Mr Chairman,
Let me start by thanking the Administrator for his statement and the vision and strategic directions for UNDP that he presented this morning. I would also like to recognize the constructive role of the Associate Administrator in the consultation process in preparation of the draft Strategic Plan for 2008-2011. Significant improvements have been made in the Strategic Plan since the first draft outline was presented to the Board in January.
Sweden believes that the current draft by and large contains the necessary elements of a good strategy for UNDP. It identifies the comparative advantage of UNDP in its dual roles; first to provide advocacy, policy advice and technical support as lead development agency and, second, to manage the Resident Coordinator system in order to promote operational effectiveness at country level.
The Strategic Plan should not be a detailed programmatic document but provide the overall direction for the coming four years. The draft we have in front of us constitutes a good basis for our continued deliberations during this annual session.
At the outset, Sweden would like to stress the importance of having the Strategic Plan adopted during our meeting in September. This is of crucial importance not only for the organisation itself and the program countries it supports, but also for donors in order to budget their core contributions for 2007. My delegation believes that we are in a good position to find agreement on the outstanding issues before the second regular session in September.
While fully recognizing the efforts made by UNDP in elaborating the current draft, Sweden would like to take this opportunity to highlight five areas in need of improvement and that we think should be addressed in the final draft.
Firstly, the Strategic Plan should better communicate what UNDP delivers, both in terms of its own operations for development results and in terms of promoting coherence and operational effectiveness of the UN development system. This is probably more a presentational issue. It could be addressed by being consistent throughout the document with the vision outlined in the introduction, and by further elaborating chapter III on the direction, including by incorporating the dual roles concept in this chapter.
Secondly, managing the RC system is rightly identified as an important role for UNDP. In order to be effective and transparent, the RC system needs clear lines of accountability as well as a system-wide ownership, from the country level to the headquarters and inter-governmental levels. In this regard, my delegation is still not clear on how UNDP proposes to re-organize its coordination role. Many of the targets in the coordination chapter of the Strategy reflect already ongoing processes in the context of UNDG. However, UNDP’s role in contributing to these targets on behalf of the system is not clear and we continue to have questions on what the draft Strategy calls “UNDP initiatives catalytic and coordinating role”. In the context of UN reform we would like to underline the importance of consultations with and feedback from other UN agencies.
We would also like to emphasize that strengthened coordination is not an aim in itself. The result of coordination must enhance operational effectiveness and lead to greater development impact of invested resources. Hence, full transparency in terms of the costs as well as assessment of benefits and risks of coordination is needed. Thirdly, although Sweden supports the proposed four focus areas in UNDP’s operational activities, we seek clarification on the contribution and comparative advantage of UNDP in those areas. This is especially the case in the area of poverty reduction and achievement of the MDGs. The tools in the field of capacity building, currently being developed according to the draft, are good examples in this regard. This could be further elaborated with a wider sample of outputs in the results matrix clearly related to each Outcomes and Goals. We believe that it would be important to incorporate a section on key partnerships as well as a section on risks and challenges under each Goal. Even with these elements included in the Strategic Plan, we see merit in further refining the programmatic approach with internal support strategies for the four goal areas.
Fourthly, we strongly support the three operational principles - gender equality, human rights based approach and civic engagement - that will guide UNDP’s activities. These principles have not only proven to be key drivers for effective development, but are also based on universally agreed standards. In this context, we would like to highlight that we consider national ownership a fundamental precondition for UNDP’s work and should be firmly addressed in the Strategic Plan in the introduction to UNDP’s operational work. We can support the idea that South South cooperation is an increasingly important instrument for development cooperation and needs further reflection in the draft.
Fifthly, let me touch upon management issues. In line with the newly adopted Swedish strategy on multilateral development cooperation, we support initiatives aimed at making UNDP and other UN entities more efficient, transparent and coherent. We therefore welcome the approach to embark on a more fully-fledged results-based management system in order to align the organisation and its resources to UNDP´s strategic development priorities. My delegation recognizes the challenges in linking resources to development results with current funding modalities and we look forward to work with you and member states to improve results-based budgeting. We would also welcome a further elaborated strategy for resource mobilisation to meet income targets.
Mr. Chairman,
The Strategic Plan is the fundamental basis for accountability to the board over the next four years. The need to establish a clear Accountability Framework to effectively monitor the implementation of the priorities in the Strategic Plan has therefore been acknowledged by both program countries and donors. We are happy to learn that UNDP will further refine this section in the Strategic Plan and we hope that the Swedish non-paper on this issue will contribute to the ongoing discussion within UNDP as well as among member states in preparing for a decision at the second regular session in September.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, I would like to take this opportunity to react briefly on the issue of DPRK that was brought up last week in relation to agenda item 17. Sweden welcomes the report of the UN External Board of Auditors on the UNDP program in DPRK. The report clearly refutes the recent public allegations that this program has been misused to divert huge sums from programme activities to the DPRK Government.
Sweden believes that UNDP and other UN entities have had, and continue to have, an important role to play in North Korea. To safeguard the UN’s continued presence, there is every reason to ask the External Board of Auditors to further clarify the procedures employed by UN agencies to maintain accountability and control in this special operating environment. That can best be achieved by carrying out a second phase of the external audit in Pyongyang. Sweden strongly supports such a further effort.
Thank you.