Mr. President,
I am pleased to deliver this statement on behalf of Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and my own country, Norway.
Let me start by thanking UNICEF for this informative presentation on updated financial estimates of the UNICEF Strategic Plan 2014-2017. This information provides a good basis for results-based management. We note that these figures highlight several interesting observations, some positive and some concerning. We would like to take this opportunity to comment on four of these observations.
First, without going into detail, the level of regular resources continues to decrease, down to 23% in 2015. We do note that UNICEF estimates that the share of regular resources will increase in 2016 and we do hope that this will be the case in 2016 and in the years to come. Together with thematic funding, regular resources are flexible and cost-efficient revenue streams that enable UNICEF reaching the most vulnerable children.
Second, turning to reserves, we welcome the gradual build-down of balance of resources as long as it is aligning with UN policies. We hope that a tighter reserve will incentivize UNICEF to maintain cost efficiency high on the agenda.
Third, we note that other UN organizations are in a more pressed financial state than UNICEF. We believe that this is attributed to a number of factors among which we want to highlight UNICEFs work with broadening the donor base, hereunder from private sector and UNICEF offering thematic funding as a modality. Having said that, we are curious to hear whether the transaction costs of servicing a wider base of donors have remained constant or, perhaps, increased.
Fourth, we encourage UNICEF to keep abreast of best practice in the management of the impact of currency fluctuations and report to the Board on those efforts in the appropriate manner.
This does not imply that the job of ensuring sufficient funding is done. We urge UNICEF to continue its efforts to engage with Member States, and others, to ensure an adequate funding situation also in the future.
Thank you.