Summary: November 5, 2002: Statement by Mr. Thure Christiansen, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Denmark to the UN, on behalf of the European Union. Programme planning. FIFTY-SEVENTH SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY - FIFTH COMMITTEE: Item 113 (New York)
Mr. Chairman,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe associated with the European Union - Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Associated Countries - Cyprus, Malta, Turkey, as well as the EFTA Countries of the European Economic Area - Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, align themselves with this statement.
The European Union would like to thank the Chairman of the Committee for Programme and Coordination for introducing the report of the 42nd session of the Committee, contained in document A/57/16.
Allow me also to thank the representatives of the Secretariat for introducing the remaining documentation under this agenda item as well as Ambassador Mselle for presenting the conclusions and recommendations of ACABQ.
Mr. Chairman,
The medium-term plan is an essential programming tool for the United Nations. It sets out the overall orientation, objectives, strategies, expected accomplishments and indicators of achievement of each sub-programme, ensuring transparency in programme design, coordination and monitoring.
The European Union has noted with interest the proposal of the Secretary-General to change the timing, length and frequency of the medium-term plan. This proposal merits careful, in-depth consideration in the appropriate context.
Mr. Chairman,
The European Union endorses the agreed proposed revisions to the medium-term plan for 2002-2005 contained in the report of the CPC. These changes bring the plan up to date and align it with key legislative mandates, including in particular the Millennium Declaration.
We commend the progress achieved by the Committee in agreeing on revisions to nearly all parts of the plan. We trust that the spirit of cooperation that prevailed in the CPC will also guide the work of the Fifth Committee in finalizing the revisions to the outstanding elements in the medium-term plan.
We will examine carefully the documents regarding the new or revised subprogrammes on financing for development, sustainable development and Africa and we reserve ourselves the right to revert to these at a later stage.
Mr. Chairman,
The European Union endorses the recommendations of the Committee to strengthen the role of evaluation findings, which are based on the report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services contained in document A/57/68. We support the proposal for OIOS to focus on one annual in-depth evaluation and to prepare a cross-cutting, thematic evaluation of a priority area of the Organization. We also support strengthening the assistance to other departments and offices to carry out
self-evaluations.
Mr. Chairman,
The European Union expresses its appreciation to the Office of Internal Oversight Services for the preparation of the programme performance report for the biennium 2000-2001, as contained in document (A/57/62) and supports the recommendations of CPC in this regard. We hope that this reporting of quantitative output will prove helpful to the Secretariat in assessing performance of programme managers. As the report notes, the performance report of the current biennium will be a very different
exercise, using Results-Based Budgeting and shifting the focus from a quantitative to a qualitative approach. The European Union believes that the qualitative indicators will prove more useful in judging whether the programmes are achieving the desired outcomes. It will also help in analysing the causes for lower implementation rates in certain programmes, and whether this represents failure on the part of the programme managers or justifiable termination of low priority or redundant
work.
The European Union places great importance on the responsibilities of programme managers within the Secretariat for the monitoring process and encourages additional expertise through training of managers in this respect. Through the expansion of IMDIS, the reporting process of monitoring and evaluation can be carried out on a day-to-day basis, as it should be, rather than having to pull together large amounts of information at the end of the period to submit to oversight bodies. We agree with
the CPC suggestion to make compliance with monitoring requirements a standard component of staff appraisals for managers and trust that the Secretariat will take up this recommendation.
I thank you, Mr. Chairman.
| Top |
European Union Member States
Alerts by email
Email this page
Print this page