UN Transcripts — https://transcripts.un.org/es/ecosoc/2025/16
Economic and Social Council: 16th plenary meeting - 2025 Operational Activities for Development Segment, Day 1 — Economic and Social Council — 20 May 2025
Language: en
Automatically generated transcript — may contain errors. Not an official United Nations record.

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ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [0:01]:

Okay, welcome. I call to order the 16th meeting of the Economic and Social Council and declare open the operational activities for Development Segment and its 2025 session. I now invite the Council to begin its consideration of the Agenda Item 7, Operational Activities of the United Nations for International Development Cooperation. And its sub-items Follow-up to the Policy Recommendations of the General Assembly and the Council, and South-South Cooperation for Development. Madam Deputy Secretary-General, welcome. Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, colleagues. It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the 2025 Operational Activities for Development segment of the Economic and Social Council. I extend a warm welcome to all delegations, UN agencies and Resident Coordinators who have gathered here, both in person and online, to engage in this critical dialogue. This segment is one of the most important platforms for reviewing the effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and results of the United Nations Development System. It is also where we shape its future. The Pact for the Future, adopted at last year's Summit, has set out pathways for strengthened multilateralism that support the 2030 Agenda. However, the Secretary-General's 2025 Report is clear: while reforms have strengthened the coherence, responsiveness and effectiveness of the UN Development System, Urgent action is still needed to scale up support, address persisting funding gaps, and ensure impact at country level. The theme guiding this year's segment, "Keeping the Promise of Sustainable Development in Times of Uncertainty: The United Nations Development System Delivering for Results," could not be more relevant. This segment will focus on assessing the progress made by the United Nations Development System in implementing the mandates of the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review. It will provide a critical opportunity to shape the new QCPR cycle and offer clear direction for the development system as we enter the final stretch before 2030. Distinguished delegates, colleagues, our discussions will draw on the evidence-based report of the Secretary-General on QCPR implementation,, as well as the Annual Report of the Chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group on the Development Coordination Office and the Resident Coordinator System, including their annexes. Through a focused dialogue with the Executive Heads of the United Nations Development System entities, we will explore how they are aligning their strategic plans with the 2024 QCPR priorities and adapting their operations to better support countries in a time of global crises and financial constraints. We will hear directly from the UN country teams and their partners about how the UN system is helping to unlock financing and investment for the SDGs at the country level. This includes efforts to strengthen integrated national financing frameworks, mobilize public and private finance, and foster catalytic partnerships tailored to diverse national contexts. The segment will also include critical dialogue on the effective accountability. We will engage in the— with the Systemwide Evaluation Office and the other oversight bodies on recent evaluations, review progress toward the systemwide evaluation policy that can improve coherence, transparency, and learning across the system. The discussion on accountability will include an important aspect on the approach that the system is taking to prevent and respond to the sexual exploitation abuse and sexual harassment. Furthermore, we will delve into how the development system can better support countries implementing the SDGs in complex settings, especially where development and peacebuilding efforts must be interlinked for lasting results. A final session will focus on discussing how to embed durable solutions for internally displaced persons into development planning and ensure sustained engagement across the United Nations system and beyond, a discussion which is directly linked with the 2024 QCPR. Most importantly, however, we will hear from the United Nations Member States how the system functions at the country level, how to cooperate with partners, and what are the main lessons learned. We will hear experiences from the very different realities, including these of the Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States, and Landlocked Developing Countries. Constant exploration of those realities is an imperative of the United Nations Development System if it's to effectively deliver on the ground. Let me underscore that the segment will not stop at looking at what has been achieved so far or where challenges have persisted. This year's segment also looks to the future, marking the beginning of the new QCPR cycle. The segment will continue to provide UN Member States guidance on the QCPR implementation and ensure and oversight role of the reformed Resident Coordinator System. The discussion we will have here will directly contribute to these key milestones, as it is essential that our shared ambition leads to tangible, accelerated progress on the ground. Excellencies, colleagues, in closing let me briefly refer to a concept very dear to my own country: resilience. We must strengthen resilience of societies and institutions. Whether confronting poverty and hunger, climate change, conflicts, pandemic aftershocks, or the cost-of-living crisis, our development approach must be preventive, inclusive, as well as rooted in local leadership and partnerships. The UN Development System is uniquely positioned to help countries build this resilience, if we ensure it has the tools, resources and flexibility to deliver. We meet at a pivotal moment. As the United Nations celebrates its 80th anniversary, we are also entering the final stretch towards 2030. The global community has made progress, yet too many of our ambitions remain unrealized. Development gaps persist, and the new challenges—geopolitical, economic, and environmental—continue to strain the capacities of our institutions. The task before us is not simply to do more, but to do better. Faster, in ways that are transformative and accountable. Let this week be one of clarity, ambition and resolve to guide the UN Development System that is fit for purpose, responsive, empowered and accountable, and able to support all countries in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. I look forward to our deliberations, welcome you again. Thank you so much. Now I invite the Council to view a video by the Development Coordination Office on the work of the UN Development System, its Resident Coordinators and the UN Country Teams in support of countries before we start our deliberations. Please play the video.


Speaker 2 [7:29]:

Look around. Real progress is not just possible. It's already underway. From innovation to education, countries have laid the groundwork for safer, more inclusive societies. This progress didn't happen by chance. It took determination, clarity, coordination, and commitment. Yet poverty, inequality, conflicts, debt, and climate shocks continue to test the world's resilience. Now is the time to scale up action on the Sustainable Development Goals. Investing in development isn't just the right thing to do; it's the smartest investment in peace, dignity, and economic prosperity. The UN is supporting countries to deliver real results for people and planet. Under the leadership of Resident Coordinators, UN country teams are driving real change where it matters most. Through the UN's collective efforts, 206 million people have now better access to social protection, health and education, and digital connectivity. In 60 countries, UN teams brought together their assets and capacities to make transport systems greener, more inclusive, and better funded. UN teams enabled 221 million people, over half of them women, to access financial services that boost livelihoods in 52 countries. Development isn't optional. It's the backbone of progress. Without it, economies weaken, societies become fragile, and peace slips further away. That's why the UN is acting, with the Resident Coordinator System mobilizing the full strength of UN country teams to harness innovation, financing, technologies, solutions, and partnerships to take action to scale. The mission is clear: turn every investment into lasting, inclusive progress. That's how we build a fairer, stronger, and more prosperous world. For everyone, everywhere.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [9:35]:

Thank you.

Well done. Now I welcome, and it is our honor to welcome the presence in the meeting of the Deputy Secretary-General and the Chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group, Her Excellency Amina Mohammed, and I invite her to deliver opening remarks. Madam DSG, you have the floor.


UN · DSG; Chair of UNSDG · Amina Mohammed [9:54]:

Thank you very much. Vice Chair of ECOSOC, Excellencies, I continue to deeply appreciate the opportunity to join this segment as the DSG, but much more importantly as the Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Group that represents over 42 agencies, funds, and programs and does an enormous amount of work to try to fulfill those ambitions of the SDGs and many more. Therefore, this segment really does embody the partnership needed to strengthen the UN Development System. I'd like to thank the ECOSOC Bureau, especially the Vice Chair, Ambassador Szydowski, and his members for your continued engagement and leadership. I would also like to give a special welcome to our Youth Representative, Chelsea Antoine. We look very much forward to hearing your voice. The operational activities for Development Segment of the Economic and Social Council still remains one of the most significant segments of ECOSOC. This segment plays a vital oversight role in reviewing how the UN development system is delivering on the promise to support countries in delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals. We're meeting at a pivotal moment where the stakes could not be higher. Last year, Member States were united in the Pact for the Future and in their commitment to strengthen collective efforts to turbocharge the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Following this momentous signal of unity, Member States adopted the 2024 Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review , a landmark resolution that sets the strategic direction for the UN Development System over the next 4 years. The QCPR reflects a shared ambition to build on the progress that has been achieved since the 2018 repositioning of the development system. The 2024 QCPR reaffirms the central role of sustainable development in the work of the UN, and of course the urgency of accelerating action to meet the immediate and longer-term needs of our countries. Member States gave critical guidance to strengthen coordination across the system, challenged us to deepen transparency and accountability, and sought to breathe new life into the ECOSOC/OAS segment. We will rise to your challenge, and in return, we ask that you continue to deepen your engagement in this session. OAS is a critical platform for member states to hold the system accountable for results and to share the lessons learned and offer guidance that helps translate policy into impact on the ground. This segment is key to ensuring that resident coordinators have the tools and the backing they need to lead— and that UN country teams are equipped to deliver coherent support, that development system is more strategic, efficient, effective, and results-oriented. I'd like to underscore here that the Resident Coordinator's coordination, convening, and leveraging for the scale and the urgency that is needed to achieve the SDGs, but in the same time, the kind of support that we will need for UN country teams— that will have to rise to operationalize that support that is needed for our countries. We hope to see UNATI in the coming weeks and months playing a role in making that more efficient and effective. Quality funding and financing continue to be significant enablers of a unified country team. The six transformative pathways are a means of enabling an effective and strategic response in any country. Critical investments with a catalytic impact are needed across food systems, energy access and affordability, digital connectivity, education, jobs and social protection, and climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. The reverberating impact of these investments are needed now more than ever. UN80 is a further opportunity to strengthen our work in this respect. I look forward to your engagement throughout this week as we collectively seek to drive forward ambition on the SDGs that would leave no one behind. Together we have the opportunity, and we have the responsibility, to ensure that the UN Development System delivers fully on the promise for people, for planet, as we work towards a safer, more sustainable and prosperous world. Over the course of the next year, there are further opportunities for the international community to ground multilateral ambition. Through the Fourth International Development Conference, on financing for development, we seek to agree steps that will unlock large-scale SDG investment to put the goals back on track and to reform the international financial architecture to make it more inclusive and effective in dealing with the shocks and the crises. And we are watching closely to the ambitions that we hope will come out of the current G7 Finance Ministers' Meeting in Canada. The Food Systems Stocktake +4, the countries will come together to discuss how to move from plans to action, unlocking strategic investments for food systems transformation across all its dimensions—jobs, nutrition, adaptation to climate change—in partnership with the private sector and IFIs. Our co-hosts in Italy and Ethiopia are driving this forward on the continent and beyond. In the World Social Summit, we look to go beyond what was agreed in Copenhagen and agree to commitments to strengthen the three pillars of social development as articulated in the SDGs. And we look forward to seeing all of you in Doha. At COP30 later this year, we seek to bridge the gap between Baku and Belém by agreeing on actions that can mobilize the $1.3 trillion annually in climate finance by 2035. We will build on the updated nationally determined contribution plans presented by member states mainstreaming climate adaptation, mitigation, and resilience plans across all sectors of the economy. Our host Brazil has already begun those— that strategic push with getting the economies and a green economy effectively up and running. I hope that you take the most out of this segment as we will be listening and we will be taking on board your concerns, your reflections, your ideas, asking us the hard questions, sharing your guidance, and pressing us to go even further. As I come out of Angola, where we held a meeting of all the RCs in Africa, it was evident that progress has been made, but expectations are so much higher given the crisis that we find ourselves in. I believe that we have the tools, we have member states' commitments and frameworks to help us navigate this. We're determined to work with you on this as we move forward towards achieving the 2030 Agenda. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [16:45]:

I thank the Deputy Secretary General for her statement.

