UN Transcripts — https://transcripts.un.org/fr/ecosoc/2025/20
Economic and Social Council: 20th plenary meeting - 2025 Operational Activities for Development Segment, Day 3 — Economic and Social Council — 22 May 2025
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ECOSOC · Vice President [0:00]:

Okay, we'll start. So the 20th meeting of the Economic and Social Council is called to order. I now invite the Council to continue its consideration of the sub-item A, follow-up to policy recommendations of the General Assembly and the Council, of agenda item 7, operational activities of the United Nations for international Development Cooperation. Colleagues, distinguished delegates, this interactive discussion will focus on effective accountability: UN system evaluation. The session will begin with a presentation by the Executive Director of the System-Wide Evaluation Office of the annual report of the Office. Member States will be given the chance to ask any questions related to the report. Following that, we will explore recent and ongoing efforts aimed at building system-wide evaluative evidence and discuss key findings of system-wide evaluations, including evaluations of the RC system. We'll also discuss the systems in place for following up on recommendations. In the session will also be an opportunity to discuss efforts to build the capacity of evaluations at the country level. More generally, this session aims to enhance understanding of the UN Development System's contribution to the SDGs. So I'm pleased to welcome our panelists, Madame Fatoumata Ndiaye, Undersecretary of the Office of International Oversight Services, and Madame Andrea Cook, Executive Director of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group Systemwide Evaluation Office, And Madame Isabelle Mercier, the Chair of the United Nations Evaluation Group and the Director of the Independent Evaluation Office in the United Nations Development Programme, who is joining us virtually. And the— as we got the practice from the first two days, The delegation which would like to speak after we got the panel for the interactive discussion, please already start pressing the microphone button just to indicate the request to intervene so we have the list in advance so we can moderate the number of the speakers and the rounds of the responses. So those of you who would like to take the floor, please indicate it from now on and I will be repeating this message while people are coming in the room. So, saying so, first I invite Ms. Andrea Cook, Executive Director of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group Systemwide Evaluation Office, to present the report of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group Systemwide Evaluation Office contained in the document E/ 2025/57. Madam, the floor is yours.


UNSDG · Executive Director · Andrea Cook [3:17]:

Excellencies, Mr. Vice President, it's a pleasure to present the annual report for 2024 to the Economic and Social Council in response to the request of the General Assembly. The Secretary-General's report on repositioning the United Nations development system set out his proposals to make the UN Development System more strategic, accountable, and responsive, including the establishment of an independent evaluation office. The General Assembly subsequently welcomed strengthening of independent system-wide evaluation in resolutions 72/279 and 76/4. Today, I'm pleased to provide an update on the achievements for 2024, the first full year of operations for this office. Firstly, an important landmark was reached with the publication of the UNSDG System-Wide Evaluation Policy, which was formally adopted in November 2024. The policy confirms the structural independence of the UNSDG System-Wide Evaluation Office as a standalone office within the UN Secretariat and with the Executive Director reporting directly to the Secretary-General to maintain independence and neutrality. The policy establishes a framework, guiding principles and procedures for system-wide evaluation, detailing roles, responsibilities and reporting arrangements to ensure effective planning and conduct and follow-up It also sets out the resource requirements, risks, and, uh, arrangements for reporting of, of the policy implementation and review. This report provides details of the implementation status of evaluation activities in 2024, and I'll provide some highlights. Uh, two reports were completed of the Spotlight Initiative. —an investment of over $500 million to address violence against women and girls. An evaluation assessed overall performance and contribution to UN development system reform and concluded that the model demonstrated the ability of an integrated, interagency approach to contribute to higher-order changes at regional, national, and local levels, but with challenges due to a complicated operational model and limitations in the compatibility of UN administrative and financial systems. It made 8 recommendations which have all been accepted in the management response. In addition, a value for money assessment was conducted in parallel to assess the economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and equity of the initiative. System-wide evaluation plays an important role in strengthening the use and learning from the extensive but fragmented UN Evaluation Evidence Base. In 2024, in response to the request from the General Assembly in Resolution 78/166, user-friendly products were produced to improve the accessibility and use of evaluation evidence to support the 2024 QCPR process. This included a series of interactive digital maps of United Nations evaluation evidence on QCPR mandates and the SDGs, and the initiative served as a strong proof of concept for use of artificial intelligence to accelerate and systematize this work. It also produced 5 evidence summaries to generate key insights on priority topics for the QCPR. Two evaluations were launched in 2024: an evaluation to assess progress towards a new generation of UN country teams at the request of the UN Sustainable Development Group. It examines two key elements of the repositioning of the UN development system— repositioning alignment and derivation of UN entity programs from the cooperation framework, and UNCT configuration to deliver collective results in response to cooperation framework priorities. The evaluation has an extensive scope with data collection in 21 focus countries, interviews and focus groups involving over 500 participants, and extensive global and country-level document review, including of entity evaluations, and reanalysis of existing survey data for the period 2021 to 2024. The final report will be published in July. Launched in June 2019, the UN Disability Inclusion Strategy calls for an external assessment after 5 years of implementation. So in 2024, we launched this evaluation, which is global in scope, to assess the implementation of the strategy, contributing to accountability and learning on disability inclusion in the United Nations.. And this will— report will be published later in the summer. Effective use of system-wide evaluation evidence entails broad system-wide engagement supported by the delivery of timely system-wide evaluation reports with relevant and targeted recommendations. This is intended to improve the performance of the development system entities, focused on key issues and activities.— that cannot be adequately addressed through existing mechanisms. Effective management response and follow-up mechanisms are therefore essential to ensure that UN entities implement the evaluation recommendations and report on their follow-up. I'd like to confirm that all evaluations completed to date have a published management response. To provide transparency and oversight and promote the use of reports, management responses and follow-up are widely accessible. And the full repository is available on the UN Evaluation Group and the UNSDG websites, and since 2025, on the main website of the UN Secretariat for this office. In order to build understanding of this new function and to promote broader cooperation and dissemination, The Office worked to strengthen engagement across the UN with member states and with other partners, and this includes the Joint Inspection Unit and the Office of Internal Oversight Services, to consult on ongoing work and future plans. The Office plays an active role contributing to the activities of the United Nations Evaluation Group, sharing learning and good practice. And co-leads the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition with other partners to help to make evaluation evidence more accessible to contribute to achievement of the SDGs. Significant progress was made in resourcing the work of the Office in 2024. 3 posts were established and all are currently encumbered, including 2 by temporary secondments from UNFPA WFP. Staff primarily manage evaluation activities and follow-up, with the evaluations being generally undertaken by teams of independent experts. This model is made to, to ensure that the office remains small, agile, and responsive to emerging needs. Against a budget of 2.4 million for 2024, a A total of $1.54 million was received in extra budgetary and in-kind contributions, and a further $739,000 was provided for the evaluation of the Spotlight Initiative. We plan to launch two new evaluations in 2025, together with a series of other reports listed here. And subject to availability of resources. A further priority for 2025 is the development of foundational guidance and systems, including a 4-year work plan to identify priority evaluations through an open and transparent consultative process, robust quality assurance and assessment mechanisms, and management response and follow-up systems. The proposed program budget for 2025 is presented here with the overall perspective to 2028 for the period of the current QCPR. The Secretary-General submitted a proposed program budget of $3.4 million US to secure stable funding for 2025 However, the General Assembly endorsed the report of the ACABQ, which had recommended against conversion of the office to regular budget funding, noting concerns which have now been fully resolved following adoption of the policy and confirmation of reporting lines to the Economic and Social Council. Consequently, we remain reliant on extra budgetary resources with a revised budget of $3.1 million for 2025 and are seeking to broaden our funding base. Cooperation Framework Evaluations are commissioned and managed by Resident Coordinators in collaboration with UN Country Teams in the penultimate year of the cycle, and details of planned and completed evaluations for 2023 to 2025 are provided in our report. In conclusion, 2024 marks a successful first year of operations for this office, demonstrating the added value of this unique function. The report highlights the value and strategic importance of the work of the office in assessing the contribution of the entire UN development system to implementation of the 2030 Agenda. It also underlines the critical need for stable and predictable resources in meeting the expectations of member states. However, despite this initial success, the scarcity of financial resources has hindered the ability to deliver at the pace intended and presents concerns about the viability of the office given the limited availability of voluntary resources in the current context.. And I reiterate the call of the Secretary-General on Tuesday to request all Member States to support our work. Thank you for your attention.


ECOSOC · Vice President [14:31]:

Okay, I thank the Executive Director of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group Systemwide Evaluation Office for the presentation and her opinions. I first— then we are moving now to the panel and I first give the floor to the Under-Secretary-General of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, Madame Fatoumata Diaye. Okay, but let us first hear from Madam Fatoumata Ndiaye and then, okay, we come back to the Madame Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr.


OIOS · USG · Fatoumata Ndiaye [15:41]:

