JOINT STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO 'STATEMENT BY THE UNFPA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR': EXECUTIVE BOARD OF UNDP, UNFPA AND UNOPS
1 February 2024
Statement by H.E. Ms Rebecca Bryant, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations
Executive Director, Chair
I am delivering this statement on behalf of Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Samoa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia.
Thank you, Executive Director, for your statement today.
My remarks respond specifically to UNFPA’s Optimisation Initiative, and the relocation of key Headquarter functions, and a significant number of personnel, to Nairobi over the next two years.
We commend UNFPA for its ambition to better respond to unmet needs in the Africa region in line with UNFPA’s Strategic Plan (2022-2025), and its aim to address family planning needs, end preventable maternal deaths, and end gender-based violence and harmful practices.
Member States have persistently called for an agile, responsive, and field-focussed UN development system.
We recognise there are compelling reasons to recalibrate UNFPA’s global footprint. They include aligning human resources to the region which has the largest share of UNFPA’s spend, and enhanced South-South cooperation.
We also understand that UNFPA needs to plan strategically to ensure its sustainability in an uncertain fiscal environment.
On this point, we also commend the Government of Kenya for supporting UNFPA in this endeavour, and for hosting an enlarged UNFPA presence in Nairobi.
I was encouraged to hear today that UNFPA Management will keep the Executive Board informed of the Optimisation Initiative going forward.
There are a range of stakeholders who will be impacted, directly or indirectly, by a restructure of this scale. This includes funders, programme countries, other UN entities and international organisations, civil society partners, and UNFPA staff - the organisation’s biggest asset.
It is vital that UNFPA engage with these stakeholders, and most especially with its Executive Board, on the change.
We urge UNFPA to bring the Board along with you, to seek our strategic advice and guidance, and to properly apprise us of risks.
Executive Director, the Executive Board takes its role seriously.
As an intergovernmental body, it is charged with the responsibility of providing advice and supervision. It has the authority to receive information and to give guidance, and to decide on financial plans and budgets.
For example, we note that UNFPA will put to the Executive Board a budget proposal on the Optimisation Initiative, with initial costs that UNFPA expects to recoup. UNFPA’s engagement with its Executive Board is therefore critical.
While we fully respect the prerogative of UNFPA Management regarding the Optimisation Initiative, we also highly value transparency, trust, and meaningful consultation with the Executive Board.
We urge UNFPA to develop a succinct and timely paper for the Board that provides further information on several points you have already touched on today:
how will the technical, program and evaluation functions serve their global mandates more effectively in Kenya instead of New York?
- how will the relocated functions complement the work of existing Regional and Country Offices in Africa, as well as maintain collaboration with other UN offices headquartered in New York?
- how will the relocation effect UNFPA’s ability to defend and advance its normative mandate, including its ability to support key intergovernmental negotiations?
- your cost-benefit analysis of the merge and relocation, and potential impacts on funding flows for existing programmes impacted by this change
- identification of key risks and UNFPA’s approach to managing these, including how staff concerns and staff losses are being addressed and mitigated how UNFPA will monitor and continue to deliver quality, comprehensive support to regions outside of Africa and lastly, a concrete overview of how UNFPA intends to keep the Executive Board informed.
Let me reiterate our support to UNFPA’s critical work around the world.
We value the opportunity to work with you to make UNFPA as fit for purpose and resilient as possible.