ECOSOC Coordination Meeting

Thank you.

In March 2025, the Secretary-General launched the UN80 Initiative to transform how the UN works. As part of this initiative, an Informal Ad Hoc Working Group was established to identify principles and follow-up actions to improve the creation, implementation and review of mandates. I am honoured to be here today on behalf of the co-chairs of this working group, myself and Ambassador Wallace of Jamaica.

I don't need to tell you that the UN is confronting complex, multidimensional, and urgent challenges. To meet these challenges we will need to embrace new ways of working which go well beyond business usual. A cultural change across the UN system in how we create, implement, and review mandates is needed to ensure we are clear in our purpose, effective and efficient in our delivery, and robust in assessing the impact we deliver to the people we serve on the ground.

The Mandate Implementation Review process offers us an unprecedented opportunity to into only improve what we do, but how we do it. This is why Ambassador Wallace and I were so determined to design a process which is grounded in transparency and inclusiveness, but also encourages innovation in the way we work with each other and the way we partner with the Secretariat.

We are so encouraged by the active participation of Member States and the UN system leadership across different geographic locations in the Mandates process. We are so grateful to civil society and a range of stakeholders who have taken the time to contribute ideas and solutions to the challenges we face.

On 8 January, which marked the turning point from the Discovery Phase to Production Phase of our work, we presented a zero draft of a General Assembly resolution which sets out principles to guide our approach, together with a series of practical actions that Member States and the Secretary-General might take to implement these across the mandate lifecycle. It is a high-ambition text, which we hope will deliver the bold outcomes the Organization needs.

We are currently conducting a series of workshops where senior Representatives from Member States can share their views in a relaxed, small-group setting, open for all to follow via video. What we are hearing so far is that everyone recognizes the need for change, and most are calling for the creation of clear shared principles and more contemporary tools and mechanisms that set us up for success throughout the mandate lifecycle.

Although the final text will be adopted by the General Assembly, the entire UN system has a role to play in reducing duplication, improving impact, and strengthening coherence. Mandates are the foundation of the organization, and a system-wide approach is the only way forward for this exercise. The zero draft acknowledges the importance of ensuring coordination mechanisms between the main UN entities, including Charter bodies such as ECOSOC and the General Assembly, are fit for purpose, and of aligning the outcomes from the working group with other reform processes.

The Mandate Implementation Review, when taken together with the ECOSOC/HLPF review, General Assembly revitalization process, the Human Rights Council rationalization process and a range of other review processes, offers a critically important opportunity for Member States to consider how our international institutions are set up and how we can enhance their functions and impact.

We are staying in close touch with the leadership of each of these processes, as well as chairs of the Main Committees, Presidents of the Boards of funds and programs to ensure coherence across our efforts. The IAHWG provides a golden thread through all of these efforts.

I know some of you recently attended the ECOSOC retreat. One of the key messages that resonated from those discussions was that dissatisfaction with the functioning of international institutions should not lead us to disillusionment with the rules-based international system they underpin. Recognition that our international institutions can and should function better does not mean that the rules that we have created are worthless or meaningless. It is our responsibility to be open-minded and critical enough to reform the institutions and structures that support the implementation, monitoring and development of these rules.

Regardless of which process we are engaged in - whether it be the UN80 Mandate Review or the ECOSOC/HLPF Review - and to ensure these reviews are meaningful, Member States need to think critically about their own role in how we have set up these structures and institutions and how we contribute to their effective functioning. We must be willing to be creative and bold to get us closer to an international system that is able to live up to the promise of the rules that it seeks to support.

Thank you Chair.

Share:

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share on LinkedIn
• with Weibo