Launch of the NZ UN Pacific Partnership

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On behalf of the UN team in Samoa, Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau, I would like to thank the Government of New Zealand High-Commissioner Jonathan Carr and colleagues at the HC in Suva for organizing the launch of the UN Pacific Partnership today, allowing all entities involved to be present in the event.

Allow me to also acknowledge the presence of the representatives of the Government of Fiji, the UN family present in the event, UN colleagues joining online and the host, the High-Commission of New Zealand in Suva.

For us in the UN team, the endorsement of the Pacific Partnership by the Government of New Zealand is a vote of total confidence given to the United Nations in the Pacific, the two Resident Coordinator Offices and the Funds and Programmes and most importantly to our UN Pacific Strategy. It validates its relevance to the Pacific seen by one of the major players in the region.

This partnership could not have come at a more opportune time for the United Nations and our joint efforts to improve effectiveness in our operations in the Pacific:

As you know, last Friday, the ECOSOC in the Operational Activities for Development Segment adopted the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review Report of the Secretary General, finally providing full endorsement of all of the UN reform pillars, all well reflected in the UNPP that we are launching today

• The newly defined role of the Resident Coordinator and the reinvigorated UN Country Team
• The Funding Compact that calls for strategic financing towards the SDGs
• The Multi-Country Office Review that gives us a clear way forward in the Pacific 
• The Regional Assets and the role of the Regional Economic Commissions  
• System Wide Evaluation function and
• System Wide Strategic Document that outlines principles of our engagement in the implementation of the SDGs

As you may know, in the Pacific, we have moved ahead with some recommendations of the MCO Review as of 2019 and reoriented our UN Pacific Strategies towards emerging country priorities by adding to the Strategy Joint Country Action Plans in all of our 14 PICTS.

We, also acted very quickly in response to the Pandemic to put together a Humanitarian Response Plan and Health Plan under the Joint Incident Management Team’s coordination

What we were missing was an adequate financing instrument, which we have successfully developed together by opening the UN Pacific Strategy Fund with the UN Pacific Partnership as a first pillar.

In your words today, Ambassador Carr, and in the message of the Permanent Representative to the United Nations of New Zealand at the ECOSOC OAS meeting in New York, the UNPP is a “next-generation” financing model.

In our words, this financing model and the partnership around it represent the new model of multilateralism in which financing allows beneficiary countries and providers of expertise to make strategic decisions together based on the sustainable development deficit and the SDG progress that needs to be made. Ultimately, development is a structural change that cannot be advanced through small, fragmented interventions.

While it follows all principles of the Funding Compact, the UNPP also aligns with the principles of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (the Busan process) that measures the quality of the development cooperation through, inter-alia, untied aid.

It is ultimately a vote of confidence in our partnerships with the countries we serve in the Pacific as well. The UNPP is an expression of trust in the capacity of the Pacific Governments to achieve progress together with the United Nations and its donor partners.

Equally important, the UNPP enabled the establishment of the first One Fund in the Pacific at the beginning of the Decade of Action, but also at the time of a profound crisis. This is the UN Pacific Strategy Fund that is now fully operational and within which New Zealand made a first contribution of NZ$ 24.7mill. As you mentioned, Ambassador Carr, this is indeed a global first as it is the first pooled fund to be established in support of a regional strategy after the endorsement of the UN Reform and funding outcome level objectives through the Resident Coordinators and the RCOs.

The choice of areas to be funded aligns with our assessment and the Government’s assessments around insufficient progress towards achieving sustainable development by 2030.

For instance, Samoa at its second VNR this July informed the HLPF of much more work needed on women’s empowerment, access to education and health services, data and analytics as well as institutional capacities for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Very importantly, the UNPP aligns with the topics of focus of the Issue Based Coalitions that have been established in the Asia-Pacific Region under the joint coordination of the UN Development System with the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), which inter-alia include: 

Promoting inclusion through scaling up access to basic services, social protection and cash transfers in the context of COVID-19, especially for the most vulnerable populations; people mobility and urbanization; and mainstreaming human rights and gender equality. Those are also the building blocks of the UNPP

In closing, allow me to:

Thank Katheryn Bekett, Peter Shackelton , Wendy Jackson, Deb Collins, Salli Davidson and all decision makers in the MFAT in Wellington, in the High Commissions in Suva and Apia for leading us to the positive conclusion of our negotiations and to the partnership we are launching today. 

Thank my colleagues in Suva, my fellow RC Sanaka Samarasinha, his office and Gulana and Mozeem in particular as well as my team in Samoa: Klem, Peta, Latoya for great collaboration around this partnership. Much gratitude also to our colleagues at the Multi-Partner Trust Fund for their guidance and prompt assistance in setting up the UNPS Fund and the first contribution that NZ made to our Strategy.

I wish to congratulate the Funds and Programmes for engaging confidently in this partnership and in a new funding modality that will ultimately benefit the entire UN team in the Pacific.

I wish success to all involved in the implementation of the UN Pacific Partnership. Sanaka and I will ensure we remain results focused throughout.

Many thanks to the Government of New Zealand also for the NZ$ 2.0mill allocated to the COVID-19 Multi-Partner Trust Fund for the UN-led Socio-Economic Response, an important commitment of our organization to assist countries to overcome one of the biggest challenges that our humanity has experienced in recent times.

Thank you! Vinaka Vakalevu!