UN Transcripts — https://transcripts.un.org/en/ecosoc/2026/20
Economic and Social Council: 20th plenary meeting - 2026 Operational Activities for Development Segment — Economic and Social Council — 2 June 2026
Language: en
Automatically generated transcript — may contain errors. Not an official United Nations record.

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ECOSOC · Vice President [0:08]:

The 20th meeting of the Economic and Social Council is called to order. I now invite the Council to continue its consideration of Agenda Item 7, Operational Activities of the United Nations for International Development Cooperation. The widening financing gap, rising debt burdens, declining official development assistance, and persistent fragmentation in the global financial system constrain the achievement of the SDGs. This panel will focus on how the United Nations Development System is operationalizing the outcomes of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development at the country level, particularly in countries facing fiscal constraints, rising debt service, and constrained fiscal space. We will hear good practices and experiences of UN-IFI collaboration that has effectively mobilized financing from domestic and external sources, supported integrated financing strategies and reduced fragmentation while preserving the integrity of national priorities and cooperation framework results. The Council will now hold a panel discussion on UNDS efforts in supporting country-level impact, mobilizing domestic and external financing, including through IFI engagement to reduce fragmentation. I am pleased to welcome our panelists this afternoon: Mr. Lee Jun-hwa, Undersecretary General for Economic and Social Affairs. Mr. Ilan Goldfein, President of the Inter-American Development Bank, who is joining us virtually. Ms. Julia Sanchez, Resident Coordinator in the Dominican Republic, and Mr. Nelson Mufu, Resident Coordinator in South Africa, as well as our lead discussant, His Excellency Mr. Héctor José Gómez Hernández, Permanent Representative of Spain to the United Nations. I first invite Mr. Lee Jun-hwa, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, to make a statement.


UNDESA · USG DESA · Lee Jun-hwa [3:04]:

Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Vice President. Excellencies, Distinguished delegates, it is a great pleasure for me to join you together with other distinguished panelists at this important session of the 2026 ECOSOC Operational Activities Segment. As the Vice President stated out, we meet at a very particularly challenging moment for development finance. Well, just allow me to share some statistics that demanded our immediate attention. Debt service burdens in developing countries have reached two-decade highs, with 45 developing countries now spending more on debt interest than on healthcare. Official Development Assistance fell by a record 23% in 2025, and it is projected that— about a 6% decline this year, the largest annual drop in history. And 77 developing countries remained below the 15% tax-to-GDP threshold, identifying a severe commitment. Consequently, the SDG financing gap now exists at staggering $4 trillion annually.— it's more than $4.3 trillion. Against this backdrop, the severe commitment delivered an important signal of our collective resolve. At the global level, the UN system is actively supporting the implementation of several severe initiatives. These include the Borrowers Platform and the upcoming Dialogue on Debt. To be convened by the President of the General Assembly and the President of ECOSOC, most likely in July. We are also advancing the important efforts to address the cost of capital and the high debt service that crowds out the SDG investment. Initiatives like the Global Hub on Debt-for-Development Swaps, housed at the World Bank, as well as an ECOSOC dialogue with credit rating agencies are key steps forward. At the same time, negotiations continued on a UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation to support developing countries in mobilizing their domestic resources. However, in Seville, member states agreed to do more than just strengthen international financial and tax architectures. They committed to supporting country-led approaches to sustainable development financing. This is precisely where the UN Development System plays an indispensable role. We must help countries translate global commitments into practical actions, supporting domestic resource mobilization, proactive debt management, and sustainable investment. all the while aligning the financing flows with national priorities. Integrated National Financing Frameworks, or as we call it, IMFFS, are an important tool for these countries' financing strategies. They bring together public and private finance, as well as domestic and external resources, into one cohesive integrated framework. This helps countries align their financing with sustainable development needs while managing the risks. We believe the UN Country Teams can help countries address the increasing fragmentation within the international system and strengthen their engagement with IFIs, MDBs, bilateral partners, and the private sector. This convening role is essential to reducing fragmentation and bringing different actors together around the integrated national priorities. Capacity building remains essential to this implementation. It is telling that nearly one-third of the— all actions outlined in Severe Commitment related directly to the capacity building, technical assistance, and institutional strengthening. To that end, my department at UNDESA aims to strengthen the links between global financing discussions and the national implementation through a new Financing for Development Network of the National Focal Points, in close collaboration with the Regional Economic Commissions, and the Development Coordination Office. This will support the peer-to-peer learning across the regions. The network operates in two directions: connecting national actors to global financing for development processes and channeling the national experiences and insights into the global FFD follow-up mechanisms. We strongly encourage the UN country teams to engage actively with the Network and its national focal points. Dear colleagues, UN DESA stands ready to work with you to support country-led approaches to financing sustainable development. Through targeted national and global actions, we can narrow the financing gap. The credibility of our collective commitments ultimately depends on our ability to deliver concrete results together.

Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [9:08]:

Muchas gracias, Secretario General Adjunto de Asuntos Económicos y Sociales.

I thank the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, and I next invite Mr. Ilan Goldfein, President of the Inter-American Development Bank, to make a statement. He will be speaking remotely.


IDB · President · Ilan Goldfein [9:28]:

Thank you very much, Chair Ambassador Ben Cosmi and the Secretary General Lee, Resident Coordinator Sanchez and Mufu, Ambassador Gomez Hernandez, distinguished leaders, delegates. Thank you for the invitation to join you here. I'm sorry I'm not in person, but at least virtually. I think the issue today is very practical. How can we help countries mobilize more financing and use them more effectively? A large part of the answer lies in stronger, smarter collaboration between the United Nations Development System and international financial institutions, the MDBs, the Multilateral Development Banks, Countries today face increasingly complex challenges. Fiscal space is constrained, development needs are growing, the financing gap remains significant. No single institution can mobilize resources efficiently alone. Over the past few years, the MDBs and the IDB group, the Inter-American Development Group, in particular, and UN partners have taken important steps in cooperating more closely. The UN brings expertise, convening power, and deep engagement. I want to mention two important processes that we have been collaborating together. Not too long ago, the Financing for Development Conference in Sevilla And also not too long ago in the COP process is the COP30 in Belém, Brazil. In CFI, we had a very strong participation with many important milestones. We launched the FX Edge, a new platform to reduce currency risk, unlock private investment in developing countries. We also joined major international initiatives including Spain's debt pause clauses and the Global Hub for Debt Swaps, and the UK's Global Coalition to Scale Up Fair Range Financing. We also announced an expanded disaster risk protection through an additional $2 billion in coverage. At COP30 in Belém, we, the IDB, were the largest WDB present. We launched initiatives that expected to mobilize $6 billion across resilient infrastructure, nature finance, energy, and support for vulnerable communities. We announced initiatives like the Amazonia Bond Program that will bring resources to the Amazon, new finance for climate resilient infrastructure, expanded nature finance initiatives, and more and more. But I have I want to tell you also that we are making our collaboration more systematic and operational with the UN agencies. The IDB has established 7 procedural framework agreements with UNDP, UNICEF, WFP, FAO, UNESCO, UNEP, UNOPS, and there are more to come. These agreements allow UN agencies to participate participate directly in execution, provide technical support, and act as a procurement partner with projects that the IDB financed with our resources. And of course, we have several MOUs with many of the UN agencies where we define joint areas of interest and actions. The objective of those is simple. We have fewer parallel processes, less fragmentation, we define clear roles, and we can have a faster delivery for the country. But of course, countries do not measure the success by the agreements we sign. They measure success by whether we are acting, financing, reaching their priorities fastest, whether projects are implemented effectively, and whether we can show results. So I will tell you a few examples, concrete examples, where you can see where we are aligned. Let me start with Jamaica following Hurricane Melissa. The government of Jamaica asked us, the IDB and ECLAC, to jointly lead the damage and loss assessment, and we work closely with UN agencies, with Food and Power, World Food Program, and UNICEF to help Jamaica after the hurricane. That's created a common evidence base, align our development partners behind a national recovery strategy devised by Jamaica. The lesson from Jamaica is important. After shocks, countries do not only need assessment, they need a path to investment with coordination. Let me give you another example. Haiti. The IDB has partnered with the World Food Program and the national institutions to deliver unconditional cash transfers to vulnerable households in a very complex context. We also partner in feeding in schools, programs, and that has been very important in a country that is, that has now quite a bit of security issues. Last example I'm gonna give is El Salvador, where we brought the private sector in with crowd in the private sector. With the World Food Program, we have launched what we call Gastro Lab, which is a, which is a culinary tourist sector initiative to foster opportunities so that we can get more private sector in a very strategic sector in El Salvador. But more broadly, We need to rely on country platforms. Country platforms can be effective ways to organize our work, aligning governments, UN development system, MDBs, donors, and the private sector. Again, let me give you examples. In Ecuador, the IDB, UNDP, and the broader UN system—more than 20 partners— are supporting the government's citizen security agenda, which is a priority for Ecuador. In Ecuador, we also launched a broader alliance, the Alliance for Security, Justice, and Development, which brings together 22 Latin American countries to fight organized crime, but also 13 partners, including the UNDP, And we joined with other MDPs around a platform to address crime. And we have other platforms, maybe you know about our Amazonia Forever platform, which has been important. So let me close saying that the task before us is to make MDBs and UN collaboration more systematic, less fragmented, more practical, and more focused on results for the benefit of our member countries. At the IDB Group, we are committed to deepening this partnership, in particular across Latin America and the Caribbean. Thank you very much.


ECOSOC · Vice President [17:32]:

Muchas gracias al presidente del Banco Interamericano.

I thank the president of the Inter-American Development Bank. I now invite Ms. Julia Sánchez, Resident Coordinator in the Dominican Republic, to make a statement.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Julia Sánchez [17:48]:

Muchas gracias. Thank you very much. Your Excellencies, UN colleagues, the Dominican Republic is a stable, fast-growing middle-income country with strong ambitions, doubling GDP by 2036, advancing towards OECD standards. And yet inequality, climate vulnerability, and territorial disparities persist. In this context, the question is not only how to mobilize more financing, but also how to make financing work better. My first point is that the UN's role in middle-income countries is above all catalytic. Our strength lies in identifying priorities, convening the right partners, piloting solutions that others can bring to scale, and ensuring financing aligns with national development goals and the SDGs. Allow me to share two examples. The Joint SDG Fund supports a food systems transformation program implemented by FAO, WFP, and UNEP with an investment of $2 million generating evidence and building partnerships to unlock over $30 million in following— follow-up financing from IFAD, the World Bank, and the IDB in under two years. But catalytic is not only financial leverage. It is also convening power. PAHO and WHO has brought the Ministry of Health, the World Bank, and the IDB together around a national strategy for primary healthcare. $190 million from the World Bank, $60 million from the IDB, and PAHO's integrated technical advice render those investments coherent and nationally owned. My second point is that in a world of shrinking ODA, The UN's value is driving implementation and impact. IFIs are financing billions of loans across the region that do not always move as fast as they should. Governments face implementation bottlenecks, coordination challenges, technical capacity constraints, and that is precisely where the UN adds value. We are present on the ground. We carry technical expertise across sectors. We have built trusting relationships with national institutions over decades. We can work with governments and IFIs to unblock what is stuck, accelerating implementation, strengthening coordination, and ensuring impact. In the Dominican Republic, we have successfully done exactly that with FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture, and my office is now working with the World Bank and the government to expand this type of collaboration to other sectors and with other UN agencies. This requires a new generation of UN-IFI-government partnerships, genuine triangular collaboration where government sets the agenda, IFIs bring the funding and scale, and the UN ensures implementation and impact. My third and last point is that innovation is central to financing for development. Since 2023, the government, with support from UNDESA, ECLAC, UNDP, UNICEF, and the RCO, has been developing an Integrated National Financing Framework, the INFF. Its financing strategy is a decision-making tool that maps domestic and international financing flows, identifies gaps, and helps the government direct resources where they generate the greatest development impact. And now, with support of the Joint SDG Fund, we are using artificial intelligence to automate SDG budget tagging and strengthen public expenditure analysis, giving policymakers real-time visibility into what resources are contributing to what goals. In closing, the Dominican Republic's experience shows how country-level action can translate global commitments into practical solutions. The Sevilla Outcome, the Pact for the Future, and ABAS all call for stronger partnerships, more integrated financing approaches, and greater use of innovation. The UN Development System is uniquely positioned to help build those connections, working alongside governments, IFIs, and other development partners to turn ambitious agendas into tangible results that leave no one behind. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [22:20]:

Muchísimas gracias a la coordinadora residente de República Dominicana por compartir la experiencia de nuestro país.