As I declared in the beginning, it is the forward-looking segment, not just reviewing of what was achieved.

So, with this mood of forward-looking, I invite our next speaker, Madame Chelsea Antoine. Representing the Caribbean Regional Youth Council and the Major Group for Children and Youth, to make a statement during the opening segment.

Please.


MGCY · Youth Representative · Chelsea Antoine [17:17]:

Thank you, Chair, for the floor. Excellencies, it is my distinct honor to address you today both as a youth from Trinidad and Tobago and as a representative of the Major Group for Children and Youth. MGCY is the UN-mandated youth constituency that engages more than 20,000 youth organizations in over 60 intergovernmental and 200 multi-stakeholder processes. Let us ground ourselves in the theme of this segment: Keeping the Promise of Sustainable Development. For children and youth who are on the front lines of every human development challenge, the promise is deeply personal. It needs to be the UN's commitment that no matter where we are from, Children and youth have a right to be a space in shaping the systems that shape our lives. That includes how the UN system operates, reports, and holds itself accountable in working with and alongside the people it serves. Excellencies, successful action is inclusive action, and transparency is the operational foundation. As we shape the lead-up to the UN@80, let me share these observations reflecting the experiences of thousands of youth organizations. First, we have seen the UN development system working to keep that promise across the Caribbean and globally. The UN has invested in youth leadership via capacity building, advocacy, and mechanisms to engage directly with policy processes. Children and youth are increasingly involved in voluntary national reviews, co-authoring civil society inputs, writing shadow reports, and pushing for youth-specific targets to be reflected in the national SDG process. However, the data is clear: youth organizations are often the missing implementators. Youth-led organizations receive less than 1% of UN procurement contracts. This limits both their ability to scale innovative solutions and their ability to engage as right holders. This is why youth engagement in UN system accountability is critical, particularly through the QCPR and reporting structures and deeper youth engagement in national-level implementation. Second, the QCPR calls for greater coherence, inclusivity, and effectiveness across the UN development system. Youth engagement is fundamental here. We highlight the need for UN country teams to engage with universal structures that are youth-led and not hand-picked, that reflect broad diversity of youth on national level. Youth engagement cannot be tokenistic, not only because youth are right holders, but also because we all miss out on the benefits of diverse youth voices and solutions. Those benefits only obtained from engagement that is institutionalized long-term and fully resourced. We also call upon UN country teams to ensure more programmatic coherence generally, especially on climate action. Third, as we commemorate the UN at 80, we highlight that this must build on and not discard the progress we achieved during the UN at 70 process. Excellencies, the future of multilateralism cannot be built upon military-industrial complex. In 2024, the global defense spending reached $2.46 trillion, while $100 billion per year on the climate finance goal was not met, and the UN saw a liquidity crisis. We call upon member states not to invest in warfare, but were to invest in the future and thereby the UN's ability to deliver critical assistance to children and youth globally. We also call upon an immediate and permanent ceasefire to all conflicts globally. Fourth, the UN ECOSOC Youth Forum, the largest convening of young people in the UN last month, had produced concrete youth-led recommendations which must be carried into decision-making spaces —from RC offices to UN agencies, from national SDG councils to QCPR follow-up. As we open this operational activities segment, we celebrate progress. Yet, we must also challenge ourselves and the system to go further, especially for those in the Global South, in fragile and vulnerable settings, and communities where voices remain on the margins. If we are truly committed to keeping the promise of sustainable development, That requires investing in those who are carrying the promise forward. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [22:07]:

I thank Ms. Antoine for the sharp and concrete message to us.

Thank you so much for your statement. Excellencies, colleagues, that concludes the opening segment. We will now take a short pause and invite the panelists in the interactive dialogues to take their seats at the podium, so please remain seated. It's just a So, um, short pause.

Okay, I think we got the panellists in the room and panellists online.

So the Council will now hold the two interactive dialogues on the topic Supporting the Frontlines of Operational Activities for Development: Messages from the Field. In this session, we will hear from the Programme Country Governments across different country contexts and their UN Development System partners in two panels. The first will include speakers sharing their experience of the development system's integrated support for national development pathways to eradicate poverty and address critical sustainable development challenges in their specific country context. In the second panel, speakers will share how the UN Country Teams' support countries to obtain the necessary means of implementation to achieve the SDGs and also provide stronger results, including through implementation of the new Funding Compact for more effective and efficient delivery. So I'm pleased to welcome the panelists, as I said, here and online. I also welcome most warmly the moderator, Her Excellency Ingawanda King, the Permanent Representative of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and I invite her to moderate the panel presentation. Excellency, the floor is yours.

We are in your hands.


Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Permanent Representative · Rhonda King [26:31]:

Thank you, Vice President. Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, partners, and guests, good morning and welcome to Session 2 of the Economic and Social Council Operational Activities Segment for 2025. It is a privilege to moderate today's session, which centers on a vital theme: supporting the frontlines of operational activities for development. I want to begin my opening remarks with a personal experience. I want to acknowledge with deep gratitude the responsiveness of the UN system, starting with the Secretary-General himself, during the 2020 volcanic eruption in my country, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. In one of our darkest hours, the Resident Coordinator System, with its regional— offices located in Bridgetown, Barbados— proved its worth, mobilized swiftly, coordinated effectively, and ensured that our people were not alone. The solidarity shown was not only institutional, it was human, immediate, and deeply felt. This I say from the depths of my heart. We saw this repeated last year in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl. With that said, this session offers a timely opportunity to hear directly from program countries spanning least developed countries, small island developing states, landlocked developing countries, and middle-income countries and their united nations' development system partners. It is a space to take stock of how the renewed guidance from Member States in the 2024 QCPR General Assembly Resolution A/79/226 is being translated into meaningful action on the ground. Our dialogue today is grounded in field realities and shaped by Lived experiences, it is also future-facing. We aim not only to celebrate achievements but to identify challenges, deepen understanding, and inform ongoing efforts to strengthen UN support in diverse country contexts. We will do this through two interactive dialogues. The first dialogue will focus on national development pathways and how the UN development system is supporting countries in their efforts to eradicate poverty, achieve food insecurity, empower women and girls, create decent jobs, expand social protection, close digital divides, and build resilience to climate change and disaster risks. We will also reflect on how repositioning the UN Development System has enabled more integrated, innovative, and tailored support. The second dialogue will focus on means of implementation— and sorry, my computer is dancing around, so let me go to my written text. The second dialogue will focus on means of implementation, examining how the UN is helping program countries strengthen national capacities through institutional, regulatory, financial, and data-driven support. We will explore how countries are leveraging funding, the Funding Compact 2.0, and other mechanisms to mobilize resources, enhance coherence, and accelerate SDG progress. Throughout both dialogues, I encourage all speakers to share practical examples and concrete results, especially those arising from joint actions with UN entities and partners. Please also feel free to highlight persistent gaps and emerging needs. Our learning is often strongest where the challenges are clearest. To ensure an inclusive and dynamic exchange, I kindly ask all speakers to keep within the allotted time. I will assist in keeping us on track, and I thank you in advance for your clarity and brevity. Let us make the most of this opportunity to share, learn, and sharpen our collective efforts to deliver sustainable development where it matters most. On the front lines. We will now begin our first interactive dialogue, which focuses on how the UN Development System is supporting country-led development pathways aimed at eradicating poverty and addressing key sustainable development priorities. We will hear how UN country teams are working alongside national partners to deliver results in areas such as food security, gender equality, digital inclusion, climate resilience, and social protection. I invite you, the panelists, to reflect on the following two guiding questions: How has the UN Development System helped catalyze policy change in support of national development priorities? And what lessons from your country's experience might be useful to others? We will begin with our distinguished speakers, but again, I would like to remind our panelists that in order to keep the session engaging and allow sufficient time for member states to speak from the floor, we kindly ask speakers to keep their opening remarks concise and no longer than 4 minutes. I now invite our first panelist, His Excellency Mr. Marcelo Elicio Scappini Ricciardi, Permanent Representative of Paraguay. Ambassador Ricciardi, within your country's context, how has the UN Development System helped in catalyzing policy changes for key national development priorities, and in doing so, how that addressed national challenges. Additionally, what lessons can you share from your country's experience with UN Development in driving policy changes for sustainable development. The floor is now yours, Ambassador Ricciardi.


Paraguay · Permanent Representative · Marcelo Elicio Scappini Ricciardi [34:13]:

