advisory engagements in 2025 is summarized in our annual report. Next slide. The investigation team managed a total of 1,837 cases, a 32% increase from the prior year. The number of new cases continues its upward trajectory with the receipt of 906 new cases this year, which constitutes a 77% increase over the last 2 years. Despite continued growth in overall case volume, the Investigations Section made notable progress in reducing its backlog increasing closures by 107%, particularly in cases of fraud and sexual exploitation and abuse. The office established financial losses to UNICEF of over $1.2 million. OII issued 57 investigation reports, including 8 reports to the newly established Implementing Partner Review Board and 3 to the Vendor Review Committee. The chart on the right of this slide details the types of allegations that we receive. The largest category of new allegations remains fraud, in financial irregularities. Next slide. I want to take a moment to put our work in the broader context of helping UNICEF deliver outcomes for children. Good risk management is what makes that possible. Think of the challenge along the way as a windy road. Oversight and internal controls are the guardrails along that road that let UNICEF run faster and with greater confidence, and when need arises, despite the risks. But guardrails must be tended to. Audits and investigations, among other tools, are how we find where they need repair. This year's annual report includes a synthesis of 2 years of our most significant audit and investigation findings. A few recurring themes stood out. The HACT framework does not require implementing partners to submit some morning— supporting documentation up front. So when we are called in to investigate, documents are often not there. We're currently auditing the hacked assurance process in 2026. Uh, so more to come later this year. We've also seen instances of limited program monitoring and last-mile verification. So at times we may not always be sure whether programs are fully reaching beneficiaries. We've seen repeated patterns of last-minute purchasing before grant deadlines. Gaps in vendor due diligence, and contracts not properly closed or monitored. Controls often exist, but they are not always applied consistently. There's also still work to be done on fraud risk assessments and escalation, but a significant development last year was the creation of the IPRB, the Implementing Partner Review Board. But we have no equivalent mechanism for government partners. Risk management is always the thread running through all of these themes. When risk registers are incomplete or management is not regularly reviewing significant risks, emerging problems may not get caught in time. The good news is that this year we have seen renewed emphasis from UNICEF senior leadership on strengthening the governance and oversight environment, and we anticipate positive developments in the near term. Next slide. The findings I just described directly shaped OII's future strategic priorities, which we have developed deliberately for a period of significant organizational change. We will work to strengthen our role as a trusted advisor, close the gap between risk and assurance coverage, further embed data analytics and AI into oversight practices, and invest in our people. For the Audit Section, we'll continue to expand IT risk coverage and strengthen the internal systems that keep our work sharp and consistent. For Investigations, we will continue our focus on fighting fraud, establish a dedicated sexual misconduct team, expand referrals to the IPRB and the Vendor Review Committee. We will continue rolling out our donor notification policy and are already exploring extending it across the full UN community. And across both sections, we will deepen our collaboration, looking for opportunities to work together to support good governance and accountability. Next slide. We look forward to continuing to support UNICEF as we go through a period of change and evolution. Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.

Muchas gracias, señor Secretary-General.

I thank Mr. Zimmermann for those remarks. Mr. Richard Chambers, President of the Advisory Committee for Audits of UNICEF, has joined the session online and will present his remarks to the Executive Board.

Distinguished members of the Executive Board, good morning. And welcome for greetings from Singapore. It is my pleasure to present the 2025 Annual Report of the UNICEF Audit Advisory Committee, or AAC, following the committee's second informal briefing with the Executive Board last month. The AAC is a multidisciplinary body of the six— of six independent professionals serving pro bono with expertise in governance, oversight, evaluation, risk management, ethics, and finance. The committee advises the executive director on governance, management, and oversight, and informs the executive board through the annual report. The AAC's advice does not constitute statutory recommendations. Rather, we provide independent strategic advice to strengthen decision-making accountability and institutional resilience. We live in a, a period of global perma-crisis. In 2025 unfolded with global instability, funding pressures, organizational restructuring, and increased humanitarian demands. Despite these challenges, UNICEF personnel continued delivering critical support to children globally, often in fragile and high-risk environments. The Committee also adapted its work modalities in 2020 to support UNICEF's austerity measures by conducting one of our regular sessions virtually, deferring— Thank you. A planned field visit, and holding need-based virtual sessions, all to fulfill our charter responsibilities. Before highlighting the key advice, let me acknowledge several positive developments. The committee was pleased to note the issuance of unqualified opinions by both external and internal audit functions in 2024— for 2024. The AACs further welcomed the introduction of annual risk reporting to the executive board and strengthening UNICEF's policy framework through the revised anti-fraud policy, the AI strategy, and the environmental and social standards. We were also encouraged by increased collaboration across oversight functions and the practical use of secure artificial intelligence tools within oversight activities. Incidentally, the committee also leveraged approved AI tools to enhance its own effectiveness. Section 6 of our annual report presents the AAC's advice under strategy and governance, enterprise risk management, and oversight. I will briefly highlight the key areas. First, on strategy, governance, and accountability. Given the difficult funding environment, the committee advised management to undertake structured scenario planning to better understand thresholds that create sustainability risks, and to conduct timely independent evaluation of the Future Focus initiative. The AAC encouraged establishing a dedicated corporate governance function, emphasized timely succession planning across senior leadership and internal oversight, advised responsible use of advanced artificial intelligence, and reiterated its advice to develop a combined assurance map to improve visibility over assurance coverage gaps and the overlaps across the oversight actors. Next, on enterprise risk management, the AAC continued advocating for accelerated ERM maturity, including actionable risk appetite statements, refreshed accountability frameworks, and updates to regulatory instruments beyond mandatory review dates.

Thank you.

The committee also advised strengthening fraud risk detective controls, given the disparity between the estimated fraud exposure as per global benchmarks and the actual reported losses. On technology, the AAC highlighted IT capacity constraints in the face of growing cyber, AI, and shadow IT risks. On human capital, the importance of active— actively managing workforce resilience and morale during organizational contraction was— and change was emphasized. Next, on oversight matters, the committee advised assessing risks associated with the widening gap in internal assurance and evaluation coverage due to resource pressures and reiterate the importance of co-locating the leadership of all of the internal oversight offices in New York. For internal audit, The ASC encouraged increased IT audit coverage, refining annual opinion language, reviewing the audit universe, clarifying criteria for audit versus advisory work, and expanding coverage of organizational culture and anti-money laundering. On the evaluation, the committee encouraged structural dialogue between management and the evaluation office regarding budget expectations and sustainability coverage. On ethics, the AAC reiterated the importance of finalizing the ethics charter to reinforce the independence and visibility of the function. Finally, the committee emphasized the need for significantly strengthening controls over high-risk areas of cash transfers and last-mile supply monitoring, areas integral to the business model. Before closing, I wish to thank my fellow members for their continued dedication and service, and also recognize our secretary, Mr. Sunil Raman, for his exemplary secretary leadership in a challenging year. Looking ahead, the AAC's priorities for 2026 will include governance remodeling, executive risk monitoring, oversight effectiveness, leadership transition, implications from decisions on the JIU recommendations on board governance and strengthening the UN Oversight Advisory Committee network. Mr. President, Executive Director, and distinguished board members, I thank you for your attention.

Muchas gracias, señor.

I thank Mr. Chambers for sharing those remarks with the Committee. I now invite Madam Hanan Suleiman, Deputy Executive Director for Management, to deliver the response from UNICEF's administration. Following Madam Suleiman's statement, we will hear from Mr. Nazim Khezar, Deputy Director for Financial and Administrative Management.

Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, distinguished members of the Executive Board, ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce the management response to the 2025 Annual Report of the Office of Internal Audit and Investigations to the Executive Board. I would like to begin by thanking Mr. Steven Zimmerman, Director of the Office of Internal Audit and Investigations, and his team for their excellent work in 2025. Management appreciates the great contributions of OIA OI AI, which has strengthened the adequacy and effectiveness of the UNICEF Framework of Governance, Risk Management, and Control, especially in these challenging times. In opening this item, management is pleased to share with you that in 2025, OI AI concluded that the overall UNICEF Framework of Governance, Risk Management, and Control were generally adequate and effective. I would also like to highlight to the collective efforts made by the Comptroller and her team, including other divisions and offices, to implement the recommendations from the audits. Mr. President, please allow me to also express our sincere appreciation and thanks to Mr. Richard Chambers as Chair of the Audit Advisory Committee and other members of the committee for their valuable contributions and advice to our Executive Director. Thank you very much, Mr. President, and with these With those few remarks, I now hand over to Mr. Nazim Hussar, Deputy Director of DFAM, to present the management response.

Thank you.

