Thank you Madam President, Thank you to the briefers and to Madam DSG,
Italy aligns itself with the statement delivered by the European Union and wishes to add some remarks on its national capacity.
Italy fully supports the UN80 initiative, which is meant to to make the multilateral system more efficient and closer to the needs of our peoples and to field realities.
UN80 can and should inject new life in a sometimes cumbersome and fragmented system, streamlining procedures and aiming at decentralizing existing structures and services where appropriate.
Preserving peace and security, protecting human rights and sustainable development for all must be our common priorities.
We must not lose sight of the Pact for the future that envisions a world where the international system delivers on its promises, reflects the diversity of today’s global landscape, and leverages the collective strength of governments, civil society, and other key partners.
Preserving the normative role of the UN is also particularly true when it comes to development-related mandates. In this context, it is especially important for the UN not to become only an implementing organization but rather to promote an approach to international development that is anchored in the Agenda 2030 and its underlying values.
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On the First workstream, Italy is very satisfied with the adoption last December by the Fifth Committee of the revised budget. This positive outcome is a clear sign that the multilateral system can deliver results and is capable of reforming itself. We fully support relocations of staff and functions from more expensive UN hubs to less expensive ones.
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On the Second work stream, Italy commends the remarkable work of the Intergovernmental Ad-Hoc Working Group on the Mandate Implementation Review.
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As far as the Third work stream is concerned, we support the role of the Resident Coordinators system, that contributes to ensure coherent responses by UN Country Teams. Some thoughts could be rather given in reforming the RCs’ supporting structures, in order for them to become less rigid and costly. For example, the option of assigning specific functions within the supporting structures to personnel of the UN Country Teams could be explored.
In the peace and security field, we support closer synergies between UNICRI and UNODC, while preserving research independence and the added-value and specificities of each of these two bodies.
Moving forward to the cluster “training and research”, Italy supports the establishment of a “networked ecosystem” of UN entities. This should fuel coordination among them, while preserving the diversity and institutional independence of existing entities, in particular the UN System Staff College and UNITAR.
I thank you.