Muchas gracias. Thank you very much. President, Vice President Pekosok, Madam Moderator, Ambassador Ronda, first of all, I would like to point out that at a time when multilateralism is being subjected to questioning, the topic which we are discussing today is especially relevant. And I would like to welcome the opportunity to be able to share how the UN Development System has contributed to promoting public development policies in Paraguay. I'd like you to know that technical cooperation among— between Paraguay and the different UN agencies goes back more than 50 years. We've had some offices that have been in our country for 40, 54 years, and we've been working with the UN in Paraguay. So it gives you the idea of the synergy between Paraguay and the United Nations. Now, this work has taken place in two dimensions. There is the dimension which has primarily substantive that basically deals with the problems to be resolved with an important methodological framework. From the methodological point of view, allow me to tell you, first of all, that the United Nations has provided to my country, as to many of you, many of your countries, they have given us the tools and the adequate guidelines to be able to carry out our own public policies based on parameters which are multilateral, ilaterally agreed to. Now, they're not— compliance has not been mandatory, but it's given a horizon to be able to base the development of our public policies. And so, as a result, we've developed development plans at the national level for 2030, first of all, and 2050, keeping as a reference the multilateral instruments which are negotiated in New York as well as other places. Now, from the methodological point of view, I'd like to say that everything that is being done in Paraguay with the cooperation of the UN has always favored a participatory approach. Cooperation frameworks and programs have been drawn up with broad consultation processes which are systematic with national authorities at different levels, at the departmental level, local governments, municipalities, and as much as possible— I say as much as possible— we try to incorporate civil society, not because the government cannot, but because unfortunately our government, like other governments in general, our government don't always have the full support and the full trust of civil society. That's something that we have to acknowledge. States and governments, we have a commitment to be able to win that trust on the part of agents of civil society with our daily efforts. The government is making an effort. We have some success in this, it's true. And in that work, the United Nations, through its agencies, has also helped us to secure the strengthening of the connections and links that the government of Paraguay has as a state with the civil society agents and with this dynamic as participatory as possible. We are working on different fronts. And here I'd like to point out that what is good— what is good to point out based on the experience that I said of more than 50 years of experience with UN agencies, we've had very successful experiences, successful with the UNDP that has coordinated around the four pillars defined by the government as priorities— quality jobs, health, food, quality education, and civic security as well. The FAO has an important presence as well in Paraguay, and we have important plans to reduce rural poverty and inequality through the strengthening of sustainable food systems. And we also have a country program framework of 2025 2029, which is currently existing, and this has been developed with the FAO, as I said. With the UNFPA, we have a very strong emphasis, strong focus on designing data for the generation of public policies based on scientific evidence, and we do agree with the UN agencies that Informed decision-making based on science is important to respond publicly to the real needs of our population. In terms of specific results, we have the National Plan to Reduce Poverty, recently updated through a participatory approach, as I was saying, that includes farmers, Indigenous peoples, and we have 19 Indigenous population groups that represent roughly 5% of the total of the total population. And this plan includes the multidimensional poverty and has made it possible to increase our monetary transfers by 25%. In terms of social inclusion, I'd like to point out that we have been promoting a national care plan with the support of UN Women. And this is a policy which is based on the principles of universality, shared responsibility, and it is also gender-based, seeking to achieve social justice from a participatory point of view. With UNICEF, we've had a food program and UNICEF as well for children. We have reached the SDG in malnutrition and infant mortality. But as I said earlier, we have to emphasize not the success but rather the challenges that remain. We have— a structural status that we share with other countries in the United Nations. We are a landlocked country, and that means that we have rather high logistical costs, which limits our competitiveness and our development capability. And that's why we place great importance on the program of action for landlocked countries, which is led by, by the subsecretary of the United Nations. So we have a broad experience which I could speak about in the question and answer session, and I'm ready to answer questions there. But I'd like to conclude by making a couple of comments in order to be able to improve things in the future. We believe that the programs with the United Nations and field agencies must have a greater operative flexibility, which would allow agencies or programs to adapt themselves quickly to changing contexts in the field. And we also believe that there is a rather cumbersome bureaucracy that doesn't help when it comes to drawing up reports and assessments, and perhaps we should make an effort to reduce those administrative burdens, which we know are very important, but sometimes they could make things difficult on the ground. And lastly, I'd like to stress the need to strengthen the role of the Resident Coordinator and to provide the sufficient resources so that we— that they will truly have authority and could promote true coordination among the agencies in the country. Thank you very much.


Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Permanent Representative · Rhonda King [42:10]:

I thank Ambassador Ricciardi. For his presentation. I will now invite our remaining two presenters in this session who will come to us virtually. Ms. Geeta Sabharwal, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Indonesia. In which areas Ms. Geeta, has UN support offered high value-add, and what lessons are there for managing country teams to deliver in other countries? The floor is yours, Madam Geeta.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Geeta Sabharwal [42:58]:

Thank you, moderator. It's an honor to serve as the UN Resident Coordinator in Indonesia, an upper middle-income country with clarity of vision, purpose, and ambition for its national development, which is closely aligned to the SDGs. The UN in-country strategically accelerates this development pathway by focusing its value-add on offering scale and pace for SDG acceleration. To do this, the country team brings to bear cutting-edge expertise and science-backed solutions while leveraging partnerships and innovative finance with government, private sector, and banks. Let me explain what this means. His Excellency President Prabowo's government has prioritized boosting human capital, food, and energy security premised on an ambitious growth trajectory. A flagship nutritious meals program for children and pregnant women is key to this transformative agenda, with the aim of reaching 83 million people. The UN, through UNICEF, WFP, and WHO, is providing coordinated technical assistance on food safety, developing local food value chains, using satellite imagery to identify kitchen locations and designing and testing delivery models for remote islands. The UN leverages this national program in partnership with the government to bridge the development divides by contributing to eliminating malnutrition while empowering communities. At the same time, Indonesia's strategy for energy security is is founded on a just transition which aims to scale up renewables and reduce GHGs by 43% by 2030. As part of this, the UN, through UNOPS and UNDP, is investing in the conversion of the country's largest grid into a smart grid. We lend technical assistance to digitize control centers and introduce smart meters to integrate the inherent variability of renewables. Partnering with the private sector, the UN is also investing in community-managed solar and mini hydro off-grid solutions for remote islands. Last year, over 130,000 households were reached, unlocking the market for green jobs and community-led low-cost energy solutions. Transformative initiatives like this require innovative finance. To that end, the UN is leveraging Indonesia's leadership on blended finance to close the SDG financing gap. By leveraging SDG bonds, blue bonds, and green sukuk, we partnered with the government enabled to unlock close to— to mobilize close to $11.6 billion in support of sustainable agriculture, marine conservation, biofortification, and cash transfers. And this has been enabled by the SDG Joint Fund and contributed to reducing emissions by a little over a percentage point and deliver direct benefits to 42 million people. Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to meet with the governor of Riau Province, who is leading a readiness assessment to access high-integrity-based results payments for sustainable forest management. In support of this, UNEP is establishing a system for emission monitoring reporting and verification of carbon credits, along with environmental and social safeguards. This will unlock private financing towards meeting NDC targets. Our experience tells us that the UN Country Teams deliver best when it focuses its capabilities and fully aligns behind national priorities and plans. Plans while building coalitions of shared purpose. This is possible with a clear compass guiding the direction of travel, the Indonesia-UN Consultative Forum. This forum serves as a coordination platform for a whole-of-government and whole-of-UN approach, with the voluntary national reviews providing the analytics to inform areas for further SDG acceleration.. It is only through this that we can deliver the scale and pace to commensurate with the ambition of Indonesia. Thank you very much, moderator.


Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Permanent Representative · Rhonda King [48:09]:

Thank you, Ms. Sabharwal, for your presentation. I now invite Ms. Amanda Mukwashi, United Nations Resident Coordinator, Lesotho. The floor is yours. But before we— we are inviting you now to also share your experience within country, both from the perspective of value-add and lessons learned. The floor is now yours, Ms. Mukwashi.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Amanda Mukwashi [48:43]:

Thank you very much, Moderator. Excellencies, distinguished delegates. Uh, first of all, let me just say that I am grateful for the opportunity to share on how, as a UN system, through our strategic coordination, policy alignment, and joint programming, the UN in Lesotho is helping the country to advance its development trajectory. I will, um, in my presentation highlight a few of the achievements, uh, in supporting national policy and development priorities in line with the 2030 Agenda, um, and the six UN system-wide transitions. Lesotho is a nation of remarkable resilience and potential, and yet it continues to face complex development challenges, challenges that have been made more acute by shifting global dynamics including changes in international trade and reductions in official development assistance. The country's plans to transition its water, its abundance of water resources into, um, into revenue through export of water, through translation into hydropower, solar power, wind power, as well as data centers that would generate employment opportunities for the over 60% of the population in rural areas that remain underserved, and at least one in every young person that is unemployed, still remain unrealized but provide an investment opportunity for all. Let me also flag up that the country continues to grapple with climate shocks, food insecurity, gender-based violence, and fragile institutions. The UN and the government of Lesotho have co-created and co-designed the Cooperation Framework 2024-2028 to meet the specific circumstances of Lesotho as expressed in its country's National Strategic Development Plan. In 2024, following the declaration of a national food emergency caused by El Niño, the UN chaired the humanitarian country team and worked with the Disaster Management Authority to coordinate a response. Through this, The UN was able to secure $2 million in self-funding, but this allowed us to reach over 350,000 people with life-saving support. A joint high-level mission by the Rome-based agencies invited by His Majesty King Letse III resulted in the mobilization of another $5 million from FAO to boost climate-resilient agriculture and strengthen food systems. It is through working together as a UN country team and coordinating our efforts with different government departments and different development partners that helps us to leverage as much resources as we can for a country that does not have access to, um, a lot of external funding. These are just a few of the high-impact, high-value support that we delivered to accelerate SDG implementation. The UN also plays a key policy convening role, leading the Development Partners Coordination Forum to align support, address pressing challenges, and respond to emerging opportunities, including SDG financing. But I want to highlight in the area of governance where, as a UN team, we are supporting Lesotho's national reforms process, which addresses 7 critical areas: constitutional, parliamentary, judicial, public service, security, media, and social economic reforms. Some examples of results delivered Based on the strong partnership between the government, UN agencies, and other development partners such as SADAC and the EU, includes the enactment of the Counter Domestic Violence Act and the passing of the 10th Constitutional Amendment Bill by the National Assembly, now under Senate review. If passed, the 10th Amendment will enable realization of a National Human Rights Commission, significantly strengthening the country's governance architecture and extending access to justice for many Vasuthu. Let me end by saying this: the UN is also accompanying the government to, um, establish and access innovative financing supporting climate and SDG-aligned investments. A standout is our multi-stakeholder gender-based violence program, which brings together multilateral partners, IFIs, government, civil society, and the private sector, coordinated by the UN Resident Coordinator and supported by other UN agency expertise. From Lesotho's experience, several key lessons emerge for, for UN country teams elsewhere. One is that national ownership and co-leadership are essential for legitimacy, for trust, and program— and sustainability. Two, integrated policy support and inclusive dialogue enable agile and adaptive programming. And three, effective convening by the UN Resident Coordinator, supported by the specific expertise of UN agencies, IFIs, and other development partners, enhances collective impact. Last but not least, a whole-of-society approach engaging civil society, the private sector, and communities, especially in a small landlocked country like Lesotho, which is a sovereign enclave, are critical for developing— for delivering systemic change. I thank you.


Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Permanent Representative · Rhonda King [55:25]:

I thank Ms. Mukwashi for her presentation. That brings us to the end of our first dialogue, and allow me then to thank our speakers for their insightful remarks. What we have heard this morning thus far are highlights regarding the importance of country leadership supported by cohesive, well-aligned UN development system engagement across the different contexts. A common thread has emerged where Progress has been made. It is the result of strong national ownership, supported by integrated value-added contributions from UN country teams. We have seen how the repositioned UN development system can act as a catalyst, bringing together expertise, fostering partnerships, and offering platforms calls for joined-up action across sectors, the stories we have heard remind us that tailored, context-specific approaches are not only possible, they are essential. So as we transition to the next dialogue, we are mindful of the lessons shared here about co-creation policy, innovation, systems-level collaboration, and resource mobilization, which are key to delivering the SDGs where they matter most. So thank you once again to our panelists. So we now turn to our second dialogue, where we will explore how the UN Development System is helping program countries strengthen their means of implementation. Implementation, from scaling national policies and institutions to financing data and digital transformation. So, as we speak, I'm encouraging you to consider what lessons from your country's experience are transferable, particularly in capacity building in data and digital ecosystems, and how has the Funding Compact 2.0 been utilized to support joint resource mobilization and increase the impact of UN country team support? Let us now hear from our panel of speakers. I begin with His Excellency Mr. Tesfaye Yilma Sabo, the Permanent Representative on of Ethiopia, who is on my right. The floor is yours, Ambassador.