Mr. President, members of the Executive Board, ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to make this presentation on behalf of UNICEF management. Firstly, on OIAI's independence, the Office of Internal Audit and Investigation as an independent function is of confirmed that it was free from management interference in determining the scope of its internal audits and investigations, performing its work, and communicating its results. The audit reports, in line with the Executive Board Decision 2012/13, were published and are in the public domain. This demonstrates our accountability and transparency to stakeholders. I would also like to emphasize that OIAI was exempt from the —5% cost reduction in IBRR budget under the Future Focus initiative, underscoring the importance management places on the internal audit and investigations function. On the assurance opinion, OIA issued 20 audit reports in 2025, of which 12 audit reports had generally satisfactory conclusions, while 7 audit reports had a conclusion of partially satisfactory, major improvements needed, and one country office audit report had an unsatisfactory conclusion. The audit reports included 138 recommendations, of which 50, or 36%, are high priority. OIEI also indicated that in its view, individually or collectively, these high priority actions are not expected to adversely impact the achievement of expected global outcomes. And UNICEF's overall framework of governance, risk management, and internal controls remains adquate. Management welcomes the satisfactory audit opinion which has been sustained over past years. In response to the key themes emanating from the 2024-25 audits and investigations, we have significantly tightened our operational oversight by rolling out targeted hack trainings and implementing easy-hack system controls. This is complemented by risk-based monitoring enhanced procurement oversight, where we have integrated e-tools to ensure all action points and vendor performance reviews are rigorously tracked. On the policy side, we are strengthening our governance through the new ERM framework and robust anti-fraud measures, including the establishment of the Implementing Partner Review Board effective July 2025. UNICEF continues to lead interagency efforts to adapt to PSEA capacity strengthening process for government implementing partners by the implementing partner protocol working group. On the status of implementation as of December 31st, 2025, 75% of agreed actions from all audit engagements completed in 2022 to 2025 had already been implemented by UNICEF offices. Management appreciates the collaboration with OIAI in revising the implementation dates for the 22 long outstanding recommendations, which are inherently time intensive. Management will continue to prioritize the implementation of these actions within the revised timelines agreed with OIAI. The 138 agreed actions issued in 2025 include implementation timelines beyond the 2025 calendar year. We we are proactively developing structured plans and prioritizing action implementation in recurring areas to ensure timely implementation of all 2025 agreed actions. Mr. President and distinguished delegates, please also note that for the year ended December 31st, 2025, the total financial loss for cases substantiated by the Office of Internal Audit and Investigations was $1.258 million of which $155,000 has been recovered as of April 2026. Management is working with offices concerned to keep pursuing the recovery of losses and will continue supporting country offices to put mitigating measures in place. In addition to the issuance of the policy on anti-fraud and corruption, management is developing a global fraud risk assessment guide to assist country offices in fraud risk To enhance our ability to deliver results for children, management is currently undertaking an ongoing initiative to strengthen leadership oversight across the organization as a core element of accountability. By aligning incentives and strengthening our organizational systems and culture, this initiative will deliver concrete actionable outputs to robustly reinforce our control environment. Finally, on Audit Advisory Committee, we appreciate and will continue to benefit from the committee's advice on governance, risk management, ethics, integrity, and oversight matters. We welcome committee's positive feedback on the unqualified audit opinion and key initiatives, including leadership engagement with staff during the Future Focus initiative. Management remains committed to further strengthening enterprise risk management, usage of AI for programmatic, operational, and oversight transformation, as well as succession planning. Thank you very much, Mr. President. With that, I hand over back to you.

Muchas gracias, Señor Kizar.

Thank you very much, Mr. Kizar and Madam Salehman, for those presentations. I now open I open up the floor to member states. I give the floor to the distinguished delegate of Belgium.

Mr. President, dear representatives of UNICEF, I deliver this statement on behalf of Australia, Canada, Denmark, the European Union as a donor, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and my own country, Belgium. We express our appreciation for the presentation of the annual report of the Office for Internal Audit and Investigations, the Management Response, and the Audit Advisory Committee's report. It is ultimately these core functions of the organization that ensure that children are helped to the very best of our accountability. We welcome the conclusion that UNICEF's governance, risk management, and control framework remain adequate, and that the number of total investigations closed in 2025 has increased significantly. At the same time, the rate of country offices with major improvement needed or unsatisfactory opinions has increased to 40% of all reports issued. We further note a sustained increase in workload faced by the Office as UNICEF operates under funding constraints, organizational restructuring, and a shift towards leaner delivery models. How do you assess the ability of independent functions to work effectively despite these developments? The report also highlights recurring cross-cutting risks in key operational areas such as cash transfers, programme monitoring, procurement, and supply chain management. Persistent challenges in documentation, partner oversight, last mile verification, procurement planning, and contract management have direct implications for programme effectiveness and value for money. Could you elaborate on the strategy and measures to address these risks and ensure ensure consistent implementation. We call on UNICEF to prioritize the 22 agreed audit actions pending implementation for more than 18 months. Risks related to fraud and misconduct, including sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment, remain structurally high while detection rates appear low. Identified weaknesses include limited guidance of available on conducting fraud assessments, incomplete fraud risk assessments, delayed escalation of suspected cases, and inconsistent application of anti-fraud controls. How do you assess the effectiveness of the current control model and the preventive support provided to country offices? The Audit Advisory Committee flagged that the resolute second-line compliance function is absent. Could you elaborate on plans for the implementation of such a function? Considering there is high residual fraud risk in cash-intensive program delivery, particularly under the harmonized approach to cash transfers, the AAC recommended a global independent assessment of fraud risk and HACT effectiveness. Is such an assessment planned? And what other measures do you plan to address— to address systemic weaknesses in assurance coverage. We further observe that the Office operates with relatively limited and largely fixed resources while facing increasing oversight demands in a more complex risk landscape. We thank UNICEF for protecting the OIAI budget during the orgina— organizational restructuring, but although— a substantial resource envelope is foreseen for 2026-2029, reductions in non-staff resources could constrain flexibility. How do you plan to align OIAI's capacity with UNICEF's scale and risk profile? In closing, we look forward to further information on the planned independent evaluation of the Future Focus Initiative. Could you elaborate on its scope and whether it will include a financial assessment. I thank you.

Hola, gracias al distinguido representante de Bélgica.

I thank the distinguished representative of Belgium. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the United Kingdom, and to be followed by the United States, and then Sweden.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We align ourselves with the group statement just delivered by the distinguished representative of Belgium. And wanted to add a few more in our national capacity. The UK welcomes the overall assurance provided by the Office of Internal Audit and Investigations that UNICEF's governance, risk management, and control processes remain broadly adequate to support delivery of its objectives. We recognize progress in implementation of audit recommendations, with around 75% of agreed actions completed in recent years. At the same time, we note several areas where progress is needed. Firstly, a relatively high proportion of recommendations remain high priority, around 36%. What is being done to manage and minimize this? Secondly, 22 agreed actions remain outstanding beyond 18 months., including in key areas such as enterprise risk management. Why has it taken so long to act, and what plans are there to resolve these issues? Thirdly, audit findings continue to be found mainly in program management, cash transfers, and procurement, according— accounting for approximately 61% of country office issues. What are UNICEF's plans to monitor this in-country offices and plans to mitigate. We note the significant increase in investigative activity, with 1,837 cases managed and 945 cases closed in 2025, indicating both strong output and a growing demand on the function. This is a welcome statistic. In addition, we note reported financial losses of approximately $1.26— sorry, $1.26 million, with around $155,000 recovered to date. And we welcome continued efforts to strengthen recovery and deterrence. The UK also values the important role of the Independent Audit Advisory Committee, including its advice on strengthening enterprise risk management. Thank you.

Muchas gracias, Distinguido el Presidente del Reino Unido.

I thank the United Kingdom, and I give the floor to the United States of America.

To the presenters, the United States thanks OIAI for its report along with the annual assurance of independence. However, we are also deeply troubled by numerous findings in the report report and its addenda, and we support OIAI's strategic priorities for 2026 through 2029 to address key risk trends. At a time when we are asking UN organizations to ensure efficient and effective use of member state resources, these documents indicate serious and repeated procurement control gaps, lack of required office fraud assessments, insufficient last-mile program verifications, and even non- nonexistent supporting documentation and implement— implementing partner accounting records. We also take account of the Audit Advisory Committee's opinion that UNICEF's progress on enterprise risk management is not commensurate with the level of institutional readiness needed. The particular weaknesses documented in 2025 with regard to poor implementing partner compliance with the funding authorization and certificate of expenditures utilization is unacceptable. If UNICEF does not see full and transparent compliance with such insurance mechanisms from its implementing partners, it should not be in business with them, full stop. We note that the UNICEF Implementing Partner Review Board came online in July of last year and was designed in large part to tackle these— to address these risks. What actions has UNICEF UNICEF taken so far against the problematic implementing partners encountered in audits? What changes to that process is needed to ensure swifter action? We draw attention to, in this regard, to paragraph 30 of the AAC's report that provides useful recommendations for improving first and second line function accountability. UNICEF personnel mis— The misconduct investigation reporting is even more shocking. 43 matters requiring disciplinary action raises questions about front-end vetting and the effectiveness of UNICEF's enterprise risk management. The loss of nearly $1.3 million from 47 different cases of financial misconduct, of which only $155,000 has been recovered, is as baffling as it is unacceptable to us. We expect to see full action on accounting for these serious gaps and incidents, and moreover, believe more must be done to ensure full oversight and accountability of UNICEF personnel, its vendors, and its implementing partners. As we have said repeatedly, the United States will not hesitate to walk away from organizations that do not demonstrate value and accountability to Amer— to the American taxpayer, and we expect measurable progress in efficiency and effectiveness, as well as adherence to accountability reporting mechanisms and requirements. Thank you.

Thank you very much to the distinguished representative of the United States.

I now give the floor to Sweden.

Thank you very much, Mr. President. Sweden is aligned with the statement of Belgium. We have a couple of additional remarks. First, to say that we appreciate a new element in the report. This year, the consolidation of the findings from audit reports and investigation is very useful. We would encourage further work on harmonizing the structure of the reports between the UN funds and programs in order to facilitate comparison. Then we noted in the report that government partners are not required, unlike CSO partners, to undergo a prevention of sexual exploitation and and abuse assessment, and that the absence of related contractual terms and conditions with such partners means that UNICEF has a limited ability to respond to allegation of sexual exploitation and abuse. And it's also stated that there are no contractual provisions with government partners related to fraud prevention, and that this limits the OIAI ability to take— against this category of partners. So we would appreciate if UNICEF could explain the reason for this difference in treatment. And does the difference in regulations between CSO and government partners' contracts apply in the same way in other UN funds and programmes? And are there any considerations with regard to changing UNICEF's approach on this matter? Thank you very much.

Muchas gracias, el representante de Suecia.

Thank you very much to the representative of Sweden. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the Netherlands.

