(4th meeting) Executive Board of UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS (Second regular session 2026)

You colleagues I would kindly encourage you to take your seats.
Call this meeting to order.
Distinguished colleagues, I declare open the fourth meeting of the second regular Session 2026 of the Executive Board of UNDP and FPA and UNPS.
We will start the UNOPS segment with a statement by the UNPS Executive Director.
I'm pleased to welcome with us here at the podium, Mr.
George Maria De Silva Executive Director of UNPS of course, joining the Executive Director at the podium, we have several colleagues from UNPS.
We have misses Hilary Balbuena, Chief of Staff.
We have Mr.
Carl Vg Sol, Chief Executive Chief Financial Officer.
We have Mr.
Orin Ginsburg, Director of the process innovation and digitalization Program.
And then we have misses Anne Clare Howard, Director of Procurement Group, and misses Valerie Custa Director of People and Culture Group.
And of course, we have Mr.
Rahul Ma Hora, who is the Director of the New York Board and External Relations Office that will serve as secretary for this UNOS segment.
Now, I would like to give the floor to the Executive Director, Mr.
Morea Da Silva, please.
He will address the board from that podium over there, and then of course, we'll be opening the floor for comments and questions.
As usual, I think you've been engaging with our colleagues from NPS seated at the podium throughout the different briefings that we have organized in the past several weeks in preparation for this board.
Executive Director, you have the floor, please.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr.
President.
Excellencies, dear colleagues.
I'd like in addition to the colleagues that are here in the podium also to mention the presence of another Director of Europe's.
This Emily Potvin, the Director of the Global Portfolio Office.
We are all here to respond to your questions and to address the progress we had since we last spoke.
In the last few years in parallel with the formidable transformations and breakthroughs on energy, artificial intelligence, medicine, and biology, we have also witnessed an unprecedented increase of temperature and climate impacts, an unprecedented loss of biodiversity, an unprecedented drop of official development assistance, and an unprecedented since World War two, increase in conflicts and forced displacement together with an unprecedented perception of impunity and double standards.
Rather than complacency and nostalgia, what these worrying trends on peace development and humanitarian landscape requires is a strong commitment to rebuilding the trust of citizens in sustainable development and multilateralism.
This is why leaders, institutions, and decision makers must do much more to restore trust and rebuild the social contract with communities.
So how do we rebuild trust and reconnect to people's aspirations? This is a response all institutions must provide according to their own mandates.
From EP's point of view and based on our mandate, two things are key related to this commitment to rebuild trust.
We need to deliver results for people and show impact, and we need to deliver meaningful reforms.
For all of us here, this should be a momentum of accountability.
How are we doubling down on our mandates to get things done and deliver for people? Allow me to anchor my statement around these two areas, results and reforms.
I will start with some of the improvements that UNPS has delivered for people through the lens of our eight UNPS missions, focusing on results.
Establish it to accelerate progress towards the SEGs and our strategic plan 26 29.
The eight missions help us stay strategic, agile, and prepared.
These non programmatic missions are crucial given UNOP's implementation mandate and fee for service business model, allowing us to respond quickly to emerging crises and work in high risk settings where two thirds of all UNPs work takes place.
As we stated in the strategic plan, the eight non programmatic missions are internal practice areas for knowledge and learning and express needs recognized on sustain development goals.
These missions do not represent programmatic intentionality, but readiness to collaborate when we are called on.
An example of this readiness approach was in Venezuela following the double earthquakes last June.
UNPS integrated the UN response and supported search and rescue teams.
The teams are working closely with partners in the country to support reconstruction of houses and recovery.
Me highlight the relevance and impact of some projects framed by the eight non programmatic missions.
As you know from my previous statements, I tried to organize projects in a different manner.
I already presented projects based on geographies, thematic areas, services and practice.
Today, we want to be accountable on something that you approved.
The idea that we are a mission ready organization, non programmatic, but mission ready organization.
That's why the projects that I'm presenting are framed around these eight missions, starting with the triple planetary crisis.
Here we bring together efforts to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.
In South Asia with partners, we have prevented nearly 15 million kilograms of plastic waste from reaching rivers and seas and helped recycle over 1.5 million kilograms of plastic waste across six countries.
In Paraguay, EPS is helping to strengthen biodiversity conservation, institutional capacity, and community engagement in the East.
In South Sudan, We work with partners to strengthen climate resilience by rehabilitating water infrastructure, reducing flood risks, and supporting livelihoods.
ENPS also hosts a number of funds and initiatives to help countries turn climate commitments into action.
Examples of these are the Initiative for climate action Transparency, ICAT, the NDC partnership to support countries with the nationally determined contributions, and the Forest and Climate Leaders Partnership.
This is the FCLP.
This is just a few examples of hosted entities at ENS that are related with this commitment on the triple planetary crisis.
Second, mission, energy transition.
Supporting countries in their clean energy transition is another major area of focus.
A combination of climate shocks and energy crisis brought about by disruptions to shipping via the Strait of Hormuz has made the case for clean energy transition even stronger.
ENPS works with partners to increase energy access and accelerate net zero transition, promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency.
One example is our partnership with Sustainable Energy for all.
It's another hosted entity at ENPS.
Together, we support Sierra Leone green energy ambition to raise renewable energy use to 85% by 2030 and provide electricity to rural areas by 2027.
For people in rural Sierra Leone, the impact has been life changing.
Students can study in the evenings, businesses can keep the products cold, fishers can keep their catch fresh for longer, and people feel safer after dark.
Third mission that I want to mention, the support to small island developing states, resilience and sustainability.
UNOP supports Cs in increasing resilience to shocks and driving a sustainable ocean economy.
In 80, we work to build safer, climate resilient schools with partners, UNOPS has supported the rehabilitation and adaptation of schools, improving safety, climate resilience, and learning conditions for students and communities.
Together with the UNDRR, NPS co hosts the Santiago Network, which catalyzes technical assistance on climate related loss and damage.
As you know, this is the twin leg of the loss and damage fund.
You have the loss and damage fund and you have the Santiago Network on loss and damage that is about a marketplace for knowledge and technical assistance.
In 2025, this Santiago network started offering tailored support to Vanuato.
Its pipeline is growing with around 30 active requests for country led technical assistance globally.
You know how important it is to be deeply committed in delivering on loss and damage.
Loss and damage fund, and as you know, I've been working on climate for three decades.
I attended almost all climate cops.
Loss and damage has been one of the elements where little traction has been gained.
We can't lose the momentum generated by the loss and damage fund and by the Santiago Network, and that's why UNPs is deeply committed in supporting seats and LDCs in these loss and damage efforts.
On quality health care.
The organization efforts to support people getting healthcare continue as Alpha of the world lacks that lifesaving access.
UNOS teams improve health infrastructure, They buy and deliver supplies and services and manage health programs and funds.
In Myanmar, the UNOS manage access to health fund, reached 4 million people last year alone, supporting essential health services in an extremely challenging and fragile context.
In Ukraine, as part of the extensive response and recovery efforts which are estimated to reach more than 1 million people every year, teams are supporting the recovery of critical infrastructure, strengthening health services in communities under attack, including through underground health infrastructure, supplying health and energy equipment, and providing explosive ordinance risk education for communities close to the front line.
Another example of a mission is the just digital transformation.
Digital transformation is an area where we provide practical solutions in Sri Lanka.
We are helping digitize 30 state hospitals, build a central health data center, and scale up national electronic health records.
In Montenegro, EPS is working with the government to strengthen vital information technology infrastructure and local egvernment services and digitize the rule of law sector.
On the social protection, equality, education, and jobs mission, we provide essential and sustainable services and infrastructure to communities and promotes education and decent job creation to overcome inequalities and build prosperity.
In Afghanistan, the Community Resilience and Livelihood Project is providing short term jobs and improving access to essential services, helping people, including women, poor and other vulnerable groups to improve their livelihoods.
Funded by the World Bank, ID and the Afghanistan Resilience Trust Fund, the project has reached 15.5 million people in the past four years and is one of the country's largest community driven initiatives.
On humanitarian development and peace Nexus, With over half of our portfolio in fragile and conflict affected contexts, UNPS continues to help address the root causes of fragility and support communities affected by conflict and disasters.
As I mentioned in other missions, let me bring some examples.
Yemen is a case in point.
UNPS with partners helps restore electricity to health facilities, schools, and water systems using decentralized solar solutions reaching one in every six people in the war torn country.
This generated over 2.5 million days of employment, including for women.
And in the Gaza strip, ENP supports critical humanitarian and early recovery operations.
We bring in fuel for the UN and humanitarian organizations to power frontline services such as hospitals, water plants, kitchens, and shelters for displaced people.
Together with UN Mine Action Service, UN Mass, UNP supports humanitarian efforts and rubble clearance by helping mitigate the risks of land mines and unexploded ordinance.
Our teams in Gaza operationalize the UN 27 20 mechanism to expedite, facilitate, and verify humanitarian aid entering Gaza and the access to opportunity to enable personal movements, critical medical equations and civilian return movements from Rafah.
And finally, the last mission, not because there is any thought of hierarchy, it's the food systems transformation.
We help countries improve food security and healthy diets in Sad.
Teams are supporting efforts to strengthen the agriculture sector.
This includes procuring means of transport to improve mobility in hard to reach areas.
ENS is buying over 760 tons of fertilizers, primarily from suppliers in the African continent to reduce dependence on international supply chains.
But another example on food systems, it's the topic that is being discussed next door on the Security Council today on peace security and food.
As you know, US, under the request of the Sec General, we have led a task force on the Strait of Hormuz.
We have developed a concept of a mechanism to build confidence, to allow the transit of critical commodities, namely fertilizers and related raw materials to prevent a massive humanitarian crisis.
Five months have passed and I can only say that I'm even more alarmed today than I was five months ago.
We are witnessing a significant impact on fertilizers, costs and availability on productivity of agriculture, and also on the prices of food.
WFP was very clear saying that very likely we will have unfortunately, 45 million people in addition to those that are already facing, they will face foodurity acute food insecurity.
This can be prevented.
It's not a fatality.
This can be prevented.
We can put in place a mechanism to monitor, verify the transit of vessels that will prevent a massive humanitarian crisis.
This is getting more and more support from member states.