Ethiopia · Permanent Representative · Tesfaye Yilma Sabo [58:15]:

Thank you, Moderator, and thank you, distinguished Vice President, for creating this opportunity. I am basically— it's not my expertise to speak on this kind of subject, but then I consulted with the UN team, consulted with my development team in Addis, and came up with 3 areas. One, ownership of the economic development agenda in the country.— that's what matters. Everything should be anchored on that ownership element. Then, within that, we have the integrated financing framework. That's UN Financing Compact 2.0, related aspect. So World Bank, others, international financial institutions come into that towards achieving the SDGs. SDG-related goals are set by the government together with our UN partners, and then eventually the resources mobilized together. So this is a partnership. Once we get into this kind of partnership, then each of us, all the stakeholders, need to honor their part, their side of the bargain, and eventually work for a better result. The second part is governance. We also partner in governance-related areas. Particularly in service delivery. Service delivery— Ethiopia has a big population, close to 120 million. Service delivery is a very, very important aspect, so digitization of service delivery systems is critical, and we work with the entire UN system on this. Recently, we've launched a one-window, a one-stop shop service centre as a pilot case that's going to be scaled up across the country at a later stage. Then we have digitization and digital finance, the banking, the mobile banking, the inclusion. It has been accessible to literally all aspects of our society. Today, we have a Teleber finance account, banking account that's on the mobile phone. Literally 90 million people have access to that kind of mobile phone account. It's called Teleber in Ethiopia. Then we have the food security and climate-related activities. Around which we work together with the UN. The food security area revolves around the wheat production initiative. We used to import a lot of wheat, close to $1 billion worth every year, a couple of— not a couple of— 5 years back. After we initiated this Wheat Initiative, Wheat Production Initiative, together with our partners—Africa Development Bank, World Bank, FAO, IFAD, all UN agencies working together with us, WFP and others—we've made a breakthrough. Now, the breakthrough is not just by farming big tracts of land. It's by clustering together smallholder agriculture. It's disintegrated, broken, small-size farms across the countryside. Now they are brought together. I think we can share that experience to the global community, to our developing fellow developing countries. By bringing— by clustering those small plots together, we've made a breakthrough. We produced more than we can consume inside the country today, even excess to some extent for exportation. So that can be shared out. That can be learned from. On the climate action side, we have a Green Legacy Initiative, which we do together with our UN partners as well. So the Green Legacy Initiative is where we plant green plants, trees, but digitization comes in here as well. We use geospatial technology to locate each and every tree, and then to see the condition, their survival rate as well. So in that, we've made very, very significant headway, and we can also share that experience as well. Digitization and data-related Initiatives. We do a lot of investment in that. The UN is critical in data production together with the government. Eventually, if we don't own it, if we don't own our own data, then we'll have a problem. So we work together with our partners, with the UN, with development partners, But we own our own data. There is massive data harvesting going on in Ethiopia. We have the digital ID system. The digital ID system is not— you know, people give it a spin, but the digital ID system is to secure digital transactions, basically. The fundamental thing. Its name is called FIDA. We have 12 million individuals registered in this. By 2028, we will have 90 million people registered in this system so that we can have— as we move into the digital transaction, financial transaction, security is the most important. Controlling fraud and everything is very, very important. So this, the digital ID system is the most important thing, and it's going on. I think in resource mobilization, capacity building, the Resilience Coordinator System is functioning very well, but there are challenges as well. When the UN delivers as one, the problems— okay, the problems relating to donor earmarking, weak real-time data system, and those things are challenge, you know. I just don't give you a rosy picture and don't let you know about the challenge. We have challenge as well, but the Resident Coordinator System needs to be resourced properly. It's a reform that came ahead of the UN80, That's one quality reform that needs to be protected, that needs to be further enhanced. Let me rest my case here and look forward for the interactive later on.


Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Permanent Representative · Rhonda King [1:06:32]:

Thank you, Moderator. I thank Ambassador Sabo for his presentation, and I now invite Mr. Richard Howard, the UN Resident Coordinator coordinator, sorry, in Papua New Guinea, who will make his presentation virtually. The floor is now yours, Mr. Howard.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Richard Howard [1:06:56]:

Good morning, colleagues from Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea is experiencing or going into its 50-year anniversary as a country with significant achievements on infrastructure development, environmental sustainability, And it's a young country that faces many challenges. And my intervention today is focused on how we have utilized a pooled fund or more generally implemented the Funding Compact 2.0 in Papua New Guinea to bring the UN system around some of the key binding constraints to development in the country. And Papua New Guinea is a relatively large economy, resource-based economy. $33 billion a year in GDP, and yet human development indicators remain at a ranking of 155 out of 193 countries, and people in rural areas still face challenges in access to basic services, quality education, clean water and sanitation, as well as healthcare. The approach of the UN system in Papua New Guinea started with the cycle of the cooperation framework of developing a very sound country analysis to look at these key drivers of the challenges in the country, which related to community violence and conflict, particularly in resource procurement areas. Gender-based violence and youth unemployment, but a country analysis where the system came together and wrote and carried out that analysis together helped to shape our cooperation framework and to identify priorities where we needed more joint work to address some of these key challenges where we felt Papua New Guinea, where the UN had a comparative advantage to deliver and to build this more coherent response in the country in these areas. We also carried out a number of strategic dialogues with member states at the country level through a development coordination mechanism, development partner coordination mechanism, as well as strategic dialogues directly with key development partners on a one-on-one basis. And from that, we were able to, over the last 8 years, even back in the the previous cooperation framework cycle, we were able to utilize some key pooled fundings in the UN system such as the Peacebuilding Fund, the SDG, the Joint SDG Fund, as well as the EU Spotlight Fund that allowed us to start to bring those key agencies on these key challenges working together. But it was only last year that we were able to develop a pooled fund mechanism, a one fund in the country that, that brought in a significant amount of unearmarked or lightly earmarked funds for the UN to work collectively on peacebuilding, on gender-based violence, and on youth employment and empowerment. These are the issues that the UN system, in collaboration with member states at country level, recognize the need for UN to be more, uh, more, um, focused and coherent in our approach. So the pooled fund really was a trigger for us to develop some innovative approaches in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea to address tribal and community conflict, to help communities to rebuild after conflict, to develop those basic services working with local and provincial government, while at the same time addressing gender-based violence and reducing gender-based violence as well as sorcery-related violence. So working with the local and the provincial governments for an integrated approach of peacebuilding and community development, really getting to those core challenges that were driving conflicts initially in the country. So I think with the pooled fund, it allowed us to bring together agencies, the right agencies working on areas where those agencies were strong, but where we could have an integrated approach focusing on particular geographic areas over a longer period of time. So, leaving behind specific short-term project cycles, but addressing these big challenges as a— as an integrated team through more flexible program over a longer period of time. But even with this pooled fund of approximately $50 million of unearmarked money or lightly earmarked money, The question is, how do we impact the scale? How do we initiate a broader response? That's where our partnership with the World Bank came in, driving this response across the country in partnership with the World Bank. That really began with a joint prevention and conflict analysis that the World Bank carried out with our technical support. But then that in turn led to a prevention and resilience allocation for Papua New Guinea of a significant number— amount of about $80 million a year. So in short, the story— pooled funds allowed the UN to come together at a very critical time in Papua New Guinea to address some key challenges in a way that made sense for the system, building on our comparative advantages but it also allowed us to develop a partnership with the Bank to develop a national prevention policy as well as a broad-reaching program utilizing additional allocations from the Bank on conflict and peacebuilding. So in short, I think that the funding compact, particularly the unearmarked pooled funds, have really been an enabler for a more effective response It has helped to drive national ownership and policy on key challenges to achieving SDGs in the country. It has also helped us to bring in other partners to ensure that the right kind of financing was available to implement that scaled-up approach. Thank you very much.


Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Permanent Representative · Rhonda King [1:13:21]:

I thank Mr. Howard for his presentation, and I now invite Mrs. Parvathy Vathi Ramaswamy to take the floor, also presenting virtually.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Parvathy Vathi Ramaswamy [1:13:35]:

Greetings, Your Excellencies, Moderator, ladies and gentlemen. It's a great honor to address you today. I would put my presentation in two parts. The first one, I'll highlight a couple of examples on how our support to national efforts to strengthen regulatory and institutional capacities are elaborated, where data and digital play a critical role in advancement of actions that I will talk about. And the second part would be funding compact in practice. Tajikistan is a landlocked lower middle-income country, is highly vulnerable to climate change and natural hazards. Economic losses from weather-related disasters are estimated to cost up to 1.3% of GDP annually. The United Nations is a key partner of Tajikistan in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. We support the implementation of the National Adaptation Plan, the NDC Action Plan, and assist the government's global initiatives in water, glaciers preservation, and climate action. Tajikistan has made significant progress under the Sendai Framework Since 2023, I have co-chaired with the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Republic of Tajikistan the national implementation of the Early Warnings for All initiative. Together, we have adopted a roadmap covering the period 2024 to 2027 to strengthen disaster risk knowledge, detection, observation, monitoring, analysis, and forecasting, and disseminating and communicating the information to prevent loss of life and of assets, and step up preparedness and response. Last year alone, over 67,000 vulnerable people benefited from disaster risk reduction activities, including smallholder farmers and food insecure households. Our work supports the work of the Hydromet agencies and those agencies that project and forecast based on weather monitoring that helps the communities to anticipate and take actions to avoid losing life and their property during a disaster. I also co-chair the Rapid Emergency Assessment and Coordination Team with the Committee on Emergency Situations and Civil Defense that leads and coordinates all partner responses during disasters. The most recent earthquake in the northeast of the country demonstrated how timely coordination can rapidly mobilize international assistance for the affected people. Data and mapping of partner capacities enable us to preposition assets, and we can deploy these assets rapidly at the sudden onset of disasters. In my engagement with women parliamentarians in Tajikistan, we have held discussions as part of the Alliance of Women Parliamentarians along with our development partners to explore opportunities for knowledge and resource partnerships. Our ongoing partnership with the parliamentarians and the Committee on Women and Family Affairs is strengthening our joint efforts to advance gender equality and women's empowerment. Together, we are working through national institutions and civil society organizations to increase economic empowerment opportunities, improve access to services, expand financial and digital inclusion, and support mentorship programs. As a lesson transferable to other countries, Early Warnings for All— Tajikistan can share best practices and lessons from implementing this initiative to other countries that face disastrous consequences of weather extremities. These initiatives also showcase the convening power of the Resident Coordinator for strategic engagement and delivering impact at multiple levels. Including upstream policy engagement, enhancing institutional capacities, and direct assistance to vulnerable people. In terms of Funding Compact in Action, to enhance the means of implementation of sustainable development, the United Nations works very closely with the government on financing for development and coordination— coordinates efforts across development partners. The United Nations assists Tajikistan in accessing global financing opportunities, including the Global Climate Fund, the GEF, the Adaptation Fund, and the Nature4Health Multipurpose Trust Fund. We also leverage financing opportunities of the Joint SDG Fund, namely in the areas of food system strengthening and aligning local financing for SDGs in line with the government priorities. We support government efforts to develop sustainable financial instruments such as the green bonds. Currently, a sustainable finance roadmap is under preparation along with efforts to develop capital market infrastructure for long-term financing. Anchored in the principles of multilateralism, our Development Coordination Council, which I co-chair, brings together all development actors to jointly deliver more impactful results and transformative changes in countries' development. A recent success includes the World Bank's new health sector program, shaped by recommendations from a WHO-led initiative in primary healthcare. A model of programmatic coherence and reinforced results that is scaled up nationally. We also promote South-South and triangular cooperation, creating opportunities for learning about other countries' experiences. In the past 2 years, Tajikistan has benefited from Kazakhstan and Luxembourg's expertise in capital markets, India's experience in biodigesters at the household level for clean and green energy, Malaysia's approaches to SDG financing and localization. In closing, I would like to emphasize, when we work jointly and as collective in Development Partners Coordination Platform, we can leverage and harness our collective resources, and we are also able to advocate along with the government on progress towards sustainable development. Thank you very much.


Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Permanent Representative · Rhonda King [1:19:46]:

I thank Ms. Parvathi Ramaswamy for her presentation. Allow me one minute to wrap up this session and to underscore that this dialogue has highlighted the critical importance of institutional capacity, financing strategies, and data systems As the foundation for sustainable development, we've heard how the UN Development System is helping countries address complex implementation challenges with increasingly tailored policy-centered and cross-sectoral support. But what I remember very clearly is the clarion call from our first presenter, Ambassador Sabo, who asked for the retention of some of these approaches as we contemplate UN80. So with that, I want to hand back to you, Ambassador, to take us forward in the next section.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [1:21:02]:

Thank you so much, Ambassador, for skillfully moderating this panel presentations.

I think that we had very rich panel presentations coming from different parts of the—

all corners of the world—

Paraguay, Indonesia, Lesotho, Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea, and Tajikistan. So before we enter the next segment of our meeting today, which is interactive dialogue, so I would already start probably indicating that the delegations wishing to intervene in the interactive discussion may start requesting the floor by pressing the microphone button. But before that, we have the three panel discussions giving the comments to what they heard from the panelists.

With that, I will give the first floor to His Excellency José Humberto Briz Gutiérrez, Permanent Representative of Guatemala, to make his comment of what we discussed during the panel.

The floor is yours.


Guatemala · Permanent Representative · José Humberto Briz Gutiérrez [1:22:15]:

Guatemala values this forum where we can share messages and experiences of countries where the programs are being implemented. I'd like to thank you for organizing this meeting and thank you for the interesting briefings which we have heard highlighting the valuable role of the UN Development System in support of the different national contexts and also how cooperation based on mutual trust, shared responsibility, and strategic alignment with national policies— how this is crucial to reducing the structural gaps. Likewise, the opportunity to be able to strengthen the Resident Coordinator System, and to continue combining existing efforts, improving coordination among actors, and creating innovative alliances. When different sectors unite to combine their efforts and resources, the impact is much greater. In Guatemala, the UN system has implemented additional actions as reflected in the UN Strategic Development Cooperation Framework for Sustainable Development 2020. 2020 to 2025. During this period, Guatemala experienced a democratic transition. The ability to adapt to the national context through the technical analysis of the country team and the interagency groups strengthened the relevance and effectiveness of the cooperation. As the presidential report of 2024 points out, every step represents a distinctive change. The annual report of the results for 2024 reflects with actions this vision of moving towards societies which are more just, more equitable, and more resilient. In only 2024 alone, the United Nations implemented technical and financial cooperation worth more than $211 billion, impacting in key areas such as social development, environment, institutions, peace, security, and justice, as well as the productive economy, uh, prioritizing, uh, territories which were historically excluded in the country, facilitating, uh, uh, dialogues with, uh, diverse actors and contributing to peace building. Uh, with the continuing challenges, cooperation continues to be key in order to tackle human mobility, the climate crisis, and the challenges which are presented by digital transformation. Currently, Guatemala is working on drawing up the strategic framework for 2026 to 2030, which will incorporate a humanitarian vision, address structural vulnerabilities, and respond clearly to the challenges of the present without forgetting to look towards the future, contributing to national priorities, the 2030 Agenda, and the Pact for the Future. Guatemala reaffirms its commitment to continue to strengthen coordination with the UN system for more strategic and aligned cooperation through investment plans and common program frameworks which optimize the use of resources and which avoid duplication. The path towards sustainable development is complex, but we do not walk alone. The presence of the UN system has been a strategic ally in building a more just, more human, and more united Guatemala. Thank you very much.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [1:25:44]:

Muchas gracias. I thank the Prime Minister of Guatemala for his statement, and now I invite His Excellency Georgi Laucia, our colleague, Permanent Representative of Republic of Moldova, to make his intervention. Georgi, the floor is yours.


Republic of Moldova · Permanent Representative · Georgi Laucia [1:25:58]:

Mr. Vice President, Madam Moderator, all protocol observed, It is my pleasure to participate in this timely and important session and to reflect on today's dialogue based on my country's development cooperation with the United Nations. And I will start by expressing our appreciation to the UN Country Team for their constant support and advising in advancing our path towards sustainable development and European integration. Ensuring a dignified future for Moldovan people. Throughout the years, the UN Country Team has contributed to the development of the country through technical expertise, policy dialogue, capacity building, and programmatic support in key areas as justice reform, anti-corruption, public administration reform, and social-economic development. It is particularly to be emphasized the steadfast support of the United Nations in managing the refugee crisis triggered by the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, and the Ukrainian— the UN country team's swift assistance in ensuring the refugees have access to basic needs and are gradually integrated into our society is commendable. Reflecting on a specific question raised by Madame Moderator, I would like to note that the United Nations has played a pivotal role in strengthening statistical capacity of relevant national institutions, supporting alignment to the international standards, the data inclusivity and security. These efforts have enabled advancement in data collection, analysis, and accessibility. A specific example of assistance in this regard is the 2024 Population and Household Census, the first of its kind in our country to employ digital technologies for enumeration. This milestone provides a critical foundation for evidence-based policymaking and inclusive development planning. Likewise, with the support of United Nations entities, the Republic of Moldova is advancing on job creation and workforce development, ensuring entrepreneurs and individuals have access to new economic opportunities. I would like also to underscore the support for the implementation of a social assistance system reform called the START launched in 2024 with the general objective to promote equitable access to quality social services, as well as the UN assistance in establishing the Energy Vulnerability Reduction Fund to tackle the energy crisis which has been and is running since 2023— 22. All these tangible results have been possible due to several enablers, such as the strong national ownership and alignment to the UN work with the key national priorities, the support for the development partners aligned with the development needs, many of them operating through joint projects and pooled funds, the international integration for humanitarian development and peace efforts, which has been crucial for UN interventions in supporting refugees and strengthening their communities. And development of digital and innovative tools and adherence to the principle of leaving no one behind, focused on the most vulnerable, and this approach pursued across the cooperation framework between the United Nations and the Government of the Republic of Moldova. In closing, allow me to reiterate my gratitude for the opportunity to participate in these important deliberations. In the context of a complex global environment and a dynamic operating environment, it is important that the United Nations development system remain agile, coordinated and fit for the development needs of the Programme countries. The 2024 QCPRR, as well as the ongoing consultations in the next strategic plans for several UN entities, offer us the opportunity to be proactive and forward-looking in designing a new generation of strategic plans, that would support augmenting synergies, diversifying finance, enhancing accountability, and most importantly, maximizing the results at the country level. I thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [1:31:08]:

I thank the Ambassador of the Republic of Moldova for his statement, and now I invite Mr. Bernd Fergal Sørsjøl, Director General of the Norwegian, Agency for Development Cooperation, to make his intervention.

Director, the floor is yours. Thank you so much.


NORAD · Director General · Bernd Fergal Sørsjøl [1:31:25]:

Thank you so much, Vice President and Ambassador King, and also thank you to all the panelists speaking before with what I would call very recognizable interventions for me from countless visits two countries as head of NORAD, but also before that in my work on climate and foreign policy. And as so many times before, it also leaves me very impressed. So in challenging times, let us not forget what the United Nations is able to achieve and do, and what it is to people around the world., and if I were to take one message away from this, it is that progress is often achieved when there is strong national leadership and ownership supported by a coordinated UN country team. Examples from Papua New Guinea and Tajikistan, or the example of being able to mobilize private— a capital in Indonesia, or the work to reach the most vulnerable in a joint UN humanitarian effort in Lesotho were great examples of that. But at the same time, of course, this also points a finger, I think, towards donor countries, Norway and others, as big funders of the UN, because there is still an imbalance between the needs in programme countries and the UN programme— UN country teams' capacity to deliver. And the General Secretary's report also shows that the continuing fragmentation of the UN system, for instance, that the average grant or project is smaller, is still ongoing., and this is something we have to address. We are not able to deliver well enough on the Funding Compact. From Norway's side, it means more core, more pooled funding, but I think also that it's necessary and important that both the DCO but also the UNHCR process looks at whether the incentives are strong enough. Do we need better and stronger incentives to deliver on the United Nations' capacity to work as one on the country level and to funding process which are— funding streams which are core and which are pooled? I think what we hear today, a strong argument of how well the UN can can work when better consolidated, but also a challenge to us all, to the UN, to funders, to actually do even better in the future. Thank you, Vice President and Moderator King.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [1:34:32]:

Thank you so much, Director-General of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation. And now we start the interactive discussion, so again, delegations wishing to take the floor, is indicated by pressing the microphone button, and we start with His Excellency Ambassador of Suriname. The floor is yours.


