There must be adequate resources to ensure a stronger and more effective United Nations. Regarding development, it includes an increase of $3.6million across the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Regular Programme for Technical Cooperation and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). Aligning himself with the Group of 77, he said the programme budget does not have a programme base approved by Member States. The Trump administration suspended all funding for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in 2017, after expanding a ban on U.S. contributions to organizations that perform or promote abortions as a method of family planning. Most of it has ended up in the hands of terrorist organizations and does not assist a sizeable portion of the population in need, he noted. While largely supporting the budget proposal, he was concerned by several provisions that would move voluntarily funded activities onto the regular budget. In the late 1990s, for example, Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) led an effort to force reforms at the United Nations by withholding U.S. contributions. The employment and retention of a long-term Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) workforce would provide operational means and administrative stability. Religion and Foreign Policy Webinars. The annual budget cycle has already improved the Organizations agility during the pandemic, he pointed out. Procedural problems were encountered, and he noted that consultations with the Secretary-General and Member States were successful and his delegations concerns were addressed. Egypt will keep pushing for the legitimate cause of financing for conflict prevention and peacebuilding, especially in Africa, he said. Turning to the alarming spread of international terrorism to new frontiers, including the Southern African region, she called on Member States to find mutually agreeable funding sources for prevention and peacebuilding initiatives to address peace and security concerns in Africa and other continents. The Secretary-General should be asked to develop criteria and modalities for future reviews with the involvement of independent entities to avoid conflicts of interest and ensure impartiality and credibility. He said the proposal also achieves more equitable geographical representation in the Secretariat, despite the slower pace of recruitment over the last few years due to hiring restrictions forced by the precarious liquidity situation. The proposal also has frontloaded a more comprehensive programme budget for human rights, which will facilitate more predictable resource planning for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Fatoumata Ndiaye, Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), introduced the OIOS report titled Evaluation of women and peace and security in field-based missions: elections and political transitions. The evaluation covered six missions. Seventy-two percent of UN funding comes from governments. These mandatory contributions help fund the United Nations regular budget, which covers administrative costs and a few programs, as well as peacekeeping operations. The UN Environment Programme ( UNEP) estimates that adaptation costs alone faced by just developing countries will be in a range of $140 billion to $300 billion per year by 2030, and $280 billion to $500 billion annually by 2050. As a founding member of the United Nations and the host for its headquarters, the United States has been a chief guide and major funder of the organization for more than seventy years. Sara Ibrahim, Lynn Hong, Zachary Rosenthal, Nathalie Bussemaker, Laura Hillard, Diana Roy, and Amanda Shendruk contributed to this article. We may earn a commission from links on this page. Assessed dues also finance other UN bodies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Health Organization (WHO). ANTNIO GUTERRES, Secretary-General of the United Nations, introduced the Organizations proposed programme plan for 2023 (documents A/77/6 (Plan Outline) and Sections 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and Corr. The United Nations on Friday appealed for sustainable funding for its agency that supports Palestine refugees, UNRWA, which is on the brink of financial collapse. by Anshu Siripurapu and Noah Berman This offers a comprehensive picture of our programme delivery over the past three years, he said. BURHAN GAFOOR (Singapore), speaking on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and aligning himself with the Group of 77 and China, called for budgeting to be realistic and results-oriented. There is also a need to address, under some sections, the situation of general temporary assistance staff and locally contracted personnel who have been in service for almost a decade without stable contracts, he underscored. The Advisory Committee notes that the total estimates for extrabudgetary resources amount to $13.18billion, a net decrease of $127.2million, or 1.0percent, compared with the 2022 estimates. He regretted that the Secretary-Generals proposed programme planning report did not include recommendations from the Committee for Programme and Coordination for five of the 28 programmes, including on disarmament, legal affairs, peacekeeping, human rights and refugee assistance, and trusted that this would be corrected in a timely manner by the relevant Main Committees as these programmes involve important mandates. The programme budget is one of the most important agenda items under consideration during the current session, he said, stressing: The budget document is not just a financial and accounting tool. The reform is mandated by the General Assembly of the United Nations in Resolution A/RES/72/279 of 31 May 2018, which . Between 2016 and 2021, the number of underrepresented countries dropped by approximately 20percent, from 44 to 36 countries. In 2021, Biden resumed funding streams paused under Trump, including for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Peru will focus primarily on resources related to United Nations bodies with mandates on the 2030 Agenda, promotion and protection of human rights, international cooperation for development, climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, amongst others, he noted. Since then, Congress has regularly passed special measures to allow the US to pay its full assessed share. JEAN KIMANI (Kenya), aligning herself with the Group of 77 and the African Group, recognized the positive outcome of increasing the Committee for Programme and Coordinations session to five weeks. The National Guard is a special part of the U.S. military that answers to both state governors and the president. It must also conjugate the processes of the Committee for Programme and Coordination and ACABQ while preserving their intergovernmental nature and establishing any necessary links to function properly. Weekly. He noted the slight increase for the budget for 2023, compared with last year, due largely to the increase for construction and special political missions. In light of the ongoing reform of the United Nations peace and security architecture, there must be robust discussions on the funding and backstopping of special political missions at this session, he urged. He appreciated the Organizations continued prioritization of Africas development, supported the Secretary-Generals proposal for the Peacebuilding Fund and called for more predictable, sustainable and flexible financing. The Qatar Government has always paid its contribution to the United Nations annual budget on time and will continue to provide predictable funding to the Organization. As of December 2022, four of the United Nations senior leaders were Chinese nationals [PDF], compared to twenty-one U.S. nationals. Continuous engagement and consultations with Member States not only guarantees ownership and accountability but ensures that mandated priorities reflect Member States aspirations and the Organizations legitimacy, she underscored. ACABQ also expects detailed information on geographical and regional representation, the distribution of staff by nationality and gender under each section over the past five years and retirement plans, especially for posts in the Professional and higher category. Turning to resource requirements, he said the Organization needs $3.22billion to fully implement its mandates in 2023. This includes the Organizations continued support for the implementation of the African Unions Agenda 2063. At the same time, the 2023-2024 budget would be based on performance information from 2019-2020. Proposals for posts should be supported by systematic workload analyses based on workload indicators and the appropriate identification of workstreams, he said. UNSDG | 2030 Agenda - Financing and Funding It is not right to make demands of the Organization while pursuing arbitrary cuts to the proposed budget or withholding or threatening to withhold contributions to the Organization, he said. That should be the exception and not the norm, he stressed, adding that the role of the Programme and Coordination Committee should be upheld, not diluted, and called again for that Committee to reach consensus on all 28 programme plans in the future. By entering your email and clicking subscribe, you're agreeing to receive announcements from CFR about our products and services, as well as invitations to CFR events. The Advisory Committee has rejected the inclusion of predictable Human Rights Council mandates in the programme budget. In noting the ACABQs observation that some proposals appear similar to those for 2022 and might not reflect the real needs for 2023, he encouraged the Secretariat to ensure that resources are clearly linked to a results-based budget framework and reflect existing mandates. Also before the Committee was the Secretary-Generals note (document A/77/256) drawing the General Assemblys attention to the report of the Joint Inspection Unit, titled Business continuity management in United Nations system organizations (JIU/REP/2021/6), as well as the Secretary-Generals comments and those of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) on the Units report (document A/77/256/Add.1). The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today began its line-by-line consideration of a proposed $3.22billion regular budget for 2023, which includes funding for 10,122 posts and would likely swing upward to $3.4billion after re-costing.