As you know, I continue engaging daily with Iran, with US, with the countries in the region, and beyond, knowing that this is something that we are ready to implement.
Can in seven to ten days put the mechanism functioning.
We just need the political will.
This is another example of the role of ENPs to enable others to operate.
Other UN agencies, the commercial sector.
It's something that we have done in Yemen and Dibouti with UN VM, in Gaza with the 27 20, and I think that we can do the same in Ormz.
I really hope that the political will will prevail, and we are ready.
Let me now turn, honorable members to the other area where I mentioned at the beginning of my statement that is key to restore trust on multilateralism, which is the reforms.
These are the Fundamental, in addition to the points that I made before about results in impact, over the past few years, we conducted under your guidance, under your vital guidance, a comprehensive set of reforms to continue enhancing accountability, transparency, internal controls, and trust.
We know that that reform journey was crucial to restore trust, to get all partners back, to have more demand, and to have a better recognition both from our partners and from UNOPs personal of the impact of this reform journey.
EOPS management strengthened internal audit, ethics, and investigation mechanisms and improved risk management and internal controls.
Last year, this board approved the strategic plan, which reinforces our commitment to scale up and speed up our response at the time of compounding global crisis.
As we continue on our transformation journey, we will focus on four key areas, centering foresight and impact, maturing partnership development, integrating service lines, infrastructure, procurement, project and program management, and UN and UN support services to improve delivery of results, and finally, strengthening geographic footprint.
This shows that our reform journey is not over.
The fact that we have concluded the comprehensive response plan doesn't mean that we close the the commitment to reform.
As I always said, we are eager and committed to continue reforming beyond the comprehensive response plan.
We have made significant progress on accountability.
Our accountability framework enhances governance through clear lines of responsibility and increased transparency.
We continue to make progress on different initiatives, including digital transformation through the process innovation and digitalization program, and we'll hear from my colleague Oren in a few minutes.
The organization's culture efforts and progressing Are progressing as Valerie has mentioned in multiple occasions, and we are running a series of ethics training sessions with a focus on ethical decision making.
We are also deeply committed to the highest level of ambition in the context of UN AT reforms as I had the chance to express this morning.
We continue to reform because we aspire to deliver the best for communities and our partners and our partners are witnessing and clearly seeing this.
Our latest partnership survey showed record levels of strong trust in UNOS and growing demand for integrated practical solutions.
Our financial performance, and the CFO, Karl has also had the chance to mention this and for sure again today, and the outlook for the organization is robust.
I repeat the financial performance and the outlook for the organization is robust.
This is not something that is easy to understand in this context, but that's what is happening with UNOPS.
In 2025, our implementation of project services exceeded $2.7 billion, which represents an increase from previous years.
We have continued our track record of cost effective implementation with an average recovery rate of only 4.2% on average, which, as you know, is the lowest or one of the lowest in the UN system.
We signed new agreements with partners for more than $3 billion.
These elements underpins our ambition of meeting partner demand to scale up implementation.
This brings me to the final and particularly important issue for the management of EOPS.
Since 2022, first with my predecessor for one month, Jens Wendel and then with me the last almost four years.
As executive director, the decision on multi year investments into the sustainability of the organization has been past.
Recognizing all the reforms that UNOPS implemented these past years, it is important to reinstate a working capital mechanism that is fundamental for the agility and sustainability of the UNOS fee for service model.
Such a working capital mechanism is enshrined in the financial governance of most UN entities.
Basically, this is a point that I have made in previous occasions, which is there were measures that you have put in place in a moment of contingency when we were rescuing the organization.
Now that we concluded a comprehensive response plan and we have shown deep commitment to continue reforming and we have shown the results.
We think it's important to give the organization the conditions that other organizations have to take decisions that requires flexibility and agility, particularly when we work in conflict affected contexts.
Mr.
President, let me conclude by returning to where I started.
In uncertain times, trust is critical, delivering tangible results, demonstrating impact and continue to reform and improve can contribute to that.
UPS is committed to these efforts.
In closing, I'm delighted to share some voice of the communities we serve.
We have a very short video.
It's the first time in almost four years that I'm bringing a video.
I know that videos are not always so popular, but believe me, this is a very short video and you'll be impressed not because we'll be talking about UNPS, we are giving the voice to those we serve.
Thank you.
Drama presidential four grass shelf government foundational Baha Pat.
Is, el Abbat Ma they below in each Blag Thank you very much, Executive Director.
I think you went through the key activities of your work, listening to the important work that NPS is doing in many parts of the world.
In the Middle East, you talked about the facilitating the safe passage of fertilizers, which is very much important, limiting the humanitarian consequences and disruptions in the strait of Hormuz, focusing on education as well, Gaza, Yemen, Everywhere, I think there is a crisis you are present to alleviate the impact and also to work with member states to facilitate the work of other UN entities as well.
I think we get more and more feedback as member states on the benefits of the interaction that many UN agencies and organizations have with UNOPS and benefiting from this important work that you are doing.
It's something that is very much valued by member states in general.
Dear colleagues, we open the floor for comments.
Questions, of course, it's a dialogue, so I would encourage you to approach it as such.
You know the protocol.
I'm not going to repeat it.
Just to remind you that we have time limits, 5 minutes for groups, 3 minutes for individual statements.
Of course, you know my approach, you noticed whenever you have time, we can go slightly beyond the time limits and I would indicate that to colleagues, but we shouldn't abuse it anyway.
Um We will start with the group interventions, and then we have member states statements.
I now give the floor to Mozambique speaking on behalf of the African group to be followed by Brazil, China, United States, and then the United Kingdom.
Mozambique, please, you have the floor.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
Mr.
President, Excellencies, distinguished members of the executive board.
I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the African members of the Executive Board of UNDP, UNFPA UNOPS namely Chaddi Courvoi, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tunisia, and Zambia.
African members thank the Executive Director of UNOPS for the insightful statement delivered at this session.
We note with appreciation the work carried out by UNPS against a very challenging operational and global landscape marked by growing geopolitical tensions, erosion of confidence in multilateralism, escalating conflicts, and worsening humanitarian situation, as well as declining ODA, creating tribal crisis across peace, development, and humanitarian action.
For African countries, the environment which you have aptly described is not an abstract one, but a concrete reality that represents a stark choice between living and perishing for millions of people every day.
Therefore, we commend your efforts to reform and adapt with a view to delivering tangible results for people and demonstrating impact on the ground.
Mr.
President, dear colleagues, we welcome the actions and decisions taken by UNOPS to implement its strategic plan and accelerate progress towards achieving the SDGs, especially the establishment of the eight UNPS non programmatic missions with visible results in infrastructure, procurement, project management, expanded access to health care, improved public service, emergency support, food security, and climate resilience systems.
These initiatives represent a much needed presence, especially in complex and emergency settings and can serve as catalysts for realizing the SDGs when aligned with national development plans and country programs.
The focus of UNP missions on climate change, energy transition, sustainable economies, quality healthcare, just digital transition, job creation, social protection, equality and education, humanitarian development, peace nexus, and food systems and food security across several countries from Haiti to Myanmar, Ukraine, to Montenegro, Venezuela to South Sudan demonstrates a strong commitment to the realization of the 22 agenda for sustainable development, especially to delivering in the last mile as the world faces daunting challenges.
We take good note of the work on just energy transition and diversification of supply chains, especially focusing on enhancing resilience to economic and geopolitical shocks in fragile contexts.
A just digital transition that reduces the digital divide, guarantees technology transfer and strengthens capacity building while leaving no one behind remains among Africa priorities on these fronts.
Dear President, distinguished colleagues, statements of intent alone will not suffice to renew the trust of the 8 billion people in the multilateral system.
Nor will a new social pact function on empty words.
Africa's approximately 1.5 billion in obedence projected to comprise one quarter of the world's population by 25th, expect to see improvements in daily lives through national development strategy, but also through more coherent, coordinated, effective, locally and nationally driven, and inclusive support from the UN system.
Mr.
President, Director, we welcome the adoption of reforms by UNOPS aimed at continuing to enhance accountability, transparency, internal controls, and trust.
We encourage UNOPS to strengthen its internal audits, ethics, and investigation mechanism, as well as risk management and internal controls.
We therefore encourage Excuse me.
I think your voice is sufficially strong, but if you press the microphone again button, all right.
Once again, please.
All right.
You have enough.
Okay.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
I would like to say again that the African group takes note of the four key areas of focus as UNOPS continues its journey of transformation, especially expansion of its geographical footprint.
Nevertheless, we encourage that these reforms be aligned with the ongoing UN 80 initiative and remain consistent with UNOPS mandate, visa fees, UNDP's policy, and programming functions, and the resident coordinator system.
We look forward to continued engagement with UNPS.
I thank you.
I thank Mozambic for the statement delivered on behalf of the African group.
I give the floor to Brazil to be followed by China.
You have the floor Ambassador.
Thank you, Mr.
President, Mr.
Executive Director.
Brazil aligns itself with the statement delivered by Uruguay on behalf of the G 77 in China.
My delegation reiterates its firm support for UNPS.
We value Brazil productive partnership with the organization.
Mr.
Executive Director, Brazil recognizes the progress achieved by UNPs in implementing the recommendations of the board of auditors and welcomes the strengthening of its governance, oversight, and financial management.
These efforts are essential to ensuring confidence in UNOS and its long term sustainability.
As we consider possible adjustments to the organization's financial architecture, my government believes that the lessons of the S threeI experience must remain an important reference.
The progress achieved since then should not in itself justify reversing the safeguards established by the executive board.
Against this background, we take careful note of the proposals presented in alternative options to the current arrangements governing UNPs reserves.
We recognize that some capacity to finance multi institutional investments may be consistent with UNO self financed fee for service model.
At the same time, any new mechanism established for this purpose should be subject to clear parameters.
Its purpose should be precisely defined.
The level of resources allocated must follow a predictable methodology, and the executive board is to retain effective oversight.
We would welcome further clarification on how the proposed arrangements would relate with the distribution of excess reserves to paying entities.
In particular, greater clarity is needed on the distinction between resources required for institutional investment and reserves that are effectively in excess and should be returned to partners.
It will be important to ensure that the creation of a multi year investment reserve does not in practice, reduce resources that would be subject to distribution.
Clear parameters regarding the size of the proposed reserve and the criteria for determining when net access reserves are sufficiently material to warrant distribution will be essential.
