Thank you Mr President,
This statement is held on behalf of Canada, the United Kingdom and Sweden.
We are all long-standing supporters of UNICEF and provided nearly 500 million USD of financial support in 2007. We wish to thank the Executive Director for her presentation and for the annual report.
We would like to highlight some points regarding the report format, the focus areas and the cross-cutting issues, finishing with questions covering five areas.
Regarding the format we recognise that the report is getting more results-based, and find that the Data Companion is becoming a good complement. We encourage UNICEF to further develop the focus on outcomes, harmonize its reporting and to put more emphasis on syntheses, analyses and trends. Reporting on the five focus areas is mixed. In some of the areas, such as health and nutrition, the reporting is very clear and strong. In others, it is less so, particularly with respect to providing clearer indication of UNICEF’s contributions to the reported results. We think the EDAR needs to be reformed and rethought, reducing the narrative on activity and focusing on evidence and results. In requesting greater consistency to reporting results, we would like to add that separate thematic, or other, reports can not substitute the annual report, submitted to the Board, in this respect.
We would also welcome a more strategic outlook concerning UNICEF’s engagement and efforts in relation to UN reform, aid effectiveness and partnerships, not least against the background of last year’s work on the TCPR action plan and the partnership framework. An analysis could for example look closer at the division of labour in emergencies, the health sector, in relation to UNAIDS, or in support of the Delivering as One pilot countries.
The report could also give more room to reflect on challenges, like the financial food and fuel crises and the impact on children. It is essential that UNICEF takes a leading role in highlighting such threats against children, putting their needs centre-stage of both global debate and response. UNICEF is in a unique position to do that.
Mr President,
Regarding the focus areas we recognise and commend the comprehensive work done by UNICEF and its partners in 2008, in an environment characterized by successive crises, an increasingly complex health architecture and a shrinking humanitarian space.
We would like to give special attention to the area of child protection where there seems to be new momentum to make progress, thanks to greater political commitment and enhanced policies and guidance. We encourage UNICEF to use this momentum to address the many protection gaps that remain, and to keep highlighting the work and needs even further. We would, for example, have liked to see more references to child protection in the introduction of the annual report.
We urge UNICEF to keep enhancing the holistic and preventive approach to child protection in line with the strategy. Equally, it is important that UNICEF develops its partnerships as well as press on with the work to obtain more sex-disaggregated data, the lack of which continues to be a significant constraint for both advocacy and programming.
We hope that child protection will keep gaining ground in 2009, as the strategy and the revised version of the Core Commitments for Children in Emergency are rolled out throughout UNICEF, and as the first SRSG on Violence against Children starts her work. At the same time the global financial crisis is likely to have its gravest effects on those who are already the most marginalized and vulnerable. We all have a responsibility to remember that double challenge.
Regarding the supporting and cross-cutting strategies several MTSP indicators show a positive development compared to the latest reporting. However, some results are still far from the target set for 2011, and a few indicators give reason for concern. Those trends will need to be watched carefully.
We would also like to urge UNICEF to maximise its leadership role in the global humanitarian clusters on Nutrition, Water and Sanitation, Emergency Telecommunications and Education, and to further enhance its role in the Health and Protection clusters at country level. We welcome progress being made to mainstream global cluster co-ordinator posts. However, our country offices continue to report that some UNICEF offices are unclear of their responsibilities as cluster leads. We would like to urge the Executive Director to ensure that Heads of UNICEF Country Offices receive adequate support and training allowing them to assume this critical leadership role. We will continue to support UNICEF to fully embrace humanitarian reform.
As part of our Joint Institutional Approach, Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom have chosen to look more closely at some indicators and would like to put ten specific questions within five areas.
First, one very positive development is that 80 percent of the new country programmes applied a human rights-based approach in 2008. This means that the target set for 2011 has already been passed. We warmly welcome these results and encourage UNICEF to keep up the good work and to press on with the most challenging task, which is to consistently build human rights-based approaches into the area of young child survival and development. We would also like to see a clearer human rights-perspective in the work on HIV/AIDS, not the least concerning adolescents, given their particular vulnerability. We would furthermore like to see UNICEF put a strong emphasis on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
A more modest, but still positive, trend can be seen in the field of child and youth participation. There is now a small but growing number of programme countries that use polls or other methods to systematically ask children and young people for their views on policies and programmes. The 25 countries that systematically used opinion polls in 2008 are mainly to be found in the Latin America and Caribbean region.
Against this background we would like to ask how UNICEF is working to encourage more countries and regions to involve children and young people in policy and programme development, and if targets for this will be set for 2011 or 2013?
Second, it is promising to see that 75 percent of the new country programmes met the standards for results-based management and that future programme plans will be linked to MTSP targets. We also welcome that the database for monitoring results has been expanded and now has data for three successive years.
Given these interesting developments we would like to ask if UNICEF has plans to make the database, MTSPInfo, accessible to the Board?
Third, the implemention of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) is fundamental to improve the transparency and accountability of all organizations in the UN system. In view of this we find it disappointing that IPSAS will be delayed until 2012, instead of being implemented in 2010.
Could UNICEF please provide further information on its planned roll-out of IPSAS across the organization, and the additional associated costs for the new biennium?
We would also like to ask UNICEF for an update regarding the costs benefit analysis that is being undertaken, as well as the planned recurrent costs associated with roll-out.
We also note that the regular resources accounted for 32 percent of income in 2008. While governments’ contributions surpassed the planned figure of 609 million USD, funds from the private sector did not reach the projected target. Furthermore, one of the most significant areas of growth of resources stemmed from Other Resources from the Private sector.
How is UNICEF going to address this growing imbalance?
Four, gender equality is an area where UNICEF’s performance shows clear weaknesses. The number of new country programmes applying gender mainstreaming actually decreased between 2007 and 2008, from 45 to 44 percent, which is far from the target for 2011 set at 75 percent. The decrease is very slight, but it is a sign of the shortcomings pointed to in UNICEF’s evaluation.
Could UNICEF please update us on the fundamental cultural shifts that the organization seems to need in this area?
56 countries implemented gender-sensitive programmes addressing social conventions and norms that contribute to violence, exploitation and abuse. This indicator is important since it tries to measure UNICEF’s efforts to change gender-related violence, exploitation and abuse.
There is currently no target for this indicator. Is UNICEF planning to set one for 2011 or 2013, or will progress be measured in another way?
The annual report also shows that UNICEF last year began a pilot effort to strengthen gender equality in emergency programmes in six countries.
We welcome this initiative but would like to ask why strong gender equality is not already included in the emergency programmes as a standard feature?
UNICEF has a lot to do in order to improve its performance on gender equality. We welcome that the organisation seems to be rising to the task, but would like to emphasise the urgency of the matter since the area has been lagging behind for so long, and given the strong evidence that gender equality is essential for the well-being of children and for breaking the cycle of poverty. We will be following this development closely and look forward to receiving a draft of the new gender equality policy.
Five, the Annual report provides some clear evidence on recruitment. Last year we raised the need for UNICEF to improve its performance in this area. We are pleased to see that recruitment of staff in emergency posts has significantly improved. However, we are concerned that only 25 percent of international professional posts are in place within 90 days, which is a further decline compared to the last two years.
How is UNICEF addressing this weakness in order to come closer to the 2011 target of 75 percent?
How does UNICEF judge the possibilities to accelerate the implementation of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) as a way of securing the provision of personnel?
We would like to commend UNICEF staff for their tireless hard work and dedication. They continue to work in challenging situation around the globe. Their work to protect the most vulnerable children is noted and fully appreciated.
Thank you.