Thank you, Mr. President. We align ourselves with the statement as delivered by Belgium, and I would like to make the following remarks in my national capacity. The Kingdom of the Netherlands appreciates OIAI's dedicated work to help UNICEF deliver outcomes for children. Including the efforts to try to keep up with the growing caseload. The increase in cases managed and closed in 2025 is commendable. We would like to reemphasize that adequate, predictable, and sustainable staffing and financing of OIAI remains key. We appreciate the flexibility of OIAI to provide additional advisory support in 2025 to respond to significant organizational changes. We would also like to thank the Audit Advisory Committee, the AAC, for their work and for the information shared. The role of the AAC is very valuable for the organization and for us as Executive Board. We have understood, if I'm not mistaken, that this is the last annual report that the OII Director, Steven Zimmermann, will present— or has presented, I should say. So we want to thank him for his leadership and his dedication over the past— past years to support UNICEF's work and his efforts to help our work as Executive Board and advise us. We would also like to ask UNICEF to keep us informed about the recruitment of the new director and to also recommend the participation of the AAC in the recruitment. We would like to ask 3 questions. First, the AAC recommends an independent evaluation of the Future Focus Initiative. We want to ask the AAC are you recommending for the evaluation to be done by a third party rather than the Evaluation Office, or are you referring to an evaluation by the Evaluation Office? Second, several regulatory policy documents are beyond their review date. What are UNICEF's plans to prioritize these reviews to align policies with the new organizational reality? And my third and last question, the AAC recommends for OIAI to include culture assessments in the regular country office audits. Especially considering the organizational changes UNICEF is going through, we think this could be a useful addition, although perhaps not an easy one. Can OII elaborate whether they are considering to do this? I thank you.

Gracias a la distinguida representación.

I thank the distinguished representative of Netherlands. I now invite I invite the Secretariat to respond.

Thank you, members, for your questions. Very, very pertinent questions, so I will try to answer some of them together, especially questions from Belgium and UK on You know, you're talking about the country office with major improvement needed, categorization increasing, the recurring issues, and as well as the audit findings in the themes that OII has highlighted. So from management side, we are, of course, all the time focusing on these recommendations. There are multiple ways that we are trying to handle these. Firstly, of course, through the implementation of audit recommendations themselves, because when the audit recommendations are issued, we have full focus to make sure that they are timely implemented. That actually helps us in implementing and correcting and rectifying issues that have been identified in these audits. And then these audits are, of course, in different country offices. We also draw from that the lessons learned. And those are fed into our policy work. So if you have seen over the past years, UNICEF has really, really rolled out and updated a number of its critical internal policies, including the policy on delegation of authority, the regulatory framework, the fraud and anti-corruption policy, and these policies are helping us now to really look at some of these issues in a coherent and broader manner. And the issue of the 22 long outstanding recommendations is exactly the reason why this is taking a little bit of time. Some of these recommendations are related to ERM, Enterprise Risk Management. We want to make sure that we implement them in a comprehensive manner at the global level, and that is why we really we really appreciate OII's understanding in extending the timelines for implementation. On the risk remaining high, as I also mentioned in my presentation, that we are about to issue fraud risk assessment guide to the country offices, which we feel is very, very essential. It is in order to really address the frauds, the accurate assessment of fraud risk is very, very important because that in enables us to really look at how and what mitigation measures we will be putting into place. On the reduced second-line compliance functions, management is currently looking at an initiative of— across the organization, how we can increase our oversight for the first and second line of defense, what are the minimum— or what are the essential accountability and oversight responsibility at the country office leadership, at the regional office, and at the headquarters level. We had very detailed discussions in our regional management team meetings. We are also addressing that at the global level this week at the GMT meeting. On the cash transfers, we are again improving quite a bit. We are ensuring that we— Cash transfer, we have different methodologies. We can, of course, do cash transfers implementing partner-based reimbursement basis, or we can also directly make cash transfer to the beneficiaries. So that assessment is very important of the implementing partner capacity and to adopt the right approach and that— to address the concerns that have come out in the audit recommendations. On the OII funding. Funding, as we— I mentioned in the presentation, we have tried to protect OIEI from any reduction. In fact, in the last strategic plan, we had established a number of additional positions, as well as an investigation unit was established in OIEI, which has actually helped very much to address this increased investigation workload. And we'll continue to work with OIEI to see what other needs are there. Especially also on the non-staff side. On the Future Focus Initiative, the ED mentioned yesterday, it was a very big initiative that we had undertaken. We are constantly monitoring the implications on operational programming and risk management areas. We are now going to be conducting an after-action review, and an evaluation is expected is planned for next year. Yeah, I also want to reiterate that on the fraud side, a U.S. colleague also asked this question. We are very much on top of the cases, the 43 cases. 25 cases were already sorted out. The recovery efforts are going on. More than 75% of this specific fault was internal, and we are making recovery efforts through staff entitlements where legally possible and other measures, and that work is going on, and we fully understand your concern and will prioritize further recovery efforts. On the FACE form implementing partner issues that you also raised, so We are actually— our face forms currently are received manually, and there's a lot of, like, thousands of face forms the country office receives, and the oversight is a little bit challenging, but we are really right now digitizing. So we have a project that's going on, it's called eFACE, that will completely digitize this. That means all the eFACE forms will link to the project documents, to the work plans and activities, and therefore, enable our teams to effectively monitor in a timely manner, not in a reactive measure. So that is being taken care of at this point in time. On the question from Sweden relating to PSC assessment of government counterparts, we work with the government counterparts, you know, in a— we have certain differences in the way we approach, because for CSO partners there's a whole selection process. You have due diligence and you have a selection process, open selection, where you choose the most appropriate CSO partner. But with the government counterparts, it slightly works differently because there is government ownership. So we try to address the risk through capacity building, through information sharing, through trainings of of the government counterparts and also including them in our own procedures and using the interagency mechanisms to ensure we have more cooperation and UNICEF values and procedures and requirements are being effectively implemented with the government partners. And the system works very much similar to other UN agencies as well. That's why an interagency approach to manage these risks is very, very essential and we are working on that. So with that, I'll hand over to—

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, distinguished delegates, for the very good questions. Just to add to my colleague on the implementing partner review board. When we received the outcomes of that, we have suspended some partnerships based on those findings, and then any continuation is conditional on various factors on each specific case. So that has happened. On PSEA, I would just like to add that UNICEF is also one of the leading agencies on the interagency group for the implementing partner protocols, and The focus in the next 2 years is going to be continued strengthening of interagency coordination, a framework for capacity strengthening also for government as well as civil society. So we're taking that very seriously. We also led the work on including clauses with government for national strengthening and so on, and we continue that work. This is a really important element.

Thank you.

And I want to refer back to the statement by Nigeria this morning in terms of investing in national systems and capacities when it comes to PSEA and making sure that we have clear accountability and perpetrators are held to account. This is a very important priority for UNICEF, so we will continue in that respect, working closely with governments to make sure that we can enhance the systems within governments as well. On the comment with regards to the regulatory framework policies, as Nazim mentioned, some of the policies we have updated. We have a backlog. We have other policies that do need to be updated, and we have a work plan over the next 2 years to update a series of policies that are absolutely priority. And so that work continues, and we have that for the various areas of work, not just in terms of the financial rules and regulations, but also other areas like HR and so on. In terms of the end-user monitoring and the weaknesses that have been identified in that respect, we're doing— we're looking at different ways of using technology in addition to other measures to strengthen end-user monitoring.— and the team has worked extensively both within the organization but also at an interagency level to look at digitization and what more we can do, and we're using that beyond the end-user monitoring as well. So there is opportunity with the advancements in technology to strengthen some of our monitoring and in our ways of verification and so on. So that is a work in progress. Lastly, on strengthening oversight, as mentioned by our colleagues. Over the last few months, we had requested the Office of Internal Audit Investigations to give us that analysis of what are the, the weak areas that you see consistently across offices, and that was what was shared with you in their report. And on that basis, we started an exercise a few months ago, as Nazim mentioned, to strengthen oversight at the first line and the second line. And that is something that we're focused on very extensively. We had very dedicated discussions in our regional management team meetings, all 6 of them. Very good ideas that have come out in terms of the responsibilities that must be exercised at the leadership level and there— and thereafter at other levels where there are oversight responsibilities and what mechanisms we need to put in place and tools that can enable and support our leadership and teams to be able to do that. There is room for simplification, for streamlining, for orientation, for change in behavior, so there's various streams of work. And as mentioned by Aziz, we're going to discuss that actually this Friday in the global management team. We will also share this with our partner UN agencies as well, because there is room there to also exchange and do some things together as well. So that is some of the ongoing work that is happening right now, and it is a corporate priority that our executive director has clearly indicated we need to continue focusing on. We have good examples of where oversight works really well, and we're using those to also inform our systems and our processes and so on. Thank you, Mr. President.

