Mr. President,

1. I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China. The Group welcomes this opportunity to present the views of developing countries on issues that are fundamental to strengthening the development pillar of the United Nations. We are of the view that enhancing the UN system's capacity to improve its response to the development needs of countries is vital, and speaks to the relevance of the Organization, in light of the many pressing development challenges we currently face.

2. We are confident that our work in this segment this year would guide the other processes that have an immediate and direct bearing on the UN operational activities, and thank the Secretariat for the useful reports which will facilitate our discussion.

3. In this context, the G77 and China salutes the adoption by the General Assembly of its resolution 64/289 on the system-wide coherence, which provide a comprehensive review of the current status of the work of the UN regarding the operational activities for development. This landmark resolution creates a solid ground for the deliberations on next resolution on the comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system.

Mr. President,

4. The fundamental characteristics of the UN operational activities for development must remain, among others, the universal, voluntary and grant nature, the neutrality and the multilateralism, as well as their ability to respond to the development needs of programme countries in a flexible manner. Moreover, the operational activities should be carried out for the benefit of recipient countries, at the request of those countries and in accordance with their own policies and priorities for development.

5. Strengthening the role and capacity of the UN development system to assist countries in achieving their development goals requires continued improvement in its effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and impact, along with a significant increase in resources. The Secretary-General's report before us (E/2010/70), while noting some positive trends in the levels of contributions received by the United Nations system in 2008 with an increase of 10 per cent in real terms from the previous year, reaching the highest level ever, at $22.2 billion. However, we note with concern the imbalance between core and non-core funding remains, with core resources representing about 29 per cent of the total contributions. The continuing imbalance between "core" and "non-core" resources highlighted in the report continues to remain a matter of concern and needs to be addressed more clearly. We feel that this is a major cause for incoherence in the UN development system, including at the country level, and leads to distorted and uneven approaches by the UN towards the implementation of development programmes in accordance with national host-government development goals.

6. It is essential that the implementation of resolution 62/208 includes a broader and more expeditious realization of the global partnership for development, as set out in the outcomes of major UN summits and conferences in the economic, social and related fields, such as the Millennium Declaration, the Monterrey Consensus and the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
 
7. The Group emphasizes the need for a strengthened global partnership for development, based on the recognition of national leadership and ownership of development strategies should be a guiding principle of UN operational activities at the country level. Partners should provide support for the realization of the objectives and goals of national development strategies. The entire UN system as well as the BWIs and bilateral donors should recognize the ownership of the concerned developing countries, align their cooperation programmes with the national development strategies and also harmonize their individual cooperation programmes with a view to making the optimum contribution to the realization of national development strategies.

Mr. President,
 
8. The Group of 77 reiterates the call from the Nairobi outcome document for the UN funds and programmes as well as the specialized agencies to take concrete measures to mainstream support for South-South cooperation including triangular cooperation to help developing countries, at their request and with their ownership and leadership, to develop capacities to maximize the benefits and impact of South-South and triangular cooperation. We strongly believe that the UN has an important role in supporting South-South cooperation in order for developing countries to effectively participate in the world economy and have a fair share of the benefits of globalization.

9. The Group wishes also to highlight that South-South cooperation is a complement and not a substitute of the traditional modalities of international cooperation. Most of the developing countries find enormous difficulties to generate both the resources and the human capital necessary to realize the different modalities of the South-South cooperation, amidst a very complicated international economic and financial environment, where the main negative consequences of the current economical crisis are most felt in the countries of the South.

10. Nevertheless, We believe that South-South cooperation should be explicitly incorporated into the operational programmes of all relevant bodies of the United Nations system and there should be coordination among various entities on the most effective way to support South-South cooperation. In this context, we welcome the recent initiatives undertaken by various UN bodies to establish new units and work programmes to support and promote South-South cooperation and urge other entities of the United Nations system to intensify their efforts to include South-South cooperation in the mainstream of their activities.

11. We call on the UN, funds and programmes as well as the specialized agencies to continue to enhance the capacities of developing countries to develop and formulate development cooperation programmes, strengthen the capacities of regional and sub-regional organizations and conduct research to identify areas where support for South-South cooperation will have the greatest impact. We also call on the UN regional commissions to play a catalytic role in promoting South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation through strengthening their technical, policy and research support for countries of their regions.

12. It is important, in this context, that the development pillar of the UN system expands, budget-wise, and maintains a strong presence in the field in as many developing countries as possible, including middle-income ones, in order to foster an agile and functional network of Resident Coordinators capable of providing direct support to South-South and triangular projects, making more extensive use of the institutional capacities, public policies, procurement and concrete experiences originating in developing countries that could prove to be effective, useful and practical in other developing countries. This means UN country offices should be encouraged to liaise with each other directly in order to support plurinational projects in different South-South and triangular configurations.

Mr. President,

13. The G77 welcomes the on-going working towards the creation of a central repository of information on the funding of operational activities, which is currently handled by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the CEB High-level Committee on Management. In this regard, we reiterate our position that setting up a framework to monitor all data related to non-core contributions, including thematic trust funds, to be considered as one of the core functions mandates of this repository.

14. The Group would like to stress that the outcome of the Operational Segment of ECOSOC should therefore serve that purpose, namely that it should improve the effectiveness of the UN system's response to the development needs and priorities of developing countries. The Council should therefore provide clear and direct guidance to the system, including its funds, programmes and specialized agencies, for the full implementation of General Assembly resolutions 62/208 and 64/289 on operational activities for development.

15. Finally, Mr. President, the Group of 77 and China reiterates its view that the advancement of the UN's development agenda rests with the full implementation of both the TCPR resolution and General Assembly resolution 64/289, including through the enhancement of the UN system's operational capacity to respond more broadly, effectively and efficiently to the needs and priorities of developing countries in support of their efforts to achieve the IADGs, including the MDGs.

I thank you,