Such clarity would help the executive board strike the necessary balance between providing UNOPS with the financial flexibility required by its business model and preserving transparency and accountability and sound financial stewardship.
I thank you.
I thank Brazil for the statement.
I give the floor now to China to be followed by the United States and then the United Kingdom.
China, please you have the for Mr..
President, China wishes to thank Executive Director Da Silva for the briefing.
China, Support the statement delivered by Uruguay on behalf of G 77 and China.
China appreciates the efforts of UNOPS in actively advancing the implementation of its strategic plan 2026 to 2029, maintaining sound financial management, responding rapidly to crisis, and operating in high risk environments.
We commend its commitment to delivering concrete and measurable results for member states and supporting the implementation of the SDGs.
China hopes that UNOPS will continue to advance its internal reforms, strengthen accountability and risk management, and enhance communication with member states on important issues such as reserve management arrangements and implementation of the process innovation and digitalization program.
We also hope that UNAPS will further optimize its internal management and service efficiency, enhance synergies and cooperation with other UN entities, and support the fair participation of enterprises from developing countries in United Nations procurement activities.
China hopes that UNOPS will continue to actively participate in the UN AD initiative, and ensure that both the reform evaluation process and its outcomes are objective, impartial, and transparent and can withstand the test of history, thereby informing member states decision making.
At the same time, UNPS should promote greater synergies within the UN development system, particularly at the country level.
During the reconfiguration process of the UN country teams, the principles of national ownership and leadership should be consistently upheld and resident coordinators should remain focused on development.
China welcomes the proposal by the United Nations of establishing an interim mechanism for the operations of the straightforward and supports the UN in playing a greater role.
President, at present, developing countries face numerous challenges, including global energy shortages, severe disruptions to industrial and supply chains and the widening digital divide.
China stands ready to continue strengthening cooperation with EOPS and other UN development agencies in areas such as energy transition, digital transformation, infrastructure, and procurement.
China will continue to closely link its own development with the common development of all countries, act as a facilitator and contributor to global development and help countries of the global South seize emerging opportunities and effectively address new challenges.
Thank you, President.
I thank China for the statement.
I give the floor to the United States to be followed by the United Kingdom.
You have the floor, Ambassador.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
The United States appreciates UNP operational agility, technical project execution, low overhead, and self financing model that delivers critical infrastructure and procurement solutions across volatile environments.
In an era of compounding global crises, UNPS provides a vital, cost effective service platform that translates multilateral resources into direct tangible results.
If you'll permit me, Executive Director, George, on a personal note, you're a joy to work with.
You're practical, you're common sense, you're solutions oriented, you get it and you get stuff done.
Kudos to you and your team.
The United States works with UNOS to strengthen the UN 27 20 mechanism for Gaza and to host partnerships that combat tuberculosis and malaria, demonstrating the versatility and strong implementation capacity of this unique UN entity.
The United States emphasizes that UNPs' effective delivery and growth should not be stalled for anything, mergers or otherwise.
UNPs' specialized execution capability and fee for service structure are essential operational assets that must be protected rather than bogged down by bureaucratic reorganization.
Although committed to advancing UN efficiency, and Lord knows I've delivered a lot of those speeches over the last 11 months and eliminating operational overlap, including through increased shared services, as I stated this morning, the United States is unconvinced of sweeping structural mergers that entail steep transition costs of 100 to 250 million plus business model friction and unverified returns on investment.
We likewise object to allocating scarce resource for an expensive year long study to generate delayed baseline data for restructuring that member states never requested.
Instead, the United States prioritizes targeted back office integration, rigorous evidence based rationale, donor value, and uninterrupted field delivery.
Executing high impact projects effectively requires an uncompromising commitment to internal accountability and risk management.
The United States strongly supports UNOS successful reform process and continued dedication to good governance, complete transparency, and rigorous oversight across its global project portfolio.
Faced with strict fiscal realities, the UN system must eliminate fragmentation and return to its core mandate.
We expect UNPS and all UN agencies to fully embrace UN wide reform expectations by dismantling redundant overhead, maximizing value for money, expanding interagency shared operational platforms, and ensuring funds flow directly to frontline delivery.
Finally, navigating these financial realities demands that the UN leads by example through disciplined stewardship of taxpayer resources.
Internal culture must match external frugality.
To maximize the impact of every dollar, we urge UNOPs to implement immediate strict cost saving measures, including an explicit outright ban on business class travel for all leadership and personnel.
I thank you.
I thank the United States for the statement.
I give the floor to the United Kingdom to be followed then by Bangladesh and Germany, United Kingdom Ambassador, you have the floor.
Thank you, Mr.
President, Executive Director.
The United Kingdom commends the efforts of UNO staff who are often working in very difficult and insecure contexts.
We specifically recognize the UN Os leadership in the Strait of Hormuz and the vital work to avert a food security crisis, so I thank you.
We welcome the opportunity to discuss UN Os continued transformation and the measures being taken to strengthen effectiveness, accountability, and long term sustainability.
We note the continued efforts to recover the funds lost through the S threeI and emphasized the need for full transparency on the status of this recovery.
Regarding governing the UN OPs excess reserves, we acknowledge the alternative proposals that have been shared and underscore that the executive board should continue to maintain oversight of the excess reserves while providing UN ops with the flexibility needed to sustain its agile funding model.
The strategic plan 2026, 2029 provides a clear framework for the organization's direction.
UN OPs comparative advantage lies in providing practical implementation support that complements the policy and financing functions of others.
As the UN pursues system wide reform as part of the UN Ay, UNOS has a valuable role to play in pursuing greater efficiency and coordination.
This includes reconfiguring UN country teams and driving efficiencies through system wide shared services and critical common enablers, notably technology and data.
Integrated supply chains and common back offices and cost effective delivery models are key.
We would encourage UN Os to fully engage in these efforts and we would welcome an update on progress and next steps.
Regarding the proposed merger with UNDP, as I said this morning, we appreciate the joint terms of reference for the independent assessment and urge momentum in assessing reform proposals.
We want to see continued close collaboration between UN Os and UNDP.
We look to UN Os to leverage its unique capacity to respond to partner needs through a model that is agile, transparent, and tailored to demand, particularly in contexts where alternative delivery channels are constrained.
Thank you.
I thank the United Kingdom for the statement.
I give the floor to Bangladesh to be followed by Germany.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
We thank the Executive Director for presenting the report and comment EP's continued institutional efficiency and reliable delivery across infrastructure, procurement, and project management.
Following a national election held in February 2026, Bangladesh has entered a new phase of stable and inclusive governance with a clear focus on strengthening long term structural resilience.
Bangladesh's graduation from the LDC category remains a firm national goal.
However, given the scale of recent global and domestic economic disruptions, we have proposed extending the preity period by three years to November 2029 and allow the transition to be managed carefully rather than rust.
In this regard, we ask EOPS to recalibrate its technical advisory support and infrastructure pipeline to this extended horizon with continued priority given to trade, investment, education, public health, and climate resilient procurement.
Excellencies.
As a highly climate vulnerable country, Bangladesh underscores the importance of accessible finance and effortable green technologies.
We encourage ENOPS to further leverage its procurement capacity to support developing countries backed by transparent digital tools for real time accountability.
We is to highlight ENPS' ongoing support to the Bangladesh Institute of Peace Support Operation Training BPSOT through a project to enhance its capacity to train female peacekeepers until March 2028.
We look forward to continue technical cooperation from ENPS in this area, including support for training facilities, gender responsive infrastructure, and deployment readiness.
Mr.
President, regarding the UNT initiative and the proposed UNDP UNPS merger, Bangladesh remains constructive yet cautious.
Any reform must be member state, transparent, and evidence based.
It is equally important to preserve both entities distinct strengths.
For example, UNDP's Grand based policy platform and UNOPSs self financing fee for service model.
Bangladesh remains committed to working closely with EOPS to advance efficient, accountable, and impact driving delivery in support of this disease.
I thank you, Mr.
President.
I thank Bangladesh for the statement.
I give the floor to Germany and after that, I will invite the Executive Director to address some of the comments in the statements.
Germany, please you have the floor.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
Distinguished members of the executive board, Mr.
Executive Director, excellencies.
At times when development and humanitarian needs are growing and resources are increasingly constrained, organizations that deliver efficiently, transparently, and in line with national priorities are more than important than ever.
Just in the video clip that you just showed, our partnership with UNP shows how resources can translate into concrete impact on the ground in Iraq, Lebanon, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNOPS has supported communities affected by conflict, strengthened resilient infrastructure and local services, and promoted peace and sustainable development.
We thank UNOS staff for their professionalism and dedication under extremely challenging circumstances.
Effective delivery must go hand in hand with strong institutional governance.
Germany welcomes progress on accountability, internal controls, portfolio oversize, process innovation and digitalization.
We encourage UNPs to continue reporting openly to the board on the impact of internal reforms, including achievements, remaining challenges, and any corrective actions needed.
Sound financial stewardship remains essential.
UNPS needs their financial capacity to invest in necessary reforms while ensuring transparency and executive board oversight.
Especially in fragile and high risk environments, effective risk management and compliance are indispensable to protect resources and development results.
Germany values UNPs active engagement in the UNA initiative to make the UN development system more coherent, agile, and effective.
In our view, this requires stronger collaboration across the system, clear alignment with cooperation frameworks, and continued focus on complementarity rather than duplication or competition among UN entities.
Germany remains committed to strengthening accountability, transparency, and institutional resilience, while ensuring that UNOPS continues to deliver high quality operational support where it's needed most.
Our shared objective is clear, better results for people and planet and stronger implementation of the 2030 agenda.
Thank you.
I thank Germany for the statement.
I will I will invite the Executive Director to address some of the comments and then we'll resume with France, Portugal, Guatemala, the European Union.
George, you have the floor, please.
Thank you very much, Mr.
President, Excellencies, I really want to thank you for your statements, encouragement and express your appreciation for my team, the 5,500 colleagues that on the ground deliver every day and very difficult to sit consensus.
I really want to thank you for the kind words that you have shared regarding the UNPS team.
Let me start with Mozambique and African group.
The points that you have made are very important, particularly our deep commitment on the implementation of SDGs especially what we have been doing, expanding our partners capacity for implementation.
