FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
U.S. Mission to the United Nations: Remarks at the UNICEF Executive Board Second Regular Session
09/09/2014 05:54 PM EDT
AS DELIVERED
Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you Executive Director Lake for your remarks. Your statements always allow us to reflect on the impressive range of UNICEF’s truly essential work on behalf of the world’s children every day, often in the most arduous environments. We thank you and UNICEF staff worldwide for your dedication.
Over the last year, we have all seen the devastating impact of a rising scale of mounting and overarching crises – natural disasters, conflicts, and health emergencies, which take a particularly cruel toll on children. As many of these crises have become chronic, children in West Africa, the Central African Republic, the Philippines, Syria, South Sudan, Ukraine, the Middle East, Iraq and elsewhere have suffered unacceptable levels of violence, disruption, and vulnerability to which no child should be subject. UNICEF is vital for children in these kinds of conditions, providing water, medicines, nutrition, education, protection, and critical health services.
Let me particularly highlight the role UNICEF is playing in responding to the recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, which could affect almost 20,000 individuals and cause devastating secondary damage to public health infrastructure and economic development in the affected countries for years to come. UNICEF has the trust of local officials and communities and is in a rare position to make a significant difference in reducing suffering, as well as supporting efforts to mitigate secondary effects, and we believe it is critical for UNICEF to have continued flexibility to respond to such complex and evolving emergencies.
We are therefore grateful for UNICEF’s efforts to strengthen capacity for rapid and scaled humanitarian response, such:
Your nominating high caliber and an increasing number of candidates for the Humanitarian Coordinator Pool with tangible incentives for staff to pursue these positions;
Your taking on board the recommendations of evaluations to address gaps and ensure that actions taken are widely understood throughout the organisation;
And your taking the initiative to increase country office preparedness for cluster leadership in high-risk-contexts and improving capacity for cluster leadership.
We welcome any further moves that will ensure more consistent recruitment and training of right-skilled staff for large-scale emergencies, sufficient regular budget allocation to support changing scales of emergency response, better clarity on cluster roles and responsibilities, and increased reliance on joint work with other agencies.
Protection is obviously fundamental, and we welcome UNICEF’s embrace of the Rights Up Front agenda to improve protection of children in emergencies; your work to develop data-driven advocacy around protection; and your actions to improve prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence.
We also look forward to even stronger emphasis on disabilities in all UNICEF activities,with disaggegated assessments to help ensure that children with disabilities have equal access to humanitarian and other forms of assistance.
We also appreciate Director Lake’s candor about the strain on the organization from multiple emergencies, and his call not to lose focus in the face of calamity on the long-term investments we need to make in children’s health and well-being and the developmental work for which UNICEF has long been known.
You also rightly insist that we look with clear eyes at the underlying drivers of risk, that we redouble every effort to remedy them, with a determination not to fail. You have also outlined a compelling path that would help integrate UNICEF’s emergency and development work in a way that builds the resilience of families and communities at all levels. We agree that the divide between humanitarian and development work is artificial, and we should seek every opportunity to bridge it.
UNICEF’s developmental work is widely and deservedly praised: getting children the nutrients they need to survive and thrive; getting the most vulnerable children to school and ready to learn; promoting adequate water and sanitation, food, and health services; working with other agencies to help prevent teenage pregnancy and help young women get access to trained birth attendants; and partnering with countries to advance the Millennium Development goals.
We need you to continue this work and we appreciate UNICEF’s leadership as a strong advocate for children’s priorities in our continuing deliberations over the post-2015 development agenda.
Turning to management issues, we appreciate UNICEF’s continuing dedication to transparency and accountability, including your pioneering tools like the Monitoring Results for Equity System. You have been a leader in the UN system in this regard.
It’s worthy of note that MoRES has now been expanded from 30 countries in 2012 to 80 countries in 2013, enabling more strategic analysis of data and improved results, including through integration of MoRES into countries’ own planning and monitoring systems, which builds capacity, builds comparability, and improves data collection that can improve results.
With regard to resources, we are glad to note UNICEF’s strong financial situation, with total revenue reaching an all-time high of $4.9 billion, nearly $1 billion more than 2012. These figures are a testament to your hard work on partnerships but mainly to the integrity, enduring value, and urgent need for UNICEF’s work. We also note with appreciation that you have dedicated resources where they are needed, including the 27% of revenue this year devoted to children in emergencies.
Turning briefly to the issue of critical mass: in our view, critical mass should simply reflect all the resources necessary for agencies to deliver the results we have agreed in Strategic Plans and integrated budgets. Every dollar is critical for UNICEF’s life-saving work. In the Board’s deliberations, we think the recently agreed decision on critical mass at the UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS Board will provide a useful basis for moving forward.
Let me then just close in thanking you and all UNICEF staff once again for your leadership, dedication, and determination to champion the world’s most vulnerable children. Thank you.
