Mr President,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Government of Mozambique and the Government of Sweden.
Mozambique and Sweden have a long tradition of working closely with the United Nations and we are strong supporters of the UN development system. We appreciate the unique blend of assets that make the UN indispensable to the global development agenda. We are strong proponents for a more effective United Nations in development; a UN that is a true centre of excellence.
As many other Governments we support better coherence and coordination between all UN entities at country level, as well as at headquarters. We also call for good multilateral donor ship that provides long-term predictable demand-driven funding.
At the country level it is clear that the UN needs to adjust its role in development to face new realities. We have seen, for example in Mozambique, when several donors, including Sweden, increasingly move into new aid modalities such as direct budget support, the UN Country Team at risk of being sidelined and made irrelevant.
We want the UN to be a stronger partner at the country level within the framework of those new aid modalities which aim at enhancing the national ownership. We believe that the UN can play a key role in supporting developing countries in the preparation and implementation of their national development strategies and ultimately in helping them to make progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals and other internationally agreed development goals.
Mr President.We welcome the analysis and recommendations in the report by the High Level Panel on System Wide Coherence. The Panel calls for a repositioning of the UN Development System at country level in a way that would allow it to realize its full potential and attract more resources. We must all now seize the opportunity and take the recommendations forward with energy and enthusiasm.
Many Governments in developing countries strongly believe in the vision the panel has set out and they have volunteered to take part in the pilot process; among them the Government of Mozambique. Based on the principle of country ownership the pilot country programmes are at the heart of the reform efforts. The pilot process will allow us to test different models so that lessons learned could provide a robust evidence base, which can strengthen the inter-governmental process.
In order to be successful the pilots will need a more effective Resident Coordinator system; an RC who is a highly qualified manager and empowered to lead the One Programme with the partner Government. The RC should draw on the services and expertise from the entire system bringing to bear its full array of policy advice, financial resources, competence and universal legitimacy for normative work and standard setting.
We need the full commitment and participation by all relevant UN Funds, Programmes and Specialized Agencies. Member states can support the pilot process by providing flexibility to respond to Government priorities and donors should increase the proportion of un-earmarked funding for the One Country programmes.
We recognize that a lot has been achieved as regards UN reform over the past years. Sometimes, however, well-intentioned reform efforts mandated by the General Assembly have been hampered by poor implementation.
We have to make sure that our good intentions are transformed into concrete measures that have a real impact and effect on people who need amore effective the UN the most; most often the poorest and most vulnerable in society.
We can only achieve this goal with a strong and sustained support from Member States and with a strong and effective leadership of the UN system. It is now up to the Member States, the Secretary-General, organizations of the UN system, and other stakeholders to pull together to make sure that the UN system lives up to their full potential.
Thank you