Basically, our mandate is expanding our partners capacity for implementation, partners being the program countries, the partner countries, partners being the UN agencies, the MDBs, international organizations.
Our commitment is to expand capacity for implementation.
However, as you mentioned, not all places have been benefiting from the formidable transformations on science and on technology.
Therefore, we have to be determined by some intentionality in overcoming market failures.
There are places that are not on the hierarchy of the private sector.
We just can't let the finance flow expand expecting that the flow of the financing will automatically fix the lack of access of people to their basic needs and to the SETs.
That's why the points that you have made about some sectorial elements, namely energy are very important.
We are witnessing some market failure.
Let me just mention a few.
The top 14 countries most affected by climate are all under conflict.
So those countries, and this is not about the correlation.
It's it's something that coincides Those countries, most of them are highly adapted.
Those countries, most of them are also facing food insecurity.
We have to consider that in the context of scarce resources that we need to prioritize.
That's why the role of UN agencies including UNOPS is to address market failures, to be there when others won't be there.
We can't mobilize ourselves to the easiest.
We need to mobilize ourselves to the neediest.
I'm going to mention a few areas where clearly we are witnessing market failures, and we have to make the case for that.
Otherwise, we won't deliver on SEs.
First, conflict affected countries.
It's fundamental that multilateral organizations mobilize donors and partners mobilize in support of the countries in conflict, not only to bring peace, but also to provide the needs that people need during the conflict.
We can't be complacent on this.
We can't wait until the end of the war to provide the basic relief that is needed for people on the schools, on the hospitals, on the energy.
And this is, again, it's not intuitive It needs a commitment, a deliberative commitment.
That's why almost 50% of what we do is in conflict affected countries because it's fundamental to be there to support the people under the most difficult circumstances.
Second marketplace, climate adaptation.
Mozambique is a very good example.
You emit 0.1% of greenhouse gas emissions globally, and Mozambique, unfortunately is one of the most affected countries by climate impacts.
Mitigation is key, but adaptation is fundamental.
On mitigation, we have a business case.
With carbon pricing, with the right mechanisms, we have the renewable energy flowing.
It's the cheapest.
It's much cheaper than others.
But the problem is, what's the case for adaptation? Normally, adaptation is a role of the states to protect their territories, to protect the people, to avoid shocks, to respond to floods and to droughts.
So there is a market failure here.
We can't just put all eggs on the basket of mitigation and clean tech.
It's fundamental to support developing countries on adaptation.
This is a market failure.
So we need an intention.
We UN need to be intentionally committed to support countries on adaptation.
That's what we do.
Third market failure is on energy.
As I mentioned this morning, the energy grids.
I know many, many countries, including countries in Africa that are home to 70% of the highest solar potential in the world.
But don't have access to the grid.
We can't put again, all eggs on the basket of the supply on renewable energy if then we have 250 megawatts of backlog on the grids.
Again, this is a market failure.
Why? Because most of the grids are owned by the states.
How can we ask a state that are highly indebted to invest on the grids without the capacity to pass the cost to the consumers because it can't pass the cost to consumers because the people are already under difficult circumstances.
It can't go to the market to get a loan because it's already highly indebted.
We need concessional finance to the grids.
Again, I'm mentioning areas where we can't expect that technology alone and the financial flows alone will fix the issues.
We need an intention and this is another element that is mentioned.
Another example is the early recovery.
It's more than humanitarian, is less than development, and it's scenario in between.
Again, it's a market failure.
We need to commit on early recovery in the context of good alignment between peace, humanitarian and development.
I'm using your comments about the specific difficulties of some countries in the region, not only Mozambique, and your deep commitment to SEG to say, we are ready and we are deeply committed, very honored, by the way, to work with these countries, and we are deeply committed in supporting you in these areas that are the most difficult.
You also mentioned something very important, which is the need to ensure that our new wave of reforms triggered by the strategic plan are accountable and are consistent with UN 80.
Other countries have mentioned this, namely the United States, the need to continue pursuing the reforms, the recognition for reforms.
Let me use this occasion to say, what do we mean about the four areas of the reforms that I mentioned as a continued commitment.
On service lines.
The idea is to evolve our internal organization more into a matrix based organization where both colleagues that are on the ground and colleagues that are in the headquarters, they are assessed by the same yardstick, which is supporting the people on the ground.
We can't have headquarters with some responsibility that is just about oversight and policy advisory and those that are on the ground delivering.
No.
Now we have put in place a new structure that evolved EOPS into a matrix based organization where both the directors in headquarters, including colleagues that are in this table and the regional directors, they are equally accountable for the delivery on the ground.
Another example is the partnership.
We would like to evolve our partnership into something that is more into the ready mode.
We can't be just waiting for the demand, but we need to get ready.
That's why on purpose I brought today div of the missions to be accountable to you on what we have been doing on these eight areas because we are non programmatic and we don't want to be programmatic.
UNDP is programmatic, other UN agencies are programmatic.
We don't want to be programmatic.
But we want to be ready, which means that we need some foresight to be integrated in our partnership.
What does that mean? We can't wait until someone knocks our door saying that we need your help.
We need to be organized internally to be ready based on the best forecasting and foresight so that when the demand comes, we are already ready to deploy.
This is just a few examples of how we are translating these reforms into internal reorganization.
Another element is moving from outputs to outcomes.
We no longer focus just on measuring how many schools or hospitals we are constructing.
We will continue counting that, but we want to count how many kids and citizens have access to the school and access to the healthcare.
This is a big reform in the organization is changing the yard stick from outputs to outcomes.
We are ready to continue reporting to you on these processes.
I would like on the point made by Brazil, at the end of my intervention, if I could ask my colleague, Karl, the CFO to comment on how we would integrate the request that I've made today of member states to give us more flexibility, how we would integrate this with all accountability that is needed and my colleague, Karl, can comment on this.
But again, many thanks for Brazil for the comment that Brazil made.
We are very honored to be working in Brazil in some of the most beautiful projects, namely in Amazonia and also the construction of the university in the gua the last project of the late architecture, Oscar Niemaayer.
Regarding the intervention of China, there are many elements here.
I would like to focus in two, but I would like, if you don't mind, Mr.
President, to ask my colleague, the Director of procurement, to take the floor on this area as procurement is one of the most important areas.
Several member states mentioned procurement and I would like and Claire to share some information about our work on procurement.
But going back to China, you have asked us to ensure synergies with other UN agencies and this is very important.
I hope, distinguished members that you don't think that our only and preferred partner is UNDP.
I'm eager.
We are eager to partner with UNDP, but I'm equally committed to partner with all the UN agencies.
As a non programmatic agency, we are only here for partnership.
And that's why I don't want that suddenly we move from a merger conversation to a partnership only UNDP.
No, we want to partner to continue partnering with WFP, with UNICEF, with NFPA, with UNEP, with all the UN agencies, UN DRR.
And I want to reassure you that this is our deep commitment is to support all the other UN agencies on the ground through our operational capacity.
At the same time that I'm committed to strengthen the collaboration with UNDP, as both myself and UNDP administration mentioned this morning.
China also made a reference to the resident coordinator system, the UN country teams, also the United Kingdom made this important reference.
So if you don't mind, I will address the two countries in the same response on the country team reconfiguration.
This is really, I think, again, changing in UN 80 is what's the role of the resident coordinator, to which extent the country team reconfiguration is reinforcing the resident coordination.
Indeed, it's the case.
To give the resident coordination the capacity needed to integrate the response to the country's priorities and to ensure that the cooperation framework is the strategic document.
It's not the only document.
We continue having country program documents, but it's very important that the country program documents are derived and sequenced.
The cooperation framework is the strategy.
It's the strategy of the country and it's the deal.
It's the contract between the country and the United Nations.
Then each agency have their own country program documents that are coming to the board for approvals.
But it's very important that those documents are derived from the cooperation framework.
To avoid the cacophony so that we have a strategy and then you have multiple strategies.
No, there is one strategy that is the cooperation framework.
Then there is country program documents that are ways of each agency to implement the cooperation framework.
That's why I was very keen during this process to ensure that even if we still have several documents, including the country program documents, there is only one document of a strategic nature, which is the cooperation framework and the CPDs are derived and sequence.
We should only approve CPDs in this board after the cooperation framework being approved.
I think it's very important that this element is under your accountability.
At the end of the day, it's member states that need to hold everyone to account, particularly to which extent the country program documents are ways to strengthen collaboration rather than ways to strengthen competition.
I really hope that we won't fail on this objective of strengthening resident coordinator and strengthening the cooperation framework.
Going now back to the United States, and I want to thank your words regarding our reforms and our commitment in getting things done.
There is an important element, if I may, ambassador, on the point about financial discipline and in the context of UN 80, efficiencies, frugality, value for money.
I really hope that we won't miss the opportunity to discuss the financing of the United Nations and the financing of the UN agencies.
What I'm going to say is not against any agency is just a way to not lose this opportunity to advance in some additional financial discipline.
We shouldn't have project subsidizing policy.
As we shouldn't have policy subsidizing projects.
I think it's very important that the fee for service model, which is UNPS model, to be applicable in all operations in the UN.
If all operations are financed through a fee for service model, which is you don't charge $1 more than what we need to deliver the project.
It means that obviously we will need member states to support the agencies that are on policy and programming, not through project, but through core.
But this is very important to avoid that suddenly we have a situation where policy is subsidized by projects when we really need the agencies, which is not the case of Us, other agencies that they really need resources to do policy and programming.
This should be somehow delinked from the financing of the project.
Then we have the pooled funding that could finance the transitions on energy, on water, on health, et cetera.
I want to make this point, Mr.
President, you heard mentioning this in other occasions.
I know that very often we tend to spend lots of time on the boxes, on mergers, et cetera it's really important to have a discussion on the way that organizations are being financed and to ensure that we have the highest efficiency here.
Why is ENS charging just 4.2%? Because 80% of our personnel is related with projects.
We don't have fixed term contracts, only 20%.
This agility and flexibility is key so that when a project ends, well, that activity is no longer needed except if the country needs us to continue.
This is why we can charge 4.2%.
I want to say that it's not our merit.
It's not because we are better than others.
No, it's because our business model Is based on projects.
I think it's very important that all the projects are financed through the same modality so that maybe resources would be more available to finance the policy.
But that's why we need your support for some flexibility.