Suriname · Ambassador [1:34:56]:

Thank you, Vice President. We thank the panellists for their insightful presentations. Suriname has a decennial-long history of partnership with the UN system, with several UN agencies, funds, and programs supporting the implementation of the SDG Agenda in Suriname. We recognize the important role of the UN Development System in supporting the continued efforts of developing countries to enable the acceleration of the SDGs, as well as the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Pact for the Future. Suriname has integrated the principles of the 2030 Agenda into its national policies, prioritizing inclusivity, sustainability, and capacity building. Through strategic collaborations, we are strengthening key sectors such as governance, education, agriculture, forestry, and energy to ensure long-term growth and resilience. We believe that the following is key to accelerate sustainable development progress: aligning international support with national priorities, Enhancing collaboration across United Nations agencies to maximize the impact of development assistance and avoid duplication. Enhancing UN country teams' capacity to support national efforts. As a global community, we need to foster collaboration and strengthen partnerships to address the long-term global issues. While laying the groundwork for sustainable development for our people. The role of the UN Development System has proven to be valuable in supporting Member States in this regard. Suriname wishes to underscore that reform in the context of the UN AT-E initiative must not reduce the presence of the UN in developing countries, but should instead ensure more targeted support greater development investment, and strengthen mandate implementation. With the presentation of its second VNR report this year, Suriname looks forward to sharing its achievements in implementing the SDGs and further strengthening of partnerships to accelerate progress. Let us leave no country, no community, and no person behind. I thank you, Mr.

President.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [1:37:28]:

I thank the Permanent Representative of Suriname, and of course I encourage all of you to take the floor. We still have time until the end of our session allocated frame, so if you have any questions or comments, it cannot be just a statement, it's also the chance to ask. We got our RCs still online, so if there is any questions that you would like to pose to them, they are still present, so this is the moment. Before you reflect, I have one question to our RCs, if I may ask them. What are the most important tools, innovative ones, that you employ in your work to guarantee the effectiveness of the system. As we are approaching all these financial constraints, the question of effectiveness and the tools that guarantees that is becoming more and more important. So my question to you all would be what would you advise us and what is from your experiences that the innovative tools that you employ to guarantee the effectiveness of of the UN system, the UN development system in the country setting that you are working with? That would be my question. Okay, and I recognize the representative of Thailand. Okay, sorry.

Okay, the first is the Netherlands, sorry.

No problem.


Netherlands (Kingdom of the) [1:39:10]:

Thank you very much for this session and for all the presentations we heard from the resident coordinators and from the permanent representatives. I have a question as multiple presentations highlighted the need for a reinvigorated resident coordinator, a stronger coordinator who is able to coordinate and bring together the UN agencies as one. So I'm curious to hear from the resident coordinators if they have any words of advice for the UN membership of— on how we can achieve this, how we can ensure that they can play their role as coordinators in bringing the UN together in a better way. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [1:39:55]:

Thank you very much, the representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and now I give the floor to the United Kingdom, followed by the Russian Federation.


United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [1:40:02]:

Thank you. Thank you very much for this session. My question is also maybe aimed at the Resident Coordinators, kind of following on the back of our colleagues from Norway's remarks, which is: What are the incentives that we can best try and support that will help drive a One UN team? And I'm thinking we've got the UN boards upcoming, the annual sessions. How can we as member states support this initiative and support support these kind of incentives to help the UN deliver as one. And I suppose this is the year in the UN at 80 for us to kind of use all these levers. So again, if there's anything that you would like us to do as member states, we really welcome this messaging. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [1:40:46]:

I thank the representative of United Kingdom, and now I give the floor to Russian Federation.


Russian Federation [1:40:53]:

Thank you, Mr. Vice President. We'd also like to thank all of those that have taken the floor today, including the resident coordinators. Thanks for sharing their experience and their advice. It is very valuable. We would like to note that, of course, development problems that developing countries are facing are unique, but the approaches to dealing with those may be general ones that can be used in different contexts. And so we would like to ask the Resident Coordinators how they support advancing South-South cooperation mechanisms, how that South-South cooperation is used, and do the Resident Coordinators intend to make more active use of South-South cooperation given the current difficult financial situation for the UN development system? Secondly, we would also like to note that the discussion and the Secretary-General's report this year is more balanced and in many aspects there is a focus placed on the work of the development agencies themselves. We mustn't forget that the impact and development contribution of develop— in developing countries is made through those development agencies through their programs. And so we'd like to acknowledge the important coordinating role of the Resident Coordinators in that. And in that regard, we would note the requirements in the QCPR to advance results-based management and also to increase transparency among resident coordinators as relates to their impact on development results at the country level. We'd like to hear from the resident coordinators how they intend to use that mandate, including when it comes to making use of the existing reporting and accountability mechanisms that they have. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [1:42:51]:

I thank the representative of the Russian Federation. That was the first round of the questions to the Resident Coordinators. So, if I may turn back to them, whatever the— who would want to be first? We got the RC Indonesia, RC Lesotho, RC Papua New Guinea, and RC Tajikistan. So it's up to you, colleagues, who wants to be first to answering the first group of questions. And then I, of course, encourage and invite all of you to participate in the second round, because there's still a moment for the— we've got a timeframe for the second round of the questions, if you have any. So let's move now to the RCs with those questions that have already been posed. I don't know how to make it. Maybe you just step in and answer.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Parvathy Vathi Ramaswamy [1:43:50]:

If I may answer, I don't know if my raised hands could be seen by the organizers. I would like to answer the Vice President's question on the tools that we employ. To better coordinate and how we can achieve the level of support we can provide the government. There are two tools that I believe are very essential, and it was also mentioned in one of the interventions, which is data that drives decision-making. So the expertise that we bring as United Nations from different agencies based on the mandate as well as in the core work they do in the country The constant updating of information and analytics on the ground really helps us utilize our time with the different departments and ministries of the government to help them and also formulate and define the strategies that we are supporting them. For example, in the context of Tajikistan, we are, as a group, as United Nations, we have supported population census. We are now preparing for agriculture census that will be completed in 2027. We are also supporting in terms of digitalization the civil registry and mobile registration, which also helps us document and identify pockets of people as well as the vulnerabilities associated with the communities in different parts of the country that will also help us target programs and work with the different ministries on their program implementation. We also are partnering with the World Bank, especially on their broader Listening to Tajikistan survey, and this integrates child-related information and indicators so that we can look at child poverty and look at activities related to child rights. I mean, I could go on with a couple of extra digital tools that we use that really bring together the expertise that is available within the country through our regional and global knowledge and resource portal. So this is one of the greatest tools that we bring in, which is our knowledge partnership. The second tool is, I would call what I also mentioned in my presentation, the convening power. The power and the capacity of the UN country team that we bring together as Resident Coordinators, I think, is unmatched. We have seat at the table, we co-chair along with the Deputy Prime Minister, the Prime Minister, and different ministers of different sectors within the country, working groups and activity planning that really not only takes the capacities of the UN to deliver last mile as well as upstream policy agenda, but it also works very closely with the development partners. So we have a very strong investment in our personal currency, I would say, in not only coordinating the development platform, but also in terms of like-minded group of ambassadors, like-minded group of development partners,, we invest a lot of our time as resident coordinators bringing our expertise of agencies also to bear in the discussions and dialogue when we talk about sustainable development. So I would use these examples as both utilizing information, data, whether it's spatial, whether it's informatics, analytics, it is to ensure that we are available with these to help decide and help look at future tracks. And one more intervention I would like to bring here is, as I mentioned, multiple levels of intervention. If we are working in countries where we have up to the village level, up to the province level, at the national level, different institutions that need different types of support. So harnessing that kind of support from our experts, both globally and locally, is another way that we stay connected. And we also promote as part of our South-South dialogue discussions with our resident ambassadors and non-resident ambassadors representing Tajikistan to ensure that we are able to use our convening power to also for them to lend a hand in terms of making South-South cooperation happen. Thank you very much.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [1:48:12]:

Thank you so much, Ovarasi, from Tajikistan. Who wants to be next?


UN · Resident Coordinator · Geeta Sabharwal [1:48:20]:

Vice Chair, I'm happy to step in.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [1:48:22]:

Yes, please. Uh, Indonesia. Yes, please.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Geeta Sabharwal [1:48:27]:

Thank you. I wanted to be very brief in my intervention. I want to speak to the question of innovative tools, incentives for a One UN team, and South-South cooperation. So I'm going to combine these three questions together. In terms of tools, I see 3 key tools that we leverage more and more of. One is the Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, which allows for whole of UN and whole of government approach. And this whole of government and UN approach is now enabling us to take forward and develop an integrated UN offer, which brings up technical and financial assistance together for key areas which are priority for the government, such as food systems, in the case of Indonesia, even biodiversity, to leverage joint fund mobilization from member states and country. I believe that that's going to become even more critical. The second tool which I spoke to very briefly is innovative financing. This is going to become increasingly important because it's about bridging the SDG financing gap. Given fiscal constraints that governments are seeing, we need to bring in private sector. We need to bring in not just domestic but even international private sector and capital markets into this dialogue. The third tool is leveraging UN 2.0 capabilities to deliver cutting-edge solutions. In the context of Indonesia, we are leveraging this for modeling sea level rise. We are also leveraging this to track in real time rice planting and harvesting, which enables, you know, informed decision-making by top policymakers in the country. In terms of South-South cooperation, we work very closely with Indonesia Aid to take some of these development solutions across the Global South. For example, the modeling that has been— that we have developed for sea level rise, Indonesia Aid is very keen to take this modeling to countries across the Pacific. So the UN family in Indonesia, together with the government, is going to be looking more at these flagships South-South cooperation opportunities over the coming years. I'm going to pause there, hand it back to you.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [1:51:03]:

Thank you so much, the colleague, Arsi, from Indonesia. Papua New Guinea, Ole Soto, would you like to step in?