I thank the resident coordinator in the Dominican Republic. I now invite Mr. Nelson Mufu, resident coordinator in South Africa, to make a statement.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Nelson Mufu [22:36]:

Delegates and fellow speakers, Mr. Vice President, thank you for the opportunity. I want to speak plainly from a country's perspective, drawing on what we're seeing in South Africa and building on our new cooperation framework, which is aligned to the National Development Plan and the Mid-term Development Plan, but most importantly it's also aligned to national budgeting processes and financing mechanisms. This is happening because we're advancing structured engagement with with several government departments, including the department in charge of planning, monitoring, and evaluation, the National Treasury, of course the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, and other sector departments, with the intention of linking policy priorities with financing strategies, budget processes, and emerging investment pipelines. We've heard about the importance of ensuring that the path to investment with coordination is really important, and that's where the Resident Coordination System matters, and leadership as well from the UN Development Group. Financing and partnerships are where fragmentation is most costly, and in the South African context, the reality we're facing is one which is not dissimilar to other upper middle income countries. —where we have strong domestic financing institutions and capital markets, but also persistent inequality, unemployment, and fiscal constraints, including debt pressures that continue to constrain development spending. So it is important that coordination helps bridge the gap and connect the dots, because without this, Capacity building, as well as policy and technical assistance and institutional strengthening, becomes a set of disconnected interventions and conversations, and the Resident Coordinator function helps bring these together, aligning the full UN system and partners behind national priorities and supporting more effective use of resources. And we clearly see in our context that partners from the private sector, but also the IFIs and development partners, are increasingly ready to play their part. We are already undertaking and experiencing this alignment more concretely, including through closer work with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the African Development Bank, and other IFIs, especially around the Just Energy Transition Implementation Framework,, where over $13 billion have been pledged, and also efforts around improving governance and the capacity of the state to deliver, a key pillar of the Midterm Development Plan of the 7th administration. So concretely, we're doing 3 things. First, through the South African Business Initiative for Impact, which was launched on the margins of the G20 Presidency last year, The UN is working with partners to actively convene asset owners, private sector leaders, and development partners to move from interest to investable pipelines aligned with national priorities. We are seeking to make development investable rather than trying to make investment developmental. South Africa's own unprecedented investment conferences are showing sustained appetite from vestors. At the recent 6th South African Investment Conference convened by the President, companies made a record $54 billion commitment out of the target of $185 billion by 2030, and we are encouraging the government and other partners to pursue this going forward. I already mentioned our engagement with line departments but also with the President Presidency on integrated national financing frameworks, and USG Lee mentioned this, and this is in line with the FFD outcome, because it is important that a blended approach to financing and a healthy package of financing is what we can advance. Lastly, we are also taking a more deliberate territorial approach to localization, because that's where the rubber hits the the road, and we're working with government institutions, but also the South African Local Government Association and the Development Bank of Southern Africa, as well as the Joint SDG Front, Old Mutual and African Bank, on township entrepreneurship, but also looking at aligning national priorities with subnational planning, financing and delivery. And we can only do this if we're working effectively across the United Nations country team, delivering better together, and we see this in our interventions around One Health and pandemic preparedness, in restoring landscapes in Southern Africa, an initiative we're rolling out with UNEP and UNESCO, but also in addressing GBV in schools and better outcome for girls, financed by the European Union and other investors, but delivered through UNICEF, UNESCO, UNFPA, UN Women, UNDP, and others. Ultimately, financing is about the national choices that are made and the UN-coordinated backing that we're advancing. Only in this way will we be able to address the development emergency that the Secretary-General yesterday indicated. Let me end with my straightforward ask. The ask I have is really around ensuring that there's predictable and flexible funding, pooled and core, that enables the United Nations to effectively play its part. And we heard this morning about the Funding Compact commitments. Secondly, we also need to ensure that we are supporting country-led financing frameworks which align public, private, and international resources. And third, We need to ensure that there is also alignment between national policy and budget choices, particularly those that seek investments in people, jobs, and resilience. This is relevant in the South African context, because where we see policy partnerships and financing aligned, progress becomes tangible, and the Resident Coordinator System is central in playing this role.


ECOSOC · Vice President [29:16]:

I thank you. I thank the Resident Coordinator in South Africa for his intervention. Before moving on, I wish to encourage participants wishing to participate in interactive discussion to invite them to press the microphone button to indicate their request to intervene, and I'd like to take this opportunity to remind speakers that in order to allow enough opportunity for everyone to participate. There will be a time limit of 2 minutes for intervention of individual statements and 3 minutes for any statements on behalf of a group. So if you could please go ahead and then we can start making the list. Invito—

I now give the floor to our lead discussant this afternoon and I invite His Excellency Hector Jose Gomez Hernandez, Permanent Representative of Spain, to make a statement.


Spain · Permanent Representative · Hector Jose Gomez Hernandez [30:22]:

Thank you very much, President, Ambassador, panelists, especially USG Lee Jun-hwa. Spain appreciates the holding of this session, which is particularly timely at a time when we are coming across significant delays in the fulfillment of the SDGs. We are facing— a complex and uncertain geopolitical context. This discussion cannot be understood in isolation. It is part of a broader conversation on the need to preserve and strengthen effective, inclusive, and results-oriented multilateralism. For Spain, the issue that concerns us today lies precisely at the heart of that effort. The 2030 Agenda represents a collective commitment to people and planet. But to convert this into concrete results, we— it must be underpinned by a strong system implementation with the presence on the ground, coordination capacity, and adequate resources. Spain has recently approved its new multilateral policy strategy for sustainable development. It places the United Nations as a priority partner. And in line with this, we have substantially increased our core contributions to the major funds and programs. We also advocate for less fragmented funding, strengthening of the role of pooled funds and relying on the joint SDG Fund and the SPTF as essential pillars to shore up resident coordinated leadership. However, strengthening the financing of the multilateral system, while indispensable, will not be enough in and of itself. We must redouble our efforts to mobilize both domestic and international resources in the long term. This requires strengthening of national fiscal capacities, improving the efficiency and progressivity of tax systems, combating illicit financial flows, and ensuring that the international financing, public and private, addresses national sustainable development priorities. The FFD IV and the Seville Commitment represented a shift in focus, a change from a logic focused on funding volumes to one focused on impact. Driven by the countries themselves and aligned with their needs and priorities. The Seville Commitment reaffirms the need to move towards a more coherent financial architecture promoting closer collaboration between governments, international financial institutions, multilateral development banks, and the private sector. We should reduce the fragmentation of international financing through better coordination at a country level by strengthening complementarity between the United Nations Development System and the international financial institutions the use of integrated national financing frameworks in addition to promoting financial innovation and strategies that combine domestic resource mobilization, concessional financing, and sustainable private investment. Seville also represented a paradigm shift in the way we understand international cooperation in a context of multiple and interconnected challenges. The Seville Platform for Action has emerged as an innovative model of implementation-oriented cooperation with the United Nations at its core. It complements intergovernmental agreements by mobilizing coalitions of governments, international organizations, development banks, private sector, and civil society around high-impact voluntary initiatives designed to generate tangible and measurable results in areas such as sustainable development, debt sustainability, and reform of the international financial architecture. President, by way of conclusion, we have the tools, commitments, and knowledge to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs. What we require now is political will, cooperation, and determination to deliver on what has been agreed. I thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [34:16]:

I thank the Permanent Representative of Spain for that statement. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the United Kingdom.


United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [34:27]:

Thank you, Chair, um, and to all the panelists for your contributions to this discussion. We welcome this important discussion. And believe strongly that the need to mobilize domestic and external financing, particularly through IFI engagement, is absolutely central to reducing fragmentation at the country level and create synergies across all development work. The UK has consistently argued that greater coherence across the UN development system is central to better results for all. If country teams are to support governments effectively on development finance, they need to work in a more integrated, collaborative and practical way, with a clear focus on reducing fragmentation and backing nationally-led solutions. These commitments were made in Sevilla, and the UK agrees we should now translate these into tangible action. Reducing duplication and supporting better join-up between IFIs and the UN in-country is the most effective way to deliver this end. I wish to raise two key points with the panel in this regard. First, The QCPR underscored the need for greater coherence between UN Development System and IFIs. However, with only around 60% of governments reporting that the UN Development System support is being highly effective or effective in strengthening national capacities to unlock financing for Sustainable Development Goals, much work is needed to ensure that this necessary coherence is achieved. What are the key shifts that the panel would like to see delivered upon that would meaningfully shift the dial on this aspect? Second, it was also concerning to note that the SG's report states that only 40% of resident coordinators described country team support as effective in mobilizing and aligning financing with the goals. What would good look like in respect to country team support in this area, and how can this be standardized across UN country teams? Thank you. Doy las gracias.


ECOSOC · Vice President [36:23]:

I thank the distinguished representative of the United Kingdom. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Mexico.


Mexico [36:41]:

Muchas gracias.

Thank you very much, Vice President. We are grateful for this opportunity to participate in this exchange. We would like to highlight our statement in the context of the digital transformation, which represents a meaningful opportunity to accelerate achievement of the 2030 Agenda. However, closing digital and data gaps requires going beyond the expansion of connectivity. We need to assess whether the UN system is effectively supporting countries in line with their national priorities in order to leverage digital technologies, including AI, as tools for sustainable development. In this regard, we should consider certain fundamental aspects such as strengthening digital capacities, developing secure digital public infrastructure, promoting digital public goods, transparency, and the responsible use of emerging technologies in order to step up achievement of the SDGs. For the sake of brevity, I will just say a few more things. In our view, we should consider developing technologies in many areas, innovation, and ensure that solutions are adapted to specific needs of countries. Without data quality and good governance, artificial intelligence runs the risk of reproducing existing biases and inequalities and reduce the ability of states to adopt informed decisions for the benefit of all. I thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [38:39]:

Doy las gracias al representante de México.

I thank the distinguished representative of Mexico, and I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Canada.