If we can't charge more than what we really need for a specific project, how can we get ready to an emergency.
How can we if suddenly there is an emergency in a country, an earthquake, a hurricane? We can't wait to do mobilization of resources to immediately support the country.
That's the reason why the CFO has been making this call and I've been making this call about some flexibility that would be needed.
And I think that I responded also to the UK on deficiencies and on the country team reconfiguration.
I know that I'm being too long, apologies.
Several countries mentioned Orm, UK, China, Brazil mentioned Ormus.
I would like to make a reference to Ormus at the end, but let me go now to Bangladesh to the point on infrastructure.
This is an area again where the UN, not UNPS only, but the UN globally, must play a role in a context where we have a 15 trillion gap by 2030 on infrastructure.
And infrastructure is also an opportunity for a continuum.
I see infrastructure as an integrator.
Very often in international discussions, we operate in silos, mitigation adaptation, humanitarian development piece, resilience, sustainability.
Well, the infrastructure is the same, so it would be very important to use the commitment with infrastructure to integrate all this agenda.
The agenda of adaptation and mitigation, the agenda of humanitarian development and peace, and the agenda of sustainability and resilience.
Bangladesh is a very good example of a country that is integrating the adaptation to climate change at the same time as the mitigation to climate change.
Finally, when it comes to Germany, and again, I want to thank you for the kind words and also for the strong commitment from Germany in the area of the crisis response, You have said that you want us to report on our internal reforms.
I'm deeply committed and I also responding again to the United States.
We are deeply committed in continuing reporting to you on internal reforms beyond the comprehensive Response plan.
So even on the areas that were not part of the compressive Response Plan, we are very interested in continuing reporting on the outcome of those reforms as we know that there is a nexus The more we report to member states on reforms, the higher is the chance for us to have a higher level of trust on UNOS and higher demand on UNOS.
We see all advantages in being accountable not only as a matter of principle, we have to be accountable to member states, but also because we know that Our ability to scale up ultimately depends on our capacity to show that we are walking the talk on the reforms.
Finally, I would like to make a reference to the point on the straight of homo and I don't want to enter into any politicking on the point.
I just because there are lots of interest from member states about what this EOPS putting in place as this mechanism.
It's a mechanism that includes registration, verification, monitoring, tracking and reporting.
It's basically trying to apply to the straight off hormo due to a humanitarian crisis.
Always in respect of the freedom of navigation.
So this mechanism is a time bound, limited exceptional, not at all challenging the freedom of navigation, but in a limited manner, while we wait until we have peace, at least to let some vessels with fertilizers and related raw materials to flow because this can be very important to prevent a humanitarian crisis.
I had the chance to present to the Security Council and informal session a few days ago ect General was in the Security Council today making a strong call in this area.
Again, I want to reiterate our readiness to continue engaging with all parties in this topic.
Mr.
President, if you don't mind, if I can ask my colleague, Carl and my colleague An Claire to respond to these questions.
With respect to the question from the distinguished Alegrate of Brazil, I think we have to clarify a few concepts that we are working about and what happens in the SVI.
SRI was a crisis in also the financial situation of UNOPS and the board decided to take measures.
The current proposal is not a fallback to, let's go to whatever happened before 2022.
The board has actually worked over the last four years on these measures taken for SRI, and we saw a number of the initial measures where we said, Okay, we have to refine the definition of what we did.
The first one was, we return all excess reserves.
And we figured out, we cannot return reserves that are not liquid because there's no money attached to them.
So when we jointly went through this definition of liquid excess reserves, which says, no, not all excess reserves are liquid.
We defined this and we designed a control around it, which is in a disclosure in the financial statements that's audited by the Board of auditor and gives the board assurance what this is.
We also designed a monitoring process around this.
So one step further than what we had in 2022.
This is a further step where we say in a self financing model where nobody gives you core funding to establish your infrastructure to sustain the organization, an organization has to earn the monies that basically sustain its infrastructure, its business development, and similar things, which in other organizations is called the working capital.
Here we establish a working capital, but as the same process as we did with liquid excess reserves, we say, Well, we have to put safeguards and controls for member states around it by creating disclosures and attach it again to the financial statements so it can be monitored.
We're going actually for it through a development process.
But the definition of excess reserves should be whatever is left over and not needed to the organization.
Liquid excess reserve is not a dividend promise that gets the maximum amount of money out of the organization and at the same time impairing its long term sustainability.
Although UNOS is like a private sector setup, would be like paying dividends and then at the same time risking the sustainability of the organization that will then go bankrupt in a way.
That's where we go.
We in no way want to question the process of excess reserves to be returned to partners if there are excess reserves.
But there should not be excess reserves returned that actually represent a portion of something that is needed to keep the organization afloat.
And also to grow.
The executive director described the initiatives of country presence, partnership development, service development as key elements to make UNOP sustainable.
I hope that explains that complex financial mechanism, but I think we're not going back to 2022, we're developing and refining something new.
Thank you.
Procurement represented nearly 40% of UNOs delivery value in 2025, and this scale enables vital local solutions.
But more specifically to the point raised by the representative from China on participation in UNOB's procurement from diverse supplier bases, we remain fully committed to transparent and fair procurement processes.
Procurement is really a powerful tool to drive sustainability, create jobs, and promote inclusion and equity and we strive for a diverse yet cost effective supply base that can resist global supply chain shocks.
In 2025, two thirds of our contracts were awarded to MSMEs and we worked with nearly 6,000 suppliers from 173 countries across the globe.
It's important to note that 47% of these were new suppliers to UNOPS and nearly 53% of them were local suppliers from the country in which we were implementing.
We've seen year on year an increasing amount of procurement awards going to suppliers in LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS.
For example, last year, we procured nearly $22 million worth of goods and services from plus suppliers in small island and developing states.
So looking ahead, we remain committed to expanding UN implementation capacity and ensuring that every dollar spent is delivering impact.
To this point, the work we've just started on enhancing transparency and procurement in line with open data standards is an additional element to keep building the trust that our executive director was talking about in his opening statement.
I encourage you all to go and look at the purchase for Impact Report, which is our annual report on UNP procurement, as well as the annual statistical report on UN procurement, which we publish on behalf of the UN system.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you very much.
We continue with the list of speakers, and I have France, Portugal, Guatemala, Mexico, the European Union.
I give the floor to France Va Pro.
You have the floor.
Thank you.
Sir, I would also like to thank the Executive Director for the information that has been provided in the responses that have been shared with us.
This body plays a key role in our development system.
UNPS as a facilitator of actions on the ground and helps to facilitate the efforts of agencies and a large number of other stakeholders.
If you recall, Executive Director, the fact that UNPS is operating in areas where no other actors operating conflict post conflict areas and that reflects our collective action and the importance thereof in this regard.
Financing is based on remuneration for services provided.
This is something that needs to be sustained.
We welcome the key role played by UNPS to facilitate access to basic services in a number of territories in Gaza through the 27 20 mechanism and the proposals set out to facilitate grain trade in the strait of Hormos.
This is a proposal which PRS supports.
Sir, Executive Director, UNEPS has established since 2022, under your stewardship, a host of reforms in order to enhance the good governance of the agency as well as risk management.
Progress has been achieved hand in hand with the executive board.
France welcomes the fruit that has been generated and an opportunity to facilitate trust based dialogue.
We take note of the information transmitted regarding to the UNPS reserve management scheme.
We fully embrace the importance of long term financing and management and the use of the reserves in a wise manner.
We believe that the executive board also needs to preserve a role in the governance of these reserves.
We encourage the body to propose specific proposals for discussions of the executive board in 2027.
And lastly, on UN 80, which was addressed this morning, we reiterate our encouragement for UNDP and UNPS to to establish a close relationship between the two organizations together, we will be best positioned to revitalize efforts of the United Nations and its initiatives for Agenda 2030 for the achievement of the SDGs and for the benefit of all at stake is the credibility of the United Nations system.
Executive Director for France, UNPS is a critical toolbox of the United Nations development system.
You have a full trust in strengthening the role on the basis of UN 80.
Thank you.
I thank France for the statement and now give the floor to Portugal.
You have the floor.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
Let me begin by commending the Executive Director, Mr.
George More de Silva, for his leadership and for the progress achieved by UNOS in recent years, particularly in strengthening governance, accountability, and organizational performance.
Portugal fully recognizes the distinctive contribution of UNOPS to the United Nations system, particularly its ability to translate expertise and resources into effective delivery in complex and demanding operational environments.
The scale and scope of its engagement, especially in fragile and challenging contexts demonstrate the clear value of specialized implementation expertise.
As already highlighted by the executive director, official development assistance has declined sharply.
Reaching historically low levels, in this context, the ability to scale up and accelerate the delivery of practical solutions while maximizing operational efficiency is becoming increasingly important.
Portugal recognizes the role of UNOPS in this regard, particularly its capacity to bridge implementation gaps and help partners to respond with greater agility and effectiveness to complex and evolving needs.
Looking ahead, Portugal welcomes UNP stronger focus on impact.
As the Executive Director has highlighted, moving beyond immediate deliverables and outputs to place greater emphasis on outcomes for people is an important step towards ensuring that NPs work delivers lasting and meaningful benefits for communities.
Thank you very much.
I thank Portugal for the statement.
I give the floor to Guatemala to be followed by Guatemala, please.
Thank you very much for giving me the floor.
Guatemala, I would like to thank the Executive Director of UNOPS for his presentation, as well as for reports on budgetary, financial, administrative issues.
We would also like to thank you for the video that was played.
It was extremely important to get to know some of the work that UNPS has been doing, which is an important part of this meeting.
Guatemala recognizes UNPS' important contribution to strengthen public management, transparency and effectiveness when it comes to implementing development projects throughout the years.
UNPS has supported our country in strategic sectors contributing to strengthening institutional capacities in our country and to the implementation of mechanisms that are geared towards increasing the quality and impact of public investments.
We would like to specifically highlight the support offered when it comes to health, public tendering, and infrastructure.
Their efforts have contributed to institutional strengthening and a better use of national resources by promoting management practices that are aligned with principles of effectiveness, transparency and accountability when it comes to financial and budgetary issues that we've spoken about.
This meeting, we value UNS commitment to financial sustainability, adequate supervision of resources, as well as the continuous strengthening of its governance mechanisms.