UN · Resident Coordinator · Richard Howard [1:51:12]:

I can jump in from Papua New Guinea.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [1:51:15]:

Okay, Papua New Guinea, yes, the floor is yours.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Richard Howard [1:51:18]:

I think on the tools, I can't emphasize them. Underlying the tools, a key enabler of our ability to work differently at country level and to support greater integration in our programming has been trust from member states at country levels and how incredibly that's evolved since 2018. And to reach a point in our relationship where we have regular strategic dialogues and we have direct unearmarked funding to our Country Fund allows us to, to move into areas which other development partners may not be ready to go into, some, some of these conflict-sensitive areas, to try new approaches, to bring innovative technical expertise from different parts of the organization and the private sector. It really has been built in that trust that member states have given us at country level, and that's evolved and strengthened over time. I think in terms of South-South cooperation, this is starting to evolve more clearly. Some of our work with the EU, good collaboration across in the agricultural sector between Papua New Guinea and Africa, looking at cocoa and vanilla has enabled the country to increase productivity in cocoa by 75% at a critical time. So we see real economic gains through technical collaboration between PNG and several African nations, quite useful. The impact of pooled funds at the global level, the Peacebuilding Fund and the SDG Joint Fund, have allowed us to, to bring agencies together on some critical challenges that other, other partners were not really ready to go near and to try new things. So again, that global pooled funding has been a key enabler for us to work differently. And finally, technical expertise in the, in the UN system, particularly in electoral reform and peacebuilding and governance has been so crucial for the UN to reposition itself with a strong technical expertise from global level and from regional level. Thanks very much.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [1:53:47]:

Thank you so much. And watching your fish-like pen, we know that you are in the middle of ocean. And Ms. Mukwashi, if you want to jump in.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Amanda Mukwashi [1:54:00]:

Yes, thank you. Um, I want to add to what my colleague said, but I want to start with the pooled funding mechanisms such as the SDG Fund and the Peacebuilding Fund. In Lesotho, what we have seen is that not only do those provide opportunities for us as the UN agencies, the UN development system, to come together But they also work as catalytic funding that brings in other partners to work with us on, on a sort of coherent approach. We currently have funding from PBF, from the Peace Building Fund, and it has brought together 3 agencies: OHCHR, UN Women, and UNDP. And what we've seen is that even as they go into the field to do their baselines, to do implementation, they're working very much together. It's not about, uh, siloed programs that are then implemented together. It's really one program that is implemented together, working with the government, working with communities, working with traditional institutions, and really showing that the UN when it has that opportunity, can deliver better impact. In this case, we're working on community policing to curb some of the violence that, that is in the country. Secondly, I have also seen clear results when we're working together in terms of the SDG Fund. It also allows us to approach other IFIs, for example the African Development Bank, and to leverage more resources because they— we are able to evidence through data, through experience and statistics that we are capable of actually pulling our resources together. It minimizes transaction costs and transaction burden on the community and also minimizes transaction burden with the government. So that we are not approaching them as siloed agencies but as one UN system. The second thing that I wanted to just sort of ride on is the issue of data. The issue of data and digital transformation has become such a big issue, a big thing, and what we've done here in Lesotho is We've come together as UN agencies, together with the government and the World Bank, to develop a joint program on data. And what would, would be very useful is for member states to really support those kind of initiatives. I think rewarding those kind of initiatives will push us as a system to work closer together rather than in silos. The last thing that I wanted to flag up is results-based reporting. That's, I think, if it was, it was the UK and the Netherlands asking what are some of the incentives that you can support. I think that requiring of all of us including the different boards, to have results-based reporting, collective measurement of results rather than individual measurement of results, will also create synergies and coherence and allow us to report effectively and with impact on the cooperation framework. Last but not least, I think that on the South South. Um, I know that Lesotho, for example, has for a long time preached or talked about the peace offering, the fact that as a nation they are founded on the basis of peace, unity, and inclusion, and being able to actually work with others and share the lessons learned, the dialogue, the conflict prevention the journey that they have been on with other countries. I think that that is another incentive, especially for South-South, but because it's also coordinated by the resident coordinators to ensure that all the actors are speaking together, I think that I would put it on the table as an area where member states could support more.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [1:58:52]:

Over. I thank you, Ms.

Mukwashi, from our RC from Lesotho, and now I just invite the two panelists that are in person here in the room to take their comments and to answer the questions that were posed. Ambassador Paraguay, the floor is yours.


Paraguay · Permanent Representative · Marcelo Elicio Scappini Ricciardi [1:59:12]:

Thank you again, Christophe, for coordinating this important meeting.

Well, bueno—

Well, I feel motivated by the question that was posed by the three colleagues from the floor and also because of the comment made by the resident coordinator in Tajikistan. Because in Paraguay's national experience, the work of cooperation with UN agencies, it points to a significant improvement from the time that we began to work on Latos. Now, we have continued, we persevered, and this began in our national work with one of the agencies, one of the UN agencies, which was UNFPA, with whom we began to work in generating specific data around child mortality, early pregnancy, child pregnancy, which are problems that still exist in some of our societies, and also data related to other aspects dealing with the health and education of women and children. And being able to work with data made it possible for the cooperation to be much more focused on the specific needs of that group. And so that on the one hand, but it's not the case in our work for all of the agencies, and that's where I think that we need the central figure of the resident coordinator who would have the ability and the vision with an experience such as this to be able to reproduce that kind of experience in all areas of cooperation. We have a national— Statistics Institute, which is a very old institute, and in the last 5 years it has grown considerably, mainly due to the work that the National Statistics Institute has been doing with the support of international financial organizations. And so the Paraguayan government made a serious effort to be able to bolster that institute and to produce quality information which is segmented through all the social sectors. And so in my initial briefing, I spoke about this experience with UNFPA in data generation to be able to take decisions which are evidence-based. And now I would add the experience related to the National Statistics Institute. And I appreciate the questions of the colleagues, and I would say that in a context where financial resources are limited, the more focused the action is on the basis of evidence-based information, the more that cooperation would be effective. And so I would encourage resident coordinators to exercise that drive, to provide that drive, so that all of the agencies can operate in the same direction. Thank you very much, President Chen.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [2:02:58]:

Thank you very much, Ambassador Paraguay. And before I give the floor to our colleague, the Ambassador of Ethiopia, I just want to indicate that this is the last moment for you to to indicate if you want to have the second round of the questions or not. And so if you want really to take part in the second round, this is the last moment to indicate that to us. And with saying so, I give the floor to our Ambassador of Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to United Nations, Tesfaye. The floor is yours.


Ethiopia · Permanent Representative · Tesfaye Yilma Sabo [2:03:36]:

Thank you, Vice President, for giving me the floor. I just want to comment on a couple of points, general. One, the SDGs are the focal commitments that we should be rallying around. It seems that SDGs are off track is becoming a very normal language, so it doesn't shock— it doesn't seem to shock anyone that the SDGs are in aggregate 17% on track at this point in time. So we need to really refocus that this is our joint commitment to each other, and the ACDGs are a very good development programme and we should continue to work around them together. On the UN, the financing is of course the most important area of the problem and we should work around that. On the RCSS, Resident Coordinator Systems, I think the distinguished RCSS explained it very, very well. UN delivering as one. I'm also sitting in one of the boards, the UNDP, UNOPS, and UNFPA. So we manage country programmes, for example, country programme documents come in one package. I mean isolated packages, of course. But in the countries concerned, there is this framework, the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, and it uses as a reference most of the time. So rather than using it as a reference for the documents, I think we should to truly integrate all UN country programmes and country programme documents within the framework of the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Programme, so that the RC system could deliver as one, truly deliver as one. Finally, as the Deputy Secretary-General indicated in her Opening remarks. The story that I told you earlier around food security and governance and all those things can be exchanged by way of experience during the World Food System Summit. World Food System Summit, that's the second time it will happen in Addis Ababa, at the end of July, and we can open up and share our experience during that period when the wheat came, on the plants, the tree planting, and everything else. So it's just an informal way of interesting you to come and join us for that summit. I thank you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. President.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [2:07:03]:

Thank you so much to the Ambassador of Ethiopia, and now I open the second round and we will open that with Germany. The floor is yours.


Germany [2:07:15]:

Ja, thank you very much, Vice Chair and Ambassador. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, Germany appreciates this session a lot and the frank discussion, so many thanks to all the speakers, the resident coordinators, the excellencies I have a question on the normative work of the Resident Coordinators. It says in the job description for the Resident Coordinators that they lead continued engagement on and pursuance of the UN's normative agenda, and I would like to hear a little bit on how we have to imagine this work being done in practice? Thank you very much.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [2:08:01]:

I thank the representative of Germany for her question, and now I give the floor to Brazil.


Brazil [2:08:08]:

Thank you very much, Ambassador. It's just a question that has been touched before, but maybe I would like to have a more detailed answer or comment. We hear that sometimes there are duplication of missions or programs between agencies. There are gray areas, and that's why the RSC system was created, among other reasons. So I just would like to have the experiences of some resident coordinators on if they have found out some duplication of implementation of initiatives in some countries and how they dealt with this. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [2:08:57]:

I thank the representative of Brazil and now I give the floor to Australia.


Australia [2:09:04]:

Thanks very much. Thanks very much, Vice President, and for the other distinguished panelists and speakers. Very interesting session. My question links back to the executive boards and the governance work we do here at headquarters. And it's a question aimed at the resident coordinators. I'd be really keen to get a sense of to what extent do they have visibility of the guidance and, I guess, instructions member States agree— agree on here through our various discussions and deliberations. Do they have visibility of the policy guidance we're setting out? And if not, what more can we be doing to make sure that that connects down to the country level. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [2:09:50]:

Yes, I thank the representative of Australia. I see no more requests for this second— and I see the final round.

So back to our RCs.

You are the stars of this session, rightly so. We got 3 more questions to you. Who wants to be the first? Maybe we should follow the same order, so Madam Ramaswamy, if I may ask you, Tajikistan, to step in first, and then Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Lesotho.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Parvathy Vathi Ramaswamy [2:10:29]:

Thank you very much, Vice President.

Thank you for the questions, Your Excellencies. Let me speak shortly on the normative agenda. Our team here, the human rights advisor situated within the RC's office, we support directly the agencies that are tasked with follow-up on human rights commitments of the government of the Republic of Tajikistan. So our normative agenda on human rights very specifically addresses the support to the designated focal points and agencies of the government on ensuring that the conventions that they have ratified and the recommendations that have emerged out of visits of special rapporteurs, as well as the updates on the Universal Periodic Review, they are strongly supported by our team. Specifically, in the last 2 years, we have contributed to the development of the National Human Rights Strategy for Tajikistan. So we continue to work closely under our pillar on rule of law and governance, as well as across our cooperation framework strategic objectives, to ensure that we are integrating the work on human rights from different angles as part of our delivery, as part of our capacity building, and also policy dialogues with the government agencies and the government. I also mentioned in my presentation work on gender equality. We not only work as part of our obligatory reporting on system-wide commitments to gender equality, we have just recently launched the discussions that we are continuing with the parliamentarians and the Committee on Women and Family Affairs on the Gender Equality Acceleration Plan and supporting the country's own policies and strategies on the status of women and gender equality. This covers a wide variety of work, but I would like to specifically talk about the work that we are doing on addressing and mitigating gender-based violence. Tajikistan was one of the countries that benefited from EU-supported Spotlight Initiative, and in that program we had 4 agencies working together: UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women, and the progress and the results we have achieved through this initiative, we are now starting to scale up some of the positive results that we have achieved through implementation of the program. I have spent my 2 years ever since I deployed here to support the government on preparation and readiness for them to ratify the Disability Inclusion— the conventions on Persons with Disabilities, the CRPD, and we are very hopeful that this year Tajikistan will conclude all the processes and ratify the convention. We also are looking very closely at the demographics and the changes in demography in Tajikistan, which has a very high percentage of young population. So we are also now looking at how we meaningfully engage the youth not only within the consultation related to UN program and responses and the strategies of the government, but how to amplify their voices and inspire them to be part of the decision-making, whether they shadow the parliamentarians, whether they participate with the UN and the development partners to work with us on Ambassador of the Day program, or conducting Model United Nations and participation in our upcoming Youth Parliament. We want to create an ambiance and environment where the young people feel very strongly about working towards the development agenda in their own country and focus and support us as well as be part of the decision-making and be inspired to get into diplomacy within the government apparatus as well as international organization. In conclusion, I would also state that we are now working very closely with the government on the aspect of how our international standards and work that we're doing on protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, how can we bring that together across the development partners and the government to ensure that we not only emphasize that we have zero tolerance for SEA, but how we ensure that this is part and parcel of the way we are working together and also ensuring that it becomes part of the learning and the training of all the people who are working towards delivering as one and leaving no one behind. Thank you very much. Over to you.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [2:15:10]:

