Discurso do Representante Permanente Alterno, Embaixador Norberto Moretti, quando da segunda plenária informal com a Secretária-Geral Adjunta das Nações Unidas, Sra. Amina Mohammed, e embaixadores sobre o financiamento do sistema de coordenadores residentes da ONU - 30 novembro de 2023 (texto em inglês)
Statement by the Deputy Permanent Representative of Brazil to the United Nations, Ambassador Norberto Moretti, at the second informal plenary meeting with DSG Amina Mohammed about the funding of the UN Resident Coordinator System
November 30th, 2023
Madam DSG,
Let me first and foremost reaffirm our firm support to the repositioning of the United Nations Development System (UNDS) and the reinvigorated Resident Coordinator System (RC System).
We applaud the good results achieved by the Development Coordination Office (DCO) and the RC System thus far as well. We are equally thankful for the additional information that has been provided to us on staffing, costs, and efficiency gains.
The contribution by the Resident Coordinator in Brazil, Ms. Silvia Rucks, has been much appreciated.
We are fully cognizant of the current financial outlook of the RC System. Accordingly, we join others, in particular Africa, for timely, sufficient and more predictable funding, so as to balance out revenues and expenditures, taking into account different responsibilities and capabilities across Member States.
We also need to address this issue with a sense of responsibility and fairness. Firstly, when the system was conceived, developed donor countries voluntarily subscribed to its being largely funded by means of extrabudgetary resources.
Secondly, many developing countries already co-finance their country programs. And that is perhaps an understatement. For instance, in the estimated budget for our recently agreed country program with UNDP, only 25% will be funded from regular resources. My government will incur the lion´s share of the remaining 75%. We also contribute to the development of our fellow developing countries through South-South and triangular cooperation. As with many developing countries, we are still faced with the stark socioeconomic consequences of the pandemic and other crises, which have brought about severe setbacks in our development process as well as fiscal constraints on our ability to finance our own development. There is legitimately scant political or fiscal leeway for further contributions on a permanent basis.
One can never overemphasize that developing countries are the recipients of multilateral cooperation for development. Therefore, they should not be held responsible for remedying shortcomings in the financing of the coordination function of the system. It would amount to transferring the brunt of financing from developed to developing countries amounts, inverting agreed roles between donors and program countries. It would disregard very different financial capacities and development needs.
Therefore, if we are to approach this is in a responsible and fair manner, assigning additional assessed contributions to developing countries should be but marginal at best, after other options have been exhausted. We probably need to think out of the box, along the lines of a blending of different elements that, when combined, would strike a more sustainable balance between revenues and expenditures.
Times like these also recommend a sense of realism. Accordingly, we might need to calibrate our expectations with regard to the total budget of the system. The UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) has noted the existence of differences between the resources requirements for the resident coordinator system and the patterns of expenditure in recent years. And yet the system has been delivering outstanding results as showcased by resident coordinators last week. Last year´s record overall expenditure (USD 225 million) might provide a useful benchmark for that. In today´s context, the whole enterprise of defining a budget level for the RC System should be guided by the principles of ambitious efficiency and reasonable costs.
Madam DSG,
As we share concerns with current funding patterns in the UN development system, we remain committed to engaging constructively in seeking solutions for the RC System financial framework.
I thank you.