We consider that these elements are absolutely critical to preserve the trust of member states and to ensure that the organization can continue to produce tangible results to support national development priorities.
Moreover, we also note with interest the gains made when it comes to innovation and digitalization.
We are in the context of accelerated technological change.
These tools are an opportunity to modernize public administration, improve processes, and strengthen evidence based decision making.
Finally, Guatemala would like to reiterate its gratitude to UNPS for the cooperation offered to our country and we would like to express our willingness to continue working jointly in order to promote innovative, transparent, and sustainable solutions that contribute to the well being of our population and to an improvement in economic, social, and environmental indicators.
I thank you.
I than Guatemala for the statement.
I give the floor to Mexico to be followed by the European Union.
Mexico, please.
Thank you very much, President.
Mexico would like to thank UNPS for the opportunity to participate in this dialogue with its executive director, Jorge Moreira da Silva.
We recognize his work and leadership.
My country recognizes the role of UNPS as an institution that promotes the effective, transparent, and timely implementation of development projects.
We would like to highlight the importance of beefing up institutional management models that are results based with a focus on operational effectiveness, accountability, and sustainability.
We welcome efforts geared towards improving energy efficiency, innovation, and our response capacity in the face of contemporary challenges in the area of sustainable development, especially in complex contexts as we saw in the video.
Some of the examples that you have shared offer us the certainty that in this context of challenges and structural change, the non programmatic mandate implementation that UNOS has and its fee for service model are important assets for the system president.
We would like to highlight that in our country, UOPS has collaborated in order to roll out projects in different areas.
This includes its work to strengthen public contracting processes through the design of public tendering strategies, terms of reference, evaluation of offers and the definition of performance indicators, as well as service level agreements for acquisitions.
Moreover, we would like to highlight UNS support in order to develop the multi service Inclusion and Development Center, as well as the technical support provided to modernize services and public transportation infrastructure in Mexico City, as well as in the city of Tuxla Gutierrez in the state of Chiapas.
Moreover, Mexico values the technical assistance provided by UNOPS to our agency that regulates rail transport along with the Inter American Development Bank in order to structure and tender new railway lines.
Before I conclude, we would like to reaffirm the importance of ensuring that UNOP continues to advance in its processes of institutional and digital modernization, consolidating effective supervision mechanisms, thus strengthening organizational sustainability and accountability.
Today, more than ever, we encourage UNPS to consolidate a transparent, efficient, and results based management.
I thank you.
I thank Mexico for the statement.
I give the floor to the European Union.
You have the floor, please.
Thank you, President.
I'm delivering this statement on behalf of the European Union as a donor.
Executive Director, thank you for the precious remarks.
We would have three points.
First, we commend UNOPS for the progress achieved on the implementation of the comprehensive response plan.
It is important to reaffirm the important role of UNPS as a service provider within the UN system.
We appreciate it strengthen infrastructure, procurement, and project management, particularly in fragile and politically constrained contexts.
UNPs demand driven and implementation focused model is delivering impactful projects in challenging conditions and we welcome its commitment to this objective.
Second, we thank the Executive Director for presenting the 2025 annual report, and we commend UNPS for its strong and steady results.
The EU particularly welcomes that UNPS has implemented activities across all three UN pillars, all regions, and mostly in countries in special and fragile situations.
In this connection, the strategic alignment between UNEP operations and the EU's global gateway investment strategy allows us to jointly advance SDGs, but also reinforces peace and security globally.
We see strong potential for continued collaboration between UNPS and the EU, especially with global gateway priority, and we encourage ongoing synergy to achieve our shared objectives.
We urge for further attention to cross cutting priorities and sustainability of activities, favoring a systemic approach during the project design phase, particularly when it comes to gender mainstreaming and climate action.
Finally, the EU is closely following and engaging in the UN AT reform process.
We recognize UNOP's contribution to the collective effort and in particular, the executive directors leadership in driving the work on some of the development work packages.
We also welcome the submission of terms of reference for an independent assessment of a possible UNDP UNOPS structural reform.
It must help identify the possible model offering the greatest improvement in development impact, coherence, and value for money.
To conclude, the EU thanks you, Mr.
Executive Director, for your leadership and steadfast commitment to the ongoing UN efforts in the Middle East.
Allow me also to express our appreciation to all UNP staff for the crucial work they do in difficult situations and to reaffirm the EU support to UNPS as well as our commitment to continued collaboration in pursuit of our shared goals.
Thank you.
I think the European Union for the statement.
This concludes the list of speakers.
Executive Director, I think we can revert to you.
Please.
Take your time in addressing documents.
I promise Mr.
President that I'll be shorter this time as there are other items in the agenda.
Let me start with friends.
If you allow me the point that you have made on UN 80, both the the point made this morning and also this afternoon on energy.
Again, I see the potential complementarity between ENOPS and UNDP gaining traction in this area.
I'm not saying that it's the only area, there are other areas.
But clearly in this area, as I had the chance to mention in other occasions, there are benefits mutual benefits.
UNDP and UNOPS together, even if we are among the most relevant, if not the most relevant, on the energy domain in the UN system, we only represent 2% of all the finance that has been committed to energy access.
World Bank, MDBs donors in total, UNDP and UNOPS have only been able to percent of the global commitment to energy.
Clearly, this is an area where 700 million people have no access to electricity, 2 billion people have no access to clean cooking.
Definitely, there is massive opportunities between the two agencies to deliver at scale.
This is a very good example of potential collaboration.
There are many other examples that both myself and my colleague, Alexander DC have been mentioning for potential collaboration.
As part of the five options or even outside that space.
We took note of your point about our proposal regarding the access to reserves and proposal that you are requesting.
Portugal made a point on the implementation gap.
This gives me the chance to make the case again for where we think difference can be made on implementation.
We know in many contexts that the issue is not just the financing or even the structural reforms that governments are putting in place.
In many contexts, it's the lack of capacity for implementation.
We know contexts where the finance is available, the structural reforms from the government have been put in place, but then there are bottlenecks that are crucial to address.
Those bottlenecks are not the most attractive, I would say, in a public debate.
It may even look a bit boring.
But believe me, it's where the difference can be made.
Topics such as project design, project preparation, technical assistance, procurement.
These are the capacity building, these are elements that used to be the basics on the development discussions.
Somehow disappeared from the public discussions, but we know from our experience that technical systems, project preparation, procurement, project design, capacity building are cynic no conditions for implementation.
I really hope that we can integrate these elements more often in the cooperation framework and also in the priorities from member states.
Guatemala and Mexico, and I really want to thank both Guatemala and Mexico for the strong support in your statements today made references to an area where I think we are really providing a benefit to the people we serve, which is procurement on health.
Our experience tells us, not only in Guatemala, Mexico, but in many other countries that several countries have benefit a lot to allocate to UNOS the procurement of medicines with savings that in some countries are on the order of 40 or 50%.
The magnitude of the savings in some countries can be as high as 40 to 50%.
This is an area where we are doing that not to procure on behalf of the governments.
We procure and at the same time, we support the governments through technical assistance and the capacity building to develop their own capacities in the longer term.
The idea is not just doing procurement, as my colleague Anne Claire has mentioned before.
The idea is to support the countries on the strengthening of their own systems on procurement and at the same time to go to the market and to buy what is needed with the quality needed, with the sustainable criteria, and with the lowest price.
This is happening in many countries, including in Guatemala and in Mexico.
The other point that was made by Mexico and this morning also not this morning, but in previous occasions, Brazil, and if you allow me to bring this point is about project management.
Why would a country like Brazil or Mexico ask ENPS to implement projects on infrastructure? Those two countries are known for having fantastic companies on infrastructure.
Why is Mexico and Brazil and many other countries here ask EOPS to do projects on infrastructure? Because of our skills on project management because basically those countries prefer to transfer the risk to an entity like ENPS to ensure the project management.
Of course, then we go to the market and we hire locally, and we hire internationally and we hire companies and we recruit, so we don't replace the private sector.
ENPS does not replace the private sector.
We enable the private sector to deliver and we empower the government's capacity to reduce their risk on implementation.
That's why the fee that we charge for this project management is value for money as it allows member states to focus on their oversight function.
While UNOPS goes to the market, we do the project management, and we implement the project.
At the same time that the governments preserve their total visibility and ownership.
That's why many things, Mr.
President, lots of colleagues have been asking me, well, UNPs is not as well known as other UN agencies, even if you are the fifth largest UN agency, how is it possible that you are the fifth largest UN agency and you don't have the brand recognition as others? I can't respond about others, but in our case, basically, we do the project on behalf of our partners, being the partner country or the donor and that's why the visibility goes to the country, goes to the country where the project is implemented and goes to the country and to the MDB and to the other UN agencies that hire us.
This is, I think, an important element regarding the partnership.
Final point about the European Union.
Again, I want to thank the excellent collaboration we have had on the Global Gateway.
I You made a point on the fact that UNPS is present in three pillars.
Indeed, if you look into the Sect General report on UN 80, the first report, which is a report with a dataset.
It's a report where it maps the presence of agencies across the pillars, you notice that UNOS is present on the three pillars.
There are lots of agencies that do development and humanitarian, lots of agencies that do humanitarian and peace and security.
But at least in that report, the only agency that appears in the three its.
I'm not saying that it's the only one, but at least in that report is the only that appeared simultaneously on peace and security, humanitarian and development.
That's why the nexus, I know that some member states prefer not to use the word nexus, the nexus or the alignment or the interlinkages between humanitarian development and peace for us is not theory.
It's something that we own every day because it's part of our DNA.
The Finally, I want to thank you the kind words about the colleagues of yours that live and operate in the most difficult context.
I I don't know if this is it's the last intervention, Mr.
President from member states.
There was no other intervention from member states.
In that case, I would like to end with a story.
It's 1 minute that I think that reveals and shows a what is working for you? Not working for you ops, but what is working for you.
A colleague of mine, when He was in Gaza and this is a French colleague, he was one of the colleagues that were hit in the strike in Gaza in the strike where a colleague of ours lost his life.
Marin lost his life in Gaza and Joel was one of the six that was also severely injured with several colleagues injured.
Joel was one of them.
I He was evacuated going to the hospital and I couldn't believe when my colleague Emily told me that he's back to Gaza.
He was severely injured.