Muchas gracias. Any other—

A few other additional comments. First, let me say that I think— I want to commend UNICEF management, from where I sit, for its commitment to transparency and for looking under— picking up the rocks to see what's underneath, and looking at where the problems are. In this most recent exercise that that Deputy Executive Director Suleiman just alluded to, of going through and doing a synthesis report, was done actually at the request of management as part of this government initiative. But when you put all the pieces together, it does really cause us to see and look more carefully at where the issues arise. But I believe that UNICEF is committed to looking at those issues, to being transparent, and then sharing it with you, and then taking action. I'm not— Thank you. I'm not sure that that's always the case across other organizations, but it's certainly the case here at UNICEF, and I've been very pleased to see, if anything, an emphasis on transparency increase over the course of my 7 years here. So, I hope that will continue, and I have every expectation that it will, but I also think it is an opportunity to engage with you, not about what's— only what's going wrong, but about how the organization is committed to actually looking ahead and identifying how they can be fixed. Thank you.— and then you as the Executive Board holding myself, my office, but the rest of management, to hold our feet to the fire to make sure that we're taking those actions. So when you see an increase in low ratings of audit— of audit reports of country offices, that's not necessarily an indicator that the organization is not improving, but indeed that it continues to encourage and be— take an honest look at where the issues do exist and what we can do to do better. Thank you. A couple more specific points from questions that were raised. There's a good number of questions around the ERM audit and what we're doing around risk management. We are currently— we, OII, is currently doing a review of the implementation of the audit of risk management and the current status of the ERM policy. It continues to evolve. I would be the first to say that we need to be more expeditious and more forceful in this area, but I do believe there's a commitment to continue to improve our risk management profile. With respect to government partners— this is a question raised by a couple of folks— this is a significant issue, and it's a fundamental legal difference. We have contractual arrangements with civil society government partners. We do not have the same contractual arrangements with government partners. So it becomes— it is a bit of a legal issue, but also a political issue that needs to be addressed. And this is one that may require more input from you as the governing body and as the representatives of your capitals, because it is not an easy one to resolve. And it does manifest itself in every type of misconduct that we see— fraud and corruption, SEA, and other issues. So more work to be done on that, and I appreciate you raising that issue. With respect to culture audits, we have already begun to include elements of culture in our country office audits. Remember, OII really has two groups of audits. We have thematic audits where it's a— it would be a cross-cutting theme like hacked or fraud, for example. But we— the majority of our audits are country office audits that look at specific issues, and we have started embedding culture as an element in each of those country office audits. But it is correct, it is not an easy thing to audit. It is not an easy thing to survey. But I do believe that we're committed to trying to find a way to be more aggressive and dig a little deeper and identify how we do that. And in 2027, we've already begun preparations for our next audit work plan. We're focused on how we can do a more in-depth look at where the culture of the organization resides, particularly in light of the changes that we have gone through. Um, fraud. The anti-fraud policy is, is, uh, I think just a year old, the new anti-fraud policy. It has not been fully implemented yet. Uh, there is a rep— there's this position created by the anti-fraud policy for an anti-fraud officer. That we're in discussions with OED on how to create that position and where to put it. So there's still more work to be done here, but we have made tremendous progress. And the policy itself is indicative of the improvement. Two years ago, OII created a fraud task force, a special fraud unit within OII that I think has really upped our game in how we're looking at this issue. But there's always more to be done. We don't get to the end of this. It's not as if we really— [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] that a zero tolerance policy for fraud means we're going to get to a point where I or my successor is going to be able to represent that we have no fraud. It's how can we mitigate that risk as effectively as possible to a point that's acceptable to me, to management, and to you as the governing body. And there certainly is more work to be done, but I do think improvements are underway. The IPRB came into force in September. It's still getting its footing. We are working closely with the IPRB to try and get it off and running. Thank you. It is modeled off of the system used by the multilateral development banks, but a lighter version. So I do think there is room to improve, but the commitment to take that forward is absolutely there. Finally, on resources for OII, I am, again, thankful that we were— our cut was not nearly as dramatic as across the rest of the organization, and I think that was done, I know, with direct intervention by the Executive Director and underscored her commitment to ensuring that the work of OII continues and how important it is to the organization, and particularly in this time of change. We are in discussions with, with the senior management on our non-post resources, which is the money we use for consultants and travel as well. We have moved the majority of our staff to lower-cost locations to try and save money as well. But again, we will always work within the resources provided, and if we do believe we get to a point where we're no longer able to provide the opinion that you require from us, we'll I will certainly raise that issue. Lastly, let me just thank the Netherlands for your comments. I appreciate that. I didn't mean to make this about that, but it's been a pleasure serving in this position, and one of the things I actually look forward to most is my annual interaction with the Governing Body here. So thank you very much for all your support.

Thank you. Any other observation? Well, let me thank once again to the Secretary for their observations.

Given that no other delegation has expressed a wish to take the floor, we have concluded— the annual report to the Executive Board of the Office of Internal Audit and Investigations 2025, and the management response will be considered later on under item— agenda item 19, under decisions for approval. We will now move to the report of the Ethics Office of UNICEF for 2025 and the management response, item 12. The report features in document E/I6 /2026/2021, and the management response of UNICEF is found in EID/ICEF/2026/2022. Both documents have been submitted to the Executive Board in accordance with the provisions of decisions 2010/18 and 2018/11 and 2022/14 of the Executive Board. Mr. Asid Boutouyan, Director of the Ethics Office, will introduce the annual report of the Ethics Office. This will be followed by Mr. Sajid Ali, who will present the management response. I now give the floor to Mr. Boutouyan to present his report.

Thank you, Mr. President, and distinguished delegates. On behalf of the Ethics Team, I am pleased to present the report for 2025. As an independent oversight office, we are grateful for the support of management and the Executive Board, and we especially value the continued interest in our independence and effectiveness. As noted, 2025 has been an exceptionally challenging year for the entire organization. Including for our own office. Despite this, I am pleased to share that the Ethics Office has met and in many areas performed beyond the target set for the year. Indeed, in moments of deep organizational change, the risk landscape may broaden and deepen. It is therefore of utmost importance that we in UNICEF center ethics in the forefront of what we do. Next slide, please. Operating under the principles of confidentiality, impartiality, and independence, the Ethics Office promotes an ethical and values-based organizational culture. Though our team is small, our mandate is quite wide-ranging and broad. Given the organizational changes, the Ethics Office continued the momentum of its strategic approach over the past years by One, deepening engagement while maintaining quality and service standards in challenging times. The year-on-year increase in engagement with our office continued this year— last year for the total number of services provided as shown in this slide. Second, sharpening and tailoring the approach to outreach, training, and awareness raising by focusing on tailored content for for smaller audiences but deeper conversations. Third, strengthening ethical leadership by engaging nearly 200 managers and supervisors through dedicated ethical leadership sessions. Next, the launching of new themes and work streams. Previous slide, please. The launching of new themes and work streams. We launched a new e-learning course on preventing and addressing sexual harassment, and this was in fact led by our DED, Hanan Suleiman, who led it at the UN-wide interagency system level, which received very positive feedback and is now also being used by other UN agencies. In October, the Office rolled out our global conversation on Living Our Values in Challenging Times. Next. Amplifying force multipliers by enhancing support to our ethics and culture champions, or through ECCs, by boosting the engagement with our almost 500— 480 ECCs across 139 offices globally. And last, the Conflict of Interest Financial Disclosure Program for this reporting year achieved 100% full compliance. Next slide, please. Now, uh, this slide is a little bit busy, so let me just highlight the graph on the left, which is the most interesting part. I think if there's one takeaway in our report, in our presentation, it is this slide. It shows the more than threefold increase in the advice sought from the Ethics Office over the past year. As shown in the report, and for the discussion in the report, this data point measures and demonstrates a couple of dimensions. One, the level of staff awareness on where to go for guidance. Second, the intensity of staff engagement. With our office. Third, the reach of our office. And last, the impact of our services. This consistent increase, we believe, is a healthy trajectory because it signifies our staff members' trust in and comfort with surfacing risk early. A couple of other salient observations on this data point. One, there's been a diversification in the types of staff seeking advice. With an increase in requests coming from field offices, helping bridge the perceived gap between ethics at the center and ethics in the periphery. We're very proud of this. I remember when I came in to lead this function, the trend was the reverse. We were hearing mostly from headquarters location and from international— our international professional staff. We've reversed that trend happily, where we're hearing more from all categories of staff and more from from field locations. Second, there's shift towards earlier reporting, thereby allowing for ethical risk to be addressed in a more timely manner. There's also decline in anonymous requests, which reflects a growing level of trust in the ethics office's independence and confidentiality protocols. There's also increase in word-of-mouth referrals, which indicates that staff who had positive experience engaging with our offices have encouraged their colleagues to similarly consult with us. And lastly, we've seen an increase in engagement with various leaders and managers at all offices, therefore catching more systemic issues rather than individual cases. Next slide, please. These slides show you more granular data on our work. Um, we're happy to engage or answer questions during the Q&A on on this data as well. Next slide, please. In 2025, the ethics and culture champions in UNICEF consisted of 480 champions in almost all UNICEF offices. UNICEF takes great pride in our ethics champions. You may have heard from UN agencies that they have recently started a similar initiative, which was inspired by our program. As mentioned, the Ethics Office led on the development and launch of a new e-learning course on preventing and addressing sexual harassment, which is a new work stream that we took on. The financial disclosure program within UNICEF has been enhanced with the new electronic platform, which we introduced in 2024, which helps streamline and make it more user-friendly and which consequently has received positive feedback from filers. This has been redesigned in such a way that we've also supplemented them by coming up with clear SOPs and very funky animated help videos for any user of the platform. Lastly, there are ongoing discussions of the UNICEF Ethics Office supporting the ethics function of UN Women, which demonstrates increased coordination across the UN wider system. This really is just one example of where we are leading collaboration across UN agencies. There's— I could easily point out to half a dozen initiatives where we've led or we've been inspired initiatives by other UN agencies. When selecting the theme for 2025 for Ethics Month, We were mindful of the context we were operating in. The theme, Living Our Values in Challenging Times, acknowledged the difficult situation of the FFI and provided space to reflect, discuss, and recommit to UNICEF values. Our ethics culture-led conversations with relevant scenarios or case studies were conducted in at least 60 offices globally. We also hosted two global conversations, with UNICEF staff counselors and a conversation with Dr. Sandi Okoro, OBE, the Chancellor of the University of Birmingham and former senior official at the World Bank, who gave an inspiring talk to our colleagues. Next slide, please. By way of closing remarks— and that's probably the last slide— the Ethics Office will continue to monitor the needs of the staff post-FFI. And we will provide enhanced support to offices that are significantly impacted by the restructuring. As a final note, I thank our partners, including Mr. Zimmerman from OAI, DPC, the Global Staff Association— there are too many to mention here— but also our small ethics team. They're actually in the back. Sar Kakidis, Maura Hina Trang, Sarah Wan. They are all too modest and unassuming, but this may very well be the first and last time you'll hear their names in public. But it is many thanks to them that we were able to deliver on mandate. I look forward to your feedback and questions, and thank you, Mr. President.

