Thank you, Madame President. Norway welcomes the comprehensive and informative presentation and the opportunity to comment.
We fully support WFP’s important work and expertise on emergency preparedness, and commend WFP's commitment to revising its Emergency Preparedness Policy based on the findings from the evaluation. We support the recommendations and management response and underline the importance of a systematic approach.
We look forward to the development of an updated policy and strategy for implementation. We fully support that this should also include an evidence base for all elements of WFP’s emergency preparedness portfolio. Furthermore, it is important that the updated policy remains adaptable to various contexts, emerging challenges and evolving humanitarian needs.
Early warning, prevention and preparedness are important elements in a comprehensive approach to reduce vulnerability and humanitarian needs. WFP has several initiatives and measures to address this, ranging from early warning, anticipatory action, resilience programming, ARC Replica Initiative, Immediate Response Account (IRA) etc.
It is important that WFP ensures that these initiatives work together and complement each other. This is particularly important when the gap between funding and needs is constantly widening.
The report underlines that strengthening capacity for emergency preparedness over time requires flexible and multi-year funding. We look forward to your approach to this, including making better use of existing funding for emergency preparedness and stepping up efforts to generate new resources.
On a final note and touching upon what we have already discussed earlier today: National preparedness authorities are important partners for WFP in preparedness work. Strengthening the inclusion of women and people with disabilities in national emergency plans can have a big impact. We encourage WFP to analyze to a greater extent what obstacles vulnerable groups experience in this regard, in order to ensure their active participation.
Thank you