Vice President, and thank you, members of the ECOSOC. First, allow me to thank you for extending an invitation to OIOS to speak at this session. It is a really great opportunity to be here with Andrea and also with Isabelle. And since Isabelle will be speaking on norms and standards, I will focus on OIOS follow-up on evaluation recommendations. So as mandated by the GA, the OIOS follow-up on implementation of recommendation is a systematic and rigorous follow-up process. It has two parts. One is a regular follow-up on recommendation implementation twice a year for a dedicated database maintained by OIOS, the TIMiPLUS, as well as ongoing updates throughout the year. The second part is the conduct of triennial reviews, 3 years after the completion of evaluations to assess the implementation and impact of recommendations. Since 2020, when we started our evaluation of DCO and the resident coordinator system, OIOS has issued 11 recommendations to the Development Coordination Office, all of which were accepted. Of these, 5 have already been implemented and 6 more recent recommendations are in progress. We are currently finalizing the triennial review of the 2021 evaluation of country programming coherence. The triennial review found that all the following 4 recommendations to DCO had been implemented with positive outcomes. I will just go through those recommendations. In response to the recommendation to support the UN SDG in improving country-level coherence and implementation of joint work plans, DCO finalized a checklist on the implementation of development reforms, supported entities in adopting the use of the checklist, and enhanced the UN SDG data portal. In response to the recommendation to strengthen knowledge sharing around country programming, DCO increases dissemination of innovations and good practices on integrated policy. In response to the recommendation to streamline reporting requirements, DCO launched a business process alignment exercise to document and harmonize reporting processes of UN entities and supported the launch of the UN SDG Output Indicator Framework. In response to the recommendation to address challenges in operationalizing cross-cutting issues at the UN country team level, DCO provided expert advice to resident coordinators who subject matter experts, deployed substantive advisors in resident coordinator offices, and supported the design of joint programs. At least partly due to these efforts, the proportion of UN country teams that had at least one active joint program increased from 78% in 2021 to 87% in 2024. More joint work plans have helped to identify areas for complementary— for complementing activities across entities. Allowed improved outreach to key partners and better cooperation with government. I would like now to use the evaluation— the 2024 evaluation of the Resident Coordinator System in complex settings to illustrate how we conduct our evaluations to strengthen accountability of the development system. The RC system evaluation assesses the relevance, effectiveness, and coherence of the Resident Resident Coordinator System in delivering its sustainable development-focused mandate in complex settings, which means where our Resident Coordinator were also designated as Humanitarian Coordinator, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General, and/or Deputy Special Coordinator. The evaluation looked at how well the RC system was designed to implement its mandate. And what results it achieved against that mandate by asking 3 main questions. First question: To what extent is the RC system at country level fit for purpose to deliver against its mandate in complex settings? Is it undertaking the right modalities of mandate implementation and in the right way? How effectively has the RC system at country level enabled collaboration between UN Development, humanitarian and peace and security actors in complex settings in support of sustainable development outcomes? And lastly, how effective has the RC system at country level facilitated a focus on sustainable development in complex settings? The methodology for this evaluation was robust and included both qualitative and quantitative data. It collected primary data including through global RC and UNCT surveys with good response rates at 65% and 50% respectively. We typically even achieve higher rates. Interviews with internal and external stakeholders, including UNCT members, host governments, member states, and civil society representatives. And finally, we had two field visits, one to South Sudan and one to Ukraine. Through the conduct of annual global RC and UNCT surveys, we have accumulated in OIOS a significant body of historical data that we can use to conduct trend analysis and other assessments, including, including using artificial intelligence to synthesize large datasets. For example, the survey data on RC and UNCT member assessment of overall coherence of UN programming in their country showed significant improvement. 66% of RCs rated coherence as good or very good in 2021, compared to 90% in 2024. And 55% of UNCT members rated coherence as good or very good in 2021, compared to 74% in 2024. The main findings of the evaluations were that RCs and their officers contributed to enhanced coherence of UN programming, supported a continuous focus on recovery and development, played a critical role in convening stakeholders at the national level, directly supported governments to advance progress towards the SDGs, and supported holistic programmatic approaches to advance— advancing sustainable development alongside the humanitarian response. Nevertheless, OIOS also found that the RC system was not adequately capacitated or fit for purpose to meet additional demands and deliver against its expanded portfolio in complex settings. We made 4 recommendations to DCO to review the RC system staffing structure in complex settings and produce an options paper on resourcing. Second recommendation was to collate, develop, and share good practices and approaches on sustainable development funding and financing. Third recommendation, to strengthen the sharing of good practices for joint-up risk analysis and risk-informed planning in complex settings. And finally, to revise the UN SDG guidance on humanitarian-development-peace collaborations. So I just want to conclude by saying that since 2020, and following a consultative and risk-based approach for selecting evaluation topics, OIOS has completed 4 evaluations and 1 advisory engagement of the RC system and DCO. In 2020, we issued the advisory engagement on early results of the reform. In 2021, we evaluated country programming coherence. In 2022, we evaluated the DCO regional offices. In 2023, we evaluated policy coherence. And in 2024, we evaluated the resident coordination in complex settings. I just spoke about the result of that evaluation. In 2025, we are evaluating the ARSI system in least developed countries. With a focus on RC system support to LDC graduation. As per the PPBME and also as aligned with UN Evaluation Group norms and standards, OIUS Evaluation ensures secretariat accountability for the development system by assessing progress towards outcomes and reform commitments, and by providing invaluable learning opportunities for identifying the enabling factors for success process, as well as risks and obstacles that must be mitigated for greater effectiveness. Just a very last point, also OIUS evaluations have also provided valuable assessment on the RC system, including an evaluation of UN-Habitat that reported that this small entity, relatively small entity, believed its voice was better heard in the reformed country teams with a full full support of RCs. An evaluation of OICHR that reported that the Office collaborated well with UNCT and other UN entities on joint programs under the effective coordination of the RC. Thank you very much, Mr. Vice President.


ECOSOC · Vice President [25:52]:

I thank the Under-Secretary-General of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, and now again I give the floor to the Executive Director of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group Systemwide Evaluation Office, Madame Andrea Cook, for the second presentation.


UNSDG · Executive Director · Andrea Cook [26:07]:

Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I'll now present the— to complement the previous presentation— the actual key findings and conclusions of the evaluation on progress towards a new generation of UN country teams, which I mentioned earlier.. And to note, this report will be available in June, July. This evaluation confirms that the vision for a new generation of UN country teams that derive priorities from cooperation frameworks to deliver collective cooperation framework results remains highly relevant. However, there's a gap between strategic intent and operational realities. Many of the key foundations of the reforms have been established, also reported in the summary of evaluation evidence on the Resident Coordinator System that we published in 2024. There are notable improvements in common country analysis and widespread appreciation for the reinvigorated Resident coordinator system. And participation of non-resident entities in UN country teams is improving. The evaluation finds examples of behaviors and approaches which match the ambitions of the reforms in terms of delivery of more joint, integrated, strategic UN development solutions. And the evaluation of the Spotlight Initiative also provides important examples. However, overall, the cooperation framework has not yet become the most important instrument for the planning and implementation of UN development activities in each country, and UN country teams have not yet significantly reconfigured in line with its priorities. The UN development offer remains broadly aligned with and relevant to national priorities, But the core elements of this evaluation that this evaluation examines have not yet resulted in the fundamental shift towards a more coherent, integrated, and strategic offer that maximizes progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Alignment and derivation is a largely administrative exercise. Whilst UNCTSD entity country programmes are broadly aligned with cooperation frameworks, there is limited evidence that the substance of those programmes is significantly affected by the cooperation framework process. Ambitions on configuration were operationalised through country-level UNCT configuration exercises, and again, these were found to be largely administrative exercises that are generally disconnected from entity-level decision points on country-level resourcing and footprint. They have not meaningfully contributed to a more tailored, needs-based country presence that's based on cooperation framework priorities. UNCT ownership and use of the tools used to support cooperation framework implementation including joint work plans, joint resource mobilization strategies, and coordination structures, has been weak. And this limits the potential of these tools to deliver a more prioritized, strategic, and coherent set of interventions in response to Cooperation Framework strategic priorities. Turning to the factors that explain this, there are some challenges related to the Cooperation Framework guidance and the management and accountability framework in terms of clarity and practical application. Headquarters and regional support systems to cooperation framework cycles have largely focused on the design phase and on technical levers, but with less attention to external and horizontal engagement to facilitate coherent implementation of the cooperation framework. More coherent strategic approaches are usually more attributable to UN country team members and RC leadership than to processes and instruments and practice. UNSDG entity buy-in to the reforms is weaker at headquarters and regional levels, and overall, UNSDG entities have not fully have fully integrated the necessary accountabilities and incentives within their own structures and plans. There are important broader enabling environmental and systemic factors to take into account. Firstly, competition within UN country teams and limited transparency. These are major impediments to progress and are connected to project-based business models and donor behaviour., and also to the primacy of entity-specific accountabilities. National engagement in cooperation framework cycles is critical to ensure full alignment and coherence, and this is a key driver of UNCT coherence, but practice is variable. The existing governance arrangements of the UN development system are a limiting factor. They tend to prioritize entity-specific accountability, visibility, and results attribution rather than UNCT coherence. And finally, the funding pressures and donor approaches at country level are a clear impediment. Funding compact implementation has been limited. Earmarking continues to fragment efforts and to undermine coherence. The evaluation identifies 7 areas for attention which need to be addressed holistically by a range of UNDS stakeholders to better realize the vision for a new generation of UN country teams that are more effective and accountable to contribute to SDG progress at country level. These include member state— member state oversight, both in capacities as programme country governments and in the governing bodies, to hold the UN development system to account for improved performance. It requires greater progress on the Funding Compact and commitment to a more ambitious efficiency agenda to tackle critical institutional and efficiency challenges, which are also highlighted by the Spotlight Initiative evaluation. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [33:11]:

I thank the Executive Director, and next I give the floor to the Chair of the United Nations Evaluation Group and Director of the Independent Evaluation Office in the United Nations Development Programme, in the UNDP, Madame Isabelle Mercier, who is joining us virtually, as I understand.


UNEG · Chair · Isabelle Mercier [33:29]:

Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, I'm delighted to share a few reflections with you today, wearing both my hat as Director of the Independent Evaluation Office of UNDP and as Chair of UNEG, the United Nations Evaluation Group, which is a professional network of evaluators from over 50 UN entities that sets norms and standards and strengthens capacity to enhance the quality and use of evaluation. The UNEG recently adopted a new strategy that will guide us all the way to 2032. We continue coming together as a community to create and update our guidance notes and key documents, which are the things that help keep us aligned, support collaboration, and give our community some common ground to work from. For over 50 years, evaluation has played a vital role in ensuring that the work of the United Nations remains accountable and effective. What began as a way to track AIDS spending has evolved into a powerful tool for learning, helping us see what's working, where it's working, and who it's actually helping. Today, evaluation is embedded in the United Nations. It brings evidence into the conversation between agencies and member states, and that matters because when we ground dialogue in facts and learning, we start to build the kind of trust that's absolutely essential if we're going to move forward together and reach our common goals. Like all fields, evaluation is adapting to the growing complexity and scale of the world's challenges. Challenges that, I'm sure you agree, demand urgent responses, yet often come without clear solutions. What we recognize in our community is that there's no single actor or institution that holds all the knowledge, legitimacy, or reach required to tackle these challenges alone. And paradoxically, the more information we have, the harder it becomes to make sense of it, raising the risk of what we sometimes call analysis paralysis. Of course, we're all looking to artificial intelligence as part of the solution, and with its capacity to process and generate insights quickly, it most certainly has a big role to play. But the challenge isn't only technical, and while we need to keep our eyes on the future, we shouldn't lose sight of what the past has taught us. So let me briefly share 3 lessons that are guiding our most recent efforts across the UN evaluation community. First, sound decisions depend on good data. In some contexts, we have an abundance of it. In others, particularly when it comes to marginalized communities, data is scarce. That's why the production of bespoke, context-specific evaluations remains crucial. They offer detailed evidence and bring voices to decision-making tables that might otherwise be left out. Second, evaluation is not just something that international organizations should do, but it's a cornerstone of good governance everywhere, and especially at the national level, which is where evidence must be generated, owned, and used if we want to achieve the greatest impact. That's why the UN evaluation community keeps investing in national evaluation capacity development at every level. Individual, organizational, and institutional. And we do this by creating connections between countries and bringing together technical expertise with real experience. Third, we must make evaluative knowledge personal. This means aligning our work with the needs of national governments and tailoring our outputs to be useful and used. In recent months, we've modernized the UNEG portal, which houses a database of over 20,000 UN evaluations, and where we'll be using AI to make this database easier to navigate and future research ready. And on the broader scale, through the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition, co-founded by my office and UNICEF with the participation of partners including UN System-Wide Evaluation Office and OIOS, we're building a more connected and responsive evidence ecosystem across the multilateral system. One that's aligning an AI-enabled evidence architecture to respond to the evidence needs and demands of you, the people who need real-time access to the best evidence possible on key issues for SDG acceleration. We're doing this because we recognize that evidence only matters if it can get to the right people at the right place at the right time. Excellencies, colleagues, this work isn't something any of us do alone. It's something we could achieve together by continuing to reimagine and invest in learning, evidence, and collective systems. I look forward to the conversation ahead. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [38:10]:

I thank the Chair of the United Nations Evaluation Group and Director of the Independent Evaluation Office of the UNDP. And before I give the floor to the panel discussions, which we got to 2. I, again, I ask all the delegations who wish to speak and ask the questions to indicate it by pressing the microphone button. You may both ask the question to the general— the annual report of the system-wide evaluation office that was presented by Madam Andrea Cook firstly, and then of course to all these detailed reports that we heard from the— in the second round of the presentation. So both reports will be discussed together in the— both groups of the reports, the annual report and the group of reports, will be discussed together in this round. So all the member states who wish to take the floor, please indicate it in advance so we can register your request. And so now we are moving to the panel with the first— with the panel Cotance, first I give the floor to Mr. Robert Kayinamura, Chargé d'Affaires and Deputy Permanent Representative of Rwanda. Robert, the floor is yours.