The first thing that he did was rather than going to another location, and as you imagine I would have placed him in any other location, he wanted to go back to Gaza and he's in Gaza.
This is quite unique, not only at Tuns but in the UN, colleagues that are under the most difficult circumstances that working for the UN is no longer a guarantee of protection.
Humanitarians are being targeted and hit.
This colleague of ours decided to go back to the same place where he was.
Hit almost lost his life.
I think that every time you mention my colleagues, it's the best message that I could take rather than any message about me or about us, those of us that are here in this table, I think that those messages about my colleagues are the most important and I want to thank only the you but all member states when you made the references to those colleagues that are on the ground delivering in the most difficult sit consensus.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Executive Director.
I think that's a powerful message for member states as well.
Thank you for your engagement.
Also want to thank member states for their contribution to this interactive exchange.
Very much welcome the energy and the engagement that you have encouraged Executive Director.
I want to thank you for this and of course, it's a continuing dialogue and we look forward to continue.
Colleagues, this concludes the agenda item statement by the UNP Executive Director.
And now, before proceeding to agenda item seven, we will take a moment to adjust the podium, and I will hand over the chairmanship to our very good vice president from Finland, Ambassador Lori Voroa who will be taking over and just give us a few moments.
Thank you.
Excellency, distinguished delegates, colleagues, good afternoon.
We will now proceed to agenda item seven, financial, budgetary and administrative matters.
Under this item, the board will consider an update on the distribution of excess reserves, alternative options to the current arrangements governing UNP reserves, and an update on the implementation of the findings of the 2024 report of the Board of auditors.
This item is scheduled to conclude swiftly.
We will try to proceed.
I mean, we will try to proceed swiftly.
I therefore encourage delegations to keep the interventions concise so that we may accommodate as many speakers as possible.
There's a few speakers.
Thank you for being with us.
Delegations unable to take the floor may submit their statements through statements.
Any outstanding questions may also be shared with the Executive Board Secretariat for transmission to UNOS.
I now give the floor to Mr.
Carlo Vial, Chief Financial Officer, nos, for his presentation.
You have the floor.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President, Excellencys distinguished members of the executive board.
I'm pleased to swiftly introduce the Item seven, financial budgetary and administrative matters.
I know we already warmed up to this with the preceding questions.
So I'll briefly update you on the implementation of the finding of the 2024 Board of Auditors report, the distribution of excess reserves, and alternative options to the current arrangements governing UNOPs reserves.
Excellencies, as requested by the executive board, and in response to the 2024 audit findings, EOPS has continued to strengthen internal controls.
Monitoring and oversight mechanism with particular attention to infrastructure project management, accountability frameworks, external contracting, and procurement.
More broadly, the Board of auditors has closed 28 of 34 open recommendations of part of its 2025 audit, particularly those requested to be reported on in this session.
This represented a closure rate of 82% compared with 65% in 2024.
That's in the new audit report of the BOA which will be available in September, but it has been issued in July.
Turning to UNOPs reserves.
The organization remains on a robust financial footing in large part due to continued partner demand and our unique fee for service operating model.
At the end of 2025, liquid excess reserve exceeded $93 million calculated in accordance with the methodology approved by the executive board and disclosed in the 2025 financial statements.
The distribution of liquid excess reserves remains passed by the executive board pending further decision by the board.
Distinguished delegates, this brings me to the final and particularly important issue which I would like to bring to your attention, alternative options to the current arrangements governing UNOPS reserves.
As a fee for service organization, UNOPS does not receive assessed or voluntary contributions as core funding.
Ability to remain agile, responsive, and sustainable therefore depends in part on our ability to make necessary multi year investments in our institutional capabilities.
The continuous constraint on our ability to make internal investments, risks affecting the organization's agility.
That is one of the UNOP's defining strengths.
This is no longer simply a question of institutional preference or governmental governance prudence.
It goes to the sustainability of our operating model.
Without giving management a predictable mechanism for responsible multi year investment, we are putting at risk our ability to strengthen capabilities, seize opportunities, and respond rapidly where our support is needed most.
With these remarks, I thank you for your attention, and I look forward to responding to your questions.
I thank this is all for his presentation.
The floor is now open for statements and questions.
Indeed, we have limited time available, but needless to emphasize that the matter is quite important.
I kindly ask delegations to keep the interventions concise.
The distinguished representative from well, the DPR of Nigeria, you have the floor.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr.
Vice President.
I have the honor of delivering the statement on behalf of the African group.
We thank UNOPS for its update on the distribution of excess reserves, the alternative options proposed by the current reserve arrangements and the report on progress in implementing the findings of the 2024 Board of auditor's report.
The African group appreciates not only the steady strengthening of financial management, transparency and accountability within the organization, but also the ongoing work toward a clearer, more transparent framework for identifying, calculating, and disclosing liquid excess reserves.
Mr.
Vice President, for the African group, this discussion is about more than just balance sheets.
It addresses how the United Nations development system manages resources at a time when continue to grow, and financing for development remains tight.
Developing countries continue to face large financing gaps for the sustainable development goals, gaps that have widened further due to economic headwinds, climate related shocks, and humanitarian emergencies.
Against that backdrop, every dollar ENS holds should be working as hard as possible to advance development and impact.
We therefore hold the view that excess reserves must continue to be managed prudently and transparently in line with decisions made by this board.
At the same time, we recognize that UNPS needs a financially stable framework that enables it to make the institutional and operational investments needed to remain fit for purpose.
On this point, the Af Group has examined the alternatives to the existing reserve arrangements.
We see real merit in a framework that would permit multi year institutional investment while preserving clear limits, transparency, and board oversight.
Any revised arrangement, however, should precisely define the purpose and sealing of such reserves, provide for regular reporting to the board and keep material liquid excess reserves subject to a transparent process for consideration and distribution.
We particularly welcome the continued commitment to annual disclosure of liquid excess reserves.
That discipline will matter greatly if member states are to properly judge the financial position of UNOPS and exercise meaningful oversight.
Mr.
Vice President, the A Group also places significant weight on the implementation of the findings of the 2024 Board of Auditors report.
We are glad to note that the Board of Auditors issued once again an unqualified opinion on the UNOPS financial statements for the year end 2024 December.
Please press the button so that we hear you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Of the progress made in closing outstanding audit recommendations and encourage UNPs to sustain that momentum with particular attention to those still classified as high priority.
We also welcome ongoing work on the methodology for calculating liquid excess reserves.
As we understand it, a revised methodology was piloted as an annex to the 2024 financial statements, following the board's endorsement of that approach, and it is now to be further reviewed considering the Board of auditors assessments.
This is a meaningful step.
Decisions on excess reserves carry more weight and legitimacy when they rest on a methodology that is clear, consistently applied, and open to scrutiny.
We would encourage UNOPS to bring that work to a stable durable conclusion so that both the organization and its partners can plan with confidence.
At the same time, we would ask UNOPS to ensure that implementation of the board of auditors recommendations results in real improvement in internal controls, risk management and financial stewardship, rather than the mere formal closing out of a list.
Mr.
President, the Africa Group believes the right objective is balance, financial prudence on one side and institutional sustainability and development impact on the other.
Reserves should not accumulate beyond what is needed, but the rules governing them should not stand in the way of the investments UNPS genuinely requires to deliver for program countries.
We therefore support continued work toward a sustainable and transparent reserve framework.
Provided it includes strong board oversight, clear safeguards, and full accountability.
Three principles remain essential for us.
Transparency is how Resources are managed.
Efficiency is how they are used and tangible results for program countries, especially those furthest behind.
The A group stands ready to work constructively with UNPS and fellow members of this board so that how we manage resources and how audit recommendations are implemented together strengthen the organization's financial sustainability, accountability, and capability to deliver to the people it serves.
I thank you very much.
I thank the distinguished representative of the Nigerian delegation for delivering indeed a group statement on behalf of the Africa group.
I next hand over to the esteemed colleague from German delegation, please, on behalf of a group of countries to my understanding, right? Thank you, Mr.
President.
I deliver this statement on behalf of Canada, Finland, Georgia, Iceland, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and my own country, Germany.
We welcome the progress made in strengthening governance, accountability, and internal controls in response to the 2024 recommendations of the Board of auditors.
The adoption of the new accountability and oversight policy, the strengthened procurement framework, and the oparization of the oversight mechanism demonstrate UNOP's continued commitment to institutional reform.
We encourage UNPS to complete the remaining measures in 2026, especially those related to strengthened risk management and controls in infrastructure project management and to regularly monitor and report on the effectiveness of these reforms to the executive board through established reporting mechanisms.
With regard to the management of reserves, we appreciate the options presented in response to the executive board's request.
We recognize the importance of preserving the net zero revenue principle while ensuring that UNOPS as a self financing organization, has the capacity to invest strategically in its long term institutional development.
In our view, the proposed framework provides a useful basis for further discussion.
At the same time, any adjustments should be introduced gradually and remain subject to robust governance safeguards, including a clearly defined purpose for multi year investment reserves, appropriate limits and delegation thresholds, independent review and oversight mechanisms, transparent financial reporting, and regular executive board oversight.
We also believe that decisions should be grounded in sustained evidence, including assurance from the Board of auditors, the Internal Audit and Investigation Group, and other oversight bodies demonstrating that recent governance reforms have become firmly embedded and operate effectively across the organization and that material residual risks are being appropriately managed.
Generally speaking, when reporting on internal reforms and especially measures taken to improve internal governance and accountability mechanisms, we would like to request UNPS to place greater emphasis on demonstrating the effectiveness and impact of such measures over time.
For example, by leveraging effective internal monitoring system and establish such systems where they are not yet in place.
Not only would this further strengthen evidence and outcome based reporting to and oversight by the executive board, but it would also be beneficial for institutional learning and capacity building.
We therefore see value in continuing this discussion during the current bannum both in possible steps to refine the governance of reserves and allowing UNPs more independence in multi year internal investments, especially with a view to the PID program, while at the same time acknowledging that an effective uptake of internal governance reforms needs sufficient time.
Thank you.
Thank you, distinguished representative of the German delegation for delivering the statement on behalf of a group of countries.
I would next ask the representative of the United States to deliver the statement.
And after this, to my understanding, there are no other delegations wishing to take the floor, I will ask Mr.
Saul to respond.
O to the delegation of the United States.
Please, you have the floor.
Thank you.
