Chair,
Norway is very pleased that we have managed to put in place a new financial model with all the potential to change the financing of WHO. To us, this is a very crucial element of the reform.
The financing dialogue has succeeded in bringing together member states and non – state donors to openly discuss challenges and solutions regarding how all the priorities in the programme budget may be fully financed. This has carried fruits by bringing more prompt commitments and indications of funding, taking us closer to the principles underlying programmatic reform. The level of 85% indicative overall funding even before the biennium has started is in our view a very positive outcome of the dialogue. Still, we recognize that there are challenges of distribution across categories and programmes.
Like was mentioned by other Member States in earlier discussions today, there are responsibilities both on Member States and the Secretariat to take reform forward. This also accounts for the financing of the organization. A couple of examples:
Member States and other donors need to respect the principles we have agreed upon, providing funds aligned to the programme budget and increase flexibility in funding.
The Secretariat will need to deliver a fully costed budget, including a realistic costing of outputs and division of labour across the organization, for the next biennium.
Let me conclude by thanking all stakeholders and especially the Secretariat for their efforts on this part of reform so far. We are looking forward to hear more from the Secretariat over the days to come on how the coordinated resource mobilization plans to be conducted and what is the current status of this work.
Thank you.