STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF THE GROUP OF 77 AND CHINA BY MR. SULTAN AL-MAHMOUD, PERMANENT MISSION OF THE STATE OF QATAR TO THE UNITED NATIONS, FOLLOWING THE ADOPTION BY THE SECOND COMMITTEE OF THE DRAFT RESOLUTION ON THE TRIENNIAL COMPREHENSIVE POLICY REVIEW OF OPERATIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT OF THE UN SYSTEM (New York, 16 December 2004)

Mr. Chairman,

It is with great pleasure and satisfaction that the Group of 77 welcomes the outcome of the work of the Second Committee for the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system, which is symbolically represented by the resolution, which we have just adopted.

Mr. Chairman,

After spending the last few weeks in intensive consultation with all colleagues of the Second Committee, who have been working on the formulation of this resolution, starting from the initial draft that our group tabled on 8 November, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation, first of all to our partners, and in particular to the facilitator, Mr. Olivier Chave, for his excellent contribution facilitator.

Mr. Chave has shown remarkable ability in prevailing over the difficulties that emerged during the negotiations and in overcoming the divergent views among delegations, proposing alternative formulations or suggesting solutions that could capture the key goals for enhanced effectiveness and relevance of the United Nations development cooperation, while facilitating consensus among delegates.

I sincerely congratulate Mr. Chave for his excellent work, and let me express the appreciation of the entire Group of 77 for his achievement. Since he is about to leave New York to go back to his own country, I would like to take this opportunity also to wish him all success in his new function.

Let me also congratulate, Mr. Chairman, all my colleagues of the Second Committee, who have been actively participating in these deliberations, for their excellent work that united us while we were trying to improve and finalize the text of this resolution.

Mr. Chairman,

This resolution contains elements of great importance for the developing countries as a whole and for all those countries that benefit from the UN development cooperation.

We are particularly satisfied to see adequate emphasis on the need to increase resources that all donor countries and countries in condition to do so should make available to support the country-level activities of the United Nations system, especially in the Least Developed Countries

Mr. Chairman,

The Group of 77 accords enormous importance to the provisions that have further highlighted the need to ensure the ownership of national authorities of UNDAF, and the need to ensure full involvement in the UNDAF of all agencies of the United Nations system, including specialized agencies, regional commissions, technical agencies and all other UN entities, including those entities of the UN system that have no country-level offices.

Mr. Chairman,

Inclusiveness of the entire United Nations development system - both in the reforms that the Secretary-General has launched in 1997, as well as in the implementation of country-level mechanisms for coordination, such as the resident coordinator system, the CCA and the UNDAF - is one of the main messages this resolution sends.

This inclusiveness is one of the crucial conditions, together with national authorities, ownership and full integration of the UN development cooperation in national development processes, to ensure that the country-level implementation of the Millennium Declaration and other global conferences and summits becomes a reality. The objectives of these global events are very ambitious and require the participation of the entire international community as well as the commitment of all countries.

Mr. Chairman,

While the preparation of the 5-year review of the Millennium Declaration gets closer, this resolution has put on the table important actions that aim further towards the future, looking at the 2007, the year of the next Triennial Policy Review.

Further measures are identified. The intensification of efforts to increase coherence and coordination is encouraged. The pursuit of more ambitious goals of capacity building is recognized. An intensification of efforts for a greater use of the South-South cooperation and regional dimensions of operational activities are well recognized. Necessity for transfer of new and emerging technology to developing countries is emphasized. Last but not least, important provisions have been indicated in order to cope with situations of transition from relief to development.

Thank you.