Check against delivery

Excellency,

Deputy Secretary General, 

I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the EU and its Member States.

The Candidate Countries North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, as well as Armenia align themselves with this statement.

 The EU as a strong supporter of UN Development System reform welcomes the findings of the 2025 UN Development Coordination Office report. This report highlights both progress and challenges as we approach the 2030 deadline to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

We would have three comments.

First, the Resident Coordinators (RCs) are central to a reformed UN development system and essential for delivering a coordinated, joined up and integrated country-level support in line with national priorities.

The report shows that RCs are effectively convening governments, donors, and UN Country Teams, shaping integrated and evidence based solutions and achieving better collective results. 

RCs are driving SDG progress, coordinating new sustainable development frameworks, responding to crises in a nexus approach, and influencing policies.

The data is telling:

• 90% of governments reported integrated policy advice from the UN.

• 88% saw increased RC leadership.

• 98% of cooperation frameworks aligned with national priorities.

The EU its MS welcome the opportunity to engage with RCs during the OAS and we encourage better alignment of the RCs yearly meeting in New York with the OAS to allow stronger interactivity and coherence. 

Second, we urge Member States, UN Agencies/entities and other development partners to continue supporting the UN Development System and empowered, effective and impartial RCs.

As part of the discussions on the UN80 reform and as discussed yesterday, the EU still believes that a more unified multilateral presence is needed in-country and at regional level to deliver on objectives. 

However, challenges remain and this brings me to my final point. At the end of 2024, the financial gap for the RC system was nearly USD 80 million, posing a risk to reform efforts. The system is working to maximize efficiencies, saving USD 6.2 million through cost avoidance and advancing shared services. We encourage the system to continue identifying efficiencies and to analyse how the Resident Coordination system will be impacted by UN80 reform process. I any information is already available on this, we would welcome it.

The EU and its Member States have been at the forefront and continue to advocate for adequate, predictable, and sustainable funding of the Resident Coordinator system, with a funding mix comprising the levy, cost-sharing and assessed contributions – as was agreed in the QCPR. Since 2019, the EU and its member States contributed more than USD 300 million. In addition, despite improvements, stronger coordination among agencies is still needed to work and deliver as One UN, and we look forward to the Board meetings, to discuss this too. The EU will continue collaborating with RCs, UN Country Teams, and EU embassies to ensure successful implementation of the UN Cooperation Frameworks.

Thank you.