Muchas gracias, Señor Butuyan.

Thank you very much, Mr. Butuyan, for those remarks. I now invite Mr. Ali to present the management response on behalf of the Division of People and Culture.

Señor Presidente. Mr. President, distinguished members of the executive Good afternoon, Mr. Secretary-General, Chief of Staff, Board, and other delegates. On behalf of management, I'm pleased to respond to the 2025 report of the Ethics Office of UNICEF. Management welcomes the report and extends its appreciation to the Ethics Office under the leadership of Mr. Butuyan for his— for its professionalism and commitment during a year marked by profound organizational change. The Ethics Office continued to fulfill its mandate with independence, impartiality, and integrity— demonstrating once again its vital role in promoting an ethical, value-based culture across UNICEF. Management congratulates the Ethics Office for maintaining quality and service standards, timeliness and responsiveness despite increased demands. The 2025 reporting period coincided with implementation of the Future Focus initiative. Within this challenging context, the Ethics Office delivered more than 2,500 services marking a significant rise from previous year and underscoring its role as a trusted and accessible resource for personnel worldwide. Management commends the Ethics Office for its strong data-driven approach, proactive risk identification, and continued focus on early intervention. The increase to more than 1,100 requests for confidential ethics advice in 2025, along with the notable rise in work— workplace-related consultations demonstrates the Ethics Office's effectiveness in helping staff to address concerns before they escalated into formal disputes. Management also recognizes the Ethics Office's achievement in strengthening ethical culture and competencies across UNICEF. Through more than 100 trainings and outreach sessions, the Office reached over 7,300 personnel worldwide, continuing its flagship introduction to ethics in— UNICEF seminar and delivering high-quality ethical leadership training to nearly 200 managers and supervisors. Management supports the plan of the Ethics Office to deepen engagement on sexual harassment prevention and follow up on the successful launch of the new e-learning module. Management extends its appreciation to the Ethics Office for its service during a period of significant organizational change, its guidance to staff and managers, Navigating complex workplace and organization challenges has strengthened trust across the system. The strengthened collaboration with the UNICEF Office of Internal Audit and Investigations on retaliation cases has further ensured organizational clarity, fairness, and accountability. Management appreciates the Ethics Office for expanding its engagement with 480 ethics and culture champions and nearly 140— 140. Offices worldwide. This included doubling of training and capacity building sessions for ethics and culture champions. The ethics office also facilitated ethics month activities including global conversations that were attended for more than 2,000 staff members. Management lauds the ethics office work on making improvements to the conflict of interest and financial disclosure program, which had 100% compliance with filing and verification and resulted in significant savings through in-house management of the program. Management applauds the Ethics Office for its active engagement in critical system-wide platforms, including the Ethics Panel of the United Nations, the Ethics Network of Multilateral Organizations, and United Nations-wide anti-harassment initiatives. The work of the Ethics Office has strengthened the culture of accountability, transparency, and ethical stewardship of UNICEF, reinforcing trust among staff, partners, and communities that the organization serves. Management also recognizes the Ethics Office's meaningful contributions to ethical risk management, safeguarding, and enterprise risk management. Management welcomes the inclusive process through which the Office is developing its new charter, reflecting extensive consultations, benchmarking, and alignment with best practices across the UN system. Management acknowledges the significant financial constraints faced by all parts of the organization, and has made efforts to protect the Ethics Office budget for the period 2026 to 2029. This ensures that the Office is adequately staffed and funded, and we remain committed to reviewing the Office's structural needs and resources while continuing towards sustainable and appropriate staffing levels consistent with the size of— and operational complexity of the organization and in line with our funding In conclusion, management expresses its sincere appreciation to the UNICEF Ethics Office for its leadership, professionalism, and steadfast service in 2025. The Office's integrity, resilience, and dedication have been central to supporting staff and upholding UNICEF core values in an exceptionally challenging year. I thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. Ali, for your observations.

Distinguished delegates, the floor is now open for you to take the floor. I give the floor to the distinguished representative of the United Kingdom.

Thank you very much, Chair.

The UK welcomes the continued work of the Ethics Office. We note positively an increase in overall engagement, continued investment in outreach and training, and a rise in demand for support. What do you think the driver for this has been? Greater trust? Or more issues? We also recognize the important contribution of the Ethics and Culture Champions Network, which provides an important decentralized mechanism for promoting ethics awareness. These efforts come at a time of significant organizational change. In this context, maintaining a strong ethical culture is particularly critical. The UK emphasizes the importance of ensuring that staff feel safe and confident to raise concerns, protections against retaliation are consistently applied and trusted, Ethical leadership is visible and embedded across all levels of the organization. We encourage UNICEF to continue strengthening its work to ensure that ethical standards are not only articulated but consistently experienced in practice across all offices. I thank you.

Gracias, Alitín.

I thank the distinguished representative of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I now give the I now turn the floor to the United States.

Thank you, Chair. The United States welcomes the 2025 report on the UNICEF— of the UNICEF Ethics Office. We commend the Office for processing a record number of requests while navigating structural changes under the Future Focus Initiative and welcome management's commitment to protect the Office's budget through 2029. While 100% compliance and financial— disclosures is a baseline expectation, we appreciate that the process is managed in-house to preserve core resources. We welcome the launch of global training to further advance zero tolerance for sexual harassment, and we also look forward to the new ethics charter. Recognizing that the document remains under development, we would like to know what changes or improvements the ethics office is contemplating for it, as well as any new charter that seeks to address any particular gaps or deficiencies it has seen in UNICEF's existing ethics framework. Thank you.

Gracias a la distinguida representante de Estados Unidos.

I thank the distinguished representative of the United States. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the Netherlands.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Kingdom of the Netherlands wants to thank the Ethics Office for the work they have delivered in the past year. In this challenging year for UNICEF, the office has performed beyond targets. We value the year-on-year increase in the number of ethics services requested, that staff, that staff seem to be seeking guidance earlier, that there is a decline in anonymous requests and increased engagement from country-level staff. This shows that staff are better able to find the ethics office for support and advice. We would like to reiterate the importance of for the full independence of the Ethics Office, adequate, predictable, and sustainable staffing and financing of the Ethics Office remains key. We therefore welcome that UNICEF has largely protected the Ethics Office budget for the period 2026 to 2029. We have two questions. One, can you share further information on the status of the Ethics Charter? And two, can you elaborate on your role during the ongoing organizational change process. How do you foresee your role in this in the coming months? I thank you.

Muchas gracias.

I thank the distinguished representative of the Netherlands. I now invite the Secretariat to respond.

Thank you, Mr. President, and distinguished delegates, for your interest and close reading of our report. We really appreciate your thoughtful questions. From the distinguished gentleman from the UK, on a question relating to what drives the increase in numbers, and you identified 3. I would say all of it plus 1. I think increased awareness and consciousness regarding where to go for what and when, and what protection protocols apply when you go to the ethics office or other offices. Second, increasing trust or reliance, because we get a lot of repeat You know, customers, if I may say it, which means to say that they've encouraged— they were encouraged in their previous interaction experience with our office, or at least referred some of their colleagues to come to us as well. And there's also, I think, more cases that come that are, I would say, rather of the moment or unique because of the FFI context. Issues relating to dynamics within the office, issues relating to questions regarding their abolishment of the post is regarding to the ensuring recruitment or selection of staff for the abolished post and the like. But also, I think there's also a shift where staff members are increasingly opting to go to more informal and early resolution avenues for the concerns which could potentially clog the more formal mechanisms, including investigations. And we hope that we do continue. At some point, we'll help unplug— address the issue of the pipeline for investigation cases as well, although we still see a lot of cases going to OAI. On the question from the U.S., thank you for the positive comments And regarding the charter, it's actually— it's in final stages, and I would like to actually commend the team from the OECD, especially the regulatory experts within that team who have been looking at it closely and trying to align and update it with our regulatory structure. Some of them are very new, or regulatory policies. And let me take the occasion also to clarify a few things. One is, when we were developing the charter, we were both— intentional about the timeline because there was a sequencing issue. At the time that we kickstarted the process, the UN Secretariat actually started reviewing the Secretary-General's Bulletin that governs the ethics functions across agencies. So we wanted to wait for the outcome of that exercise. Similarly, the wider network of ethics across multilateral organizations have come up with standards of practice which would also both enrich and help us in drafting the charter. So as noted by the distinguished chair of the Audit Advisory Committee, Mr. Chambers, the charter is actually to reinforce the mandate and the working arrangement within the Ethics Office, but it's not absolutely necessary to have the charter to have an independently operating ethics office. We do have that right now, and that's under the umbrella of that Secretary-General's bulletin. And I think that also answers the other question from the distinguished delegate from the Netherlands, Ms. Rose Higgins. Thank you again for your very thoughtful questions. The other question that came from the distinguished delegates relate to the charter and the role that was played by the Ethics Office in the context of FFI. We thought we had a value-add to various offices undergoing significant challenges in the context of the FFI. Particularly, we focused on helping our leaders and managers who were really struggling to navigate this unprecedented challenges within their various teams. So as mentioned, we did focus on helping roll out ethical leaderships, which also focus on a couple of skill set or thematic areas. You know, how to help the leaders hold their teams together, how to conduct difficult conversations with empathy and transparency, how to navigate restructuring with fairness, and how to role model organizational values in the midst of change. change. And we thought that was a really good role for the Ethics Office to play in the context of these changes. Of course, we went out there as well and met with the staff and the staff groups who've been severely affected by these changes, and we conducted active deep listening about their concerns and escalated to senior management any issues that may require enhanced monitoring or or intervention. We did that also for Global Staff Association, for example. They've expressed concern regarding how staff representatives have been affected by the FFI as well. So we did that as well, together with Mr. Ali, actually, who did expeditious intervention and escalation of these matters. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you. Okay.

