Check against delivery
President,
I deliver this statement on behalf of Australia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and my own country, Norway.
Let me start by commending UNICEF for increased openness, and congratulate with the impressive third place on the Aid Transparency Index of 2016. We encourage UNICEF to keep working in this positive direction.
We would like to encourage UNICEF to continue strengthening results based budgeting on all levels of operation whilst applauding progress made. It is of importance that resources and results are well aligned. We note the areas for further improvement highlighted in the
We would also like to request further information from UNICEF on how controls are being applied to UNICEF’s decentralized structure to ensure coherence across the organization with its strategic results; and how the new guidance has been used and what tangible improvements it has generated to results based budgeting since 2013.
As part of this effort, it is also necessary to look closely at how the structured financing dialogue of the board can be improved, aiming at providing a holistic view of the funding situation. It is important to increase the board’s oversight of the Integrated Budget. Among other things, this relates to the number of cost categories.
President,
Given the increasing need for international efforts in vulnerable situations around the world, we invite UNICEF to continue the dialogue on options for defining allocation criteria both for Regular Resources and for global thematic funds ahead of the development of the new Strategic Plan, and organize informals on this issue before the Second Regular Session.
We also stress that programs and projects financed through non-core resources need to cover their own direct and indirect costs. Core resources are not to subsidize earmarked contributions.
Thank you.
assessment and would like to see further progress from UNICEF on staff capability and training, more measurable performance indicators and data quality. We would also like to learn more on the implementation of the new budget formulation tool, which is due to be rolled out this year.