Canada [38:50]:

Thank you, Mr. Vice President. We welcome this discussion and the rich country-level perspectives that have been offered by the panelists. We wish to share some of our reflections. To start, the real test of F54 will be our ability to translate its ambition into concrete results on the ground. Especially for countries facing fiscal constraints and rising debt pressures. In that context, the UN Development System already brings a lot to the table. It offers a wide range of support at country level, from integrated policy advice to capacity development, and importantly, the ability to convene governments alongside IFIs, civil society, and the private sector around national priorities. One area where we've seen strong traction is with integrated national financing frameworks. They are proving to be a practical and scalable tool to help countries better align financing within their development objectives. There's a clear opportunity to build on that success by supporting more countries to develop INFFs and deepen engagement with other development actors, including MDBs, in the elaboration and implementation of financing strategies. At the same time, strengthening the linkages between INFFs and country platforms can further improve coordination on the ground. And this is where RCs can play a critical role. Not only in convening partners, but also in supporting more tailored country-specific solutions that reflect national circumstances and priorities. In this vein, there's also an opportunity for our— our CS and the broader UN development system to strengthen donor coordination, helping to reduce fragmentation and promote greater synergies across the donor landscape. Taken together, a more integrated approach can help mobilize a broader range of financing, improve coherence, and strengthen implementation. While keeping countries firmly in the driver's seat. Looking ahead, it will be important to continue positioning the UN development system as a connector and an integrator. Its comparative advantage lies in its convening power and its ability to bring actors together across the system. And that also means being clear about roles. The UN should avoid duplicating highly specialized technical work where others, particularly IFIs, have clear expertise. Instead, the focus should be on deepening collaboration, aligning efforts, and ensuring that policy, technical, and financial support are mutually reinforcing. Ultimately, it's about scaling what works and recognizing what doesn't, strengthening coordination and leveraging partnerships to maximize collective impact at country level.


ECOSOC · Vice President [41:07]:

Thank you. I thank the distinguished representative of Canada. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Guatemala.


Guatemala [41:22]:

Vice President, Guatemala believes that accelerating achievement of the SDGs means making better use of the means of implementation across different sources of financing, data, and innovation. We need more strategic mobilization of domestic and external resources with better coordination with the UN system. Government, financial— international financial institutions, and other partners in order to reduce fragmentation and to support integrated solutions with countries. We should also close the digital and data gap. This is necessary to ensure the formulation of evidence-based policies with better traceability to ensure integration with national systems. In this effort, AI and other technologies can be very valuable if they are used in an inclusive, ethical way that is aimed at strengthening natural capacities. I thank you, Vice President. Muchas gracias.


ECOSOC · Vice President [42:26]:

I thank the distinguished representative of Guatemala. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Nepal.


Nepal [42:35]:

Thank you, Mr. President. Let me begin by thanking the distinguished panelists for their substantive presentation. Let me highlight the following points. First, the UN Development System should strengthen the country-led integrated financing framework and ensure that the outcomes of the CBA commitment are translated into operational support tailored to national development priorities. Developing countries, particularly the countries in a special situation, require greater support to expand fiscal space, reduce debt vulnerabilities, mobilize domestic resources, access affordable financing, and build resilience against external shocks. As the Secretary-General highlighted in his report on QCPR, financing mechanisms must be crisis responsive and capable of addressing the impact of such external shocks for LDCs and vulnerable countries. Second, stronger partnership between the United Nations Development System and IFS should be further strengthened to reduce fragmentation and maximize development impact at the country level. The UN's convening power can build synergies of diverse actors around nationally-worn development pathways, ensuring that financing, policy advice, and technical support complement in a coherent and mutually reinforcing manner. Third, financing localization of SDGs is crucial. Nepal's experience with federal governance has reinforced the importance of empowering local governments with adequate resources, capacities, and financing mechanisms. We encourage the development— UN Development System and IFES to further support subnational planning, budgeting, and implementation so that financing translates into tangible results for people on the ground. Fourth, closing the digital and data divide is as critical as closing the financing gap. The countries need support not only in digital infrastructure but also in building national capacities for data governance, statistics, AI literacy, and evidence-based policymaking. UN expertise should be accessible on demand through strengthened regional platforms, knowledge hubs, and digital collaboration mechanisms. Finally, sustainable progress on Agenda 2030 depends on strong national institutions and national ownership. The countries should be better equipped to finance and sustain their own development pathways. This reflects the AC's call for a more coherent, country-focused UN development system anchored in national priorities and cooperation frameworks. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [45:00]:

I thank the distinguished representative of Nepal. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the International Monetary Fund.


IMF [45:11]:

Thank you, Mr. Vice President. While the IMF is not a part of the UNDS, the IMF places importance on collaboration with the UN. As a specialized agency of the wider UN system. Staff guidance for our 2022 Fragile and Conflict-Affected States, or FCS, strategy notes that IMF staff should invest in efforts that maximize coherence of actions amongst partners. It also notes that the UN is a key partner and that IMF resident representatives should actively engage with UN partners. In this vein, we would like to highlight a few recent examples of close collaboration between IMF and UN staff. First, Sudan. Before 2023, the IMF resident representative maintained active engagement with the RC and UN agencies. Collaboration mainly focused on food security and forced displacement issues, informing the IMF approach on social spending. Moreover, the IMF has worked closely with UNDP to coordinate technical assistance delivery to avoid duplications. Second, Chad. Chad has an ongoing IMF Extended Credit Facility arrangement, or ECF, under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust, which is the IMF's main concessional financing vehicle. The IMF engagement with the Chadian authorities under this arrangement is built on close collaboration with UN agencies, and it is aligned with the Chad Connection 2030 National Development Plan, which was elaborated with UN support and is helping expand fiscal space. Fiscal space. Third, the DRC. Collaboration with the UN agencies is vital for the IMF engagement in the DRC, given the intertwined humanitarian, security, and economic challenges. Current ECF arrangement draws on analysis from IMF's updated country engagement strategy developed with input from UN agencies. IMF-UNFPA collaboration has helped secure World Bank AFD financial pledges, to advance the DRC's first general census since 1984. Fourth, Haiti. IMF staff has partnered with the Haitian authorities, UN agencies, and other partners for the 2024 Rapid Crisis Impact Assessment for crisis response and recovery planning. And IMF staff regularly engages with the SRSG for Haiti during in-country missions and meetings of the ECOSOC Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti. We hope these examples can be helpful for the discussions here today.


ECOSOC · Vice President [47:30]:

Thank you. I thank the distinguished representative of the IMF.

I now give the floor to the representative of Children and Youth International.


MGCY · MGCY · Arpan Patel [47:44]:

Thank you, Chair, for the floor. I'm Arpan Patel, speaking on behalf of the Major Group for Children and Youth. Excellencies, more than $3 trillion were spent on military and war last year. And yet we are repeatedly told that there are insufficient resources to fund the UN and deliver the SDGs. The contrast could not be more glaring, and we recommend the following. First, no reform is complete without the reform of the international financial architecture. Rising debt burdens and illicit financial flows and the misalignment of development finances with internationally agreed priorities continue to undermine SDG progress. In the lead-up to the next SDG Summit, we call on the ECOSOC to initiate an intergovernmental process towards a convention on sovereign debt as a prerequisite to any post-2030 framework. Second, UN-AD proposals on the UN Country Teams as well as the next QCPR must address the fundamental question on improving country-level programming and delivery, especially on climate change. We call for a more thematic and integrated review approach in the next QCPR cycle focused on collective outcomes and system-wide support to national priorities rather than entity-specific interventions. Thirdly, we call for strengthening the role of ECOSOC and the HLPF in governing means of implementation across the Agenda 2030 and related frameworks through an annual full-scope review of SDG 17, stronger engagement with MDBs and DFIs on ECOSOC recommendations, and better alignment between corporation frameworks and country-level financing decisions. It is the time to fund books over bombs and safeguard people and the planet over the perpetual military-industrial complex. I thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [49:30]:

Muchas gracias, Distinguido Representante. I thank the distinguished representative of Children and Youth International. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Outright Action International.


LGBTI stakeholder group · Maria Paula [49:42]:

Hello there, I am Maria Paula, speaking on behalf of the LGBTI stakeholder group. I will offer some thoughts today on how to bridge the data divide to leverage the means of implementation. The UN SDG Chair Report identifies data quality and interoperability as a persistent weakness in cooperation framework plans. That weakness has a human cost. We welcome the UN System Data Commons proposal. That is the right approach, but its impact will be determined not by its launch date, but by its design choices. First, its governance must be commensurate with the sensitivity of the data it will hold. Some of the most critical datasets for leaving no one behind require a legal protection standard, not just a data sharing protocol. A good practice in this regard is the EU's GDPR Article 9 concept of special category data. Second, the QCPR reports that 84% of countries receive effective UN support for statistical capacities and data collection. However, capacity as conventionally measured means the ability of national statistics office to run existing systems, census, data hold, household surveys, administrative registers. The system systematically undercounts stateless persons, criminalized communities, undocumented migrants, informal workers, and those in conflict-affected contexts, among others. Without formal inclusion mechanisms, we risk reinforcing existing data inequalities. Disaggregation in accordance with SDG Target 17


ECOSOC · Vice President [52:05]:

We thank the distinguished representative of Outright Action International. We have heard the last speaker of the interactive discussion and now invite the distinguished panelists to respond to the comments made and questions posed. You have 1 minute, if I What are they?


UNDESA · USG DESA · Lee Jun-hwa [52:25]:

Challenging? Thank you. Thank you, Vice President.

I hope that I can answer some questions within one minute. But just— I think that just now the UK representative raised two questions. Let me just give you very briefly the example— two examples how the UN system mobilized domestic resources with the IFIs. The first one is resilient bonds. Our colleagues in UNDRR joined forces with the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean to bring a new resilient bond to the market for the first time. Channeling $100 US in the new investment towards the disaster preparedness. So that is something— a very powerful illustration that what the UN's convening role and also institutional financial capability met together and then introduced a difference. The second example that I would like to share with you, we call the digital infrastructure investment Catalyzer, led by ITU, ACT-A, and 8 MDBs, which offers another— well, actually, they are working on a digital and AI playbook that will guide the countries and their partners on investment decision and identifying the high-potential digital infrastructure investment opportunities. That's, again, something between the UN system under the IFI outreach. Also, on the capacity building, my department certainly is very committed to work towards the RC system first and the Regional Economic Commission and the IFI to produce the capacity building upon the request from the developing countries on the ground, from the digital, from the data, and also from the layered negotiation capability with IFIs. I will stop here. Thank you.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Julia Sánchez [54:41]:

Okay, thank you very much. One minute, right? So just to follow up on the questions posed by the UK, I think one of them was how can we achieve that needed greater coherence? What key shifts would we need to see? Just to reiterate some things that have been said in this panel and other panels. One is the incentive system. We find that the incentives are pulling us apart sometimes and not bringing us together. So there's work at all levels to be done on incentives. And the other is procedures. It's work in progress. There have been efforts made, but the different agencies, and definitely the agencies and the IFIs and other stakeholders, have different procedures procedures that don't necessarily talk to each other very easily or very well. So we, you know, we need to be committed, and when I was referring in my remarks to, like, a new generation of IFI government UN modalities of working together, we really need to look at those procedures that don't talk to each other and make them talk to each other so that things can flow better if there is the will to collaborate more. So just to mention a couple of things. And on UNCT alignment, again, you've heard it before, but We need less earmarked funding and we need more core, more pooled funding. The funding compacts that are directed towards SDG implementation, they have to be the main guide of funding from UN agencies and other actors on the ground to raise that percentage that you referenced. Maybe the other comment I will make is around INFF, just to stress address what several have mentioned, including the USG, of how critically important having an INFF as a tool for governments for decision-making, for fund allocation, for identifying gaps, and then mobilizing domestic funding, international funding, private sector funding, how important that tool is. Otherwise, you're kind of driving, you know, in the dark and don't really know what needs to be prioritized.. And in the Dominican Republic, all of the partners who have worked there, starting with UNDESA and ECLAC and UNDP and UNICEF, have all signaled out what a success story the INFF process has been in the DR. And the key reason we believe behind that is ownership. This is the government's project. It's not the UN's project. It's really something the government wanted to do for themselves, and they've been driving this process all along, and that really makes it a huge success. So I just want to emphasize that we think that's part of the answer to a lot of these challenges.


