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President,
I deliver this statement on behalf of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, and my own country, Norway.
We encourage the active use of evaluations, and commend UNICEFs willingness to further develop and improve programming based on evaluation results.
President,
The evaluation of the Peacebuilding, education and advocacy programme confirms our belief in the transformative power of education. With its report, the Evaluation Office has contributed to building evidence for this approach and we suggest that the lessons learned are widely shared with other relevant stakeholders.
The evaluation also renders visible the importance of coordination between actors, and we encourage UNICEF to increase its coordination efforts – especially with other UN agencies, in line with the QCPR. With regards to the PBEA programme, we encourage, in particular, collaboration with other UN Peace Keeping Operations and Peace and Development Advisors.
In addition, we would encourage UNICEF to incorporate a gender dimension as part of its conflict analysis and would further encourage a stronger link to the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. In addition, UNICEF should ensure that the Human Rights up Front initiative of the UN is taken into account in their PBEA work.
The evaluation also recommends institutionalizing Conflict Analysis. Further mainstreaming and integration of conflict analysis into all Country Programme Documents and UNICEF’s Strategic Plans should be prioritized, recognizing UNICEF’s need to maintain political neutrality.
However, mainstreaming does not lead per se to peacebuilding. For that aim, we encourage UNICEF to ensure that findings from the conflict analysis are translated into planning and programs and that programs are implemented in a conflict sensitive way.
In addition, we note the evaluation’s recommendation for UNICEF to look beyond traditional sector-based partnerships to identify organizations with expertise in peacebuilding, and would encourage UNICEF to include community-based organizations.
Thank you.