So, I thank the secretariat for those remarks. If there are no requests for the floor, the annual report for 2025, the management response, shall be considered under agenda item 19, draft decisions.

Distinguidos delegados y delegadas.

Distinguished delegates, the next item on our agenda is agenda item 11, the annual report for 2025 on the evaluation function in UNICEF. That features in document E/ICEF/2026/17., and the UNICEF management response, which features in document E/ICEF/2026/18.

El señor Robert McCouch.

Mr. Robert McCouch, Director for Evaluation, will present the report, to be followed by Mr. Beau Victor Newland, Interim Director for the Office of Strategy and Data of UNICEF Innocenti, who will share the management response of UNICEF. Mr. McCouch, you have the floor.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure, as always, to be presenting this report, which, because 2025 marked the end of the previous quadrennium, aimed to give your delegations a broader perspective on trends and developments over this 4-year period. Next slide, please. This first slide describes the function's evolution over this period in very broad brushes. Embarking on the Quadrennium in 2022 on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, a prolonged leadership gap, and the recent establishment of a decentralized level of the function, We first sought to restabilize and rebuild the function, then reposition it for greater positive impact through a variety of means that you see here, and then reinforce these gains. To be clear, when I say "we," I am not referring to the evaluation team alone. Rather, everything we undertook was done in close partnership with colleagues all across UNICEF who understood the value of an evaluation function that is both robustly independent and deeply embedded within the organization, and who sought to strengthen it with us. This said, we are all aware of the extraordinary strain that 2025 brought to the organization. Despite this, the function remained focused, managing to not only avoid backsliding on our key performance indicators, but rather also to continue making gains and informing the decisions that matter most for children. This presentation describes this pattern of continuity and progress. Next slide, please. So here we zero in on our KPIs, which, as just mentioned, remained quite stable in 2025. This was no small achievement in the current context. I will not dwell on the minute details of each indicator. Suffice it to say, however, that we are all well aware of our strengths and successes within the function, as well as those areas needing ongoing cultivation and improvement. And importantly, we have put numerous measures in place to sustain our gains and address our challenges in the years ahead. Next slide, please. And now to what I would argue is an equally important story, uh, beyond the KPIs. This is a story of deeper, more gradual, and more fundamental shifts to help ensure that evaluation is optimized to help UNICEF and its partners move the needle for children at the impact level and at scale. Internally, our evaluations shaped countless decisions at all levels of the organization. Your delegations are aware of just a small handful of these from previous sessions: evaluations of UNICEF's response to the COVID pandemic and of its cluster lead role in humanitarian action; evaluations of the organization's work on universal child benefits, child marriage, early childhood development, and child protection; evaluations of UNICEF's approaches to advocacy, to social and behavioral change, and to gender, and of course the evaluation of the Strategic Plan 2022-2025, as well as advisory notes during the FFI process that we co-developed together with our colleagues in OIAI. In 2025, we completed a study of influential evaluations that provides many other examples beyond these of our evaluation's positive impact on the organization's work. Above all, the study underscores that critical and mutually reinforcing value of independence and collaboration throughout the evaluation process. Our broader influence extended beyond UNICEF and continued to blossom as well. Together with our partners, including many of your governments, we forged a global movement together of evidence-based decision-making and accountability for children at the systems level through our work in national evaluation capacity development, impact evaluation, and evaluation synthesis. Next slide, please. I will not dwell on these bottom line figures for the Quadrennium, but merely point ahead to the next presentation under this agenda item, in which your delegations will see and hear about one concrete example of how our various internal and external efforts came together in the form of a country-led impact evaluation evaluation that is making a difference for children in Peru. Next slide, please. As we were moving into the current quadrennium, we naturally harvested lessons gleaned from the prior 4 years, and these directly informed the plan for global evaluations 2026 to 2029 that your delegations endorsed at the first regular session this past February. These are summarized once again here. Next slide, please. And this slide articulates our 5 main priorities for 2026. These have also been presented previously, so I will just highlight one of these of particular relevance for your delegations: the independent assessment of evaluation in UNICEF that is currently underway and will be presented to the Executive Board on its request next year. The assessment team is with us here in New York this week, and in addition to warmly welcoming them, I would like to thank your delegations as well as our UNICEF colleagues across the House for the ongoing engagement in this Executive Board-requested exercise. Next slide, please. Mr. President, distinguished delegates, I hope this report has given you a clear and candid account of where this function stands at the outcome— at the outset of the current quadrennium. As this is my final presentation, like my colleague Steve from OIAI, to the Executive Board before concluding my tenure in August, I would like to take this moment to express my very sincere gratitude for your engagement and for your steadfast support for what we have been trying to accomplish. It has truly been a privilege to serve in this role and an honor to work with you and countless colleagues all across UNICEF. Thank you.

Muchas gracias, señor.

I thank Mr. McCouch for that presentation. I now invite Mr. Nyland to present the management response.

President, distinguished members of the Executive Board, observers, and colleagues, it is my pleasure to present UNICEF's management response to the 2025 Annual Report on UNICEF's Evaluation Function. Management welcomes the report's balanced assessment of progress during the final year of the Strategic Plan 2022 to 2025, delivered in a challenging and evolving environment. Overall, the evaluation function has made important progress. It has strengthened its coherence across global and country levels and reinforced its focus of relevance, credibility, independence, as well as usefulness. It has also played a key role in informing the development of UNICEF's Strategic Plan 2026-2029. A major achievement has been the evaluation function's ability to adapt to resources constraints while continuing to deliver credible evidence. In particular, the introduction of the first fully costed evaluation work plan is an important step toward greater transparency and better alignment of resources with strategic priorities. At the same time, management underscores the importance of prioritization. With limited resources, efforts must focus on areas of greatest strategic value. Impact evaluations should be expanded as they provide the strongest evidence on what works and can guide program design, scaling, and resource allocation. UNICEF continues to value evaluations as a key learning opportunity to improve the delivery of results for children. Strong collaboration between the evaluation office and program teams has helped ensure that findings are used in key areas such as health, WASH, innovation, human resources, and early childhood development. This shows that well-timed and relevant evaluations can directly support better programs and decision-making. The function has also improved its methods and tools. Innovative approaches such as adaptive designs and remote data collection have allowed evaluation work to continue even in fragile and constrained constrained contexts while maintaining quality. There has also been progress in improving the inclusion of children's voices, making evaluations more relevant and grounded in lived experiences. In terms of performance, there has been progress in coverage with evaluations— more evaluations conducted in 2025 including more country program and multisectoral evaluations. However, it remains critical to ensure that quality and strategic relevance come before volume. Evaluation quality has improved overall, with most evaluations meeting satisfactory standards and more achieving higher ratings. Continued attention is needed at the design stage to ensure strong methodologies, adequate resources, and realistic timelines. At the same time, some gaps remain. There is a need to strengthen the consistent integration of gender equality, disability inclusion, and humanitarian considerations, including through better data methods and access to specialized expertise. Management responses to evaluations has also improved, but timeliness remains uneven. Going forward, greater emphasis will be placed on systematic tracking of evaluation use, follow-up on recommendations, and learning from recurring findings to ensure evaluations lead to concrete and sustained improvements. On financing, while evaluation spending was stable during the quadrennium, it remains below the 1% benchmark, though we recognize notable progress in coding accuracy and portfolio management, which are improving transparency and compatibility across regions. Sustained investment remains essential to ensure— evaluation continues to support learning, accountability, and better results for children. Looking ahead, management endorses the evaluation function's stated priorities and emphasizes the critical need for the following in particular: First, expanding impact and outcome level evaluations. Second, strengthening quality Rigor and practical usefulness of evaluations. Third, increasing transparency and efficiency in planning and financing. Fourth, reinforcing tracking and the system— of the systemic use of evaluations, the findings and the lessons learned. And fifth, improving integration of gender, disability, and humanitarian dimensions. Finally, management acknowledges the upcoming, upcoming OECD DAC external assessment, as also mentioned by my colleague, and it provides a really important opportunity to review progress and identify areas for further strengthening. Management looks forward to using these insights to further enhance the evaluation function's contribution to results for children. Thank you, President, and back to you.

Muchas gracias, señor Nyland.

I thank Mr. Nyland for those remarks. Distinguished delegates, we shall now take up the second evaluation item, and then we will open —both items up for discussion. The Board will consider the summary of the impact evaluation of the early childhood cash transfer of the Juntos program on health services coverage and the prevalence of stunting and anemia in Peru. Document E/ICEF/2046/19. Thank you. Is accompanied by the UNICEF summary of the response of the government of Peru to the impact evaluation report, Document E/ICERF/2026/20. Mr. Robert McCouch, Director of Evaluation, will present the UNICEF summary of the evaluation. He will be followed by 3 virtual speakers. First, Her Excellency Ms. Lilian Orca Vázquez Dávila, Minister of Development and Social Inclusion, Peru. She will share the government response. Ms. Dávila will be followed by Mr. Javier Alvarez, the UNICEF representative in Peru. And he is accompanied by Malin, a youth beneficiary of the program. Mr. McCouch, you have the floor.

