ࡱ> CEBE@ /bjbj "8'n n n 8 o " $eRm mm )m  m&n dsn [:?0ooooX VJ >  k United States Mission to the United Nations US PRESS RELEASE # 107 (06) May 8, 2006 Statement by Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, U.S. Representative for United Nations Management and Reform, on Mandate Review: Sustained Growth and Sustainable Development and Development of Africa, in the Informal Plenary Session, May 8, 2006 Today we discuss mandates in two related thematic areas of central importance to the work of the United Nations: (1) sustained growth and sustainable development and (2) development of Africa. The test of the in these areas is how effectively it helps its members improve the lives of their people. We all share an interest in sustained growth and sustainable development. The special needs of Africa would be best served by a prospering world community, and the development of Africa, with its rich resources, diverse cultures and peoples, must realize its great potential. Promotion of sustained growth and sustainable development As the Secretary-General notes in his report (A/60/733), the High-level Panel on System-wide Coherence will address how to enhance the work of the United Nations in development. The Secretary General of CTAD has also convened a panel to advise himon CTAD reform. We certainly look forward to the recommendations of this highly qualified panel and expect them to be most helpful in our ongoing review of mandates in the area of sustained growth and sustainable development. Nevertheless, we need to move ahead now in our review of mandates. Working together we believe that we can identify items for early action that will immediately improve the effectiveness of the work of the United Nations in this important area of activity. My Government believes that in this thematic area there should be special attention on CTAD, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the Regional Commissions. Combined, these three account for over $650 million dollars, or about 17%, of the 2006-2007 Programme Budget of the United Nations. We believe that all three entities are in serious need of reform . In this regard, we need to make sure that funds of this magnitude are well used for meeting current needs of Member States. In the report, the Secretary General states that there is significant room for an improved division of responsibility among entities including DESA, CTAD, the regional commissions, and DP. In particular, the report highlights possible duplication and overlap in the areas of trade, finance, sustainable development and human settlements, and population issues. This suggests that there is room for a significant amount of the s scarce resources to be put to better use. We want to call attention to another report with similar comments and recommendations regarding overlap and duplication among CTAD, DESA and the Regional Commissions. This is the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) on the proposed 2006-2007 Programme Budget for the United Nations (A/60/7). In the preface to its report, the Advisory Committee (para 42) observes that there is overlap and duplication of effort and processes among the various departments of the Secretariat, the regional commissions, CTAD and the funds and programmes. The ACABQ urges that particular attention should be paid to reflecting more cooperation among these entities to avoid such overlap and duplication and make repeated comments and recommendations concerning the need for improved information sharing among these entities to avoid such overlap and duplication of effort and processes. CTAD We would like to see CTAD place a higher priority on Technical Assistance and Trade Capacity Building, work that helps developing countries engage constructively in the global trade regime. This would include active support of the Aid for Trade agenda. CTAD should use its strength in trade capacity building to coordinate a practical, results-based approach that provides real deliverables for developing countries. CTAD coordination of Trade Capacity Building work done across all organizations would help ensure that individual agency strengths are used constructively and that overlap is avoided. We also would like to see CTAD eliminate or reduce policy dialogue activities. Instead of conducting policy-oriented studies on the Doha round, we believe that focusing on technical assistance to individual countries would help them participate more fully in the global trading system. CTADs policy dialogue should not seek to influence WTO negotiations. Rather, CTAD should focus on areas not covered by WTO, such as investment and supply-side constraints. Department of Economic and Social Affairs Because of the overlap among the wide range of intergovernmental bodies promulgating resolutions with mandates for DESA, the Department is tasked to provide more reports than can reasonably be expected to contribute to effective economic and social development strategies. Furthermore, we believe that DESA needs to develop an effective cost-accounting system and a clear work plan to justify its use of resources. Regional Commissions For the regional commissions, we believe there should be a significant reduction in total resources and/or greater use of voluntary funding. We believe it is time for the role and specific functions of the regional commissions to be carefully examined and we urge that that they have external evaluations conducted, modeled after the one conducted for ECE, to determine which activities of the commissions are of real value to Member States. We believe that consideration should be given to discontinuing the mandate for the commissions to prepare for and follow up on conferences and summits. This function duplicates work more appropriately carried out by the ECOSOC functional commissions and by the Council itself. We also are concerned that there is some duplication of the commissions' technical cooperation work with that of funds, programmes, and specialized agencies. Committee of Experts on Public Administration We believe the Committee of Experts on Public Administration should be discontinued. The impact of the Committee on the resolutions on public administration adopted by ECOSOC and by the General Assembly is marginal at best. Regular Programme of Technical Cooperation The United States does not share the view of the Secretary-General (para 79) that the regular programme of technical cooperation might benefit from being reported by one manager while maintaining its decentralized implementation. We have long believed that this programme should be discontinued. Most of the activities financed by the Programme duplicate those of various specialized agencies, regional commissions, and operational arms of the . Consolidation and transfer of reporting requirements We have discussed already in our meetings the possibilities for consolidation or transfer of reports. We are pleased that the Secretariat will be providing a paper on this matter and we urge the Secretary-General to provide it in the very near future. We share the Secretary-General concerns about the need for action in this area. Other items for early action The Secretary-Generals report raises a number of other matters that call for follow-up. In our view, the following should be considered for possible early action: The report (para 73) indicates that the Secretary-General will request the heads of relevant departments and entities to also help analyse mandates and provide options for possible programmatic shifts in different areas. We ask that the Secretary-General provide such options as soon as possible. The report (para 74) calls for an improved architecture for the overall reporting on the follow-up to the Millennium Declaration in order to strengthen the policy relevance of the General Assembly, avoid redundancies and allow for a major reduction in the number of reports and volume of documentation requested every year. We urge the Secretary-General to submit proposals for the consideration of Member States. The report (para 77) suggests that information and communication technology, such as interactive websites or web-based forums would allow the replacement of certain reports, documents or other activities to be discontinued. We consider this a very promising proposal and request the Secretary-General to submit proposals for the consideration of Member States. The report (para 80) notes that the United Nations regularly has close to 100 international days or years of observance on its calendar. We request the Secretary-General to provide a list of the observances now on the calendar and the costs of each. We also request him to recommend a process for the General Assembly to use in deciding which observances should be commemorated each year. Development of Africa With regards to Development of Africa, my government welcomes the views expressed in the Secretary-Generals report. Improved coherence and coordination of entities supporting African development The report (para 85) urges that greater efforts need to be made to improve the coherence and coordination of the work of the large number of United Nations entities supporting the development objectives of Africa. We request the Secretary-General to provide a paper to assist Member States in identifying possible shortcomings in the coherence and coordination referred to in the report and to suggest the measures he would recommend to address them. Analytical reporting mandates The report suggests (para 87) that, as part of the process of reviewing mandates on different issue areas pertaining to Africa, there should be a review and streamlining of the subcategory of analytical reporting mandates stemming from various resolutions. We request the Secretary-General to submit proposals for the consideration of Member States for such a review and streamlining. Conclusion Mr. Chairman, this statement could have been much longer and still is longer than I would have liked, but I think the thematic areas being addressed deserve full consideration. 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