Rwanda · Chargé d'Affaires and Deputy Permanent Representative · Robert Kayinamura [39:31]:

Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you for giving me the floor and I join to thank the briefers for their reports and insightful briefing they have given to us. Mr. President, for Rwanda, we think that this is a good moment for all of us to reflect, to recalibrate, and to guide effective future for UN development system. The adoption of General Assembly Resolution 79/226 sent a very clear message that the United Nations development system must deliver with greater coherence, efficiency, and most importantly, measurable impact. For Rwanda, we approach this discussion with a pragmatic approach. We have seen real progress since the repositioning of the UN development system. Strengthened UN Resident Continental System has helped Rwanda to better align with our priorities, and we are seeing more strategic engagement with the UN country team. This has made a real difference, especially in cross-cutting areas like climate resilience, youth empowerment, and digital innovation. Mr. President, but more clarity is needed on the accountability of heads of agencies to the Resident Coordinator for the system to truly operate One as one, there must be clear and enforceable lines of accountability that empower the resident coordinator to lead effectively, including in resource mobilization and implementation. We must also ensure that the resource mobilization is not fragmented by agents, but instead aligned around common priorities and national plans so that the system delivers collectively as one, and not through siloed and pilot-driven approaches. Only then we can ensure a stronger focus on national development priorities that deliver sustainable impact and maximize country ownership and space. But let's be even more clear. Real accountability takes more than institutional reform. It demands a cultural change and mindset shift across the system. Evaluations such as we have heard must be timely, independent, and fully integrated into strategic planning. These evaluations, as we have heard, should not be an end in themselves. They must drive real decisions, budget shifts, and a course of action. Mr. President, for Rwanda, we place a very high value on mutual accountability, meaning that accountability must flow in all directions—within the UN entities, across the development system, and between the UN and we, the member states. This is about a shared responsibility for results. As a lead discussant, Mr. President, I would like to invite everyone to reflect on 3 questions. First, are current evaluation practices genuinely informing strategic decisions and course of action? Second, what concrete steps are being taken to strengthen the authority and capacity of the Resident Coordinators to lead system-wide accountability? And third, how can we incentivize— incentivize greater collaboration across mandates, across agencies, and across funding streams to unlock the full potential within the UN development system. Again, we must be bold. There remains a persistent gap between ambition and delivery. And yes, as has been mentioned, over 160 UN country teams now operate under cooperation frameworks aligned with SDGs. But implementation remains uneven. Joint programming, as mentioned, remains an exception, not a norm. And too many resident coordinators remain under-resourced to lead effectively. Mr. President, conclude: As Rwanda, we are committed to a United Nations development system that is not just accountable, but transformative, one that delivers at the speed and scale that today's challenges demand. And we believe conversations such as this one should build a system that is coherent in design, efficient in delivery, and impactful in result and on the ground. I thank you very much, Mr. President.


ECOSOC · Vice President [45:02]:

I thank the Deputy Permanent Representative of Rwanda. Our next is His Excellency Thomas Peter Zannasein, Deputy Permanent Representative of Germany, to make the statement. Peter, Thomas, Thomas rather, Peter, Peter, the floor is yours.


Germany · Deputy Permanent Representative · Thomas Peter Zannasein [45:24]:

Thank you, Mr. President. It's actually Thomas. Distinguished delegates and Mr. President, you asked me to react to what I hear and after my friend Robert, I do not dare to read out all I have because a lot has been covered by him already, so I will try to be as reactive to what I heard as possible. But I would like really, first of all, thank the panelists for this very enlightening introduction and I particularly want to thank and commend Executive Director Andrea Cook and her small agile team for bringing the system-wide evaluation team to this point of operational mode. I think we have now an increasing number of high-quality products, be it in evaluation or mappings, and I do see and feel that we already see the value in our discussions. And many thanks for the presentation of the first annual report today. I think this is an important milestone, and we are confident to have many more of these events in the future. I have perhaps 5 short points in reaction. One that came to our mind and I discussed with my colleagues in the back, to Under-Secretary-General Dyer, we, the 3 of us sitting here from the German bench, we have been all for many years integrally involved in evaluation at national level and I can tell you challenging how challenging it is to have system-wide evaluations between ministries, even at national level. So I really, really would like to commend you how far the UN system has come now. I think this is not a given, and many, many thanks for this really remarkable progress that the UN system has made with regard to system-wide evaluation. The second point is I think we all agree where the UN Development System needs to end. It has to be— the ultimate target is sustainable impact. And it all hinges on quality data and analysis to do the right thing, to have evidence-based decision-making at all levels, system-wide learning, enhanced coherence, and greater accountability. Why it is so important, I think Mrs. Massier made it very, very clear. I would not like to repeat that. But what we really see, we have substantial number of evaluation reports across the system, they produce everywhere in high quality, but they do not give the full picture. I think what we really do at this critical moment is really having the ability to have a better understanding of the complexity of the system, that we can connect the dots at macro level, understand the working methods of the system, and really address challenges and address them in a way that we can correct it. And so the meta-perspective of what you're doing is extremely important to us as member states. The third point I want to make is on transparency. I think we really appreciate that the Office's independent, impartial evaluations are publicly available. I think we are now entering a critical moment in the UN with the UNAID reform initiative, and I think this is a critical moment for all of us We know where we are heading. The least thing we can need is an uninformed discussion. So I think what we do— what you do here with us is absolutely important because what we want to end up is not a situation where we have less with less, but we want really— want to have a better organization, more effective, and there these innovations are critical guidance for us as member states. During the process, and particularly once we have a future optimized systems, I think these kind of evaluations will be a constant guiding line for us to have system-wide quality evaluation and improvement. A final thought on UN80: we made that, at the national level, we made this very, very clear. For us, this is not a codcasting —cost-cutting exercise. We want a better United Nations system at the end. That requires investments in the system to do the work properly, and I think this office is one of them, and we consider proper funding and staffing of evaluation throughout the system as absolutely crucial. The final one, I want to come back again to what Madame Cook said in her presentation on the forthcoming evaluation of the Country Program Derivation from Cooperative Frameworks and UNCT Configuration. Thank you very much for the first presentation and the candour. I think this is really very timely because the recalibration of the UNDS is absolutely at the heart of what we do in UNAT and we do hope that we have a breathing interaction between your office, your findings and the current discussions because it is absolutely important. What also Mrs. Messier said, if we learn, we have to learn from each other and I think these evaluations and discussions are actually critical for policymaking for all of us. I would leave it there, but I would like to add maybe 2 or 3 questions, like my friend Robert. One is very much in line with what I just said on the breathing relationship between us. I think for us it is important, and maybe you could respond to that, that we close the gap between the evaluation recommendations and the implementations, and also between the operation and the end product, that we really have a close relationship, that we do understand the whole process from being evaluation, the evaluation and the implementation for our better understanding. And the second one, Again, I think it has already been covered by Robert, the current challenges of building a more coherent and transparent evaluation culture throughout the UN system. I stop there. Thank you very much for giving me the floor and thank you very much for this interesting discussion.


ECOSOC · Vice President [51:30]:

I thank Thomas, Deputy Representative of Germany, and now we open the floor to the delegations that want to participate in the interactive discussions. And we start with Spain, followed by Ireland and Indonesia. Spain, the floor is yours.


Spain [51:55]:

Muchas gracias. Thank you very much, Vice President, distinguished colleagues. Spain welcomes the first annual report of the System-Wide Evaluation Office. And we thank the Executive Director for this. We appreciate the progress made in 2024 in order to fully consolidate the Office, including the adoption of the whole system evaluation policy and the comprehensive implementation of the program of work. This report shows that the Office has managed to establish itself as a key instrument for supervision, transparency, and accountability in the system, addressing areas that cannot be properly monitored with existing mechanisms. We particularly underscore the evaluation of the Spotlight initiative that endorses the strategic value of the interagency approach to addressing gender-based violence, as well as the innovative use of artificial intelligence to improve access to useful evidence for decision-making. These discoveries reaffirm the role of the office to drive the repositioning of the UN development system in order to boost the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. We're very much looking forward to the upcoming conclusions of the evaluation on progress towards a new generation of UN country teams and on the strategy on the inclusion of persons with disabilities. And we believe that it's essential that any debate on possible structural changes or program realignments within the UN system fully include these independent evaluations. Spain underscores how important it is to strengthen national evaluation capacities. Just producing evaluations, publishing them is not enough. It's essential to include them in institutional frameworks with the right resources and trained personnel. In this regard, we have created a new evaluation unit in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reaffirming our commitment to institutionalizing a culture of evaluation. Finally, We wish to reiterate our full support to the Office and to its strategic role as a guarantor of independent evaluations within the UN system. Thank you very much.


ECOSOC · Vice President [54:05]:

I thank the distinguished representative of Spain, and now I give the floor to Ireland, followed by Indonesia and Sweden.


Ireland [54:14]:

Many thanks, Vice President, and thank you to the Sector-Wide Evaluation Office for the presentations here this morning, to all of the panelists who have presented very valuable input for us this morning, and also for the overview of the important and timely evaluations that are ongoing and the critical work that the Sector-Wide Evaluation Office is doing in promoting both learning and accountability across the UN development system. We have heard a lot, in fact, in these last number of days about the UN Development System reforms and the UN80 Initiative and the role that these have in ensuring that we have a strong, effective, efficient, coherent, accountable, fit-for-purpose UN, as also eloquently put by my Rwandan colleague. Important in this, and in fact central in all of this is the availability of strong evaluation evidence of what is working, what may not be working, what we need to build on, where we need to adapt. And there is no shortage of data and evidence. To hear that there are 1,000 evaluation reports published annually across the UN system is staggering. That's a huge amount of evidence and what we need is a conscious effort to be able to pause, to reflect, to draw together the findings, to agree on the way forward and to see how we can implement that as Thomas has argued as well. The evidence base that needs to be brought together needs to to be usable and less fragmented, and that's why we also welcome those efforts to map out, to bring together, and to bring those products that will guide decision-making. So very much welcome that. Ireland would like to see the independent sector-wise evaluation office properly resourced, notwithstanding, of course, the current financial constraints that we all have, and that means both consideration of support through the UN regular budget as well as consideration by member states of voluntary funding. So let's be ready, colleague member states, when this comes to the Fifth Committee again, to be able to see in what ways we can support this. This is an investment that will pay off. The total financial contributions to the UN Development System by member states is around $45 billion a year. That's the 2023 figure. That's not a small amount, and that really illustrates the scale of what we have and what we can do. Any efforts to ensure that the investment is targeted and planned and implemented and structured the best way possible should therefore be promoted. Just finally on the evaluations this morning, very much welcome. You've hit the nail on the head in terms of some of the areas that you're looking at, the RC system in complex situations and the role of the UN country teams. They are vital, as we've heard over the last number of days here at the OAS, in terms of making the impact on the ground where it matters the most in terms of delivering as one, as the UN system, and in terms of bringing together each of the agencies that are operating into a coherent effort that is working across the board. We also very much welcome the plans for the evaluation on the UN work on youth across the system, and we very much look forward to that as well. So one question I would have is in what way can we avoid fragmentation and increase national ownership of evaluation? How can and should the UN system, and also donors, support national evaluation capacities and functions? Because sometimes I worry that we are doing a whole lot of evaluation as donors, as investors. The UN is doing a lot of evaluation. We seem to have these pockets of evaluations. To what extent are we building national capacity for evaluation of national programmes? And what should we be thinking about more in that regard as well? Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [59:14]:

I thank the distinguished representative of Ireland, and now I give the floor to Indonesia, to be followed by Sweden and Switzerland.


Indonesia [59:22]:

Thank you, Mr. Vice President. We thank speakers for their presentations. For Indonesia, we have been consistent in promoting the use of accountability for development processes. It has especially gone through robust auditing process as a central pillar to the evaluation of development efforts. Among others, an example set by Indonesia is through the participation of our National Audit Board in development, in development process, including the participation of the auditing board in the ECOSOC HLPF since 2021, as well as the specific auditing process of Indonesia's Voluntary National Report presented since 2021. Robust and accountable auditing process serves as an honest reflection to development programs, aiming to ensure that development programs result meaningful benefits to the people and the society. In this regard, Mr. President, adds up to the discussion we are having this morning. Allow us to— allow us one question to all speakers. If strong audited process— auditing process has already been in place in each in each respective agencies, and what are the ways in which findings of the auditing process are followed up thoroughly? Thank you very much.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:00:44]:

I thank the distinguished representative of Indonesia, and now I give the floor to Sweden, to be followed by Switzerland and Russian Federation. Thank you, thank you, Mr.


