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Working Party on the Programme Plan and Programme Performance, eighty-ninth session

Statement by Pedro Manuel Moreno, Deputy Secretary-General of UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

Working Party on the Programme Plan and Programme Performance, eighty-ninth session

Geneva, Switzerland
20 January 2025

Dear Mr. Hazem Abdel Samad, Chair of the Working Party,

Dear Ms. Anna Barbarzak, Vice-Chair of the Working Party,

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Working Party to review UNCTAD’s proposed programme plan for 2026.

I first want to provide more information on the context and then outline the key points of the plan.

The proposed plan builds on Secretary-General Grynspan’s vision on the way forward for UNCTAD, and your feedback on the proposals presented in the informal session last October.

While the document is fully aligned with UNCTAD’s current mandate – the Bridgetown Covenant - and other long-standing mandates, we are all aware that this is a conference year. Our membership will decide on the next mandate at its 16th ministerial conference in October. We will be able to use a special ad hoc review mechanism to adapt the programme plan to the extent possible to the mandate given at UNCTAD16.

I also want to emphasize that this document builds on the Pact for the Future that UN member States adopted last September. The implementation of the pact has important implications for UNCTAD as it gives us a specific role in several areas, namely:

  • For accelerating the reform of the international financial architecture, we and DESA are co-leading a working group on IFA reform.
  • For developing a framework on measures of progress on sustainable development to complement and go beyond GDP, we will collaborate with UNDP and DESA.
  • And for implementing the Digital Compact, the pact specifically recognizes the contributions of UNCTAD and requests the Commission on Science and Technology for Development to establish a dedicated working group to engage in a comprehensive and inclusive multistakeholder dialogue on data governance.

Furthermore, the proposed programme plan is cognizant of two other resolutions that were approved by member States at the end of last year and are directly linked to UNCTAD:

  • First, the resolution on South-South Cooperation which requests UNCTAD to support member States in applying the voluntary conceptual framework for the measurement of South-South cooperation.
  • Second, the resolution on promoting international cooperation to combat illicit financial flows requesting UNCTAD together with UNODC and partly with DESA to advance the work in this area through a global mapping of existing standards and guidelines, technical guidance and tools for data compilation and reporting.

With this context, I want to outline now the main elements of the document: The overall orientation, our 2024 performance, and our proposed results for 2026.

At the end, I will also give you an update on the budget approved for 2025.

Let’s thus start with the Overall orientation.

The overall orientation highlights that the world continues facing multiple challenges: From debt distress, slow growth, growing poverty and hunger, to widening inequalities, risks of fragmentation of trade and investment, geopolitical tensions, armed conflicts and climate change.

Therefore, fostering more inclusive and sustainable development and enhancing resilience to these challenges will continue guiding our work, especially how trade, investment and technology can offer means for economies to diversify and transition to a low emissions future.

We will be particularly mindful of the needs and priorities of vulnerable groups, such as Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States. In this respect, we will align our efforts and activities with the strategy to support Small Island Developing States.

We will also continue ensuring that gender perspectives are integrated in our work. This is key for more inclusive development trajectories.

Statistics and data are crucial. We consider them a cross-cutting resource and will further expand our data capabilities. We will continue supporting developing countries in building their capacity to collect and compile data and measure progress in sustainable, inclusive and equitable trade, growth and development, and provide novel methodologies and tools, including using the power of artificial intelligence.  

Effectiveness, coherence and efficiency must be underpinning all our work. We will ensure a cohesive and coordinated voice and approach through inter-divisional cooperation and co-creation.

To increase the sustainability and value of our work, we will continue forging strategic partnerships with entities in the UN development system as well as with entities from the private sector, academia, and other international and regional organizations. We will combine expertise and use the in-country presence of our partners.

To contribute to international policy debates on trade, investment and finance, cooperation with international financial institutions, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Group of 20 is key. With our contributions and engagement we want to foster informed discussions and facilitate cooperation on sustainable development while supporting the voice of developing countries. We have been very active on this front, notably in the G20.

This brings me to our performance in 2024.

As every year, the programme plan includes a highlighted result for 2024 for each subprogramme. As you know, the limitations of the template do not allow us to include all the work we accomplished last year. For that purpose, our annual report, published later this year, will provide a suitable overview.

