• Statement by Dr. Jana Simonova, Counsellor for Economic Affairs and Development, Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic to the United Nations on Report of the Open-Ended Ad Hoc Working Group on UNDP Funding Strategy
  New York, October 21, 1998

• Statement by Dr. Jana Simonova, Counsellor for Economic Affairs and Development, Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic to the United Nations on Review of the Successor Programming Arrangements
  New York, September 16, 1998

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Statement by Dr. Jana Simonova, Counsellor for Economic Affairs and Development, Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic to the United Nations on Report of the Open-Ended Ad Hoc Working Group on UNDP Funding Strategy

Mr. President,

First of all, let me, like many delegations before me, greatly appreciate the excellent work which has been done by the Open-ended Ad hoc working group on UNDP funding strategy, namely by its chairman Mr. Alan March.Thanks to his dedication we now have a draft decision in front of us which summarizes defferent approaches to the issue and provides a very good basis for further negotiation.

Second, let me mention some ot the unresolved issues. The Czech delegation would like to express its view on three of them: burden sharing, principles and predictability.

Our delegation strongly supports the idea of broader burden sharing. While the Czech Republic, with its rather low GDP in 1994, still ranked among the recipient countries, currently it is gradually approaching the category of net-contributor countries. In fact, the Czech Republic has already acted as a net contributor for some time. In recent years, the voluntary contributions of the Czech Republic amounted to almost the same level as the programme resources allocated to the Czech Republic. We are trying to contribute to development assistance not only through voluntary contributions but also through cost-sharing arrangements which we regard also of great importance. Specifically, we have applied cost-sharing to support intra-regional development cooperation within the region of Central and Eastern Europe, particularly in the field of decentralization of governance.

On the other hand, capability of the Czech Republic to provide assistance depends on its economic performance and stability which makes the whole process somewhat lengthy. Although the involvement of the Czech Republic in terms of financial contributions is rather limited, strong willingness to support multilateral development assistance is there. What we lack, is more systematic approach to be implemented internally in capacity building for providing development assistance. In this respect, we partly rely also on multilateral institutions, their expertise and knowledge, to get inspiration and guidance in our own capacity building. In this connection, let me appreciate the significant assistance which we are currently getting from UNDP within the Regional programme External Resources Mobilization. In the broader framework of this programme, two study tours were accomplished for emerging donors of our region, to Ireland and Finland. Let me take this opportunity also to express our gratitude to the Irish as well as the Finnish governments for the highly instructive lectures and presentations that were prepared for participants.

As to the suggested principles of the funding strategy, the Czech delegation would like to express its support particularly to the notion of a new integrated programming, funding and budgeting mechanism. We regard this principle worth exploring because it might become a key reason for future improving quality of programming which can be more easily followed by increasing resources mobilization. As to the bigger predictability, the Czech delegation would like to support the proposal made by Denmark jointly with Ireland.

In conclusion, let me share with you our view that one of the positive outcomes is that the working group has provided a permanent platform for exchangíng views on this very complex and sensitive issue. Even when only few features of the future strategy have been agreed upon yet, it is highly important to continue in this difficult endeavor.

Thank you Mr. President.

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Statement by Dr. Jana Simonova, Counsellor for Economic Affairs and Development, Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic to the United Nations on Review of the Successor Programming Arrangements

Mr. President,

As other delegations before me, I would like to thank the Administrator for his clear and comprehensive opening statement to this highly important issue. Let me also appreciate the comprehensiveness and high informative value of the document DP/1998/34 which was provided to us by the Secretariat of UNDP.

The document contains a substantive feedback on the overall implementation of the programming arrangements to-date, an information on the status of the overall financial framework to-date, as well as a proposal of a resource distribution methodology which should be applied in the next programming cycle.

When reviewing the implementation of the current programming arrangements, it is important to emphasize that even though the entire programming framework is being undermined by current under-mobilization of core resources, significant achievements have been reached.Among others, it was a remarkable upturn in programming delivery and the allocation adjustments made in 1995 and 1996 in recognition of the special needs of countries with economies in transition. Let me point out that the Czech delegation has greatly appreciated the understanding and willingness of the Executive Board and UNDP Administrator to partly compensate for the lack of earlier floor protection at that time. It is now equally appreciated to see that the "other resources" are to become part of TRAC1 figures that determine the floors for programme countries of our region for the next programming cycle. The Czech delegation warmly welcomes this proposal as another step towards equal treatment of various regions within UNDP. In this connection, we would be even more pleased, as, I believe, many other delegations and UNDP Secretariat as well, to see the scenario 2 (based on total resources of 3.3 bil. USD) be applied in calculations for the next period.

Mr. President,

As far as the financial framework is concerned, the Czech delegation fully supports proposals made in paras 77 and 79 of DP/1998/34. Also the practice in the Czech Republic confirms that line 1.6 - allocations for administrative and operational services are in fact already being used for programming. We also do not see any reason for keeping lines SPPD and STS separate. It has never been very clear to us what has differentiated those lines.

As regards the individual categories of recipient countries and net contributors, it is expected that the use of primary data of 1997 will result in some shifts among categories. It is likely that some low-income countries with GDP below 750 could have increased their GDP above 750 and similarly other countries could have upgraded above other limits. Are there any indications of such shifts and if so, we would be pleased if the Executive Board could be provided an information on the countries which are expected to upgrade? This kind of information would be also useful for consideration of the threshold for net-contributor countries. Without having the information, the Czech delegation is inclined to support the increase of the threshold of NCC in accord with the graduation level of the World Bank. Finally, let me conclude with congratulations to the Secretariat for the work done in the connection with the document we have in front of us. I would also like to join those delegations who have already expressed their deep regret of Mr. Speth's decision to step down. The Czech delegation has particularly appreciated his leadership, dedication and understanding for individual countries' concerns that he has shown during the entire term of his being UNDP Administrator.

Thank you Mr. President.

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