Secretary-General, Prime Minister
Excellencies Heads of Agencies, Funds and Programmes
Distinguished participants,
It is a great honour to serve on
this panel and to have this opportunity to meet with the heads of
the whole UN system and the specialized agencies at the Chief
Executives Board meeting.
And it is a great opportunity to
meet with this group of leaders, who are gathered for the sake of
system-wide coordination, and who manage the larger part of what I
think of as our common international public sector. We look forward
to listening to you, to draw from your experience, and to
learn.
The terms of reference of this
panel is such that it will be more relevant to some of you than to
others. We will look at how the structures we have created to deal
with development, environment and humanitarian assistance can be
made more effective, on how we can create more system-wide
coherence. That was what leaders called for in 2005, recognizing
that thew UN opeational role stems from its normative mandates.
Our focus will be in particular on
the millennium development goals, and the prime aggregate
expressions of our common targets for human development. There are
other targets, yes, but if we reach the millennium goals, so much
else will subsumed and settled in that process.
I believe that we will meet many
sceptics in the half year we have before us. I would be surprised
if there were not some sceptics in this room. But rest assured
We are on this panel because we
believe in the United Nations system. We are in favour of a strong
such system And we believe that friends of he system should be open
and serve constructive criticism if the if the system at time fails
to adapt to expectations and best practises found elsewhere in the
world.
We have had two days of extensive
discussions in New York we have outline elements in a work-plan. We
have not reached any conclusion or formulated any
recommendation.
That we will do after and open,
consultative process with a great number of stakeholders. And you
stand out among them.
I stand here as a representative of
a country which is a staunch supporter of the UN.
We are a founding member and the
seventh largest contributor in absolute terms.
As a donor we reached the 0.7 mark
decades ago.
Our development policy enjoys a
high rate of approval.
The Norwegian government believes
in a UN-centric world order
Our partners can look to Norway for
reliability, and I hope, trustworthiness.
We have been fortunate enough to
take such a position in the world.
As much as we believe in more equal
distributuion and more equal opportunity at home.
As much do we believe that such
policies must guide us internationally.
We are fundamentally committed
to more international
solidarity
within and between generations.
And to the purposes and principles
enshrined in the Charter.
However,
Over the past decades, the
international community has adopted a series resolutions,
declarations, plans of action, etc. dealing with the shortcomings
and uneven distribution of development and opportunity.
At Rio, Cairo, Beijing, Copenhagen,
Johannesburg etc, we solemnly pledged to rectify aberrations of
development trends
I remember my scepticism
when I attended the Millennium
Summit here almost six years ago
As Prime Minister.
I remember my doubt when we sealed
the words of the Millenium Goals
-would we ever be able to deliver
on those promises?
- had we again been using to bold
words?
- and what would it do to the
credibility of the sphere of politics
If again our acts would fall short
of our words.
It was then I developed a
compelling urge to at least see on MDG be realized.
The Government of Norway closed
ranks behind the goal of immunizing every child, and thereby saving
millions of little children from dying unnecessary deaths.
We have increased Norwegian funding
for that goal.
We will support these activities
with 1 billion USD by 2015.
This must succeed.
And I am convinced that it is
possible to measure the correlations between our increased effort
and our growing success. But it must be possible to measure
even better alaso in other development areas.
As my Colleague PM Aziz often says;
What can be managed can be measured.
Countries such as mine will be more
forthcoming with finance and funding when we are able to show the
results more clearly.
That in turn will strengthen the
UN.
Thus we can create ¨not a vicious
but a virtuous circle,
And we need your help in the
process.
The UN cannot be everything to all
countries.
But it can be the chosen enabler
for many.
It can be that when it focusses on
what it does best
And when it is responsive to
country needs and priorities
During our discussions in New York,
it was brought to my attention that 20 different UN bodies work on
the issue of access to clean water.
That example illustrate that reform
and change must be possible, that it is possible to reduce
fragmentation, avoid duplication, and tighten control and
audit.
We must also try to develop
incentive systems sets a premium on effectiveness. And member
states must take great care not to send contradictory signals in
various governing boards. Indeed the number of governing body
itself must accept close scrutiny.
While we explore the rooms for
improvement we will seek to formulate a vision of what the UN
should be like ten years from now, taking account of global trends
and management yardsticks by which we should measure it.
No doubt the, world has witnessed
tremendous improvement in life conditions for billions of people
over the past decades. Not least due to the achievements of
organizations represented here today, interacting with country
breaking out of the chains of poverty.
This panel is determined to make a
difference. It will ask critical questions. But remember:
Not to change the present
situation. To continue running the UN system in its present
configuaration
Is also a decision.
We cannot not make decisions on
what kind of UN we want and need.
I am looking forward to working
with all of you improve and renew the present UN instititional
capacity. And I thank you for your attention