Sweden [1:00:54]:

Vice President and distinguished delegates. Sweden wishes to thank the Systemwide Evaluation Office for its dedicated work in pursuit of providing independent evaluation evidence that can be used to strengthen transparency and accountability despite limited financial resources. Transparency and accountability of development assistance is a fundamental priority for Sweden as we strive to provide our citizens with information of how their resources are being used, focused on clear development results. We found evidence summarized provided by the System-Wide Evaluation Office in preparation of the QCPR deliberations very useful, providing us with a substantive input to allow for informed engagement in the negotiations. The UN system's role to uphold and promote the UN normative mandate, including gender equality, is also a core interest of Sweden. In this regard, we welcome the evaluation and the value for money assess development of the Spotlight Initiative, which is an important pooled fund mechanism that works towards achieving gender equality and empowering women through joint UN efforts. We hope that the learnings from the Spotlight Initiative are shared widely across the UN development system. As mentioned throughout our interventions these last few days, Sweden sees great potential in the UNCT configuration exercise, which we believe will be key in driving and achieving a more efficient and effective UN. We therefore look forward to the report to be presented in July and appreciate this morning's presentation with some of the preliminary findings, which are very timely as we prepare for engagements in the June Executive Boards. Uh, we would like to ask if you could provide some additional insights though, uh, from these, uh, evaluation to ensure that we provide informed guidance and instructions to the respective entities entities to strengthen the derivation of the individual plans from the cooperation frameworks and ensure that the entities adapt their physical footprint while focusing on effectively delivering on the ground. Lastly, in view of the UNAID initiative, we were also wondering if there are any thoughts on perhaps consolidating evaluation functions across the system into one sole office, which would potentially strengthen the necessary independent nature of evaluations. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:03:11]:

I thank the distinguished representative of Sweden, and now I give the floor to Switzerland, to be followed by the Russian Federation.


Switzerland [1:03:21]:

Thank you, thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you also to the panelists. Thank you, Andrea Cook, for introducing this, this report. So I could certainly echo my, my colleague on the left of what she just conveyed. So we welcome the first-ever annual report from the Systemwide Evaluation Office to the ECOSOC, which was indeed mandated by the QCPR, that is us. The Systemwide Evaluation Office is a key function of the UN Development System as it provides important learning, accountability, and oversight for the UN Development System as a whole. It is a byproduct of the UNDS reform, which we Member States requested at the time. We also appreciate that this session is being organized with the purpose of sharing the findings and recommendations of various evaluations reports. We would like to see such a session being systematically integrated in future OS sessions. The System-Wide Evaluation Office on UN Country Configuration is important and touches indeed on a very important topic where, I think it's fair to say, progress has been uneven, unfortunately, to say the least. We hope that the new dynamic triggered by the UN initiative and the call for reform across the UN system, including its operational activities, will help walking the extra mile. We welcome the significant progress which has been made in establishing the core team of the System-Wide Evaluation Office, and we are pleased that the system evaluation policy has been finalized. We support the effort to ensure predictable and sustainable regular budget funding as of 2026. We also encourage any efforts to strengthen synergies within existing evaluation entities in order to avoid duplications and secure adequate funding of the Systemwide Evaluation Office. So as a question perhaps to the panelists, how do panelists assess the collaboration and complementarity between the Systemwide Evaluation Office and the other evaluation units? Where efforts should be focusing on, rather, and to ensure that synergies are utilized and exploited. Thank you very much.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:05:31]:

I thank the representative of Switzerland, and now I give the floor to the Russian Federation, which is the last on my list, at least for this round. So if you want to jump in before I give the floor back to the panelists, this is the last moment to to jump in. And okay, we see one jumper in. But first, I give the floor to the Russian Federation.


Russian Federation [1:05:55]:

Thank you, Mr. President. Russia welcomes the report of the Systemwide Evaluation Office. We acknowledge the importance of getting reliable and good quality data so as to be able to take decisions, so that we can take decisions regarding the UN Development System. We also welcome the preliminary recommendations on improving the reform of the development system at the country level and the creation of a new generation of UN country teams. It's important to make sure that this data and these recommendations aren't lost and to make sure that they are translated into decisions by member states. But at the same time, of course, we do need additional explanations and clarifications of what is behind these recommendations. Of course, ongoing consultations and discussions with member states are going to be very necessary. Initially, we noted the recommendation regarding the need for the further advancing of derivations in the agency's country programs from the UN Framework Program. At the same time, we would note that the problem here may not just be in the UN agencies that want to do this, but actually in the essence or the nature of the UN Framework itself, which is very broad in nature and drawn in very general terms. And of course, it's very hard to imagine how such a general document is going to have a substantive impact on the content of agencies' programs. That also needs to be discussed. Of course, we understand the importance of coordinating actions and the coordinating role, But here, the opinions of all of the parties and their views need to be taken into account in this situation. And so in that regard, we would like to note that next year it would be very useful if we could have on the podium not just representatives of the Evaluation Office, but also management representatives of DCO, and where possible, also the representatives of agencies so that we could have a discussion that would take into account everyone's views. Also, as relates to the configuration of country teams, here again further discussions are needed of those recommendations and conclusions following the evaluation. We still do not understand how the resident coordinators can determine the presence of agencies on the ground because the presence of agencies on the ground or in the field isn't something that can be decided overnight. That's going to require the conclusion of long-term contracts for leases, equipment, the assignment of staff to that country. So that also needs to be understood. We need to understand what we want to achieve and what we expect from this process of country team configuration and how realistic it is to expect Resident Coordinators to be able to determine any given competency or which skills are needed in a country, which agencies are needed in a country on the ground. I'll leave it there for the time being, but we would just like to once again underscore how valuable the work of the Office is, and we look forward to continuing our cooperation within the ECOSOC segment and also in possible subsequent consultations.. And we would also like to just highlight the significant role that the Office played in supporting member states in agreeing the QCPR. Indeed, the materials that you prepared were very useful and we relied on those materials during our negotiations. Thank you very much.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:10:03]:

I thank the representative of Russian Federation and now I give the floor to our civil society partner, Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation.


DHF · Program Director · Peter Lineer [1:10:14]:

Thank you. Mr. Vice President, Madam Executive Director, Madam Under-Secretary-General, Madam Director, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Peter Lineer. I am the Program Director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation. We work in the legacy of the second UN Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld, who in turn focused quite extensively on the organization of the United Nations, aiming to create an efficient UN serving the people of the world, and especially those most marginalized. One important tool we all have for that work today is the UN Funding Compact, which I'm sure Hammachol himself would have appreciated as well. I have been fortunate to listen to the very insightful statements and frank dialogue taking place during this ECOSOC OAS session, and many have referred to the funding compact and to the need for more strategic quality funding of the UN. Also, this excellent report of the System-Wide Evaluation Office that is on the table during this session is bringing up the importance of quality funding in its recommendation 41. However, Both that recommendation and several of the statements earlier from UN representatives are placing the onus of that responsibility solely with the donor member states. I would therefore like to remind all that the UN Funding Compact is a shared commitment between the UN and all its institutions and with— and the member states. Fortunately, though, other parts of the evaluation are assessing the real commitment of UN country teams to integrated programming and commitment, showing a mixed progress. The Member States need to provide more quality funding, yes, but the UN system need to ensure that it itself invests in and believes in those soft earmarking and pooled funding tools as well. That the UN agencies are using them to a higher extent by investing in them with their own resources and staff into such joint efforts and thereby showing a greater trust in their own joint programmes, complementing each other's strength through the real joint programming and not only on paper. Also to ensure that the results of core funding, soft earmarking funds and pooled funding are better reported on with clear outcomes. Mr President, as the evaluation concludes, both sides need— therefore to step up and accelerate its commitment to the UN Funding Compact in order for the very ambitious target to be met already in 2 years from now. I therefore would like to commend this excellent evaluation for a comprehensive and realistic assessment of where we are today, and perhaps this session should have been the first in the OAS and not on the third day. We live in times where the world urgently needs a United Nations as efficient as possible, promoting learning and accountability for the sake of all humanity. I thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:13:27]:

I thank the representative of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and thank you for your enthusiasm to this session. And so now I give the floor back to our panelists, the ladies— actually in the original order because We start with Ms. Madam Andrea Cook, as you have the two reports and most of the questions. So, Andrea, the floor is yours first.


UNSDG · Executive Director · Andrea Cook [1:13:55]:

Thank you. Well, thank you first of all to everyone for the words of support for the progress that we've made in the past year and all your engagement and encouragement. Through this past 18 months since I joined the office as the first executive director. I've really appreciated the engagement and the direction that I have received from member states. Maybe I'll just sort of run through some of the critical questions that were raised, but on behalf of of the team. We really appreciate the positive feedback and take note of your suggestions. Firstly, our colleagues from Rwanda raised very important points around accountabilities. However, we'd also sort of really emphasize incentives. The management and accountability framework is critical, it's very necessary, but it's really challenging to enforce it and make sure that there's compliance. As I noted, some of the key issues related to accountability remain weak, and that's particularly in relation to the management and accountability framework, and that's balanced against strong entity-specific priorities, which have of course operated much longer than the commitments that came in place on this floor, you know, with the Agenda 2030 asking for a more collaborative and coherent development system. So moving to accelerate progress to these more collaborative and coherent ways of working, intended by the reforms at all levels, headquarters, regional, and country level, is critical. But the evaluation found— we talked to many, many people at all levels, and they strongly recognized that the picture that we're painting in this evaluation report. But they often saw the collaborative work that they were doing as extra work or additional to core responsibilities and their vertical accountabilities. They considered this often imposed additional transaction costs, and at times some of these processes were seen to create unnecessary friction in UN country teams who were striving to work collectively and harmoniously. And you will see when the report is published, the report also points to some of the challenges around the systems and rules that sort of support or inhibit effective joint working and collaboration relating to the movement of funds and capacities and expertise around the system that really do need to be unblocked. And I think you will see when the evaluation report is published— you know, the more detailed findings and evidence on this than we've been able to highlight at the moment. And I'll maybe come back to that a little bit later on. So turning to a couple of the points from— raised by Germany. In— I'd say this because I've worked in UN evaluation now for the last 10 years. It's very much a strong part of the practice within the UN system that there's a very high engagement through evaluation processes. That's fundamental to build engagement and learning through an evaluation process, not just when a report sort of hits the deck at the end of the process. That is something that we very much strive to deliver through the system-wide evaluation office. Obviously, that requires quite a lot of effort to achieve that on a system-wide scale. You know, the evaluation that we've just been talking about on UN country teams has required us to engage with all 37 UN SDG entities. We needed to work at scale across all the different contexts that the UN is working in and collect the data at country level. That required engagement with 21 UN country teams and resident coordinator offices. So that's extensive. That builds a sort of a learning and understanding through the evaluation, but also as we came to the end of this evaluation, we've had very interactive dialogues to discuss the recommendations. In Geneva, here in New York, online for entities that are not based in either place, but also for resident coordinators. And that is really to have very focused discussion— this was back in April— on what really are these recommendations, what are they saying, what are they asking for, but to kind of get people to think about what are the actionable recommendations we can put in place to make it as sharp and clear as possible and to eliminate any confusion, but that then builds forwards into having a management response, which will be completed by the UNSDG, that really commits the UNSDG and others to the specific actions that they put in place for the recommendations that they agree with. So that's very fundamental to the way we work, and it's Quite painstaking and time-consuming work for us, but it's very, very fundamental and important to our way of working. If we're looking at the points around UN80, here the evaluation, as I've just sort of hinted, really does point to the need to address some of those issues that are inhibiting progress that are linked to institutional and efficiency issues, and we consider that UNEAT does provide a platform to look at those issues in a strategic way across the whole system, with UNSDG entities, but also here with the key parts of the Secretariat. And it provides, if it's handled well, an opportunity to accelerate progress in a very fundamental way to achieve the reforms. Turning to, I think, the important points raised by Ireland, how can we avoid fragmentation and increase national ownership? I think that's really a point for for Isabelle to talk about as the chair of the UN Evaluation Group. But to note that we actually had worked together with colleagues from UNICEF and UN Women to provide a side event on this issue yesterday, which sort of really helped us to explain how we're working together. Turning to, I think, the next really questions for our side was with Sweden. And that is around the information that we've presented today. So the presentations that we've made are online now on the ECOSOC website. And also that includes a link to a background paper that we've prepared in advance of the publication of the UN Country Team's evaluation, because we're aware that that report is coming a little bit further on, but it's of great interest for the Executive Boards. And maybe just to clarify, at the end of my conclusions on the annual report, I said that the challenges in raising funding impede delivering at the pace required. And this is precisely why we started the evaluation as fast as we could last year. There was a very clear request from the UNSDG, but it took us many, many months to raise the money from contributions from different entities before we were able to launch the evaluation process. I would have ideally liked to have that evaluation completed and published by April this year, but it simply wasn't possible to deliver the evaluation of the scope and magnitude that this one is in any shorter time. So apologies for that, but that's the explanation for it. There was a point raised around UN80 and potential consolidation of oversight. I'm sure the USG may want to talk on this as well, but really the key point is, you know, form for oversight should follow function. And I think we need to look at where UNHCR is coming out and the contours of that, that then enables the attention to structural changes. That being said, I know many evaluation Officers that are already working within entities that are subject to funding decreases are working very, very hard to achieve greater efficiencies and work more within the envelope that's available to them. Turning to the important points raised by Switzerland, how do we ensure complementarity and synergy across our work? Well, first of all, for us, because we're working at a system-wide level, the engagement on work planning is really fundamental. And because of that system-wide level, the Joint Inspection Unit and OIOS are really fundamental, not just for sort of one-off discussions on planning, but working in a regular way to to share information and practice. And also, with the case of OIOS, to engage and support the respective assignments to ensure that they are not leading to duplication and that there's synergy in the learning that they produce. With other UN entities, we engage through having a UN Evaluation Office staff working on our management groups to bring in experience and perspective of evaluations from broader parts of the system. So for example, the disability inclusion evaluation has a management group of entities who have already conducted quite a lot of work on disability inclusion in their own entities, and we brought them into the management group so we could learn from that learning, but also learn from their expertise in having conducted evaluations on this topic. Finally, for our office, we have a system-wide evaluation steering group which has membership of all the heads of evaluation from the UN SDG entities. We had our inaugural meeting in February. This year. So that's a really important part of our annual cycle to ensure effective coherence and learning. Turning to Russia, thank you for your words of support and noting how you are using the reports that we provide. In relation to this evaluation on UN— the new generation of UN country teams, I'd be very happy to provide a detailed briefing to member states on this evaluation for further discussion once the report is published, because then I think that the issues that you quite rightly point to— at the moment we're discussing preliminary findings and conclusions, but not recommendations, because we haven't put anything on the table yet— is that then would be a dialogue that once you had the report report and you're able to look at it, I think then we can sort of have a focused discussion on the strength of the evidence, how it's constructed, and, you know, to answer any clarifications on methodology and data sources that underpins the strength of the evidence we provide that enables us to make sort of these clear conclusions and ultimately the recommendations. And the point around sort of the engagement of management on these panels, I welcome the support of member states to suggest that this becomes a permanent feature, as indeed I hope, given that our report will be submitted as official documentation for this segment. But certainly, in my practice in other UN evaluation functions, at annual board sessions for the funds and programmes, which is where I've worked previously, and management indeed, when we come to the annual report presentation, or presentation of individual evaluation reports, sit alongside and discuss the management response and follow-up. So that is a practice which I think would significantly strengthen this meeting in. And finally, the points from the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation. Just to clarify, the report identifies for funding compact issues the need for progress all around, and you will see when the recommendations come out that these are directed at UN entities as well as the resident coordinators. System and member states, because we consider that action for all of those players on all of the recommendations, and not just the funding compact one, are essential to accelerate progress. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:28:57]:

I thank Madam Andrea Cook, and now I give the floor to USG Fatoumata Ndiaye for your response and comments. Thank you. Thank you, Mr.


OIOS · USG · Fatoumata Ndiaye [1:29:07]:

Vice President. It will be short. I want to reiterate that it is really a great opportunity to be here, understanding that the segment is to discuss the annual report of the system-wide evaluation, but for OIOS to be here. Our report, our annual report goes to the FIPS Committee, as you know, and it has all the segments, all the different functions in their investigations, the audit, internal audit, and the evaluation. I'm saying that because in our mandate, as per our mandate, we are covering everything which is Secretariat. So we definitely cover the resident coordinators for all three functions, and we cover also the resident coordinators coordination function, which is located within the secretariat. So all of our evaluation work is actually, as you could see, all our recommendations go to DCO, so the Development Coordination Office. And this is to strengthen the leadership and support function of DCO when it comes to the resident coordination system. It goes without saying that we collaborate very closely with Andrea's office and we hope that she uses our report when she goes and reports to you because those reports are looking also at aspects of accountability and learning, policy development, strengthening, as you can— as you could see in our evaluation of resident coordinators in complex settings, we are also looking at the capacity of those offices resources to do everything that we are being asked to do. So we also develop large data set, lot of information about that, and all of this to the most granular level is available to the system-wide evaluation. So we do collaborate. But we do also have a mandate. So whatever question on consolidation of evaluation functions, I think it's very directly a question to member states to look at it. OIOS has a specific mandate. We do not make unilaterally a decision to change that mandate, but whenever synergies are, we're going to consider those synergies. And we see great value in the work that we do for the resident coordination system.— especially when we address the recommendation to DCO and DCO in turn accept and implement those recommendations for the added value of the system. So I just wanted to say that there is not much to add to it except that we have had always from the Development Coordination Office an excellent reception. A very strong listening ear from them. I think all of our recommendations so far have been implemented by them and we have, as part of the triennial, as I alluded in my talking points, we have followed up on them and seen that those recommendations were actually implemented and delivered results. So I want to thank again Mr. Vice President for the opportunity to be here today and to be part of the presentation of the first annual report of the Systemwide Evaluation Office and also the report that was presented. Thank you very much.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:32:56]:

I thank the USG for your responses and now I give the floor to Madame Isabelle Mercier, from the UNDP, virtually.


UNEG · Chair · Isabelle Mercier [1:33:08]:

Thank you. Thank you very much. I certainly appreciate the strong support you've all expressed for evaluation and really the recognition that it's a unique function within the UN system that straddles, on the one hand, oversight and accountability, and on the other, learning and improvement. And I agree that that is something that is essential now more than ever as the UN faces some challenges and some big decisions going forward. I just want to— I'm not sure there's many questions that were directed to me, but I do want to share some reflections about how I think you maintain and even improve evaluation within the UN and use it as a strategic lever. The first thing is about the need for technical skills within institutions, technical evaluation skills. You know, evaluators bring a really unique skill set to an organization. They're researchers, but they're also critical thinkers, knowledge brokers, and, and I think that that is a really unique space in some institutions to be able to do that work. And so you need technical skills, you need evaluators in institutions, and when you have a strong evaluation office, they can become a trusted advisor to organizations but also to member states. And so I encourage you to reach out to the evaluators who are in the UN system who are here and do have a whole lot of knowledge to share and will be most certainly happy to— of course, most evaluations, if not all, are published and accessible, but also evaluators are very happy generally to speak about their work and to give some advice and to share their opinions. And what you need to do to support a strong evaluation system is investments in evaluation. I'm really heartened to hear your support for investment in the system-wide evaluation office. But that investment, that commitment to the investment needs to be heard throughout the UN system. Another thing that I think is really important to emphasize, I mentioned it in my opening remarks, is that there is a corpus of knowledge already existing in the UN that evaluation has produced. And working— we're working hard to use AI to be able to tap into that corpus of knowledge and to leverage it so that we can derive system-wide insights much faster through all this evaluative work. So I'm really excited about the work we're doing on that. And I ask you to engage with the content and the material that's coming out of the Global SDGs Synthesis Coalition, because we really are hoping to shape that to be a tool for you, for member states and national governments, to be able to access that information and in, you know, in a way that is useful to you. And finally, some words about culture, the culture of evaluation. There was a lot of national evaluation capacity development work being done by evaluation offices across the UN. And what we're realizing now is that it is a moment for us to think about how we connect up those efforts. Some of us are doing training. My office, we do a big annual conference where we bring together decision makers and evaluators. We are working within the interest group of the, the National Evaluation Capacity Development of UNEC to think about how we can join up those efforts so that we can help build cultures, not just in the UN system, but in national governments, so that they can better engage with evaluations, participate in them, and build up evaluation systems within their own governments. And I think I'll leave it at that. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:37:28]:

Thank you so much. I think Madame Isabelle Mercier And since the DCO was mentioned a few times during the discussion, now I would ask to say some words from Madam Helena Fraser, which is Director of Policy and Programme of DCO, and we are happy that you joined us in the— jumping into this panel discussion. So, Director Fraser, the floor is yours.


DCO · Director of Policy and Programme · Helena Fraser [1:37:57]:

Thank you very much, and thank you for giving us the opportunity to react and share some reflections. First, we'd like to start out by saying we fully agree on the critical importance of a culture of evaluations and a system-wide approach. From our perspective, the system-wide evaluations are absolutely critical to ensuring an agile and learning UN development system able to recalibrate in line with General Assembly mandates and guidance, based on truly independent system-wide insights on what's working and what isn't. The OAOS evaluations are, of course, also very helpful for us as DCO, and I would like to also share the excitement and interest that my colleague in UNDP just mentioned regarding the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition. We really see the promise of this for accelerating system-wide system-wide learning. In response to some other points made by distinguished speakers, we have a very strong commitment in our role as the UN SDG Secretariat to lead collaboration across the UN development system to ensure robust management response and clear path forward for action on the system-wide evaluation recommendations on the UN country teams once they are issued. Many of you mentioned the importance of not just learning, but also acting, and I just want to articulate here that we will do our utmost across the UN development system on this, but implementation has to be taken very seriously across the whole system, not only within the Resident Coordinator system, so we do need your strong support as Member States in the boards once the management management response is agreed by UN SDG principles. Regarding the point made by Russian Federation, we definitely commit to working with the system-wide evaluation office to ensure member states are kept regularly updated as we move towards implementing the eventual management response adopted by the UN SDG principles. And finally, on accountability, the point made by Rwanda, As has been mentioned, the MAF implementation has lagged, the Management and Accountability Framework, which was put in place to strengthen accountability between UN country team members and resident coordinators, and vice versa. And it has been clear from the surveys we've conducted across all UN country teams, which had over 775 respondents, also at regional level, This showed that the management and accountability framework needs to be made clearer and shorter, but the biggest issues remain around low awareness and understanding, insufficient instructions and oversight, and insufficient incentives. So many echoes of what the system-wide evaluations preliminary findings have highlighted. One example is at the moment resident coordinators receive performance performance feedback from an interagency panel representing everyone that sits in their country team at regional director level. But the management and accountability framework provision that country team reps should get resident coordinator feedback for their performance rarely happens and is far from systematic. We also recognize that implementation of the management and accountability framework may be imperfect, in some cases on the resident coordinator sides, and we do believe that simplifying and clarifying it will help with this. So I want to make one point here, which is, as the system-wide evaluation comes out with its recommendations on accountability, we must focus on implementing it, and member states will again need to help foster coherence across the governing bodies on this matter. And thank you to our colleague from the DAJK, Hammerskjöld, Foundation for flagging the Funding Compact. As you all know, one of the major commitments for the system in the Funding Compact is to strengthen accountability through an improved evaluation culture. And we really see this happening. I think today's event is a fantastic example of that. Hopefully, this can also help you as member states to build the case for a strong and robust implementation of your Funding Compact commitments. Commitments too. Thank you very much.


