Mr. President, Distinguished Members of the Board, UNDP Administrator,

I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the G77 and China.

Mr. Administrator, the Group of the G77 and China appreciates your comprehensive statement, acknowledges UNDP's valuable contributions to implementing national and regional development plans, as well as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and reiterates its full support to the vision and direction outlined in the UNDP Strategic Plan.

As the largest end-to-end UN development organization, UNDP is a crucial partner in enhancing and accelerating assistance to developing countries in implementing their respective sustainable development priorities and supporting their efforts to achieve them through collaboration with the Resident Coordinators.

The Group of 77 and China reiterates its grave concern about the decline by 23.1% in official development assistance (ODA) in 2025, the largest fall on record, and by 24 % in the case of UNDP's core funding over the same period. The Group extends its appreciation to all Member States that continue to provide its financial support to UNDP, and reiterates its longstanding call for a significant increase in core contributions, urging all development partners to reverse the current trajectory by providing adequate, predictable, and flexible funding, which is indispensable to achieving the Strategic Plan's objectives.

As you yourself have put it, Mr. Administrator, development is the smartest long-term investment we can make. To make the returns on that investment more visible, the Group sees value in the continuous enhancement of the assessment of results and impact at country level, while promoting transparency and accountability, within existing means and without additional cost to programme countries.

With less than 9 per cent of system funding flowing through pooled mechanisms last year, well short of the 30 per cent Funding Compact target, the Group acknowledges the need to continue to work to rebuild donor confidence and mobilize adequate, predictable and sustainable financing to meet the priorities of developing countries.

As we approach the final years for implementation of the 2030 Agenda, the Group of the 77 and China stresses that the United Nations development system must intensify its support to programme countries to accelerate progress in line with their national priorities. This requires strengthened multilateral cooperation, fulfillment of official development assistance commitments, enhanced access to concessional financing, debt sustainability measures, technology transfer and capacity-building support.

Mr. Administrator,

The Group of 77 and China reiterates its general support to the UN80 initiative and its overarching objective of achieving "a paradigm shift" in how the UN system organizes its work in order to deliver greater impact on the ground for the people we serve. The Group is of the view that any reform must be Member State-led, transparent and inclusive, and should place the views, needs, and priorities of programme countries at its centre and should not jeopardize the long-standing country-level work carried out by UN development entities, including UNDP, with which developing countries have built long-standing relationships of trust since its establishment in 1965. With regard to the proposal to merge UNDP and UNOPS, the Group of 77 and China looks forward to receiving the information requested during the UN80 dialogue held last Monday 8 June to continue to analyze the merit of the different options presented in the UNDP and UNOPS joint assessment.

In addition, the Group considers any reform should remain fully aligned with the QCPR and the UNDS repositioning resolutions, which emphasize agile coordination, comparative advantage, and country-tailored models. Country Programme Documents should remain the core programmatic and oversight framework, together with National Cooperation Frameworks, and any institutional adjustments should not weaken the Board's ability to guide, monitor, and hold the system accountable for country-level results. These efforts should go hand in hand with a Resident Coordinator system, responsive to national priorities and circumstances, and fully aligned with the principles established by Member States in the QCPR.

Mr. Administrator,

Amid the multiple global crises we are currently facing, we wish to reiterate our Group's firm support for your efforts to restore trust in international cooperation and strengthen confidence in the development system through greater cost-efficiencies and stronger results and deliverables for Member States.

I thank you.