Chair,
Allow me to start by expressing our appreciation to the Executive Director for the achievements and progress made by UNOPS in 2016, as outlined in her statement today.
The 2030 Agenda and the new QCPR call for coherent and integrated approaches. We encourage the Executive Director to ensure that the next Strategic Plan not only deals with the strategic objectives of UNOPS and its ways of working, but also clarifies how UNOPS will work with other entities in the UN development system at headquarter level.
It is equally important to elaborate on how UNOPS, as a member of UN country teams, will contribute to common strategic planning and common results at the country level.
In this regard, it would be interesting to hear the reflections of the Executive Director on possible tensions arising from the fact that UNOPS is a self-financed organization whereas other UN entities are not. Are there provisions in the QCPR that would be particularly challenging for UNOPS to implement?
As mandated by the QCPR, the Secretary-General will present by June 2017 an overview, based on the 2030 Agenda, of the present functions and capacities of all UNDS entities, with the aim of identifying comparative advantages as well as gaps and overlaps in coverage.
The QCPR also requests the Secretary-General to present a system-wide strategy document with recommendations on concrete actions to be taken to improve the collective support of the UNDS to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. We encourage UNOPS to support the Secretary-General in this important task.
Chair,
Last year, the responsibility of administrating the UN Standby Team on Mediation was transferred to UNOPS.
Norway is one of the ‘founding fathers’ and largest contributors to this significant prevention tool. We want to underline the importance of UNOPS getting teams to hot spots in an efficient and flexible manner. We would appreciate if the Executive Director could elaborate on the experiences so far.
In the Auditors report, we note with some concern the finding that, given the nature of UNOPS and the environment in which it works, the level of reported fraud is rather low. This may be an indication that there is a need for more proactive approaches to investigations. What is the Executive Director’s view on this?
Finally, we would like to commend UNOPS for their innovative and catalytic role as well as speed with which both new actors and finances are brought to the table.
Thank you.