Norway appreciates the strong leadership and the high level of ambition of the Secretary-General in bringing the reforms of the UN development system forward.
We would also like to thank the Deputy Secretary-General for her comprehensive update this afternoon.
We commend the staff in the Secretariat and the Transition Team as well as in UN agencies for the very hard work done in a very short time period.
I would like to highlight four issues at this point:
First: The QCPR remains the basic resolution guiding the UN development system in its support to host countries in their implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The QCPR is broad and contains many expectations to the UN development system that still apply as the UNDS reform is further developed and implemented. We would thus welcome systematic reporting also on this resolution prior to the QCPR negotiations next year.
Second: The report of the Secretary-General gives limited insight into how the country level reforms are taking effect. We realize that we need to allow time for trying out how the different components work and interplay in practice, and look forward to follow the process in the time to come.
Third: Like other Member States, Norway wants to engage actively in the implementation phase of the reforms. Transparency is essential to enable us to do so. We would therefore appreciate easy access (e.g. at a web-site) to major system-wide instruments (such as the job description for Resident Coordinators, the new UNDAF guidelines, the roll-out plan for new UNDAFs, and the Management and Accountability Framework). This would help us engage in an informed and constructive way - at capital and country levels as well as in the governing bodies of individual organizations.
And fourth: Money talks. Norway appreciates that it was possible to agree on a final draft of the Funding Compact. As Member States, we should now all look into how we can improve the way we are funding the UN development system and thereby contributing to the implementation of the reforms.
In conclusion: We welcome the presentation of the multi-country office review and the review of the UN regional response in the SG’s report, and we look forward to frank and open discussions on these and other aspects of the reform process before and during the upcoming Operational Activities Segment of ECOSOC.
I thank you.