President,
Let me start by expressing Norway’ strong sympathy for the countries affected by hurricane Irma.
We congratulate the Executive Director and her staff with the Strategic Plan 2018 – 21. It provides a clear vision and a comprehensive plan for UNOPS' operations.
We appreciate the consultative process and the achievements made. Let me express Norway’s full support for the strategic plan and its implementation.
We encourage UNOPS to continue to follow up UN’s common programming principles, including the human rights based approaches.
The 2030 Agenda and QCPR call for coherent and integrated approaches. We welcome the Executive Director’s continued work with other entities in the UN development system in this regard.
President,
We appreciate that the presentation of the budget estimates for 2018-19 is in line with those of other funds an programmes.
We support the revenue target of zero for 2018-19. The operational reserve is above the required minimum. An analysis of reserve needed could be included in the next budget estimates.
Norway acknowledges the standards in procurement, and appreciate that procurement activities is aligned with other United Nations entities.
President,
UNOPS is a self-financed organization whereas other UN entities are not. The experience of this is of interest for the whole system, in light of the General Secretary’s proposed reforms.
We would like to commend UNOPS for focusing on finding good partners so that you together can do better and more. We agree with UNOPS that they can play a catalytic role and mobilize the financial institutions, the private sector and others.
We appreciate UNOPS’ willingness to lead on technical design processes, and note with great interest the development of a seed capital facility. We further commend UNOPS for its increased focus on oceans, a priority that Norway shares.
President,
UNOPS created more than 3 million days of work for local populations in 2016 – an increase from the year before - and established training and certification programmes locally.
We strongly support UNOPS in this approach to improving national capacities.
Further, we encourage UNOPS to continue to focus on gender equality and youth, and on improving the gender balance both among own employees and with local implementing partners.
Let me conclude by encouraging UNOPS to continue to deepen its cooperation with other sister agencies and other development partners, with a view to fulfilling the 2030-agenda.
Thank you.