The United States welcomes UNP management's successful efforts to close the Board of Auditors recommendations, noting that 76% of 2024 audit recommendations were formally implemented and closed as of July 26.
We look forward to timely closure of the remaining items.
The United States supports establishing a working capital fund with a strict limit of 10% of reserves for internal operational non programmatic improvements, provided that all inflows and outflows are reported annually to the board in a dedicated appendix accompanying the UN Board of Auditors report.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of the United States for a very concise intervention.
I now ask Mr.
Saul to respond to the interventions and interventions.
Thank you.
Yeah, I appreciate the questions and I see they're very overlapping between all three statements, so I basically give comprehensive answers to all of them.
First of all, Board of auditors, I think over the last two years, you have a last three years, you have seen how closely we work with the board of auditors.
We take their recommendations, very seriously.
We improved the implementation rate and it's not just a list, it's working on constructive feedback and implementing the core of this control enhancement and this led to many internal policies, but also to basically reporting efforts that we did and improve governance for the board.
You've seen me actively sought the BOA involvement.
Best example was the liquid access reserve calculation where we said, no, not enough if we give you a board report for your session, we want it in the financial statements.
It's part of financial statement audit, and you have basically assurance on the numbers that are presented there because it's coming through the board of auditor channel.
Here in this case, we also can basically say we had developed this jointly, the Board of auditors for the liquid access reserves, particularly to the question from the distinguished delegate from Nigeria, that this is approved by the Board of auditors and the unqualified audit opinion that we received in 2025.
And in 2024 covers the ANACS and says, this is in line with financial reporting.
That's very clear.
With respect to the methodology and the process of the governance of reserves, we very much appreciate the input that was provided by all delegations in the current negotiations, and we look forward to find a solution that essentially allows us to report, gives us more flexibility, at the same time establishes rigid controls on how this is used and introduces the same transparent detailed reporting that you've received on the PIT, but also on the liquid excess reserves.
That was my succinct and short answer.
Thank you, Mr.
Saul.
We do like succinct presentations here.
Though once again, this is quite an important matter and I had the pleasure to chair the informal consultations on this previously.
This concludes the consideration of agenda item seven, UP's financial, budgetary, and administrative matters.
I wish to inform the board that draft decision under Agenda item seven is under preparation and will be presented to the board's consideration later in the session.
We will now proceed to agenda item eight, Process innovation and digitalization Program.
Under this item, the board will consider the annual financial report on the status, utilization, and balance of the budget allocated to the process innovation and digitalization program.
The item is scheduled to conclude by 6:00.
I believe we will make it.
I therefore encourage delegations to keep the interventions concise so that we may accommodate as many speakers as possible to my understanding, there is one speaker requests made.
Delegations unable to take the floor may submit their statements through statements.
Any outstanding questions may also be shared with the executive board Secretariat for transmission to UNPS.
I now give the floor to Mr.
Orin Ginsberg, Director of the Process Innovation and Digitalization Program, S for his presentation.
You have the floor.
Thank you very much, Mr.
Vice President and thank you for the opportunity to provide an update on the process innovation and digitalization program.
You may remember for the last three years, we've often been here briefing you about future plans on digitalization and improvement of UNOP systems and processes.
Today, as we are 3.5 years into the program, we're coming to you with much more concrete reports.
You've seen the report that we have submitted, and we are really delivering already.
13 programs, 13 projects are delivered under the program, so it's becoming very concrete and the benefits are becoming very concrete.
The process innovation and digitalization program is simplifying processes, is putting in place systems that are supporting these processes for increased efficiency, and In the last 2.5 years, it is building on a very strong foundation of artificial intelligence.
We're taking an AI first approach to this whole program with a very strong emphasis on the responsible use of AI.
That's AI ethics, AI governance, and of course, as you can imagine, the AI readiness of the organization.
I But the PID program is going beyond this process and technical solutions because we really see it in UNPS as an anchor in our cultural transformation journey.
Through the PID and through these efforts, we are encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing, supporting data driven decision making, driving the efficiency that is championed by our executive director, building capabilities, measuring impact.
It's a very big cornerstone of our transformation.
Um, two quick points.
The first is that everything that we deliver under the PID program is available to our sister agencies.
Every solution that we deliver is multi tenant, meaning that anyone can join it is ERP agnostic, meaning that you can use it and plug it into any ERP, irrespective of which ERP you are using, and so that really allows us to go out to the UN and to offer these solutions as a UN wide benefit rather than just a UNPS wide benefit.
Speaking of benefits, as we get close to the end of the program at the end of 2027, we have been putting a very strong emphasis on measuring the benefits of the program.
We have a benefits realization group under the PID board working for the last year tracking KPIs.
I know you've indicated in some of the informal sessions that you would be interested in understanding better the benefits of the program and indeed, we are going to be able to give you a very detailed report of that in January.
As you've seen from our financial report, we are fully online financially to deliver on the PID.
We are also fully on track based on the roadmap that we submitted to you in version one and then version two.
We are really advancing very well, and, um, I need to just clarify for everyone here that this work does not include an ERP.
We have postponed any work on the enterprise resource planning system in 2024 following a first decision by this executive board and confirmed again by another decision in 2025.
Nothing that we are talking about under the PID is for the ERP.
So with the $13.45 million that UNPS is seeking for 2027, we will be able to finalize this multi year transformation to protect the investments that we've already made in processes and systems, and of course to retain the specialized workforce that powers the delivery of the PID.
Thank you very much for your support to UNPs future agility and efficiency.
I thank Mr.
Ginsburg for his presentation.
The floor is now open for statements and questions and I kindly ask one delegation that has requested for to keep the interventions concise.
The distinguished representative from Rwanda on behalf of the Africa Group has the floor.
Thank you.
Over to you.
Thank you, Mr.
President, for giving me the floor.
I take the honor to speak on behalf of the African group members of the Executive Board, and we thank you NOPs for your work.
Executive Director, thank you very much for all the presentations and your group.
Mr.
President, the group welcomes the report and appreciates the information provided to the executive board on both financial utilization and implementation progress.
We note that of the 30 projects within the financial of the 30 projects program, 13 have been completed and further 13 are expected to conclude by the end of 2027.
This provides a useful indication of progress as the program moves towards its later stage.
Mr.
President, the group recalls that in its previous consideration of the program, the board emphasized the importance of effective risk management and regular reporting which you join.
We therefore welcome the progress reflected in the current report and encourage UNPS to maintain close oversight of implementation risks, particularly where activities depend on the decisions or the sequencing across different components.
Mr.
President, the group takes note of UNC request for utilization of the $13 million from the liquid access reserves to finance the 2027 plan of work.
The group is prepared to support the request and recognizes the importance of ary authorization to avoid disruption to activities still under implementation.
Mr.
President, as the program approaches 2027, we believe greater attention should now be given to results, sustainability, and the transition beyond the program period.
Future reporting should therefore show more clearly what operational improvements are being achieved through these investments, including in efficiency, decision making, compliance, and service delivery.
It will also be important to clarify how completed projects and those extending beyond 2027 will be sustained, including any recurrent costs, institutional responsibilities, and future resources requirement.
This will enable the executive board or the board to assess not only implementation against the approved budget, but also the longer term value of our investments.
Mr.
President, to conclude, We look forward to continued reporting on implementation, risks, results, and sustainability of the gains we have achieved together.
Thank you very much.
I sincerely thank the distinguished representative from Rwanda for the statement on behalf of the Africa Group.
I now give the floor to Mr.
Ginsberg.
Would you like to respond to the statement or would you like to say something to conclude? No, very briefly, just to thank you very much for the statement.
Indeed, this reporting on risks in the second regular session we report on finances, mostly in the first regular session, we report on the program more broadly.
And indeed, you can expect in January next year to receive a report and to have a briefing from us on risks, on governance.
I think we get many questions from board members on artificial intelligence.
We're going to put an emphasis on that and very importantly on benefits and results as you have mentioned.
Absolutely.
Thank you very much for the support.
I thank Mr.
Ginsburg for his responses and overall, the whole UNPs team for.
Maybe the executive director would like to say something on this.
Just say a word, Mr.
President in a topic that is not related with this, but it's the last occasion that I have to do it this week as I have no other intervention.
I I forgot to mention that in addition to my colleague Emily Pot, we have two other colleagues, directors here, Nicole Jordan and Abdul Deng, but I'm taking the floor because this is the last session of my colleague Raul Ma Hora, in this executive board role was recruited through a competitive recruitment to be the new NPS director of partnership and Futures group.
This is a newly created group that is not only taking the partnerships, but also the foresight knowledge and innovation.
Rul got this selection through a competitive recruitment, which obviously brings very big shoes to fill here in NBR.
I I'm committed to member states to ensure that we'll have the best option here to replace the Rul.
Rul has done an outstanding job, I think that we would agree, not only in support of the executive board during the last two years, but also in the support UN 80 has been my SRPA and Sonja SRPA in multiple workstreams.
So I think that obviously this is a clear recognition of this work.
I'm sure that you will do a fantastic work in the new position, and I'm deeply committed, distinguished member states and chair, to ensure that we will have the best option also in charge of NBR.
Role will take the new role on the 1st of October.
I didn't want to end my participation today without this public recognition of his role, but also my public commitment to ensure that we'll have the best option here in New York at Nipper.
Thank you.
Thank you for this Thank you for your intervention.
I want to add on behalf of the bureau and I trust on behalf of the whole board, sincerest thanks, warm appreciation for your work.
It's been for me and I speak on behalf of all the colleagues that it's been always comforting to sit here and be in the good hands of Raul, but also Raul has been doing a lot behind the scenes that we don't see in this room.
I So in preparation of the meetings, of the informals of various other interaction, I've always been, you know, open to the membership and to us in the Bureau of facilitating our work with a steady professionalism.
So thank you.
And, you know, fair winds and following season as we say.
It is indeed heavy big shoes to shoes to fill.
This concludes the consideration of agenda item eight, process innovation and digitalization Program.
I wish to inform the board that a draft decision under agenda item eight is under preparation and will be presented to the board's consideration later in the session.
And I believe Raul has something to add in a moment.
But before that, I have the pleasure to do that.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
Fittingly, one of my very final contributions is to announce that decision negotiations will resume in approximately 5 minutes in conference room E.
Thank you very much.