COMMENTS ON BEHALF OF THE GROUP OF 77 BY M. W. MANGACHI, MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY, TANZANIA PERMANENT MISSION TO THE UNITED NATIONS, AT THE SECOND SESSION OF UNICEF EXECUTIVE BOARD
New York, 19 March 1997
Madam Chairperson,
Having followed the deliberations of this meeting as an Observer, my delegation, speaking on behalf of the Group of 77, would like to make a short comment, particularly on UNICEF’s activities.
We should like to start by congratulating the Legal Assistance Centre of Namibia for its nomination to receive the 1997 Maurice Pate Award, in recognition of its significant contribution in the field of human rights including child rights and welfare.
The Group of 77 is very appreciative of the work being done by UNICEF, especially in the developing countries.
We further commend the Executive Director for her very comprehensive report on the UNICEF activities. We fully support the measures being taken to improve efficiency in the implementation of the programmes, including the introduction of the Operational Activities, Reference Manual, support for national capacity building and execution measures, monitoring and evaluation activities and the mobilization of resources for UNICEF programmes.
Concerning the mid-term reviews and major evaluations of country programmes, we are pleased with the outcome of the initial work done in some countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, Americas and the Caribbean region, East Asia and the Pacific, South Asia and Middle East and North Africa. These evaluations have been focussed on the important areas of health, particularly child welfare and immunization, education, water, nutrition, sanitation and poverty eradication in general. By addressing these issues, UNICEF activities are more comprehensive and supportive of national efforts in solving development problems generally.
What comes out clearly in the country reviews made are the needs to intensify capacity building measures, provision of adequate resources for the existing programmes as well as the need to expand the coverage of UNICEF programmes particularly in the most needy countries, particularly LDCs and countries experiencing conflicts in Africa and elsewhere.
Madam Chairperson,
For the long term efficient management and sustainability of these programmes, it is important that UNICEF enables the countries and particularly the communities involved, to ultimately own and run the programmes on their own, after the take off stage. It is also important that the successful projects in one country are emulated in other countries.
Furthermore, in view of the limited resources, donor support is critical in ensuring that UNICEF has sufficient resources to undertake all its priority programmes. In this context, the 20/20 initiative should be examined carefully, with a view to overcoming the practical problems towards its operationalization. In particular there is a need to clarify the modality through which donors financial contributions under this scheme would be channeled to developing countries. We further look forward to the UNCEF report on new and innovative funding sources and modalities for operational activities aimed at generating additional resources for UNICEF programmes.
Thank you, Madam Chairperson.