Statement by the Deputy Permanent Representative of Brazil to the United Nations, Ambassador Norberto Moretti, at the dialogue with the DSG Amina Mohammed on her report as Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Group about the activities of the UN Development Coordination Office and the UN Resident Coordination System, in context of the 2024 Operational Activities for Development Segment of the ECOSOC - May 14th, 2024

Madam Deputy Secretary-General, Mr. Vice-President of the ECOSOC,

It has also caught our eye that the new compact seeks to further empower the roles and activities of the Resident Coordinator System (RC System), through a number of incentives geared towards pooled funding, coordination, joint planning and programming and coherence. The pact even includes an indicator on the funding of the system itself, whose baseline seems to prejudge the total budget of the system, now under consideration in the V Committee of the General Assembly.

Allow us to reiterate our appreciation for the invaluable contribution of the RC System in terms of coherence, efficiency gains, alignment with host country priorities and resource mobilization. We also appreciate efforts regarding increasing visibility and accountability on results.

As we reaffirm our commitment to ensuring predictability and stability to the funding of the RC System, let us recall, however, that the development promise of the RC System will remain largely unfulfilled as long as agencies, funds and programs lack independence and flexibility to meet their multilateral mandates in line with priorities, needs, plans and circumstances of program countries. The quest for funding predictability, flexibility and stability should target both the RC System and individual entities of the United Nations Development System (UNDS) in a simultaneous and balanced fashion. Coordination, operational activities and normative policy support on the ground need to be strengthened in an integrated and mutually reinforcing manner.

As the locus of the discussion on the RC System funding model has moved from the II Committee to the V Committee of the General Assembly, it remains crucial to tackle this issue in a fair and pragmatic manner. We should lose sight of the systemic importance of the RC System in consolidating and strengthening the development pillar of the United Nations. But oversimplifying solutions are simply not fitting for multifaceted challenges and may create new distortions. In recognition of the improvements brought about by the RC System in the functioning of the UNDS, we remain committed to exploring practical and equitable solutions for the current financial shortfalls.

I thank you.