ECOSOC · Vice President [1:42:17]:

I thank Director Fraser and also thank all our panelists for sharing their valuable insight and all delegations for their participation and productive exchange of views. And I got— and I have two good news for you all. Good news number one is that we have a 10-minute break to stretch the legs and I think we would appreciate that. And the second good news is that we reconvene here prompted to have the second panel discussion for today on effective accountability action for the prevention of the sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment. So 10 minutes break and we will reconvene at 12. Thank you.


Speaker 36 [1:42:56]:

Thank you very much. Thank you so much.

It was good and very Yeah, yeah, Excellencies—


ECOSOC · Chair [1:54:07]:

Excellencies! Ladies and gentlemen, let us now begin part 2 of this morning's meeting. The Council will now hold the second panel discussion for this morning. Focused on effective accountability, action for the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment. The session will explore how the United Nations Development System is advancing a victim-centered, accountable, and transparent approach to preventing and responding to sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment. The session will highlight progress made across entities and across country teams, and it will also explore how these policies are operationalized in local contexts. I invite us to discuss the main challenges and how they can be overcome by institutionalizing good practices, by scaling up coordinated efforts, and by reinforcing the UN's zero tolerance policy. I'm pleased to welcome our panelists for this discussion. We have Her Excellency Ms. Maritza Chan Valverde, Vice President of the Council and Permanent Representative of Costa Rica. We also have Mr. Christian Saunders, Special Coordinator on Improving the United Nations Response to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. And Ms. Najla Nassif-Palmer, Victims' Rights Advocate for the United Nations, and Ms. Gwyn Lewis, Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh, who is joining us virtually. Without further ado then, I'll give the floor first to Her Excellency Ms. Maritza Chan Valverde, Vice President of ECOSOC. Madam, you have the floor. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President · Maritza Chan Valverde [1:56:57]:

Antonio Donba, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Ecuador-Alguinea. Excellencies, colleagues, friends. Sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment are a scourge on our shared institutions. They erode trust, damage lives, and compromise our collective missions. When left unchecked, this silences women and girls, fractures communities, and undermines the credibility of multilateralism. It is our shared responsibility to prevent it, respond to it, and ensure full accountability. I address you today not only as Vice President of COSOC, also as the chair of the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women next year, which will focus on access to justice, and this issue could not be more timely. To truly deliver justice, we must ensure that survivors are heard, believed, and supported, and that impunity has no place, whether in our institutions or our societies. I look forward to engaging with you all as we prepare for CSW 70. Excellencies, colleagues, the UN Zero Tolerance Policy is essential, and I commend the efforts done by the UN at headquarters quarters, regional, and critically at country level to ensure its effective implementation. But policy is only the beginning. Action must follow. Leadership must be visible. We as member states play a critical role. Let me highlight 5 key areas. One, investing in survivor-centered responses. Must remain a priority. Even in a challenging financial landscape, support to victims and communities must not be deprioritized. As members of governing bodies, we must enforce PSEAH policy and demand consistent application. Standards on paper must translate into action on the ground. We must strengthen transparency and accountability mechanisms, aligning national systems with international standards and ensuring credible reporting structures. We must hold ourselves to the same standards we expect of others. That means adopting and enforcing strong PSA safeguards within our own institutions. And in the spirit of reform, a new UNAID, which should support coherent interagency approaches that avoid duplication and focus on real outcomes for survivors. The newly endorsed model clause for sustainable development cooperation frameworks is a step forward by promoting joint frameworks and aligning with government and UN efforts, we can build strong, unified system and wide response to SEA. Excellencies, this is a question of political will. We have the tools, the frameworks, and the guidance. What we need now is sustained leadership. We need to act with courage, with accountability, and with survivors at the center to ensure our institutions are worthy of the trust placed in them. I thank you.


ECOSOC · Chair [2:00:57]:

Muchísimas gracias, señora.

Thank you very much, Miss Moritz, Permanent Representative of Costa Rica and Vice President of the Council. I now give the floor to the Special Coordinator on Improving the United Nations' Response to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Mr. Christian Saunders. Sir, you have the floor.


UN Secretariat · Special Coordinator · Christian Saunders [2:01:23]:

Mr. Chair, Excellencies, distinguished delegates. I would first like to thank the ECOSOC Bureau, the Chair Ambassador Barr, Madam Vice Chair Ambassador Valverde, and the members for providing a dedicated forum to discuss this important issue. In sum, Accountability lies at the heart of protection from sexual exploitation and abuse and harassment. Over the last two decades, the United Nations has made important investments to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse by strengthening investigations, improving vetting, victim assistance, reporting, and training. Country-level coordination has also improved, and transparency has increased through the publication of information. We're also working much more inclusive— inclusively with NGOs and other partners to better manage risks and address this issue. Despite this progress, sexual exploitation and abuse remains an urgent concern. In 2024, we received 675 allegations of SEA. Nearly 30% of these allegations involved child victims. These numbers, however, don't tell the full story. Many more cases go unreported for many reasons, including stigma and fear, and a lack of trust that reports will lead to tangible outcomes. Each of these cases undermines the UN's credibility and violates the trust placed in us by the communities we serve. One of the key challenges we face is the lack of committed leadership— leadership at various levels of the UN system. Here I'm not referring to the SG, who, as you know, has championed this issue from his first day in office. Leadership is the cornerstone of preventing and responding to sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment. It shapes the tone, the culture, and the values of our organizations and teams, creating an environment where such behavior is neither tolerated nor overlooked. Strong leadership establishes and enforces clear policies, ensuring that zero tolerance approach is not just a statement but a practiced reality. As leaders in the United Nations, we must lead by example to actively prevent SEA and to respond with urgency and seriousness when allegations arise. I understand it's not easy. It's uncomfortable to talk about these issues, which frankly is partly why sexual exploitation abuse continues to occur. Even in this room, I can see people who look uncomfortable speaking about this issue and listening to my words. But we need to get over these reservations and to talk about it openly, honestly, and often. The UN must act urgently to rebuild trust and deliver visible and tangible accountability. This challenge has been amplified by the recent funding cuts. As resources and services decrease, the risk of SEA increases, and our capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to SEA is also diminished. Securing sustainable funding for PSEA has never been more urgent. The United Nations needs to shift from the current ad hoc reactive PSEA approach to a model where PSEA, or safeguarding as it is more commonly known, is institutionalized and embedded in everything that we do. The resources required to prevent and respond to SEA must be part of the core operating costs of every— entity and every country program. This includes resources for ensuring adequate and sustainable assistance to victims and children born of SEA. What we need is a proactive, system-wide safeguarding approach rather than the current reactive or ad hoc response. The current UNHCR discourse has appropriately emphasized coordination and efficiency, both essential elements. However, we must also ensure that accountability is at heart of of this conversation. Accountability to the Charter, to the communities we serve, to our staff, and of course to you, the Member States. More importantly, PSEA cannot be separated from efficiency. It is integral to it. An accountable, survivor-centered approach strengthens trust, improves outcomes, and upholds the values that define the UN. As we look towards the future of the organization, Safeguarding must be positioned as a core pillar of our collective effectiveness and credibility. Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates, addressing sexual exploitation and abuse requires collective action. The United Nations cannot do this alone. The role of member states is crucial. Sexual exploitation and abuse are rooted in deep structural issues—power imbalances, inequality, poverty, and weak rule of law, among others. Until these root causes are addressed, the scourge of SEA will persist. Member States have a sovereign responsibility to address these root causes and ensure strong, effective legal and institutional frameworks to tackle this issue. To this end, we're strengthening our partnership with Member States, as, as noted by Ambassador Valverde, to ensure a system-wide common approach in addressing SEA. In 2024, As a first step, the United Nations developed a model PSEA clause that will be integrated into all sustainable development cooperation frameworks going forward and will help the UN and governments work together to embed PSEA in national systems. As mentioned by the Deputy Secretary-General in her opening remarks, Resident Coordinators play a vital role in coordinating, convening, and leveraging efforts to match the scale and urgency needed to achieve the SDGs. DGs. The same is true for PSEA. Resident coordinators will lead this effort, but to do so effectively, they need your support and access to dedicated sustainable resources. Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates, the path forward requires collective action and unwavering commitment from all. Inbuilt reservations, biases, or taboos over this issue and resource constraints cannot be an excuse for putting at risk the communities we're mandated to serve. We must take decisive action to institutionalize safeguarding within each organization and government department to effectively prevent and respond to SEA. We owe it to those communities we serve and to those who serve alongside us as our colleagues. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Chair [2:07:42]:

Doy las gracias al señor Christian Saunders. I thank Mr. Christian Saunders, Special Coordinator on Improving the United Nations Response to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. Next, I will give the floor to Ms. Najla Nassif-Palmer, Victims' Rights Advocate for the United Nations. Madam, you have the floor. Please, Mr.


UN Secretariat · Victims' Rights Advocate · Najla Nassif-Palmer [2:08:09]:

Chairman and Vice President. Mr. President of ECOSOC, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, colleagues, good afternoon. It's a pleasure to brief the ECOSOC for the first time. My role as the victims' rights advocate is to advance the principal pillar of the Secretary-General's strategy on prevention and response to sexual exploitation and abuse by the United Nations and related personnel. That is to place the rights and dignity of the victims at the center of all our efforts. I work with United Nations entities, member states, civil society, National League of Human Rights organizations to ensure that they will have a voice, assistance, and justice. In doing so, I support implementation of the 2030 Agenda, in particular Sustainable Development Goal 5, aimed to achieve gender equality equality and empowerment of women and girls, and Sustainable Development Goal 16 focuses on promoting peace, justice, and strong institutions. The United Nations system has taken important steps to place victims at the heart of our prevention and response, including the creation of my mandate, the rollout of a United Nations Protocol on the Provision of Assistance to Victims of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, and the issuance of a victims' rights statement. We have also seen that dedicated victims' support specialists on the ground who can advocate on the victims' behalf make a real difference. In Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, and South Sudan, the introduction of dedicated personnel such as senior victims' rights officers has significantly improved the support available for victims and children born of sexual exploitation and abuse. These officers perform my system-wide role in the field level, supporting victims of all UN personnel—uniformed, civilian, national staff—in peacekeeping, humanitarian, and development settings, as well as their implementing partners. They mobilize resources, facilitate provide access to assistance, accompany victims during investigation, and where there are children born of sexual exploitation and abuse, they assist in the resolution of paternity and child maintenance claims. In my advocacy with member— with resident coordinators, UN country teams, and United Nations entities, I have requested the designation of more victim support functions or at the very least, the nomination of focal points to champion victims' rights. Since 2021, we have made some progress. The number of these support functions has doubled from 6 to 12 across the UN country teams. In addition to the 4 senior victims' rights officers already mentioned, we have now 8 victims' rights focal points in Cuba, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Honduras, Liberia, Mali, Ukraine, and Uruguay. These focal points appointed by resident coordinators support the facilitation of paternity claims of children born of sexual exploitation and abuse and act as a bridge between the government officials and the UN. But despite meaningful progress, significant challenges still persist. Victims have the right to timely and adequate assistance, and this require resources. While some settings have robust systems in place, others face major gaps due to limited resources, legal and policy barriers, or capacity constraints. Lengthy investigations and uneven access to services continue to hinder timely assistance and the provision of justice. Due to increasing financial pressures and shrinking budgets, Many UN entities and partners are struggling to sustain the delivery of critical life-saving support. The Trust Fund in Support of Victims of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse is designed only to fill gaps, and reliance on voluntary contributions is unsustainable. Integrated, predictable funding is essential to deliver on our promises to victims and survivors. I am exploring ways within the organization to address these challenges, so to secure sustainable resources for victims' assistance, improving the coordination in mobilizing these resources. However, the role of host governments remains vital to the provision of public services and by strengthening gender-based violence and child protection systems, to which victims and survivors are usually referred. I'm also working to integrate a victims' rights approach across the system. Yet realizing victims' rights to justice and remedies remain a major challenge and requires member states' support. So I appeal to member states to enhance accountability for acts of sexual exploitation and abuse, to align national legislation with international standards of victims' rights, to adopt a more flexible legal approach to addressing paternity and child support claims and make available interim support to these children until the legal process is concluded. And finally, I further appeal to member states to ensure predictable and sustainable resourcing, including dedicated and specialized victims' support functions in the development settings, so that the victims they receive the comprehensive support they need. We are all accountable to victims and survivors, and above all, we must work together to put victims' rights first.