ECOSOC · Vice President [57:27]:

Mr. Goldfein, if you're still connected, I kindly ask you to make a comment, the last one. Thank you.


IDB · President · Ilan Goldfein [57:44]:

Oh, sorry, I was not— I was muted. So yes, I'm here hearing all of you. So thank you very much for your very constructive comments and the perspective of the countries and other organizations. I think there are very concrete interactions that we can help the countries, how we can interact together. So, for example, between the MDBs, we are now relying more and more on each other's processes and standards in order for countries, especially the small countries, the small islands, that will not need to approach each organization by themselves and follow the process of each organization. So for example, we are now in the process of having full mutual reliance with the World Bank, which means that if a country starts with the IDB and wants the financing from the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank wants to participate, the World Bank will use our processes. We will not need to duplicate that. As I mentioned before, also We are now having framework agreements with the UN agencies, which means that we don't need to have cumbersome rules. We accept the rules we have approached and made it very consistent how we can work with countries when we work with the UN agencies. In terms of mobilization, this is a crucial elevate? How are we going to mobilize more resources? We have been working on Originate to Share. This is a system, an initiative where our bank, in particular our private sector arm, the IDB Invest, will continue originate the project. We are close to the countries. However, we will not keep these projects in our balance sheet and we will distribute, we will share these projects with institutional investors. And we are proposing, uh, a Reinvest Plus, which is where our local financial system originate the assets and we package these assets and we sell them institutional investors so that the local institutions can again lend with a fresh balance sheet. So the whole idea is to crowd in the private sector through our comparative advantage, which is we are close to the countries, we can originate, we can be better at giving garantees to the projects as well. Thank you very much.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:00:47]:

Thank you, Mr. Golfo. Mr.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Nelson Mufu [1:00:50]:

Mufu. Thank you so much. Unsurprisingly, of course, a lot of what my colleague Julia has said I would ascribe to and not go deeper into, but just to say ultimately good practice would be about going beyond just having a common framework or even an INFF, but actually seeing partners moving together. So not only the UN system moving with each other, the entities together, but also the development partners and bringing in private sector so that we're moving from dialogue policy to investment pipelines and actual delivery of interventions. This is something that in the South African context, where the challenge is less about the availability of capital but the alignment of capital and the fiscal space, constraints, that if we're working together and incentives and the behaviours are also addressed, then we will make a bigger impact. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:01:44]:

Thank you very much. We have reached the end of the first panel. I would like to thank the guest speakers and all the delegations for the very fruitful and valuable contributions. I'm now going to briefly— I'm going to pause briefly the meeting to allow for the podium to be rearranged for the next interactive discussion. Please remain seated.

Invito ahora al Consejo a celebrar I now invite the Council to a panel discussion on Bridging the Digital and Data Divide: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Other Technology Advancements for Evidence-Based Policymaking. Advances in artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, foresight, and behavioral science are reshaping development policymaking and Implementation. This panel will explore how the United Nations Development System, the UNDS, is translating advances in data, AI, and emerging technologies into concrete capacity gains for developing countries. We have asked speakers to share insights on strengthening national data ecosystems, advancing evidence-based SDG delivery through system-wide data initiatives, and ensuring that technology advancements support SDG priorities at the country level, guided by the principles of interoperability, data sovereignty, and country ownership. I'm pleased to welcome our panelists for this discussion, Ms. Pauline Tamases, Resident Coordinator in Vietnam, Ms. Alegra Baiocchi, Resident Coordinator in Mexico. And I also welcome the discussants for this panel, Her Excellency Egriselda López, Permanent Representative of El Salvador to the United Nations, and His Excellency Harish Parvathaneni, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations. First, I shall give the floor to Ms. Paula Tamases, Resident Coordinator in Vietnam, to deliver a statement. You have the floor.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Pauline Tamases [1:05:41]:

Chair, Excellencies, distinguished members of the panel, it's a privilege to share Vietnam's experience on bridging the digital and data divide and how the UN Development System is supporting this transformation. Vietnam offers an encouraging example of both progress and complexity in the digital era. With strong political commitment, the country has positioned science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation at the center of its development strategy. Investments in digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, and e-government have made Vietnam one of ASEAN's digital frontrunners. Yet important challenges But remain. challenges remain. Today, the issue is about how data is shared, integrated, and translated into policy. Fragmentation across institutions, limited interoperability, uneven digital skills, and risks of exclusion for vulnerable groups continue to constrain progress. This points to a key lesson: bridging the digital divide is not only about technology, it is about governance, institutions, skills, trust, and inclusion. In this context, the UN Development System in Vietnam is working closely with national partners to translate advances in data and AI into practical capacity gains for policymaking and delivering development results. First, we are supporting the modernization of the national statistical system, including greater use of administrative data, digital mapping, including— and integrated data systems producing more timely and policy-relevant evidence. Second, we are strengthening interoperability and data sharing across institutions. A good example is the civil registration and vital statistics system supported by UNFPA, where collaboration across ministries has enabled Vietnam to generate its first national vital statistics report demonstrating how administrative data can be transformed into actionable insights. Third, we are supporting the use of advanced analytics and artificial intelligence for policymaking. In Vietnam, AI-enabled applications through UNESCO support strengthen early warning systems for natural disasters, improve climate risk analysis, and help identify vulnerable populations who might otherwise be left behind. At the same time, in economic governance, with support from ILO, machine learning is helping ensure that policies keep pace with emerging sectors and new business models. At the enterprise level, AI-supported tools in manufacturing SMEs are improving productivity, increasing quality, and enabling workers to transition to higher-value tasks. Fourth, we are investing primarily in people and institutions. Not only in technology. Through AI Readiness Assessments led by UNESCO and UNDP and various capacity-building efforts across the UN Country Team, we are building digital readiness and AI literacy, improving public service delivery, strengthening governance frameworks, and preparing the workforce for an increasingly generative AI job market. Finally, our approach is grounded in inclusion and human rights. Digital transformation must be people-centered, ensuring that women, older persons, persons with disabilities, migrants, and other vulnerable groups are visible in data systems and benefit from technological progress. And this speaks to the intervention by civil society in the earlier panel. Investing in people and institutions for inclusive digital transformation is a core UN Country Team priority in our new cooperation framework. Looking ahead, system-wide initiatives such as the UN System Data Commons can play a critical role. Data Commons can bring together diverse data sources into unified, accessible evidence base, supporting more targeted policies and accelerating SDG delivery. At the same time, it enables, enables more coherent cross-sectoral UN support to government. Importantly, it also opens the door to more anticipatory and adaptive governance, —helping policymakers act earlier and more effectively in the face of complex risks. To fully realize this opportunity, three principles are essential. These have been mentioned by the Chair, but let me reemphasize: first, interoperability; second, data sovereignty and national ownership; third—and for us in the UN, crucially important—building trust ethics, and ensuring human rights, so that there is meaningful participation at the core of digital transformation. I close by highlighting that Vietnam's leadership in advancing the Global Digital Compact and supporting the implementation of the landmark UN Convention Against Cybercrime is a concrete and proactive contribution to shaping global norms for human-centered artificial intelligence. Governance, anchored in ethics, transparency, and accountability, with the intention that these technologies advance development, strengthen trust, and contribute to peace and stability. The role of the UN is clear in all of this: to help Vietnam bridge the digital divide and deliver better development outcomes for all. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:11:06]:

Muchas gracias a la Coordinadora Residente. I thank the Resident Resident Coordinator of Vietnam. I now invite Ms. Alegra Baiocchi, Resident Coordinator in Mexico, to deliver a statement.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Alegra Baiocchi [1:11:18]:

Just to clarify, I was— I'm currently RC in Mexico, but until recently I was RC in Costa Rica, so I'll be speaking from both experiences. Thank you, Your Excellency. Digital technologies, as we've heard, are transforming governments, economies, and societies. As Resident Coordinators, our role is to bring together the capabilities of the UN system them and translate them into tangible results at country level. Our work revolves around three interconnected pillars: data, analysis, and response. Data to understand where countries stand. Analysis to identify risks, opportunities, and priorities. Response to accelerate sustainable development outcomes. But everything starts with data. What data is available? What data is missing? And how do we access timely, reliable data to inform national strategies and guide our work? With this in mind, in Mexico, we're transforming our common country analysis into a digital dashboard, bringing together data from multiple sources into a single platform. This tool will not only provide real-time insights, but also alert us when key indicators are moving in the right— or wrong direction, enabling early warning, but more importantly, early action. Effective evidence-based policymaking requires stronger data systems and digital capabilities. For this, across the globe, UN country teams are continuing to invest in UNINFO as an open data platform to track results, to strengthen accountability, and to ensure alignment between UN action and national priorities. Again, in Mexico, our results are now tagged directly against the indicators of the National Development Plan, creating greater transparency and coherence. Through platforms such as UNDP's Plataforma de Análisis para el Desarrollo, federal governments can access development indicators, poverty simulations, SDG monitoring tools and digital learning, helping policymakers identify inequalities, monitor progress, and design evidence-based interventions. As the Deputy Secretary-General often reminds us, no two countries are the same. That is why, as my colleague also mentioned, digital readiness assessments that are led by UNDP, ITU, and UNESCO have become an important starting point for countries seeking to assess their own strengths, their gaps in digital transformation, and identify practical pathways forward. Analysis, however, is only valuable if it leads to action. In Costa Rica, we established a UN Digital Innovation Lab to strengthen our own capacities and convene government, private sector, and innovators around practical digital solutions. Our first hackathon gave us Sophia Salud, an AI-enabled chatbot supporting the monitoring of adolescent pregnancies, led by UNFPA and UNICEF. Sima Sierra, a predictive environmental and infrastructure monitoring system led by UNOPS and UNIDO, and Tempi, a multimodal AI-based Educational Tutor, designed to close learning gaps in rural areas, led by UNESCO. For digital transformation to reduce rather than deepen social and territorial inequalities, digital equity must remain at the center of our efforts. Rural communities, women, indigenous people, and lower-income populations must benefit from digital transformation, not left be left behind. In Costa Rica, through a joint SDG Fund program implemented by UN Women, UN-Habitat, and UNDP, municipal digital labs are helping expand digital literacy, inclusive internet access, open government initiatives, and local innovation. Finally, digital transition and artificial intelligence are not only reshaping development, they are also redrawing the map of opportunities. As Resident Coordinators, it is our responsibility to ensure that national and regional perspectives help shape global digital debates. Working with the Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies, we have supported national and regional dialogues on AI governance in Latin America and the Caribbean, helping connect global processes with regional priorities. These conversations are essential to ensure that global frameworks reflect the needs, opportunities, and challenges of all our Member States. Your Excellencies, today my colleague and I have shared only a few examples of the data and digital solutions being developed at country level. I can assure you that Resident Coordinators around the world are working every day with governments and partners to develop tailored approaches that respond to national priorities and local realities. Ultimately, the role of Resident Coordinators and the UN Development System in the digital space is straightforward: data to understand, analysis to prioritize, response to deliver results. Through initiatives such as the UN Data Commons, Knowledge Hubs, and Expertise on Demand, UNAID offers a real opportunity to scale these capabilities across the system. I hope Member States will give their full full support to these initiatives and continue to empower Resident Coordinators and Resident Coordinator Offices, not as gatekeepers, but as gateways to a more connected, effective, and impactful United Nations. Our objective is simple: to provide coherence instead of fragmentation, integrated solutions instead of isolated interventions, and to ensure that digital transformation and that advances national priorities and sustainable development outcomes. I thank you. Muchas gracias, Alegría.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:17:27]:

I thank the Resident Coordinator of Mexico and Costa Rica. I now give the floor to our first lead discussant. I invite Her Excellency Griselda López, Permanent Representative of El Salvador, to make a statement. You have the floor, Madam.


