Distinguished Co-Chairs,

          Allow me at the outset to reiterate the willingness of the Group of 77 and China as well as the Non-Aligned Movement to constructively engage in the intergovernmental consideration of the recommendations contained in the High-Level Panel’s Report.

2.       The Joint Coordinating Committee would like to thank Ms. Sally Fegan- Wyles, Director, United Nations Development Group Office for her useful briefing.

 3.      The JCC reaffirm all the elements voiced by the JCC during the plenary meeting of the General Assembly on April 16th.  Consequently, both Groups reiterate their preliminary views on the Report, which were conveyed in the letter addressed to the Secretary-General by the Co-Chairs of the JCC on 19 March 2007, and in all the JCC statements during the informal meetings of the General Assembly convened last month.

4.    The JCC reiterates that the implementation of System-wide Coherence recommendations towards “delivery as one” is voluntary in nature and subject to the authority and leadership of national governments.

5.       The “Pilots” for the one-country approach in several developing countries should be, as recognized in the Panel’s Report, entirely voluntary, decided and led by the national governments taking into account national particularities and conditions. These should neither create any systemic changes in the methods of formulating, approving and financing country programmes, nor lead to any systemic expansion of the number of pilots, without open and inclusive intergovernmental consideration.

6. There is no “one size fits all”, as recognized by the Panel. With this in mind, we reiterate that there should be no restrictions on the ability and sovereignty of national governments to determine their own development priorities or select their development partners, as well as the type of relations they pursue with UN development entities at the country level. The UN development system should continue to support development efforts of developing countries principally by assisting in the implementation of nationally determined development plans, strategies and priorities.

7.     We declare in favor of a greater coordination and coherence among the UN Funds, Programs and Agencies in order to avoid unnecessary duplications and overlaps of their functions and maximize the effectiveness of their work. Nevertheless, the improvement of coordination among them should not imply the loss of their identity. The possibility of common management frameworks or field-level programming has to be studied further.

8.     The field work performed by the development entities of the UN in different areas of development, has resulted in the accumulation of unique wealth of experience, and has provided them with an awareness of and the capacity for addressing the real development needs of developing countries. Hence the key importance of preserving the valuable contribution of the development funds, programs and agencies.

9.     While the JCC highly appreciates the great contribution of the UNDP’s work, particularly in the development area, it considers that further clarification is needed regarding the implications of the new functions suggested for the UNDP especially in the area of coordination. Before taking decisions in this regard, it will be important to have clarity not only in the implications of these changes in term of mandates but also in term of cost and effectiveness.

10.     With respect to the functions envisaged for the Resident Coordinator, it would be necessary to have more information and clarity in their impact.

11.     Likewise, on the central issue of the quantity, quality and predictability of development assistance from the UN system based on the demand-driven approach, we feel that the issue needs to be addressed more concretely. Moreover, for the JCC it is essential to ensure that there is an expanding and adequate base of development assistance from the UN system and other sources, responsive to the national development plans of program countries.

12.     The continuing imbalance between “core” and “non-core” resources highlighted in the report continues to remain a matter of concern and needs to be addressed more clearly. We feel that this is a major cause for incoherence in the UN development system, including at the country level, and leads to distorted and uneven approaches by the UN towards the implementation of development programs in accordance with national host-government development goals.  Importantly, the share of core resources over the total contributions received by the UN system has been falling continuously. UNDP, for instance, will have $ 1 billion in “core” funding and $5 billion in “non-core” or earmarked funding during this year. At present, over 45% of the funding provided by UNDP is devoted to projects and programmes relating to governance, while only 25% is being spent on poverty programmes. 

More core funding should be an aim applied to all funds, programmes and agencies of the UN system.

13.     We feel that the guiding principle of the coherence process should be to provide more efficiency in the delivery of development assistance. The implementation of reforms aimed at “Delivering as one” should not merely serve as a cost cutting exercise and any savings accrued as a result of the streamlining process should be re-directed into the development expenditures of the UN as opposed to other institutional activities. Furthermore, we feel that to the largest extent possible, savings generated from efficiencies at the country level must be ploughed back into the programs and activities in the country itself.

14.     Finally Mr. Co-chairs, the members of the G-77 and NAM feel that the funding modalities proposed in the recommendations, specially the concept of “results-based funding” raise some serious questions. They may imply new conditionalities in development cooperation.

Distinguished Co-Chairs,

15.     The Group of 77 and China and the Non-Aligned Movement will continue to participate actively and constructively in the intergovernmental process and will continue to discuss within the JCC on the merits of each and every recommendation of the Panel. Enabling the UN system and its member States to make an enhanced, efficient and effective contribution to the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the MDGs, is an outcome that I am sure we all find desirable. We look forward to continued engagement on this matter.

          I thank you.