EU Statement – Joint Executive Board of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS: UNOPS Segment

Check against delivery  Mr President, Mr Executive Director, Excellencies, dear Colleagues,I am delivering this statement on behalf of the European Union as a donor. I would like to make three points. First of all, the EU reiterates its appreciation for the efforts made by UNOPS since the financial issues that arose in 2021, in particular the widespread reforms undertaken under the “Comprehensive Response Plan”. We welcome the conclusions of the third-party review, which we hope will suffice to reassure the Board regarding the implementation of the reform, which remains an ongoing and dynamic process. The ongoing reforms constitute a positive foundation on which to keep building our partnership and trust – a long-standing partnership based on the joint endeavor to support partner countries in achieving the SDGs. We hope to see further steps in this direction as accountability and transparency are the core values for EU financial rules. Second, in the context of UN 80, we are glad to see UNOPS is among the Agencies represented in the Development Cluster set up by the Secretary General. We hope that UNOPS’ own reform experience can help the wider UN system. However, we have seen that most efficiency gains by UN agencies over the last years have happened at individual agency rather than UN-system level. Major processes like the High-Level Committee on Management (HLCM) or the Business Innovation Group (BIG), although ongoing for years, deliver only modestly. Given UNOPS’ role...