ECOSOC · Chair [2:14:10]:

Thank you. I thank, I thank Ms. Najla Nassif-Palmer, victims' rights advocate for the United Nations. And I now give the floor to the Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh, Ms. Gwyn Lewis. Ms. Lewis, you have the floor. La señora Lewis está en línea. Is Miss Lewis online? Well, I think we'll tune into Ms. Lewis a bit later, seeing as we can't join her. So in the meantime, we'll open up the interactive discussion. I now open the floor to delegations to participate in an interactive discussion. Participants are invited to press the microphone button to indicate their request to intervene. I would like to remind speakers that in order to give all those wishing to speak the opportunity to take the floor, individual statements will be limited to 2 minutes and statements on behalf of groups will be limited to 3 minutes. We only have just about half an hour So we're going to try and make sure we get to hear from everyone. And so, given the time limitations, the microphone will automatically be cut off when the allotted time has elapsed. This is in the interest of hearing from all the speakers who have signed up to take the floor. First of all, I'm going to give the floor to the representative of Mexico. Mexico, you have the floor.


Mexico [2:17:12]:

Muchas gracias, señor presidente.

Thank you very much, President. Mexico is grateful for the fact that this segment is dedicated to this serious issue. We reiterate that the prevention and Attention to exploitation, abuse, and sexual harassment must be present in a cross-cutting manner throughout all of our decisions and actions. In order to make headway in the implementation of the QCPR, it's essential to strengthen systemic evaluations within the UN system for development. The Resident Coordinator System has the responsibility to ensure that entities have concrete action plans and systemic action plans. We appreciate the fact that today there's a considerable increase in the number of country teams that have presented their respective update reports on the systemic action plan on gender equality. We're delighted that in, in line with the pluriannual framework, 90% of these teams presented their certificate on protection against SEA in 2024, and we hope that this year we will achieve the goal of 100%. Fully complying with the zero tolerance policy of the United Nations is a moral and— moral duty, and it's the rules. We note a concern that persists about the deficiencies on protection of complainants of cases of SEA. While the number of complaints decreased during the most recent period, the report of the Secretary-General states that only 36% of the country teams have safeguards to protect those that make complaints. We must recognize that given the financial reality, resources need to be required to strengthen victim attention mechanisms, protection of complainants, and to ensure accountability. Mr. President, it's essential to have a robust structure to protect complainants. We would like to therefore ask, what are the main challenges that the UN entities face in order to deploy attention mechanisms when cases of sale are reported in operations, in particular when these happen in complex contexts? Thank you very much in advance for your answer.


ECOSOC · Chair [2:19:35]:

Thank you very much to the representative of Mexico. I will now give the floor to Germany. Germany, who will be followed by the Netherlands and then by the United Kingdom.

Germany, you have the floor.


Germany [2:19:56]:

Thank you, Chair. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, Germany welcomes a zero tolerance policy with regard to sexual exploitation, abuse, and sexual harassment. The SDGs cannot be reached effectively without prevention mechanisms. They are the backbone of our work and key for our credibility. Germany is concerned about the high number of victims and survivors, and the number of unreported cases is likely to be much higher. Therefore, we highly value the inclusion of a survivor-centered approach, putting the perspectives of victims and survivors at center. Germany emphasizes the importance of stronger protection for whistleblowers in reporting mechanisms. Therefore, they need to be included in the design of these mechanisms. Germany underlines the necessity of prevention and the implementation of stronger sanction mechanisms against perpetrators. Furthermore, we welcome the overarching cooperation of UN institutions, including streamlining and simplifying access to services for victims and survivors. This is essential in order to strengthen mechanisms and to protect victims and survivors at the same time. For Germany, Finally, preventing sexual exploitation, abuse, and sexual harassment remains very relevant in strengthening UN institutions generally. Prevention should be seen as part of the cost of doing business. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Chair [2:21:43]:

I thank the distinguished representative of Germany. Before I give the floor to the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. We can see that Ms. Gwyn Lewis has managed to connect online. She's the Resident Coordinator of the UN in Bangladesh. So I'll give the floor to Ms. Lewis. Ms. Lewis, you have the floor.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Gwyn Lewis [2:22:08]:

Thank you. Apologies for the connection issue. Esteemed delegates, thank you for being here. I extend my gratitude Thank you to the ambassadors for the opportunity to discuss such an important topic and to the panelists for their insightful comments. I hope the experience in Bangladesh will complement the points already made. The UN support to Bangladesh is multifaceted, encompassing sustainable and accelerated development programming as the country approaches LDC graduation, assistance in responding to large-scale climate disasters, and provision of humanitarian support to over 1 million Rohingya refugees. Regardless of the location or the type of program, the UN in Bangladesh is committed to preventing sexual exploitation and abuse. I'll continue. Apologies, colleagues. I thought the line is disconnected again. Regardless of the location of the— program, the UN and Bangladesh is committing to preventing sexual exploitation and abuse and ensuring the survivors are at the center of all our support efforts. We are also improving collaboration with our government counterparts to enhance survivor access to police protection and to local courts. Although a PSEA network was established in 2017 for the Rohingya response, a comprehensive approach to strengthening PSEA SEA across development and climate-related responses was initiated in 2023. These networks, led by a PSA coordinator, include UN and international and national NGOs as well as civil society organizations. What are we working on? We are training staff, volunteers, and implementing partners to prevent and respond to cases of SEA. We are developing and sharing key messages tailored the local context for the beneficiaries we serve. We're also enhancing access to survivors to complaints mechanisms and ensuring victim support is available. We are also improving reporting mechanisms. Partners are working to find sustainable solutions to investigations, assessing implementing partner capacity and to prevent and address PSEA, and building capacity for organizations that need additional support. To further strengthen our strategic approach, the network has already completed a countrywide interagency risk assessment. By identifying risks and working closely with the government, we hope to optimize resources available in the country and strengthen the joint response and prevention of SEA. I want to thank the Special Coordinator and the Victims' Rights Advocate for their guidance and support, especially in terms of how we provide victim support, how we provide community-based complaints mechanism, and the development of training materials for staff and implementing partners. This— despite the support and the efforts we are making, we still have a lot of work to do. I'd like to finish by reflecting on a few points. Most organizations, including the UN, have investigative capacities and responsibilities only at HQ level. The lack of investigative capacity at country level often results in long waits for investigators— for investigations to be completed. I have witnessed firsthand the heartbreaking impact on survivors awaiting outcomes. The delay in providing feedback also increases the sense of impunity among perpetrators and creates a lack of trust in our systems. Another challenge is the engage— is engaging development stakeholders and adapting tools designed specifically for emergency contexts. To address this, we are revising and adapting some of the tools already utilized for our humanitarian and work in the Rohingya camps. We also need to continue working jointly to try and establish a system to track perpetrators to avoid rehiring them across the UN and NGO system. We also need to increase knowledge and capacity of government bodies and engage with private sector organizations that are increasingly involved in development work. In Bangladesh, the development and humanitarian actors are working together to find sustainable solutions at the country level to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse. In this current financial, uh, climate, we need to maintain the capacity to sustain the resources and our focus to protect those we serve. Thank you again for your attention and for your continued support.


ECOSOC · Chair [2:27:10]:

I thank Ms. Gwyn Lewis, Resident Coordinator of the UN System in Bangladesh. Thank you. I'll now give the floor then to the Netherlands, who will be followed by the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The representative of the Netherlands has the floor.


Netherlands (Kingdom of the) [2:27:34]:

Thank you very, thank you very much, Mr. Vice President, and thank you to all the panelists for their valuable remarks. I'd also like to extend our gratitude to the Vice Presidency for including this vital subject on this year's OAS agenda. The Kingdom of the Netherlands reaffirms its strong commitment to the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment. As we've heard from the panelists, progress has been made, but many challenges persist. And in that regard, I couldn't agree more with the 5 key areas as highlighted by Her Excellency the Permanent Representative of Costa Rica. I'd like to highlight 3 further priorities. First, we must place victims and survivors at the heart of our efforts. A truly victim and survivor-centered approach requires safe, accessible reporting pathways, psychosocial and legal support, and meaningful participation of survivors in shaping policy and response mechanisms. Second, we call on all UN DES members to continue to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of prevention, protection, and response through interagency and system-wide collaboration, through conducting joint assessments and capacity building of implementing partners and joint community engagement. Third, the need for sustainable funding remains, recognizing it is not a peripheral issue but a critical pillar for everyone. Long-term financing is essential. Finally, I have a question. As several panelists have highlighted the need for stronger leadership throughout the organization, I'd be interested to hear from you how, how this can be achieved and how member states can support in this regard. Thank you very much.


ECOSOC · Chair [2:29:17]:

I thank the distinguished representative of the Netherlands, and I now give the floor to the United Kingdom, who will be followed by Switzerland and then by the International Youth and Students Association for Peace. The United Kingdom has the floor.


United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [2:29:35]:

Thank you, Vice President, and to all the panelists. Thank you for the continued efforts of the UN Secretariat, agencies, funds, and programs to embed a culture of zero tolerance to SEA-H across UN operations. Tackling SEA-H is critical to the integrity, accountability, effectiveness, and impact of all the UN's development work. People in communities need to know that UN organizations can keep them safe and also address misconduct. A barrier to more progress on PSEA remains a lack of adequate, sustained, and predictable human and financial resources to fully embed and mainstream effective prevention of SEA, accountability, and support for victims and survivors. We note with disappointment that, as reported in the QCPR accountability framework, The percentage of UNCTs with a financed position for a country-level PSEA coordinator, a country-level mechanism to empower, encourage, and protect staff who report, or a designated victims' rights officer or focal point remains unacceptably low. As difficult prioritizations and choices are being made at organizational and country level, and as part of the UNATI process, the UN must protect and promote the principle of zero tolerance to inaction on SEAH and embed PSEAH as an essential, not optional, activity. It is vital that the Resident Coordinator System fully backs those efforts and that PSEAH expertise is protected and prioritized at country level to tailor action to context and engage local partners, including national governments. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Chair [2:31:28]:

I thank the distinguished delegate of the United Kingdom and I now give the floor to Switzerland who will be followed by the International Youth and Students Association for Peace. Switzerland, you have the floor.