I thank Madam Ravaswamy for her answers and also for your participation in today's opening segment because that's probably the last moment that we heard from you, at least today. So now I give the floor to Madam Sabahawaral from PR from RC from Indonesia.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Geeta Sabharwal [2:15:33]:

Thank you, Chair. I'm going to step in and speak to the normative work and the duplication, you know, the, the question raised by the PR from Brazil. Normative values or the normative work is foundational for every UN agency. In Indonesia, and I'm sure that's true for all, for the entire UN system. In the context of Indonesia, I want to speak to the government's flagship program for nutritious meals and show how we are leveraging the normative advantage, or how we are bringing to bear the normative advantage for the nutritious meals program. We've got 3 agencies, UNICEF, WHO, and WFP, that are looking at this agenda. The normative angle is brought forth with their focus on testing delivery models for remote islands. These are islands that are most likely to be left behind if we do not get our strategy of delivery right. This is not only about bridging the development divide, but it is also a matter of ensuring that our technical assistance is fit for purpose for those islands. So that's the way, in the context of a large national program, that's the value add that we as the UN system are bringing to bear. In terms of duplication, I think the question is not so much about duplication from where I sit. I think the question is about how do we leverage the comparative advantage of UN agencies. And again, let me take the work that we do on energy transformation, the just energy transformation. We've got, we've got UNOPS and UNIDO that step in from the hard, you know, that bring to bear the hard technical assistance around grids, around reducing emissions across industrial parks, while we've got UNDP stepping in more from the community, from the angle of investing in community-level models for low-cost energy solutions, again, for remote islands. You know, islands that that cannot be connected to the grid. And even if they do get connected to the grid, it'll be 5 or 6 times more expensive than the low-cost solution, right? So the trick there is for us as the UN system to bring to bear a comparative advantage. I want to end on just one point around what is the incentive What are the incentives that Member States can leverage for that One UN approach? I think the Member States need to leverage the RC system much more because we offer the ability to convene not just the UN system, not just the UN family or the UN country team, but other key stakeholders in the country., which includes the private sector, it can include national banks, it could include civil society amongst others. And secondly, leveraging the UN system would allow member states to also invest in, you know, what I remember Richard spoke about, pool funding mechanisms at the country level. And we want these pool funding mechanisms at the country level led by member states, government and the UN system together. So I'm going to pause there, hand it back to you, Chair.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [2:19:25]:

Thank you very much for your comment, answers, and for your presence as well from Indonesia. So now we go to Papua New Guinea.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Richard Howard [2:19:36]:

Mr. Howard. Thank you. Thank you very much. On the normative issues and our approach, I think spotlight EU, spotlight GBB The Spotlight Program is a good model of how we deal with a very sensitive issue at the normative level, but also at the service delivery level, working with government, civil society, and other partners to address this issue. So what we see is that in Papua New Guinea, prior to the Spotlight Initiative, government leaders community members, they would not acknowledge that GBV existed in the country and were reluctant to move on any policy initiatives aligned with global standards relating to gender equality and GBV in particular. And this approach of nurturing government slowly as we develop service delivery models on the ground through key line ministries ended up in a process where 5 years later government had developed its own national policy on GBV, its own action plans, and budgeting the response. So it's a very slow process of interventions on the ground and policy work at the national level and a close partnership with key line ministries where the UN is trusted. So I think that approach is replicated over and over in the labor field, being able to support youth employment programs, supporting productivity and informal economy, but at the same time developing national labor law in line with key labor standards that address sensitive issues of, uh, women's participation in the workforce as well as wages. So embedding normative work in our development work is a key comparative advantage of a UN approach that builds trust over time and allows us to have sensitive conversations, often very privately, on adherence to key normative standards. That's done through the UPR process as well as other, other type of mechanisms to review how countries are doing in sensitive areas related to norms. On the global policy agenda, We're very fortunate to have DCO New York where policy guidance documents are created in a very sort of user-friendly format that we can access. We have regular discussions at regional level, for example, on Pact for the Future, reg— almost monthly briefings with USG Guy Ryder on the key elements of Pact for the Future, but also helping us think through how we can translate those global documents into key actions on the ground. And really, as RCs, we're the key translators that have to look at our national development plans and priorities and how we bridge between these global priorities and policy guidance and how to help them land at country, country level in a way that's meaningful for, for our government counterparts as well as civil society. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [2:22:51]:

Thank you so much, Mr. Howard, for your answers and for your participation today. And now we move to Lesotho, to Madame Mokwashi. That would be the last of the RC's intervention.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Amanda Mukwashi [2:23:08]:

Thank you. Thank you very much. If I may, I will respond to the question from Germany. I think the other two questions have been covered aptly by my colleagues. I would probably say that the normative work is the area where we have probably, as a UN country team in Lesotho, had the most impact. It's also an area where it is most— it's more difficult to quantify and report on because of the nature of the work that has to be done. So the first example that I want to give is Lesotho has ratified all 9 human rights treaties and conventions, and we've been working very closely with the government and with support from OHCHR to, to raise awareness beyond government, so to work with the communities, with the security sector, with the traditional institutions, so that the level of awareness of human rights and how they relate to individuals, in terms of the right holders as well as expectations in terms of duty bearers. Um, and it is a balancing act, and this is where I think the Resident Coordinator really plays quite a critical role. Because of the ability to engage in conversations with parliamentarians, with ministers, with, with the ombudsman, and with different enforcement agencies. And what I think works really well is that you can trade the, the line, and OCHR in Geneva comes in with, um, uh, the information that is needed. We have used special representatives, um, of the Secretary-General when they visit here, for example, on the rights of the child, to actually raise those, uh, issues. The work doesn't always have to be done by the Raisin Coordinator. The Raisin Coordinator can facilitate, um, inviting, um, together with government, um, a special representative to come in, or independent experts, for example, on persons with albinism, which is something that we did very well. And the independent expert was able to come here and go across the mountains to actually look at, um, the, the situation with persons with albinism. On the second example that I want to give is in terms of labor standards, working very closely with ILO. Especially in a country where the, the informal sector is quite large. And also you have many women who work in factories in the textile industries, ensuring that prevention of sexual abuse and exploitation in the workplace is addressed. And ILO supports that. They're non-resident agency, but they work very closely with the Resident Coordinator's Office to be able to ensure that in every conversation, in every policy dialogue, those issues are not dropped and do not fall through the cracks. The last two comments that I have, one is on the environmental agreements and that area of norms, especially in terms of restoration of the wetlands, looking at the Paris Agreement, working with UNEP and Triple C, Lesotho is a mountainous country that has been highly impacted on by climate change, deforestation, overgrazing, and drying of the wetlands. And so again, the RISEN coordinator comes in almost like a mouthpiece for the normative agencies. Last but not least, I, I want to talk about the work on the— that DPPA— I've worked very closely with DPPA in terms of conflict prevention, but in terms of embedding those in all the different systems, uh, in the country, uh, all this, uh, is very much, um, dependent also on the support from the entire country team in their areas of expertise. The gaps that I see are, one, civil society who advocate for rights and norms are not fully supported and financed. And the more we lose the ability and capacity of civil society to be able to do that, the more we lose the voice in the third sector that could actually be part of, um, checks and balances and accountability. And of course, data collecting, uh, in terms of disaggregated data that supports policy development aligned with UN norms. When there is a gap in that ability of national statistics offices to generate that data, then it becomes very, very difficult to evidence, um, uh, any generic, um, terms, uh, that, um, or conclusions So to round it all up, I just want to say that the UN Country Team in Lesotho has really worked very, very hard and has delivered some very important successes working with government on the process of national reforms from a normative perspective and viewpoint, and the Resident Coordinator has been pivotal in that, in that process. Thank you so much. For the opportunity today.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [2:29:04]:

Thank you so much, Madam Mukwashi, for your answers. That concludes the exchange of the questions and answers with the Q&A session with our RCs and the panellists. So I give the floor back to Ambassador Rhonda King to wrap up today's discussions.


Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Permanent Representative · Rhonda King [2:29:24]:

Thank you, Excellency, and Kollegah, colleagues, panelists, I would like to sincerely thank all of you, all the speakers, lead discussants, member states, for your very thoughtful contributions. There's much I can say, but I'm not going to repeat because I tried wrapping up moving forward. When we were going through earlier, we have seen how the repositioned UN Development System is increasingly tailoring its value proposition to diverse country contexts. The system's ability to adapt to differentiated individualized needs while drawing on a common framework for coherence, accountability, and shared purpose is what gives it enduring relevance, and we heard that point made very potently from Mr. Howard. So let us continue to preserve and to build on these strengths, especially in the context of UNAID. We need to deepen joint efforts, scale what works, and stay responsive to evolving needs and aspirations of the countries we serve. So I really thank you for your engagement today. Peace profound and enduring respect to all of you. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice-Chair · Szydowski [2:31:20]:

I thank the distinguished Ambassador Rhonda King for the wrap-up and also for the brilliantly organizing and providing the discussion today with the panel. I also thank all the distinguished panelists of course, for their substantive contribution. Both those our colleagues are here in the room and of course the RCs from all over the world. I think that can only happen in the UN that you can hear in one session the messages from Indonesia, Lesotho, Papua New Guinea, Tajikistan, Paraguay, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Republic of Moldova, Norway, Suriname, whatever country, whatever corner of the world. Exists. So this is the— I think there was a very productive and interesting exchange of the views. It was really exchange of the views and opinions. That's what the interactive discussions are all about. So thank you so very much for this morning session.

So Excellencies, distinguished delegates, we have come to the end of this morning's meeting. I thank the delegations for the engagement and active participation in the dialogues. In accordance with the program of our work, of this segment. The Council will reconvene this afternoon at 3 PM in this very chamber for a high-level dialogue with the Secretary-General. So far, the meeting is adjourned.