Thank you very much once again, Mr. President. I'm very pleased to be presenting this evaluation, which is the first impact evaluation to be presented to your delegations, and as I understand it, the first impact evaluation to be presented to any UN governing body thus far. As noted in the previous presentation, this evaluation is an excellent example that brings together and, quite frankly, brings to to life numerous strands of our work: the strides we've made externally in national evaluation capacity development, as well as impact evaluation, and the strides we've made internally within UNICEF, coming together as we did across all three levels of the organization to support the government of Peru in identifying and filling a key evidence gap with independent and impartial, robust and credible analysis. I'd like to thank the many colleagues across the organization who did come together to meet this challenge including and especially our Country Representative in Peru, Mr. Javier Álvarez, and his team. This was a country-led evaluation, requested by the Government of Peru and supported by UNICEF. In this vein, I would like to extend very special thanks to the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion, represented today by Her Excellency, Madame Lily Norca Vázquez Dávila, and the Juntos program for championing this work and embarking on this journey with us. We were deeply grateful for the opportunity to have worked together, Madam, and hope it has been as rewarding and enriching for you and your team as it has for us. Next slide, please. The choice to showcase this evaluation is intentional for another reason altogether. It illustrates the potential power of this specific form impact evaluation— as a vital strategic tool for achieving focus, impact, and scale all at once, and in the face of increasingly constrained resources. Every government and every humanitarian and development organization faces the same fundamental challenge: complex problems entailing seemingly infinite needs, with consequential decisions on where to invest our finite resources to address these problems and needs, very often hinging on assumptions or beliefs about what might work. Impact evaluation moves us beyond this guesswork and toward robust evidence of what actually works. It not only tells us whether the intended outcomes have improved as a direct result of the program we've invested in, it also tells us to what degree it has worked, for whom it has and hasn't worked and why, under what specific conditions, and in what specific ways. In many cases, it can also tell us the amount of benefit to children that we can expect for each unit of monetary investment. At the end of the day, impact evaluation tells us what works and should be scaled up, what, if anything, should be changed for even greater impact, and importantly, what should be discontinued because it does not work, so that our resources can be redirected to more effective interventions. Thank you. This, distinguished delegates, is the power of impact evaluation. Next slide, please. As your delegations will recall from our presentation on the early childhood development evaluation at your last session, the first 1,000 days of a child's life are critical for her physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development. Health and nutrition provide the vital physiological foundation for early childhood development and yet too often, too many children, particularly those with multiple sources of vulnerability, are left behind. My co-presenters are the actual experts on the Juntos program that aims to bridge these gaps, so I will just focus on the aim of the evaluation. The evaluation sought to determine whether one key aspect of the Juntos program, that is, a cash transfer to caregivers that is conditional upon bringing their children to facilities facilities for vital health and nutritional support worked in incentivizing them to do so? And if so, what, if any, outcomes these behavioral shifts actually led to for children, and at what unit cost? Next slide, please. The impact evaluation shows that a monthly transfer of just $14 US led to measurable gains for children ages 0 to 1. These are summarized here. However, these gains were not distributed equally among participants. Children living under conditions of higher vulnerability, such as lower maternal education levels or residence in areas of relatively high poverty, benefited less than others. Next slide, please. The evaluation finds clear evidence that the cash transfer is associated with improved access to health services for young children in Peru. It also points to uneven effects, identifying which groups benefited most and which— did not. Next slide, please. So, by extension, our recommendations point clearly toward the benefit of bringing this element of the Juntos program to scale and what to do to make it even more impactful, including for those who might otherwise be left behind. I will not go over these recommendations one by one, as Her Excellency will speak to these in her own remarks. Next slide, please. Mr. President, distinguished delegates, I hope this example has provided you a useful and concrete picture of what impact evaluation is, how it works, and why it is such a potentially powerful tool, particularly in these times of increasing needs and increasing resource constraints. I would like to once again thank the many UNICEF colleagues who joined forces to support the Government of Peru, and reiterate our collective thanks to Her Excellency Marim Davila and the Ministry of Depart— of Development and Social Inclusion for their leadership and collaboration. Thank you. Thank you.

Muchas gracias, señor.

Thank you again, Mr.

McCouch. I now give the floor to Her Excellency, Madame Vázquez Dávila, to present the response of the government of Peru to the evaluation.

Excellentissima Ministra.

Your Excellency, we were not able to hear you. If you just give us a minute, we'll try to adjust the setting.

Hello, this is the UN technician.

Can you speak now, please? Thank you.

Hello? Hello?

Can you hear us?

Yes?

Sí, podemos escuchar.

Yes, we can hear you.

Please speak.

Distinguished Secretary of the UNICEF Board, Mr. Andrés Franco, distinguished members of this Executive Board, representatives of member states, colleagues, and strategic partners, please receive the greetings of the Government of Peru and the Ministry of Development and Social It is an honor to be participating in this annual session of the UNICEF Executive Board. We are pleased to share an experience that reaffirms a fundamental conviction, which is that public policies can transform lives when they are built upon evidence, innovation, and a human commitment. In Peru, we firmly believe that the fight against poverty cannot be limited to addressing immediate deprivations or deficiencies. It must focus on protecting and strengthening human capital from the very beginning of life. In this regard, UNICEF's support has been pivotal. This evaluation has helped us consolidate the early childhood transfer In 2023, it was incorporated into results-based budgeting and recognized as the most efficient public management strategy of the government of Peru. One year later, Early Childhood Transfer found in the results of this evaluation a solid confirmation of its value and impact. Ensuring its continuity and financing for the benefit of the country's most vulnerable families. And today we can say with satisfaction that in 2026, Peru is going to be allocating $61.9 to guarantee the— sorry, $16.5 million to guarantee the continuity of this strategic policy. Thereby ensuring sustained effort, increasing resources by nearly 15% since 2023. Secondly, we have also strengthened the Juntos Programme's household support model through digital non-nominal tracking tools, information interoperability, and at alert management and service delivery. Today we have mechanisms for timely monitoring and response for girls, boys, and pregnant women enrolled in the program through home visits, telephone guidance, and educational interventions. This model has been especially important in preventing— Thank you. Childhood anemia, one of the main public health challenges in Peru. And the results are encouraging. In between 2023 and today, more than 22,000 girls and boys in Juntos who were diagnosed with anemia at the age— have since recovered. Lastly, this experience has driven a new generation of public innovations aimed at continuous learning. The ministry— In coordination with the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Juntos Program is implementing an urban pilot of the early childhood transfer. This was designed from the outset to ensure rigorous evaluation processes, and this intervention incorporates behavioral economics tools with personalized messages to promote healthy practices, as well as differentiated monetary incentives adapted to the urban context in order to strengthen health and nutrition for families and children. We are now seeking to find ways to improve it to ensure cash transfers can be part of the regular Juntos program. We believe that innovating in social policy doesn't just mean using technology. It means listening better, understanding better, and offering a better response to the needs of the most vulnerable. I thank you.

Thank you, Madam Vázquez Dávila, for those remarks. I will now give the floor to Mr. Álvarez, UNICEF representative in Peru, to take the floor.

Muchas gracias, señor presidente.

Thank you, thank you, Madam Minister, distinguished members of the Executive Board. On behalf of UNICEF Peru, I would like to thank you all for this opportunity to participate in this annual session and to reflect very briefly on what this experience represents for the future of our work in the country. The impact evaluation of the Early Childhood Cash Transfer, as indicated, is an excellent example of our cooperation with the country. In addition to generating evidence that— of a program that has produced tangible results for children, this has actually strengthened our role as a strategic ally and partner for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of public spending aimed at boys, girls, and adolescents It's important to highlight that the evaluation that was carried out has led to new demands for technical assistance by our government counterparts. So much so that the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Social Inclusion have together requested the technical support of UNICEF in order to generate new evidence that will allow them to take decisions about the broadening and expansion of a number of different interventions aimed at children. For example, UNICEF has participated in the implementation of mobile messaging pilots of the TPI in the urban setting. And 19,000 households including children under 1 year of age and pregnant women have benefited. This will be assessed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and we hope that this will lead to further improvements. Next slide, please. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] The Ministry for Development and Social Inclusion is already carrying out an impact assessment of the cash transfer program of Juntos in secondary education, this TAS. The outcome of this, which included some 25,000 children, will help us design this new intervention and increase its impact in preventing levels of dropout and improving other work. They will continue— we will continue to provide our technical assistance to the government of Peru so that we can increase investment in children, strengthen the national evaluation systems, and promote more integrated programs that incorporate nutrition, healthcare, and education. In Peru's experience, we have shown that when evidence evidence is not just generated but actually used and applied, this can lead to significant improvements in public policy for children. UNICEF in Peru will maintain its commitment to make progress on this item in close collaboration with the government together with all other stakeholders. Thank you very much, President.

Muchas gracias, señora Álvarez, por sus comentarios.

Thank you very much, Ms. Álvarez, for those remarks. I will give the floor to Malin, a young person who is joining us virtually today to share a few remarks with us. Malin, you have the floor.