In the programme plan we highlight the following key results:

  • Our work with Small Island Developing States to diagnose funding gaps to achieve climate-related Sustainable Development Goals;
  • Our policy guidance and tools to member States in support of sustainable finance practices in the context of increasing greenwashing concerns that contributed to improved sustainability practices in investment and finance ecosystems;
  • Our work on improving competition and consumer laws and policies of developing countries to promote open, efficient, and fair markets and further regional cooperation;
  • Advancing gender equality through enhanced capacity of young women scientists to leverage science, technology and innovation for sustainable economic development; and
  • Creating an enabling environment for intellectual property rights and equipping policymakers in LDCs with tools and options on how to use them strategically to unlock innovation, boost trade, attract investment and promote technological upgrading.

To give you more details on the implementation of all items in the Deliverables Tables, we prepared for you a Performance Report. It provides context to the numbers reflected and supplements the information provided in the programme plan document.

Let me turn to the proposed results for 2026.

These results are formulated considering the current context, the commitments of the Bridgetown Covenant and your feedback during the preparatory session of the Working Party last October.

The selection of the results mirrors the diversity of our work and makes use of UNCTAD’s three pillars of work - consensus building, research and analysis, and technical cooperation:

  • Under Subprogramme 1, we propose to focus on advancing sustainable transformation policies in developing countries through regional cooperation, including South-South and

triangular cooperation;

  • Subprogramme 2 proposes to focus on fostering a conducive business and investment climate in member States to support them in reaping the benefits of digital government for the promotion of investment in sustainable and inclusive development through formulation of specific recommendations and the development of instruments in support of a better business environment;
  • Subprogramme 3 will enhance the capacity of Member States to harness critical energy transition minerals for sustainable development through benefit sharing, value addition and economic diversification. This work will build on the principles and actionable recommendations of the UN Secretary-General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals whose Secretariat UNCTAD had been co-leading.
  • Subprogramme 4 proposes to enhance efficiency and climate-smart simplified trade procedures, with the help of the Automated System for Customs Data - ASYCUDA;
  • And finally, Subprogramme 5 proposes to enhance the capacity of selected Caribbean Small Island Developing States to formulate evidence-based policies to build productive capacities through strengthening their statistical capacity for improving measurement of productive capacities, in light of their vulnerabilities, and identify their gaps and challenges in order for these to be effectively addressed, including through using our Productive Capacities Index.

I will not go into further details as you will have the opportunity to discuss this week the proposed results with the Divisions.

In terms of process, and as per established practice, the proposed programme plan will be submitted to the Office for Programme Planning, Finance and Budget for their review of coherence and alignment with the whole UN Secretariat fascicle.

Then, it will be submitted for review to your counterparts in the Committee of Programme Coordination, experts in the ACABQ and the members of the Fifth Committee.

As mentioned earlier, I also would like to update you on the 2025 budget.

In December, our 2025 proposed budget was considered and approved by the Fifth Committee. This is good news!

While the final resolution is not available yet, the Controller’s Office informed us that the UNCTAD budget was approved at the level of 89’995’000 US dollars.

This includes 2.8 million dollars for the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding with the Russian Federation. The MoU is being implemented via the UN Task Team hosted at UNCTAD, and continues to be in effect until 22 July 2025.

The total budget includes additional temporary funds of 1.45 million dollars approved for the implementation of the Pact for the Future and the two resolutions on South-South Cooperation and Illicit Financial Flows I mentioned earlier.

In terms of posts, the 2025 RB staffing table includes 387 posts. We are pleased to confirm that our proposal for establishing a P-3 level post for the Assistance to Palestinian People was also approved.

I would also like to mention that the liquidity situation of the organization is still of concern and requires that we act with caution.  I understand the UN SG will be writing to member States in due course about the status and mitigation measures.

Before closing, I want to mention that we uploaded three management reports to the Delegates Portal. These are reports on the gender balance, geographical representation and internships in UNCTAD with data as at 31 December 2024.

I would like to finish by thanking you, dear delegates and regional coordinators, for your feedback and continued engagement, and also thank UNCTAD colleagues for preparing the plan and all supporting documents. This is a demanding process but thanks to your engagement, discussions and consultations we have a robust and relevant plan in front of us.

Thank you.