El Salvador · Permanent Representative · Egriselda López [1:17:47]:

Thank you very much, President. It is a real pleasure to see you moderating this important discussion. And I am speaking not only on behalf of my country, El Salvador, but also in my capacity together— my capacity as co-chair together with Estonia of the Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence Governance. The focus of this segment is very timely. And Member States have been very clear that the UN development system must become more coherent, more effective, and be better equipped to support countries' progress towards sustainable development. In that context, data, digital transformation, and AI are not separate or specialized agendas. They are key enablers of sustainable development, more solid institutions, and better public services. Through the QCPR and WISSIS and the recent GA decision on AI, member states have provided clear guidance for the United Nations system to support countries in closing digital divides, building capacities, strengthening data systems, and also in harnessing technology for sustainable development. Our focus should therefore be on how to strengthen delivery and impact on the ground. From our perspective, this means having three priorities. First, the United Nations system should help countries build the foundations for evidence-based development. This means having stronger national data systems, making better use of statistics, and these Foundations are essential for effective digital transformation for realizing the benefits of AI. Secondly, support must be integrated. Countries need coherent support across data, public digital infrastructure, innovation financing, capacity building, and other areas. These elements are interconnected and the UN system should bring them together through the RC system and the UN country teams aligned with national plans and cooperation. Frameworks. Thirdly, technology support should strengthen national capacities and institutions. We must ensure that we deliver sustainable and lasting results in this area. And this is directly linked to the Global Dialogue on AI Governance. The dialogue was established as a UN platform involving governments and all relevant stakeholders to support international cooperation and to share lessons learned and to discuss how AI can contribute to sustainable development and actually help close digital divides. As co-chairs, we have heard a consistent message, which is that AI governance must be connected to development realities, and this includes support for our seas to make the roadmap a reality. Thank you very much, President Thank you, Mr.

President.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:20:51]:

I thank the distinguished Permanent Representative of El Salvador.

I now give the floor to His Excellency Harish Parbat Aneni, Permanent Representative of India, to make a statement.


India · Permanent Representative · Harish Parbat Aneni [1:21:05]:

Thank you, Vice President, Chair. In recent years, digital technologies and artificial intelligence have emerged as critical enablers for sustainable development and evidence-based policymaking. The SG's QCPR report highlights the importance of data, digital innovation, foresight, and behavioral science as part of the UN 2.0 quintet of change, and emphasizes the need for interoperable data systems, shared digital tools, and AI-enabled solutions to strengthen development delivery. The Delhi Declaration that was adopted at the AI Impact Summit in February this year also underscored the need for inclusive, equitable, and development-oriented AI governance, including bridging digital divides, strengthening capacity building, and ensuring that countries of the Global South are able to fully participate in the global AI ecosystem. India strongly believes that digital transformation must be inclusive, it must be affordable, and it must be human-centric. Our experience demonstrates how digital public infrastructure can accelerate development outcomes at population scale. Our DPI ecosystem, built on digital identity, digital payments, and data sharing frameworks, has transformed public service delivery and financial inclusion. For instance, Aadhaar has enabled secure digital identity for over a billion people, while the Jandhan, Aadhaar, and mobile framework has expanded access to banking, welfare, and public services. It has been able to create the largest inclusion, especially of women in the financial system, what would have normally taken over a decade has been achieved in the span of 3 to 4 years. Through direct benefit transfers, India has transferred billions of dollars to beneficiaries directly with greater efficiency, transparency, and almost nil leakages. Our Unified Payment Interface has revolutionized digital payments through an open, interoperable, and low-cost platform, platform. Today, the system processes 22 billion transactions every month, and in the last financial year, it has processed 240 billion transactions worth over $3 trillion, demonstrating the scale and inclusivity of India's digital payments ecosystem. India is also increasingly leveraging AI for sustainable development. AI-based tools are supporting precision agriculture, climate resilience, disease screening, telemedicine, and multilingual access to digital services. Given our linguistic diversity, AI-powered language technologies are helping bridge barriers of language and accessibility, ensuring that digital transformation does not exclude remote and vulnerable communities and takes all languages together. At the same time, India believes that AI governance must remain inclusive and development-oriented, The benefits of AI cannot remain concentrated in a few countries, or indeed a few companies. Developing countries require equitable access to digital infrastructure, compute capacity, data resources, financing, and skills. Capacity building therefore remains essential because the digital divide is rapidly becoming an AI divide. In this regard, we welcome the Secretary-General's emphasis on strengthening digital capabilities, integrated analysis, and data expertise across the UN development But technology alone is not enough. Bridging digital divides also requires sustained financing and international cooperation. The QCPR funding report highlights the growing constraints on development financing and the risks posed by fragmented funding structures. Simply put, the future of development must be digitally empowered, but also equitable, inclusive, and trusted. India is happy to continue sharing its DPI experience and working with partners to ensure that technology and AI become instruments of empowerment and sustainable development for all. I thank you, Chair.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:25:03]:

I thank the distinguished Permanent Representative of India. I now open the floor for delegations to participate in an interactive discussion. Participants are invited now to press the microphone button to indicate their request to intervene, and I would like just to remind that in order to allow sufficient time for everyone to participate, there will be a minute— a 2-minute limit for individual statements and 3 minutes for statements on behalf of groups. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the United Kingdom.


United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [1:25:53]:

Thank you, Chair, and to all the panelists and discussants for their insights so far. The case for leveraging data and AI is becoming ever stronger. While 2.2 billion people remain offline and the AI divide is widening, we are at risk of further entrenching global inequalities. The UK is clear that without the fundamentals connectivity, data availability, and digital literacy, countries cannot harness AI or use it effectively for policymaking. The UN Development System has a clear role to play in this space, and there are many opportunities for the system itself to leverage these new technologies to enhance its work across the globe. As the panel has noted, the steps set out in UN80 Actions, including under Work Package 15, will be critical in allowing the UNDS make the most of these opportunities. With this in mind, I have two brief questions. First, we welcome proposals around the technology accelerator program. The SG's QCPR report states that the platform will help identify common demand and develop solution portfolios. In this vein, what would an ideal online platform to enable the work on expertise on demand and shared digital ID solutions look like for RC's practice once complete, and have you had any chance to feed into this process? Second, regarding the data— the data work package, we note that a joint program proposal is in development to sustain this, uh, the shared platform and deepen progress on joint standards, production workflows, data maturity, and AI readiness. Building on the clear examples the panel have already given, what tangible impacts would improvement in the use and leveraging of data have on your future work in-country? Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:27:38]:

Thank you to the distinguished representative of the United Kingdom. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Mexico, followed by Nepal.


Mexico [1:27:53]:

Gracias. Thank you very much, Vice President. Would like to take this opportunity to welcome Ms. Bayocchi as our new resident coordinator in Mexico, and we are grateful that she was able to share her perspective on this important topic with the members. For Mexico, it's essential that we assess whether the system is strengthening institutional capacities for planning, management, monitoring, and evaluation and also national capacities in data, economic analysis, innovation, and technical assistance and knowledge sharing. A truly innovation-oriented agenda should allow countries to actively participate in the design, development, and governance of technology solutions that impact their development. Keeping with these efforts, we should also assess whether the technologies that are promoted are safe, affordable, and available and accessible to those who most need them. In particular, the use of AI to support public policymaking requires data that is representative, interoperable, and protected, and that is subject to clear and transparent governance frameworks. To conclude, in our view, without quality data and adequate governance, artificial intelligence risks reproducing existing inequalities, generating new technological dependencies, and limiting the ability of states to make informed decisions for the benefit of their societies. And for this reason, strengthening national data ecosystems should be a central priority for sustainable development. The complete version of this statement will be published on the website.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:29:55]:

I thank the distinguished representative of Mexico and I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Nepal.


Nepal [1:30:02]:

From Nepal's perspective, I wish to highlight a few points. First, strengthening national data ecosystems for evidence Data-based policymaking. The United Nations Development System plays a vital role in supporting developing countries to build robust statistical systems, interoperable databases, and institutional capacities for data governance. Nepal emphasizes the importance of integrated national data ecosystems that directly inform planning, budgeting, and SDG implementation. Second, advancing digital public infrastructure as a foundation for inclusive transformation. Digital public infrastructures can significantly enhance transparency, efficiency, inclusion, and delivery. Stronger collaboration between the United Nations, international financial institutions, and governments is essential to scale up these systems. Third, building AI and computing capacity linked to renewable energy systems to address the energy demand in AI. The next divide that's coming is the divide— the computing capacity divide. Compute infrastructures could dramatically lower barriers for innovators, enabling students, startups, and universities and companies to build AI products locally. So here, electricity is the single largest operating cost for AI data centers, and countries like Nepal possess abundant hydropower resources capable of producing low-cost renewable electricity. While electricity prices in other countries range from 9 to 15 cents per kilowatt hour, Nepal's hydropower can potentially support compute infrastructure costs between 3 and 6 cents per per kilowatt hour. Such infrastructure would support government digitization, data management, and university startups, and strengthen research institutions while also selling computing capacity globally. And coming to this guiding question, this is where the UN development system can support such government initiatives to translate advances in data, artificial intelligence, and emerging technologies into concrete capacity gains for developing countries like Nepal. The UNDS can support such opportunities. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:32:02]:

I thank the distinguished representative of Nepal. We have heard the last speaker in this interactive discussion, and I will now invite our distinguished panelists to respond to the comments made and questions posed.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Pauline Tamases [1:32:19]:

Thank you for the inputs, and I want to respond to the question raised by the UK. I think I'll start with the second question, what tangible impacts. I mentioned some of them, but maybe I use additional examples. One is to improve accountability. One existing program that is currently led by UNDP is a pioneer program called Public Performance— Public Administration Performance Index. It's a citizen feedback loop mechanism that measures performance on a number of indicators. Through this longstanding project, this has now been handed over for the government and for the government to take over. They have embraced this as a way to ensure governance effectiveness, that they are delivering to the people that need it the most. It is a very strong way to improve accountability and improve governance and participation, particularly in the context of Vietnam. Second example is on improving anticipatory action. For an upper-middle-income country such as Vietnam, which is still highly vulnerable to climate change, a lot of their development gains can easily be reversed with disasters. Anticipatory action, early warning systems allow for protecting those development gains by ensuring that you are able to relocate vulnerable households before disaster strikes and reduce the losses. In delivery of social protection, for example, data and digital systems allow for you to ensure that you have the most up-to-date list of beneficiaries and those who are most vulnerable that require receiving those benefits. These are just some, and I think there's just at the tip tip of the iceberg. In terms of your first question, on the technology platform per se under the UNAT, I cannot say much. How Vietnam, as a pioneer for the Delivering Us One pilot, which preceded the efficiency agenda— a lot of talk earlier this morning about one fund, one house, Plan One leader, we have done it in Vietnam with strong government ownership. Through our common back office operations, what we have learned is that pooling a lot of the technology infrastructure within the house, shared by UN agencies, allowed us to reduce costs by at least $1 million. It's just consolidating networks. So that's just a very small example. Imagine what it could do if you put that to the scale of the UN development system at large.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:35:06]:

Thank you very much. Muchas gracias.