Switzerland [2:31:44]:

Thank you very much to the chair and the panelists, excellencies, colleagues. Switzerland appreciates ongoing efforts of the UN system in fostering a zero tolerance culture for SEA across UN operations. The focus on strengthening prevention mechanisms and the survivor-centered approach in cooperation with those affected are particularly noteworthy. For Switzerland, prevention of SEA is an essential responsibility for the credibility of the international system and all the UN development work. It is a moral and legal obligation to the people we serve.. And I join the delegations from Mexico and UK to refer in this context also to the mandates that are enshrined in the QCPR. SEA undermines trust in organizations and impacts the effective delivery of programs and priorities. And as was said by others, it is part of the cost of doing business. The same way as it is also the case for fraud and corruption. Even in times of financial constraints and budget cuts, we must not allow the prevention of SEA efforts to be deprioritized. Particularly in the context of UN Haiti, it is imperative that the UN upholds the principle of zero tolerance for inaction on SEA and ensure that SEA is viewed as an indispensable activity. As was also alluded by the USG standards. SEA is not only a matter of compliance, it must be fully integrated into every aspect of program management cycle. In this— in all this, prevention is key and not just response. And it's all about culture and it's all about leadership. Furthermore, contextualizing and localizing SEA is very important. This requires centering the voices, knowledge, and leadership of local organizations. And for our question, this is more or less in line with the question that was already formulated by the Netherlands. Thank you very much.


ECOSOC · Chair [2:34:05]:

I thank the distinguished delegate of Switzerland, and I now give the floor to the International Association of Youth and Students for Peace. You have the floor.


IAYSP · UN Major Group for Children and Youth · Naghma Shrestha [2:34:21]:

Thank you, distinguished chair, executive heads, and member state representatives. I am Naghma Shrestha, speaking on behalf of the International Association of Youth and Students for Peace and the UN Major Group for Children and Youth. I appreciate this important and often overlooked discussion, and I'm truly grateful for the opportunity to contribute to it, especially from the perspective of young people. As a peace advocate and also a former Miss Universe Nepal and National Director of Miss Universe Nepal organization, I want to spotlight a gap that's too often left out of conversation on the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse, and sexual harassment. That is the informal and cultural spaces where young people live work and aspire. Events like beauty pageants, fashion shows, talent competitions, and influencer campaigns may lie out of traditional development or humanitarian frameworks, but they often involve unregulated power dynamics with little to no PSEAH protection in place. Many participants are young, ambitious, and unaware of their rights. There are rarely contracts, no complaint mechanisms, and when exploited, When exploitation happens, it's quietly endured or brushed aside. Recent assessments from my home country, Nepal, highlight how social stigma, fear of backlash, and a culture of silence often prevent survivors from reporting abuse. To address these urgent gaps, we must extend PSEA frameworks to informal and unregulated sectors, especially those that involve youth and women, and urge member states to ratify ILO's convention 190, which provides vital protection in all workplaces, including informal ones. Young people are not passive observers. We are active changemakers, but we cannot thrive in environments where our dignity and safety are not guaranteed. Thank you so much.


ECOSOC · Chair [2:36:19]:

Muchas gracias, la distinguida delegación de la IAJSP.

I thank the distinguished delegate from the International Association of Youth and Students for Peace. Having heard the last speaker for our interactive debate, I would now like to give the floor back to the panelists so that they can answer the questions asked by the different speakers during the interactive discussion. Mr. Saunders, you have the floor.


UN Secretariat · Special Coordinator · Christian Saunders [2:37:05]:

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, members, for— and distinguished delegates, for your interventions and for the important questions. I'll try and respond to two of the questions, and then I'll hand the floor to my colleague, ESG Palmer. Mexico asked, 'What are the biggest challenges in putting in place the mechanisms?' I think there are many. I think that the lack of resources, and particularly now there's going to be an ever-increasing competition for resources moving forward. So, I think the lack of sustainable and predictable resourcing for this issue. I think the fact that we haven't institutionalized this issue, and this also partly responds to the question from the distinguished delegate from the Netherlands, and leadership. I think if you institutionalize PSEA or safeguarding within the organization, you then force people to a certain extent to pay more attention to it, because it is part of the core functions of the organization, so it is part of the accountability's responsibilities, even though already it is part of the responsibilities and accountabilities. If you institutionalize it, you sort of, you formalize it, and people will pay more attention to it. So I think, Those are the most important things. In the 2 years that I've been doing this and visiting different countries, I mean, there are exceptions like Ms. Lewis, but I think there is a lack of attention to this. I understand that the leaders are busy and they have many different competing priorities, but this needs to be a priority for every leader, not just at the principal level, not just at the RC level, but throughout the organization and middle management, this needs to be an issue, and staff also need to understand. In terms of leadership, I think part of the problem is the issue itself, and people feel uncomfortable talking about it because from a very young age, no matter where you're born, you're conditioned to not to talk about these issues, and I think people are reserved. They don't like talking about these issues. There is also no escaping the fact that we live in a patriarchy, and there are people that think— that ask the question of, "Why are we making such a big deal about this?" And I have been asked that question in town halls in different countries. So, I think we have that issue, but I think there are many issues. There's no magic bullet. Or no magic wand or silver bullet on this. There are many different things that we employ in order to reduce the risks, to prevent, and then to respond, but I think the 3— I would say the 3 biggest issues I think we have are lack of sustainable funding, the fact that it's not institutionalized, and the absence of proactive leadership. In terms of the question from the Association of Youth and Students, because that also plays into this, governments have a sovereign responsibility to protect those within their borders. That's clear to all countries, and that includes protection of people from sexual exploitation exploitation and abuse and from sexual harassment. And if we do not address the underlying drivers of sexual exploitation and abuse, principally equality, poverty, rule of law, power and privilege, if we do not address these systematically across our countries, we are going to be participating in a similar discussion like this in 25 years time. So it needs to be built into our programming. Governments need to pay attention to this issue. I think the fact that we now have a commonly agreed language for a clause in the Country Cooperation Frameworks is a good first step. We, of course, want to work proactively with governments because it is a sovereign issue and because governments, as a sovereign issue, Governments have the obligation and the accountability to take the lead in the prevention and protection of populations from sexual exploitation, abuse, and sexual harassment. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Chair [2:41:59]:

Thank you. Thank you, Mr.


UN Secretariat · Victims' Rights Advocate · Najla Nassif-Palmer [2:42:02]:

Chair. I just I would like to start. Thank you for all your interventions supporting, highlighting how important is to put victims at the center, victims and survivors. This is extremely important. And just to add what USG Sanders said about culture change leadership, I think that A very important initiative is to amplify the voice of the victims because all of us, we need to understand what is the impact of that situation in their lives, in their families, and in their communities. So understanding this better, bringing the voice of the victims Amplifying their perspective is essential, crucial, to really be victim-centered. And about underreporting and stigma and trauma, this, unfortunately, victims— it's not just a lack of trust, it's very difficult to come forward. Sometimes these victims are stigmatized in their own families and communities. We are talking about very vulnerable. So we need to build trust. And to build trust, again, I will call again the need of having someone they trust, a reference for the victims in the field, a specialized officer that can be the main point of contact and they can have— not be— be supported by them in the field during investigation. During the mechanism to report. So this is a very important issue that I also would like to highlight. And again, just to thank for your support and telling you that the victims are there, they are suffering, they need our support, and I count on all of your support to put victims' rights first, always. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Chair [2:44:14]:

Gracias, señora Nájera.

Thank you, Ms. Najda. Now I give the floor to Ms. Lewis, the Resident Coordinator. Ms. Lewis, you have the floor.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Gwyn Lewis [2:44:28]:

Distinguished delegates, I think my colleagues have answered the main points. Can you hear me?

Hello, can you hear me?


ECOSOC · Chair [2:44:38]:

Yes, we can hear you.

Yes, podemos escucharla, señora. Yes, Ms.

Lewis, we can hear you. Please go ahead.


UN · Resident Coordinator · Gwyn Lewis [2:44:45]:

Okay, um, so I think my colleagues, as I mentioned, have answered most of the questions, but I just wanted to come back to a couple of points on the resources. Just to give a very practical example, um, to hire a PSEA coordinator, it took 1 year of lobbying, um, and I have 3 different sources of financing for 1 position before I was able to appoint someone. So it's really, really challenging. To identify resources at a country level, and it takes quite a lot of time to do that. And I also just wanted to point out the complexity of this work. To put in place a good, strong, robust victim and survivors support system, it requires professional people, it requires a lot of care and confidentiality and strong engagement with government. Strong engagement with security agencies, and it takes quite a lot of capacity and engagement. So not having those resources makes it almost impossible for leaders to really move this work forward. So I just reiterate the appeal for, for sustained financing. Institutionalization is also linked to the— the lack of institutionalization is also linked to the fact that there isn't a common approach across all of the UN agencies. Still. And I think that also makes some of the work challenging. We have different capacities across different organizations, and there is definitely a divide between the development and humanitarian sectors where we have humanitarian actors who are a lot more engaged and a lot more aware of the risks. And some of our development colleagues, it just takes longer to engage with them, including NGO partners, to really advance the work. So the, the solutions I think are quite, um, clear, and I think we have the guidance now. We have the outline of the support, we have the clarity on what community feedback mechanisms, what type of victim support needs to be established. But it's pulling those pieces together and identifying those sustained resources that will really make the difference. And I just want to reiterate the appeal for keeping the attention on this issue. As we see resources decline, and I'll just give the example of the Rohingya response where we're facing potentially 50% reduction in funding for the response, we are actually going to see increased risks and increased vulnerability, and therefore our attention on SEA has to increase alongside the decrease in funding, not, not be reduced. So again, I thank you all for your support and for your interventions.


ECOSOC · Chair [2:47:28]:

Thank you very much, Ms. Lewis, the Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh. Ms. Maritza Chan, the Vice President of ECOSOC and Permanent Representative of Costa Rica, you have the floor, Madam. Thank you.


ECOSOC · Vice President · Maritza Chan Valverde [2:47:45]:

I'd like to address a few points that I heard this morning. First, we need to expand the zero tolerance scope, and that is crucial. While so— zero tolerance currently focuses on UN personnel, member states must adopt uncompromising standards even within our own delegations. It starts with us. There is an implementation gap, and this zero tolerance remains meaningless without enforcement mechanisms. The same decisive action applied to the UN personnel misconduct must be directed toward technology-enabled exploitation with immediate sanctions for non-compliance. And we really— I'd like to finish with a call to action. The United Nations Zero Tolerance Policy for Sexual Exploitation and Abuse cannot remain confined to our own personnel. There is an implementation gap on regulation too, especially when it comes to emerging technologies, deepfakes, and these areas must convey— address our attention. And now that we are having the open debate on protection of civilians, that should be translated to the digital realm. The digital realm is crucial when we are protecting not only UN personnel but also women and girls from— and creating safe spaces. The UN Security Council has already established safe spaces in the physical realm, but that has not translated to the digital realm where we need to make sure that the women and girls are going to be active participants in peace processes, negotiations, DDR, SSR, all these processes in conflict and non-conflict zones. We need to pay attention to that. It's not only here with us, it's also in the digital space. I thank you.


ECOSOC · Chair [2:50:01]:

Muchísimas gracias, señora Maritza.

Thank you very much, Miss Maritza, Permanent Representative of Costa Rica. Excellencies, distinguished delegations, I would like to thank the panelists for sharing their valuable insights and also thank you to the delegations for participating in a productive exchange of views. The Council will reconvene this afternoon at 3 PM in this chamber to hold two panel discussions followed by the closing meeting of this segment. I would like to bring to your attention that a side event entitled UN Effectiveness: How to Drive Systemwide Change in order to boost impact, which will take place at the UK Mission at 1:30 PM this afternoon, in half an hour. The event is organized by the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom and the Multilateral Organization Performance Assessment Network, MOPAN. I hope that many of you will be able to attend. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you.