Distinguished members of the Executive Board, distinguished guests, hay pucha, that means hello in Quechua. That is the language in my country, Peru. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my experience. And more than my experience, this is an example of evidence of how children and adolescents who live in rural areas in the furthest-flung parts of the country can actually get a head start. My family is part of the Juntos program. It's an initiative of the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion that is focused on supporting households experiencing poverty in Peru. And in this case, they helped both myself and my brother Hansel. I have received support at 3 main stages of my life: in my early childhood, during primary education, and also in secondary school. In my early childhood, the Juntas Koordinators supported my parents so that they could take me to the medical center in my community and so I could attend the and weight checks. In elementary school, they advised my mother and father as to how to support me so that I would do well in school and get good grades, and they also supported us financially. And then lastly, in secondary school, we received recommendations about different opportunities to help us grow better and receive a better education and progress. And it was thanks to all of this support that I I was able to attend the High Performance School of Ayacucho and later I was able to attend the National University of Engineering in Lima. It's very rare for someone like me from my region, an area that is associated with violence and drug trafficking, should be able to go and study in the capital. Is thanks to the support that I have received and thanks to this that I was able to develop a number of skills cognitively and socially. In addition, I am able to learn more and to develop more and so I would ask all of the governments of the world, especially Latin America and the future government of my country, Peru, to support such social programs and initiatives so that they can really improve the lives of the children and family who live in very remote areas that sometimes where it takes two days to get from these rural areas into the capital. And they really need to support these families and these young children. They should hear their voices, the people from these communities, because these These people know the realities and the problems that exist in these zones. I remember how my mother would teach the older people in our community so that they could pass some of the basic accreditations. And really, this is a problem, and it's down to us. We, as young people, are going to have to address all of these problems and resolve them. So we should always bear in mind that the development of a country depends on the development of children and childhood. Long live Peru. I thank you.

Muchísimas gracias, Merlin, por compartir esta experiencia.

Thank you very much, Merlin, for sharing that message and that extremely positive and encouraging message with us. So before we adjourn, I— right, we open up the floor and we give the floor to Germany.

Mr. President, distinguished members of the Executive Board, I deliver this statement on behalf of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, the EU as a donor, France, Georgia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Kingdom of Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and my own country, Germany. We thank the Evaluation Office for the comprehensive annual report and commend the evaluation function for its high quality and dedicated work during a period of significant organizational change and financial constraints. The evaluation function continues to serve as a critical pillar for accountability, evidence-based decision-making, and institutional learning within UNICEF. We are particularly encouraged by the findings of the study of influential evaluations, which demonstrate how evaluation evidence has informed institutional reforms, program design, national policies, and the development of the new strategic plan 2026 to 2029. Thank you. This underlines the strategic value of evaluation as a driver of organizational change and continuous improvement. We further welcome the efforts to strengthen the evaluation system, including the completion of the first UNICEF evaluation handbook and the introduction of more risk-based and strategic planning approaches. We particularly commend UNICEF's continued investment in national evaluation capacity development. Supporting governments and national institutions to generate and use evaluation evidence is critical for strengthening national ownership and ensuring that evidence informs policies and programmes for children well beyond UNICEF's own interventions. Furthermore, we welcome the progress on increased collaboration among UN agencies and encourage its continuation to maximize the impact of various evaluation efforts across the system. At the same time, we note that these accomplishments were achieved under considerable resource pressure resulting from the Future Focus Initiative and the 2025 program budget review decisions, thereby creating additional risks and disruptions. We reiterate the importance of of maintaining an independent and adequately resourced evaluation function. This is essential for the function to fulfill its mandate and provide credible evidence, particularly during periods of major organizational reform. We therefore call on UNICEF management to further strengthen the enabling environment for evaluation. In this regard, we support the planned independent external midterm assessment of evaluation which presents an opportunity for an objective assessment of the current challenges. In this context, we also note uneven progress in the integration of gender equality and disability across the evaluation portfolio. To address equitable change for all children, we encourage UNICEF to adopt a more systemic approach supported by strengthened data, clearer methodological guidance, and access to dedicated expertise. We would appreciate further information on concrete measures and timelines to improve performance standards on gender equality and disability inclusion. We would welcome an update on the planned evaluation of organisational transformation. We would be interested to hear more about the timeline, scope, and approach for assessing change management initiatives, including the Future Focus Initiative.

Thank you.

We would also appreciate further clarification and how— on how this evaluation will complement and differ from the internal after-action review. Before concluding, we would like to express our sincere appreciation to the outgoing Director of Evaluation for his leadership and dedication over the past years. Significant progress in the maturity, strategic relevance, and institutional standing of the evaluation function has been made under his stewardship. Through his unwavering commitment to independence, credibility, and professional excellence, he has played a pivotal role in strengthening the evaluation function and ensuring that it remains a trusted source of objective evidence and analysis for both UNICEF management and the Executive Board. We thank him for his outstanding service and wish him every success in his future endeavors. We also wish to emphasize that safeguarding the independence of the evaluation function remains particularly important during leadership transitions. In this regard, we expect the process for appointing the next Director of Evaluation to be conducted with the highest degree of transparency and in full accordance with the provision of the revised evaluation policy. Thank you.

Muchas gracias a la distinguida representante I thank the distinguished representative of Germany. I now invite the Secretariat to deliver a response to the comments.

Thank you very much once again, Mr. President, and to the distinguished delegate of Germany and the other distinguished delegations on whose behalf you've read your statement. I understand that because of various issues we're running a little bit behind schedule. I'm the only thing standing between everyone and lunch. So, I will leave out all adjectives and adverbs and focus on nouns and verbs in response to the points raised. And I also acknowledge, in bringing up the Future Focus Initiative evaluation, this bridges back to previous colleagues' presentations, particularly my colleague Steve from OIAI. So, I'll try to cover those that we're not able— that we weren't able to answer in that session. So maybe I'll start with the obvious, the one that keeps coming up in our various presentations, our evaluation of the Future Focus Initiative. To be very clear, this was not an evaluation that the AAC requested or recommended. This was something that came out of our own internal process of identifying the highest priority, highest criticality evaluations to be conducted. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] conducted in this quadrennium. As I've presented in previous sessions, we improved both the independent risk-based analysis that goes into the process of identifying those evaluations and we improved the consultation process. What came out of that strengthened planning process was not an evaluation of the FFI per se, but rather of organizational transformation more broadly. Why?

Why?

Put simply, UNICEF, like most organizations, has been doing change management forever, and in an increasingly complex operating environment, it will certainly continue to do so. However, we've never evaluated how we do that. Therefore, the scope of our evaluation is indeed broader than FFI, but to be very clear, FFI is one really vital element of what we're going to be looking at. So, it is going to be done. I think you asked for clarification on timelines as well. So, we've already begun preliminary scoping of this exercise, and just to really underscore— I see my colleague, Philippe, the Director of Change Management is here. We have been working in absolute lockstep to ensure that both of these exercises are being developed in tandem with each other, both substantively in terms of their scope, their focus, the complementarity of the analyses. But to answer your question pointedly, the difference between the two exercises is that that internal exercise is not independent. It is a— it's a very valuable internal learning-focused review that looks at what we have and have not been able to accomplish as an organization to date. Based on that non-independent perspective. The independent evaluation is just that. It's independent, and it will be able to look much more broadly and in a much more, let's say, richly data-driven way, as all of our evaluations aim to do, beyond just internal conversations and internal data analyses. So they are complementary to each other, but— Thank you. But quite distinct in that sense. And I know the distinguished delegate from Belgium raised an issue and a question in a previous session around whether we would look at the cost analysis. Yes, with one big caveat, and that is not to be crass, but the expression that we often hear is, you know, well, garbage in, garbage out. It's not that data are garbage, but— No, no, no. It at all. It's— but the extent that we can do a robust cost analysis, a robust cost-effectiveness analysis, is going to hinge on how high quality the data are at that point. But we do absolutely, absolutely look at the cost dimensions of efficiency when we do these. So, timeline. We will begin that evaluation that looks at FFI as a major component, um, in the fourth quarter of this year, the early part of the fourth quarter, with a view to completing it and informing, uh, the midterm review of the strategic plan, uh, in time. So it will be completed in— by the end of the second, uh, quarter of 2027. I hope I've answered your question, um, adequately, but if not, I can come back to it. When it comes to the integration of gender, um, into our evaluations, this is one of those— this is one of those pain points that is just very stubborn to— has been very stubborn to address. We know where it's happening across the function. We know exactly where— which regions, which country offices, which portfolios are stronger than others. We know where in the evaluation cycle it's happening. It's not happening at the design stage. It's happening at the data collection and analysis stage. We also know where the solutions lie. The solutions lie in strengthened quality control. That is, you know, one example that was highlighted, that you highlighted, was the handbook. This is our first ever UNICEF evaluation handbook. We have greatly strengthened the attention to gender in that. The challenge there becomes to socialize that guidance. We have conducted webinars to date. The guidance on gender integration is already strong. It does not need to be reinvented. It needs to be socialized across a very decentralized function that, again, takes time to really build consistency within. So, the solutions are those: improve quality control. We have the handbook. We are planning more webinars in this year and next year. And the other part of it is quality assurance. And there, I have to admit, full disclosure, because 2025 was such an outlier of a year. We as a function, simply, like the rest of the organization, were so focused on adapting and trying to avoid backsliding on our existing KPIs. That is something that needs greater attention moving forward, is that quality assurance by our regional evaluation advisors, by our portfolio managers here in the Evaluation Office. So, we know what needs to be done. That's what will be the focus. Thank you. I honestly, because the timeline for when we can start to see the needle move on that will rest with my successor, so I hope you don't mind my lobbing that into the future.

Any other? No? Muchísimas gracias. Agradezco a la Secretaría.

Thank you very much, Director. I thank the Secretariat for those remarks. I see no requests for the floor, and so the 2025 report and the management response will be considered later on under— Thank you. Decisions for adoption, and we have thus concluded this item. Distinguidos delegados y delegadas, antes de levantar Distinguished delegates, before we adjourn, I would like to give the floor to the Secretary of the Executive Board, Andrés Franco, who would like to make an announcement.

Thank you, Mr. President. Just to remind delegations that the informal consultations on draft decisions being considered for adoption will be held in this conference room starting at 1:15 until 2:45.

4:45 this afternoon.

And in the afternoon, we will also be here in this room from 5:00 to 6:00 PM. If we need to go after 6:00 PM, just a reminder that we do have the Mary Spade Conference Room on the 13th floor of the UNICEF House. Thank you very much.

Muchas gracias, señor Secretario General.

Thank you very much, Secretary. The meeting is adjourned.