Thank you very much.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Alegra Baiocchi [1:35:13]:

I just want to maybe reiterate one of the things we've heard across a lot of the interventions, which is inclusion and equity. The idea that data and digital transformation can enable incredible development solutions if, you know, we ensure that there's equity and inclusion. And I think this is where the UN system is focused, because we work in very different countries, and the expert on demand and the pools of expertise that we will have will support exactly that, creating tailored solutions. And yes, there has been conversations with Resident Coordinators on how will this work, you know, how will the database be created, how will we access it, what kind of expertise will be be in place. And as you said, there's a lot of solutions being offered in UNAID, and I think the Secretary-General said it to all of you, it's up to member states now to hopefully support these ideas. And secondly, data. I mean, and again, I think last time I spoke to member states we talked about the hive mind and how many resident coordinators have so many ideas, and even right now there's a lot of my colleagues up there giving me answers to how data can support us. But I think what is most important is the quantity, the quality, and the up-to-date data, making sure that it's disaggregated data. I think we all work in countries where it's a struggle sometimes to have disaggregated data, which is the one that you need, you know, to again target and create tailored solutions to, you know, regional differences and equalities that affect a lot of our countries. So data and policy support, but definitely the expertise that the UN system can bring, not only within the country, but also whatever is available across the system. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:36:49]:

Thank you. We have reached the end of the discussions under the Operation Team Leveraging Means of Implementation, Data, Innovation, and Financing for the SDGs. I would like to thank our guest speakers and all the participants for their valuable contributions. I am now briefly going to pause the meeting to allow the podium to be rearrange for the next segment of the meeting. Please remain seated.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, I now invite the Council to continue its consideration of Sub-item A, Follow-up to Policy Recommendations of the General Assembly and the Council, of Agenda Item 7. operational activities of the United Nations for International Development Cooperation. Evaluation is essential to ensuring that the United Nations Development System remains accountable, effective and responsive to the expectations of Member States and the needs of Programme Countries. As the system is increasingly expected to deliver collectively in support of the 2030 Agenda, System-wide evaluation plays a critical role in assessing whether reforms are translating into more coherent, integrated, and impactful support to countries. This session provides an opportunity not only to reflect on the findings emerging from recent system-wide evaluations, but also to consider how evaluation evidence can more effectively inform decision— decision-making. Making strengthen accountability, shape ongoing reform efforts under the UNAID process, and support continuous learning and improvement across the system. The discussion will also examine the institutional conditions necessary to sustain a credible and independent system-wide evaluation function capable of supporting intergovernmental oversight and system-wide accountability. This session will begin with a presentation by the Executive Director of the System-Wide Evaluation Office of the annual report contained in the E.2026/56. Member States will be given a chance to ask any question related to the report. Following that, we will explore how evaluation evidence is informing decision-making and driving changes in policies, practices, and system-wide performance across the United Nations Development System. I am pleased to welcome our panelists for this discussion: Ms. Andrea Cook, Executive Director of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group System-wide Evaluation Office; Mr. Arnaud Beral, Resident Coordinator in Philippines; and Mr. Pablo Ruiz, Resident Coordinator in Uruguay. I first invite Ms. Andrea Cook, Executive Director of the UN SDG System-Wide Evaluation Office, to present the annual report contained in the mentioned document. You have the floor.


UNSDG · Executive Director · Andrea Cook [1:42:10]:

Thank you, Mr. Vice President, Excellencies. It's my pleasure to present the annual report of the System-Wide Evaluation Office to the Economic and Social Council, setting out the achievements for 2025, the second full year of operations for this office, and our priorities for 2026. The United Nations Sustainable Development Group System-Wide Evaluation Office was established in late 2023. It operates under the provisions of the System-Wide Evaluation Policy adopted by the UN SDG in November 2024. System-wide evaluation assesses the combined contribution of entities across the entire United Nations development system with a focus on collective performance, results, and learning on strategic priorities, and looks at issues that cannot be adequately assessed through existing United Nations oversight and accountability mechanisms. System-wide evaluation is of particular value to member states in their oversight and decision-making roles, ensuring that UN entities are accountable for their contributions in supporting countries to achieve the SDGs. Turning to the programme of work. In 2025, considerable progress was made in consolidating the work of the Office, in line with the provisions of the policy. Key successes include the establishment of reporting mechanisms, office systems, and communications. Progress was made in developing mechanisms for management, response, and follow-up, and for quality assurance and assessment. However, resource constraints limited progress on the development of a multi-year global system-wide evaluation plan. Since 2023, we have worked successfully to mobilize extra budgetary resources, and in 2025, we received contributions from a wider group of member states. However, there was a reduction from United Nations entities, uh, attributed to funding pressures. The funding requirement for 2026 $3.1 million US dollars. For comparison, this represents 0.015% of development system expenditure in 2024. Whilst we've made good progress towards the overall budget requirement for this year, a funding gap remains which hinders the full delivery of the programme of work. In the first two full years of operations, The Office completed a number of evaluations and other evaluation products of relevance to the QCPR. In 2025, the Office started work on a number of new system-wide evaluations. However, again, resource constraints hindered the timely launch of this work, and one evaluation is postponed due to lack of funding. Responding to the request As a result of the Advisory Group on the Sahel, the Office is now conducting a rapid sub-regional system-wide evaluation on United Nations system coordination in the Sahel. It provides an independent assessment of how the United Nations system has implemented integrated, coherent, and coordinated support to achieve sustainable development in the Sahel region. And this report will be published in mid-2026. Responding to a request from the UN Sustainable Development Group Principles, the Office has commenced work on a series of standalone evaluations and reports to assess the contribution of the United Nations development system to SDG acceleration and to generate learning and provide strategic recommendations in the period up to 2030. Individual reports will be published throughout 2026, and a final overarching strategic evaluation report will be published to inform the 2027 SDG Summit. The first of these reports is the evaluation of the United Nations Food Systems Coordination Hub that will also be published in mid-2026. Cooperation Frameworks are commissioned and managed by each Resident Coordinator with the support of relevant United Nations Country Team members in the penultimate year of the Cooperation Framework cycle. The annual report provides details of planned and completed Cooperation Framework evaluations for the period 2023 to 2025. This year, the Office is conducting a meta-evaluation and synthesis of learning from these evaluations at the request of DCO to identify options to strengthen the conduct, quality, and use of these evaluations, to improve the accountability and learning of the United Nations Development Systems contributions, again, at country level. Turning to the use of system-wide evaluation evidence, specifically to management response and follow-up, which is essential to provide accountability for development system results. High-quality evaluations with relevant, actionable, and well-targeted recommendations enhance accountability and learning. However, the timely preparation of management responses to evaluation recommendations is also fundamental. Follow-up actions and implementation status of evaluation recommendations must be tracked to ensure meaningful impact, transparency, and accountability. DCO, in its role as the UN SDG Secretariat, has effectively facilitated the preparation of management responses for all the evaluations completed since 2024. This is a strong signal for system-wide updates— uptake on the work of the Office, as demonstrated by the two evaluations completed in 2025. Firstly, the system-wide evaluation on progress towards a new generation of UN country teams found that the vision set out in Resolution 72 /279 for a new generation of United Nations country teams remains highly relevant and is increasingly significant in the context of the UN80 initiative. Since 2018, the repositioning of the United Nations development system has resulted in many important improvements, including widespread appreciation for the reinvigorated Resident Coordinator System. However, the evaluation found a substantial gap between the operational realities and the strategic intent of cooperation frameworks. The evaluation concluded that cooperation frameworks have not yet become the most important instrument for the planning and implementation of United Nations development activities in each country. Similarly, United Nations country teams had not yet significantly reconfigured in line with cooperation framework priorities. The evaluation made 7 strategic recommendations to the UNSDG as a collective system-wide coordination body, to UNSDG entities individually, to to the Development Coordination Office and UNDESA, and also recommendations for consideration of member states. The management response for this evaluation was published in December last year. Two of the recommendations were specifically for consideration of member states, related to funding of the UN development system and to strengthening oversight and guidance of the United Nations development system at country level, and also in legislative and governing bodies, including through UNHCR processes. The evaluation of the 2019 United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy, or UNDIS, found that the UNDIS has proven to be a relevant and timely instrument for advancing disability inclusion across the United Nations system, serving as a catalyst for systemic change from a low baseline and accelerating efforts to embrace disability inclusion. Yet implementation has varied considerably across the complex United Nations landscape. The evaluation concluded that United Nations has not yet achieved its ambition of becoming an employer of choice for persons with disabilities, or of effectively mainstreaming disability inclusion across development, humanitarian, and security programming. This evaluation made 5 strategic recommendations to the Secretary-General, to the executive heads of United Nations system entities, and to DCO.. The management response was published in May. In 2025, our Office worked actively both within the United Nations and beyond, including with MOPAN, to promote the use of system-wide evaluation evidence in decision-making processes, providing extensive briefings to United Nations entities and to Member States in reflection of the many UN80 work packages that are informed by our evidence. To close, I'd like to highlight key issues for your consideration. This office has demonstrated its unique value in providing valuable evidence on performance of the UN development system with a focus at country level, and it has proven the capacities and operational model —of this small and nimble function and shown that they are fit for purpose. Now is the time to fully institutionalise the Office. Member States are therefore encouraged to support the shift to adequate and predictable resourcing, which is fundamental to the independence, credibility and effectiveness of this critical system-wide accountability function. During this session, I also encourage ECOSOC to consider how best to leverage the work of the Office to strengthen transparency and accountability of the development system, including its own oversight of follow-up to system-wide and entity-specific recommendations and management responses.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:53:32]:

I thank you. I thank the Executive Director. —and now invite the Council to hold a panel discussion on UN system evaluations. I first give the floor to Mr. Arno Peral, Resident Coordinator in the Philippines, to make a statement. You have the floor.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Arnaud Beral [1:53:56]:

Thank you, Vice President, Mr. Chair, distinguished colleagues, members of the panel, representatives of member states, Thank you so much for your attention this last session. I'll try to be brief and to the point. And thank you to my colleague for the presentation on the system-wide evaluation. We need evidences. We need evidences as resident coordinators because we are questioned all the time. Give us the evidence. You are asking us to provide that. We are asking— we are asked by civil society, by the media, by the government we served, by the private sector. We need evidences. We need analysis. And this is what those reports that have been asked to the Office of Evaluation to provide to us, and this is what we are discussing today. In the Philippines, we really welcome the last evaluation on the new generation of UNCTs because it gives at the same time reassuring points and also challenges of what remains to be done. But it's moving in the right directions, and I can report to you, Member States, that it's going in that right direction. On some important issues, like for instance in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, mostly in Mindanao, where there have been terrible conflicts for decades. We can see now evidences of a whole of UN approach working together, bringing the dividends of peace, connecting sustainable development, SDGs programming, and working all together. Also tackling humanitarian needs. And this whole UN approach would have been very impossible before, linking humanitarian, peace, and development together. Now we have this approach. Another example is last year, a landmark law that has been approved and signed by the President of the Philippines is the Declaration of State of Imminent Disaster Act. It's a landmark law that will adopt an anticipatory action lens. It will allow the country to declare national emergency up to 48 hours before a typhoon or disaster happens in the country, unlocking some resources, protecting lives, protecting assets, and enabling everybody to act earlier. With a prevention lens. And this is a law where the whole system, the whole UN system came together with civil society, with government officials to advocate for such an instrument with the lead of WFP, but also FAO, and the whole system came together advocating for this law that has been approved. But again, I mean, those examples are great, but we need independent evaluations to make those cases more compelling and more impactful and to be replicated elsewhere. Too often, our incentives are still vertical. Agencies are asked to report to their own headquarters and head executive boards, raise their own resources, protect their own visibility, and deliver their own indicators.. It is understandable, but accountability for joint results like those I was mentioning before needs to be more widely celebrated and enabled by a strong national leadership, which is the case in the Philippines, and aligned visions between member states at executive board level. So this is why system-wide evaluation matters. It tells us very honestly whether the cooperation framework is really guiding our work. It tells us whether the government sees the UN as one coherent partner. It tells us whether our joint work is changing lives. In the Philippines, we are trying to make this real in BARM, in disaster preparedness, in climate action, in SDG acceleration, and in support to the most vulnerable. But there are so many more areas where we could do even better. System-wide evaluation should continue and be strengthened and fully funded, because it helps us stay honest. It reminds us all that the purpose of reform is not a better UN on paper, but a better UN for the people. Thank you so much.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:58:45]:

I thank Mr. Peralt. I now invite Mr. Pablo Ruiz, Resident Coordinator in Uruguay, to make a statement. You have the floor.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Pablo Ruiz [1:58:56]:

Thank you very much, UN colleagues, Chair, Vice President and colleagues of the panel, distinguished representatives of the Member States. As many of you know more than I do about UNHCR by now, I will focus on sharing insights from my own experience in Uruguay, an experience of unity of the UN Country Team, of trust, and not an experience of fragmentation. Uruguay is a high-income country and that requires a lot of humility. Every dollar that we spend as the UN in the country has to be compared with about $2,000 of GDP of Uruguay. So this gives us an idea of the importance to follow government priorities. This means basically that, you know, our support from a financial perspective is pretty marginal. Yet the UN contribution is vital in other ways: technical advice, support to the 2030 Agenda, normative guidance, and connecting Uruguay with the world, etc. Today, the UN Country Team in Uruguay is not just a group of professionals. It is a group of friends working with a shared objective. That spirit is largely the result of UN reform that you mandated as Member States. Evaluation and learning are central to our work. We take them very seriously. Collectively, we have decided not only to evaluate our cooperation framework, but also to conduct a midterm review a year earlier. This midterm review was not a mandatory thing. We did it because we wanted to reflect on how we could work Better Together. Once we have done that, we have conducted a formal evaluation of the Country Framework and we follow corporate parameters and produce valuable management recommendations, management response, and more than 50% of these commitments have been already implemented, the rest are underway. It is important to say as well that this evaluation, it is for many of the agencies working in Uruguay the only structured opportunity to reflect on their work and improve effectiveness. That said, on the less positive side, we conducted 4 evaluations simultaneously—the country framework and 3 evaluations of CPDs—which the government did not particularly appreciate at the time because they felt there was too much. Ideally, we should aim for a single evaluation with a specific focus areas. Despite these challenges, our UN Country Team—this group of friends I mentioned before—has achieved remarkable things together, often in spite of the current incentive system rather than because of it. We have engaged in discussions about the country's economic and social future, poverty, experimented new avenues for sustainable financing, advised in young work and gender, leaving no one behind, and also advise the government on development risks. Yet, as the evaluation of the new generation of UN Country Teams demonstrates, the UN at its best still faces an invisible adversary: misaligned incentives. This invites us to reflect across all forums where these issues are debated, including ECOSOC, but also UNO Government Bodies—this oversight that Andrea mentioned— in the recommendations. Agency professionals in the field are often required to deliver on internal indicators that risk distorting decision-making. So the messages that you pass are very, very important. I wonder how much more we could have accomplished if those incentives were properly aligned. Together, the UN Country Team in Uruguay analyze, plan, act, and evaluate our work together, exactly, I think, what member states ask us to do under the reform. However, the relevance of this work has to be evaluated externally and has also to be evaluated above all by the government assessment of our collective performance. Finally, I would like to conclude with a request that the work of this Evaluation Office and all the evaluation of the UN continues and is strengthened. It is the best guarantee that common sense and evidence will drive future reforms. And I would like to conclude that, you know, this is also what makes difference human beings from other species: the capacity to learn, to evaluate, and to project to the future. Thank you very much.


ECOSOC · Vice President [2:03:36]:

I thank Mr. Ruiz. I now open the floor to delegations to participate in an interactive discussion. Participants are invited to press the microphone button to indicate their request to intervene. I would like to remind speakers that in order to give all those wishing to speak the opportunity to take the floor, time limit is 2 minutes. That will apply for individual statements and 3 for statements on behalf of groups. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Republic of Korea, to be followed by the United Kingdom and Ireland.


Republic of Korea [2:04:29]:

Thank you, Vice President. The Republic of Korea would like to express its appreciation for the work of UN SDG— system-wide evaluation in conducting independent evaluations of the collective performance of the UNDS. We believe the office's role will be particularly crucial in the context of the ongoing UNAID discussions. The ultimate goal of evaluation is to improve programs and field delivery. Therefore, this critical— not only to to generate evidence for strategic decision-making, but also to ensure that evaluation findings are translated into tangible improvements at the country level, thereby contributing to the achievement of the SDGs. In this regard, the Republic of Korea believes that fostering an evaluation-friendly culture across the UNDS is essential. Such a culture would help embed evaluation findings into the organizational processes and decision-making. It would also strengthen collective learning, enhance development programs, and facilitate the effective allocation of limited resources to the areas of greatest need. Lastly, we believe that securing sustainable and predictable financing for the Office remains important. Continued efforts by the Office will also be critical in this regard. We encourage the Office to conduct demand-driven strategic evaluations, produce credible and high-quality evaluation outputs, and further promote the use of evaluation findings. Such measures will demonstrate the value of system-wide evaluation.


ECOSOC · Vice President [2:06:24]:

I thank the distinguished representative of the Republic of Korea. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the United Kingdom, to be followed by Ireland and Mexico.


United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [2:06:36]:

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the panelists for their contributions to this discussion. The UK very much commends the work undertaken by the System-Wide Evaluation Office and was proud to help on their work over the last year. Independent system-wide evaluation is a vital part of ensuring a credible, effective, and accountable UN development system, one that genuinely learns from evidence and adapts its approach for the greatest impact. The System-Wide Evaluation Office provides clear and valuable insights on system-level issues which cannot be adequately captured through entity-level reviews alone. In doing so, it fills a critical gap in accountability and learning. Recent evaluations illustrate this contribution well. In particular, the evaluation on the new generation of UN country teams showed both where reform had delivered improvements around strategic planning and the resident coordinator system, and where gaps remain between ambition and implementation. The recommendations it made for revitalized strategic, flexible, and results and action-oriented cooperation frameworks were timely and made clear the need to enhance delivery to strengthen implementation build transparency, and reduce transaction costs. It's encouraging that many of the recommendations from this report are reflected in the SG's UN80 initiative and work packages across Workstream 3. The UK supports these inclusions and looks forward to seeing them brought into action. I'll close with two questions. Does the Systemwide Evaluation Office plan to provide further bespoke insights to the specific work packages where their recommendations are included? Secondly, the UK is proud to have been chair of MOPAN this year and thanks the Systemwide Evaluation Office for their participation in a UK-hosted side event with MOPAN at OAS last year. How have the links between MOPAN and Systemwide Evaluation Office work been strengthened in the last year, and what plans, if any, are there for further collaboration in the future?


ECOSOC · Vice President [2:08:25]:

Thank you. I thank the distinguished representative of the United Kingdom. I now give the I'll now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Ireland, to be followed by Mexico and Switzerland.


Ireland [2:08:38]:

Many thanks, Vice President, and thank you, Executive Director of the Sector-Wide Evaluation Office, and to the RCs for the valuable input here this afternoon. Ireland is very happy to support the work of the Sector-Wide Evaluation Office, given the importance that we attach to sector-wide approaches and coherence on the one hand, and the accountability and learning that comes from good evaluation on the other. We are keen to see a more predictable and adequate resourcing of the Office to enable it to fulfill its mandate and act as a hub of evaluative knowledge. This in turn, we believe, can drive reform and future directions. Ireland is keen also to see the follow-up to the evaluation recommendations being taken forward and tracked. The management responses are an integral part of that, committing as they do to the management of the relevant entities and taking those recommendations to action and giant action in areas that may need adjustment, improvement, or further analysis and work. We, as UN Member States, should also be utilizing the evaluations and the recommendations evaluations in our own processes, in the management responsibilities that we have and the decision-making that we have, be it at ECOSOC, at the Executive Boards, in the General Assembly committees, and elsewhere. The work leading to the SDG review next year, for example, will be important in that regard as well. The products of the sector-wide evaluation work are therefore important to share and socialize— and we are happy to see a multi-year evaluation plan for SWEo for 2027 to 2030. Perhaps you might tell us when we would expect to see that and how it will be developed.


ECOSOC · Vice President [2:10:31]:

Thank you very much. I thank the distinguished representative of Ireland. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Mexico, to be followed by Switzerland and Germany.


Mexico [2:10:43]:

Muchas gracias, señor. Thank you very much, Vice President. Mexico is grateful for the presentation of the report and recognizes the work undertaken by the United Nations System Evaluations. We'd like to highlight the significant progress made in 2025, particularly the publication of the report on progress towards a new generation of UN country teams. The evaluation of the 2019 United Nations Strategy for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities and the analytical work aimed at identifying strategic priorities for the implementation of Resolution 79/226 on the QCPR. These evaluations represent a solid basis for identifying opportunities for improvement, strengthening institutional coherence, and guiding ongoing discussions on modernization and strengthening of the system under the framework of the UN80 initiative, as we heard in the presentation. We believe that independent, rigorous, and timely evaluations are essential to ensure that reform processes are guided by evidence and by results obtained at the country level. At the same time, we note the constraints with regard to the availability of resources And this has affected the Office's ability to make progress on some strategic priorities and to produce its reports on schedule. Finally, we reiterate the importance of better decision-making and evaluation is an investment in that. We need greater accountability, more effective implementation of priorities defined by member states in full respect of the principle of national ownership. I thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [2:12:35]:

Ambassadors, representative of Mexico, I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Switzerland, to be followed by Germany and the Outright Action International organization.


Switzerland [2:12:51]:

Thank you. Thank you, Chair, Excellencies.

The system wide evaluation office is now a solidly established and valuable key function of the UN development system.

The report in today's presentation demonstrates this. The system-wide evaluation office provides important learning, accountability, and oversight basis for the UN development system.

