Mr. President, Excellencies, Distinguished Panelists,

1. I have the honour to make this intervention on behalf of the Group of 77 and China. At the outset please allow me to express my appreciation to all of you for your insightful views on how best to mainstream the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the work of the UN development system to ensure its relevance, efficiency and effectiveness in our common journey towards 2030.

2. Please allow me to bring to your attention the perspective of the Group on the work of the UN development system in the post-2015 era, especially in the "what" and the "how".

3. First, in translating the 2030 Agenda and other global commitments we adopted in 2015 into operational activities for development of the UN development system, we must remind ourselves that those commitments are not up for reinterpretation but rather must be followed and implemented in accordance with their objective and purpose. In this light, the 2030 Agenda clearly spelled out the 'what' the UN development system should be doing, i.e. eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty. We must therefore ensure that both shorter-term humanitarian assistance focus and longer-term development objective of the UN development system are geared towards poverty eradication in developing countries.

4. The UN development system must step up its concerted efforts to provide integrated support at the national, regional and global levels in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The 2012 QCPR resolution 67/226 and the upcoming new cycle of QCPR can be used as guidance for system-wide policy orientations for development cooperation and assistance and country level modalities by the UN development system to ensure and enhance its relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, accountability and credibility.

5. Second, the report of Secretary-General on the implementation of the 2012 QCPR resolution highlighted the fact that the total contribution for core resources for UN operational activities for development had declined and constituted only 24 per cent of the overall funding in 2014, and that more rigid earmarked funding is on the rise. In this light, one of the 'how' the UN development system could address is to prioritise allocation of core resources and non-core resources so that use of resources is more predictable, flexible, less earmarked and better aligned with the priorities of programme countries best suited to situation on the ground. At the same time the UN development system should continue its efforts in broadening its donor base.

6. Moreover, there is an urgent need to maintain a balance between core and non-core resources in order to achieve and operationalize critical mass of the UN development system. The Group would also like to stress the need to avoid the use of core resources to subsidize non-core activities, and reaffirms that the guiding principle governing the financing of all non-programme costs should be based on a full cost recovery, proportionally, from core and non-core funding sources.

7. Third, the Group would like to reiterate the need to mainstream the 2030 Agenda and other inter-governmentally agreed development commitments into the system-wide planning and reporting as well as to strengthen coordination and coherence at the country level to enhance effective utilization of diminishing core resources and the expertise of the UN funds and programmes and specialised agencies.

Mr. President,

8. The Group of 77 and China looks forward to continuing its engagement in the operational activities for development of the UN development system in a constructive manner. The Group stands ready in the same spirit to engage in the ongoing dialogue on longer-term positioning of the UN development system and the upcoming deliberation of the 2016 QCPR.

I thank you.