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Mr. President,
We align ourselves with the statement delivered by the distinguished representative of Algeria on behalf of the Group of 77 & China.
Mr. President,
The development cooperation landscape is changing but regrettably in inverse proportion to the situation of the majority of developing countries which appear to be in an immutable plight. Daunting development challenges including poverty, hunger, illiteracy, disease, continue to persist. Development partners, however, increasingly cite domestic constraints to justify non-fulfilment of their commitments. The obvious consequence is resource crunch at a time when developing countries need more resources for their development.
While not denying the contribution and potential of new development actors, we believe that traditional multilateral and bilateral development assistance should be increased instead of being outsourced or privatised.
This is essential to cope with the virtual development emergency staring us in the face.
Mr. President,
Forward movement, inter-alia, necessitates that the wealth of experience and knowledge possessed by the UN development system is deployed more efficiently to better serve the needs of developing countries.
In this regard, improving the effectiveness, efficiency, coordination and coherence of the United Nations development system has become imperative and more urgent. We welcome the progress made so far.
We also recognise that improving coordination is not cost free. Nevertheless, we emphasize the importance of continued access of programme countries to the knowledge and expertise of the non-resident agencies with fair cost sharing. Furthermore, at the country level, different agencies’ deeper engagement with resident coordinator will enhance mutual cooperation and collaboration as well as improve their alignment with development priorities of programme countries.
The primary objective of enhancing the effectiveness of the UN System development is to increase on ground development impact. It is also important that efficiency savings are channelled to development efforts in the same countries.
Mr. President,
Our efforts to enhance coordination and coherence at the national and international level should also involve the Bretton Woods Institutions as well as bilateral development partners. This would help us address the issue of aid fragmentation and duplication in a comprehensive manner.
Much remains to be done to improve capacity development which is at the heart of UN development activities. Increased use of nationally available expertise and resources to support UN operational activities will redound to the benefit of sustainable capacity building. The UN development system must also employ national implementation mechanisms and other implementation modalities and execution modes should only be used as an exception with prior approval of progamme countries.
It is also important that agencies work according to their comparative advantages and strengths in line with progamme country specifities, priorities and geographical requirements. They must also have detailed monitoring and evaluation frameworks as well as strategy to mobilise resources. To ensure national ownership it is critical that UN agencies’ reports and analyses of countries are prepared in consultation with relevant national authorities. In addition, data and information on UN development system engagement is shared fully and expeditiously.
Mr. President,
Pakistan is one of the DaO Pilot countries. While recent evaluation points to improvement in national ownership, DaO cannot be dubbed a complete success story. Issues like fragmentation, monitoring and evaluation, competition for funds, burden of several reporting lines, development impact of projects, as well as donor confidence and support to DaO must be addressed.
Mr. President,
Despite many discussions, the continuing imbalance between “core” and “non-core” resources remains a cause for concern. In our view, UN would be able to attract the necessary resources by identifying core competencies of the UN development system, highlighting its comparative advantages and through building trust in its efficiency.
Mr. President,
We hope that matters identified in our debate would enable more focused and productive discussions during the forthcoming 2012 QCPR. The QCPR must yield a coherent and practicable outcome to enable the UN development system to lend effective and efficient support to programme countries for speedy realization of the Internationally Agreed Development Goals, including MDGs.
Thank you.