We appreciate the evaluations delivered, such as on progress towards a new generation of United Nations Nations country teams that provides key elements on how to accelerate the implementation of the UNDS reforms.

Going forward, the System-Wide Evaluation Office should continue to provide evaluations that support UN leadership and Member States to take evidence-based informed decisions while implementing the UNAID reforms.

It is important that the findings and recommendations of the evaluation reports of the evaluation office are discussed in the ECOSOC and the agency's governing bodies and continue to be integrated systematically in the future OAS program.

It is also important that for the SVEO to fulfill its mandate to receive adequate predictable funding which allows effective multi-year work planning.

Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [2:14:18]:

I thank the distinguished representative of Switzerland. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Germany.


Germany [2:14:28]:

Mr. Vice President, Executive Director Cook, dear Andrea, distinguished delegates, we would like to thank you, Andrea, for the annual report of the Systemwide Evaluation Office and your office's work in second full year of operation. We strongly support SWEO politically and financially. Independent system-wide evaluation is essential for a UN development system that is more coherent, more accountable, and more focused on results. The System-Wide Evaluation Office has already demonstrated its value. The evaluation on progress towards a new generation of UN country teams provides important evidence for the UNADP process, including on cooperation frameworks, UNCT configuration, and the role of the RC system. This is precisely the kind of system-wide evidence Member States need to guide reform. We would like to underline two points. First, evaluation evidence must be used. The publication of evaluation and management responses are important, but the follow-up is the real test. We encourage the government bodies of the UN entities to to make use of SWEO's findings and track implementation of system-wide recommendations. Second, SWEO needs adequate and predictable resources. The report is clear that funding constraints have already delayed evaluation work. If SWEO remains— is to remain credible and independent, its work program should be driven by strategic priorities, not by which evaluations are easiest to finance. Looking ahead, we welcome the upcoming evaluation of the Joint SDG Fund and the UN Food System Coordination Hub, as well as the synthesis of cooperation framework evaluations. These will provide timely evidence on key funding, coordination, and country-level planning mechanisms. Germany will continue to support SWEO as an important instrument for evidence-based oversight, collective learning, and a more efficient UN development system.


ECOSOC · Vice President [2:16:23]:

Thank you. I thank the distinguished representative of Germany and give the floor to the last speaker from civil society, Outright Action International.


Maria Paula [2:16:35]:

Thank you, Chair, for the floor. I am Maria Paula, speaking on behalf of Outright International. I will try to be concise with the following recommendations. First, as Swayo expands its role under the QCPR and UN80, we encourage systemic integration of evaluation findings into the intergovernmental processes. The ECOSOC HLPA review negotiations underway should recognize SWEO evaluations as key inputs for the ECOSOC cycle and the HLPF. Second, given the report's finding that cooperation frameworks have yet to become the central planning instrument envisioned by member states, we call for stronger integration between regional commissions UN country teams, and cooperation frameworks. Furthermore, the regional integrated platforms being rolled out under UNHCR 80 should be closely linked to these efforts and operate based on the development and peace priorities of the regions and countries, rather than being driven by donor priorities. Third and finally, we encourage SWEO to establish stakeholder engagement mechanisms through these evaluations to ensure they benefit from all voices and are grounded in holistic impact assessment, which major groups and stakeholders can contribute towards. We note the upcoming evaluations on Joint SDG Fund, Food Systems Coordination Hub, cooperation frameworks, and SDG transitions in the lead-up to SDG Summit 2027. We welcome the opportunity to contribute to these evaluations as major groups and other stakeholders and other civil society participants. We thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [2:18:19]:

I thank you. And we have one more speaker from Canada. You have the floor.


Canada [2:18:26]:

Thank you, Mr. Vice President.

Canada welcomes the report of the Executive Director of the System-Wide Evaluation Office, and we commend the work done by the office to date. We have for many years been calling for the need for better and stronger data and evidence-based reforms driven by evaluations such as these. In particular, the system-wide UNCT evaluation and the evidence generation— and recommendations it generated, pardon me, including the management response, is precisely why this office was established and specifically to strengthen the reforms of the wider development system. So we really appreciate how much it's done in such a short short period of time. Noting some of the recommendations and findings, the persistent underutilization of cooperation frameworks, which we've been discussing, as well as the particular recommendations to member states, we wonder if in the context of UNAID reforms right now, if the office had to pick sort of a top 1 or top 3 priorities it would encourage us to focus our efforts on in the coming few months, how or where would it direct our efforts?


ECOSOC · Vice President [2:19:32]:

I thank the distinguished representative of Canada, last speaker for this discussion, and now I invite the distinguished panellists to respond to the comments made and questions posed.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Arnaud Beral [2:19:53]:

Thank you. Thank you very much to the member states. It's very reassuring to listen to the different interventions and to recognize the value added from the system-wide evaluations and the different reports, in particular the new generations of country team. And it goes perfectly what we see on the ground with our host country, who also are requiring and asking to have those evidence and those reports. Not only the individual analysis and analysis of impact of the individual agencies, but collective results and collective impact. So it's really reassuring. Just one reflection on the need also to bring this discussion more and more at the Executive Board of the different UN organizations, evaluations and to have those discussions about global and integrated system-wide evaluations of these new generations of country teams. It would really help align our efforts from the global level to the national level. Thank you.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Pablo Ruiz [2:21:10]:

I just want to thank for the opportunity and listen to Andrea carefully. you know, what she has to reflect on that. Thank you.


UNSDG · Executive Director · Andrea Cook [2:21:28]:

Well, thank you very much for the words of encouragement and appreciation for this work. It is very encouraging to see how this new function is landing. So well with member states. And this was also reflected in the fuller informal briefing that we provided for member states earlier in the month of May. Maybe I'll just sort of pick up on a number of the questions that were raised to respond to those. To the UK, In relation to this question around sort of bespoke sort of insights and engagement on UNAT work packages, we have, as I said, provided these extensive briefings to entities and to sort of colleagues who are leading different elements of the UNAT processes on request. We are also available to provide briefing or sort of provide written responses to queries from member states on particular elements to help sort of get to grips with this evidence. But we're not planning any further products that we would sort of issue to inform the ongoing deliberations.— I'd particularly highlight the work that we did with MOPAN last year, that the series of reports that were produced by MOPAN on key issues relating to UN 80 really do sort of embed and integrate not just our evidence, but also other relevant UN evidence which we also facilitated. Maybe just to say a little about some of the work that we're doing to support support at work. So one of the things we're doing at the moment is supporting DCO and UN SDG colleagues as they develop the new cooperation framework guidance, which was a recommendation of the evaluation. We're not engaging in a decision-making role there, but we're playing a role in helping colleagues to understand to understand the evaluation evidence and recommendations and then sort of reflect that in their ongoing work. I'd highlight perhaps an evaluation that I mentioned in the presentation on the Sahel. That will provide some additional insights coming through in July, we expect, specifically to inform the UNHCR work packages plan on the regional reset and the special invoice part of the work packages. And we have also been engaging with the emerging thinking under the work package on strengthening results across the system as well in that work package. Of course, obviously, the evaluation on the UN country teams. That speaks directly to the work packages on UNCT country configuration, but also on the regional dimensions of the reforms. Turning to MOPAN, here we have played an advisory role, as I mentioned, in the reports that they produced at the end of last year on the UNHCT. We also regularly exchange information on the insights that they are learning through their entity-specific assessments. We exchange information on methodological issues, but we also invite Mopan to play a role in our expert advisory groups where we seek experts in particular areas from outside of the UN system to provide insight and challenge to our evaluation work. And we have also played a role in some of the MoPANs' work in a similar role. Turning to Ireland, yes, indeed, the global system-wide evaluation plan for the next 4 years is vitally important. and a number of you have emphasized the importance that we are focusing our scarce and valuable resources on issues of the, the most critical strategic priorities. So that has to be driven through a solid analysis, a consultation, and a careful prioritization, which we would seek to deliver both with the UN SDG as our internal sort of coordination body system-wide, but also with member states. And we will seek a way to be able to organize some consultation as we go into this work over the next 6 months, but also as we come to an end to help us to come up with the priorities. And again, many of you have emphasized to be able to move in this direction,, we do need the predictable, um, and adequate financing. We plan to issue that, uh, that plan in early 2027, and there'll be fuller details of it in our 2027 annual report. Um, a number of you have, have mentioned the, the importance of the follow-up. And of course, being able to have systems in place to track the follow-up is vital. For that, we need to put in place a database application that enables entities to be able to provide sort of updates on progress against the actions that they have agreed or partially agreed in a very timely, user-friendly manner.. But of course, investing in those kind of systems again requires predictable financing. It's not an undertaking we can take at the moment with the volatile sort of extra budgetary contributions. We also plan to provide a series of reports, perhaps 2 or 3 years after we have issued an evaluation report and there's been a management response to actually provide an analytical report that would be for the consideration of ECOSOC and governing bodies that would then facilitate a follow-up on which areas have there been progress and where there are areas that still to be tackled. And that would be something we would start to try to integrate in our program of work next year. Turning to the issues raised in relation to stakeholder engagement, I'd like to highlight that all of our evaluations have extensive stakeholder engagement both in the Key informant interviews, the kind of focus group discussions that we use, which is the qualitative part of the data collection for our evaluations. We also extensively use the surveys that are produced by the UN system and conduct surveys ourselves that are targeted to relevant stakeholders. Stakeholders, both from within the UN and beyond, to bring, as you said, this very important perspective of civil society and major groups into our work. Within our preparation for the global system-wide evaluation plan, we are perhaps considering a form of sort of external engagement so that— a wider range of interlocutors than simply member states and UN system entities can provide insights on critical priorities that we may consider in future. Turning to Canada, I think this point about— and to Switzerland— the point raised about embedding system-wide evaluation considerations and follow-up in the work of governing bodies is critical. We do know that the bulk of development system expenditure is channeled through the agencies' funds and programs. So— and this is a recommendation that came out of the New Generation of Country Teams evaluation. Was to really promote member states to ensure consistency and coherence in engagement in bodies such as the Economic and Social Council, in the committees of the General Assembly, but also in the governing bodies of the agencies, funds, and programs. You raise an important question, Canada, about the kind of what we would consider consider as the critical priorities in the coming months in relation to UNHCT? Well, very rooted in the evidence and particularly the evaluation of the new generation of country teams, I think we would really highlight the work packages that relate to country configuration is fundamental and driving forward progress and decision-making there. On the different work packages relating to the regional reset, that is also fundamental. We also consider that the work on the expertise on demand is fundamental to be deploying the capacities of the system, particularly for non-resident entities. That is vital to meet the more specialized needs of, of national partners. And we'd also— I suppose this is particularly coming into focus with the work we're doing at the moment on the Sahel— the work packages that start to work out how to bring the humanitarian and the development sides of the system into stronger connection and coherence is also really vital. I think with that I would just like to end and thank everyone for for, as I said, the helpful comments, reflections, and above all, the encouragement that you've provided and advice this past 2 years.


ECOSOC · Vice President [2:32:51]:

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Executive Director. We have reached the end of the discussion. I would like to thank all our guest speakers and participants for their valuable contributions. We have come to the end of this afternoon meeting. I would like to once again thank delegations for active engagement throughout this afternoon. The Council will reconvene tomorrow morning at 10 AM in this chamber for a dialogue with host government's resident coordinators and UN country teams. The meeting is adjourned.