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Mr President
I have the honour to present this statement on behalf of members of the Pacific Islands Forum based in New York, namely, Australia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and New Zealand.
At the outset, I thank the Secretary-General for his report on cooperation between the United Nations and regional and other organisations (A/63/228). The cooperation between the United Nations and the Pacific Islands Forum has gained momentum in recent years, and we are pleased that the United Nations accepted observer status at the Forum in December 2006.
We encourage regular consultations between our Forum’s Secretariat and the United Nations, as well as United Nations participation in meetings of Pacific Islands Forum leaders, with a view to fostering closer partnerships through knowledge-sharing and cooperation.
We welcome the cooperation of United Nations Funds, Programmes and Specialised Agencies to help Pacific Island nations address and overcome the ever-growing challenges before us, especially the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The “United Nations Delivering as One” processes are underway in the Pacific region. The development of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework for the Pacific Subregion 2008-2012 (UNDAF), which brings together 15 UN agencies located in several different countries, has been a significant step toward implementing this approach.
We also need to work closely together to ensure full and effective implementation of the Mauritius Strategy for Further Implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, to name a few of the important areas of shared interest on the United Nations agenda.
Global financial and economic turbulence, and the threat of global recession, pose great risks to all of us. Small, isolated economies like many of those in our region are especially vulnerable. The Forum’s engagements with the United Nations and its Funds and Programmes help to address areas of vulnerability, and strengthen national and regional development, including capacity development, thereby strengthening our region’s ability to engage with the international community.
There are already a number of areas of valuable cooperation. UNDP has supported implementation of the Forum’s Pacific Plan, which is the overarching framework for collaboration and cooperation among the Forum countries. We also appreciate the work done by UNDP and ESCAP to support the integration of Millennium Development Goals into national development strategies in our region. Other assistance has been provided in the areas such as disaster risk management, human security, anti-corruption, private sector development, and on disabilities issues.
Donor coordination and aid delivery in accordance with the principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness has been a growing focus in our region. Pacific leaders have adopted the Pacific Aid Effectiveness Principles, emphasising the importance of this work to the region. We welcome the work of the UNDP Pacific Centre on enhancing donor coordination in the region and we look forward to continuing to work closely with UN agencies in this respect.
We are grateful for the work done by UNEP in our region on sustainable development, and for its support for the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), which is involved in a range of environmental programmes in the Pacific. UNICEF’s efforts focussed on improved nutrition, child immunisation, better quality child-focused data and budgeting are much needed. We welcome UN agency engagement with Pacific regional organisations in coordinating the region’s response on HIV and STIs.
Mr President
These areas of cooperation, and the many others that have not been listed, are greatly valued, as is the strengthened UN presence in our region in recent years. However, we believe that there is scope to do significantly more and, in particular, to increase the impact of the partnerships between the United Nations system and the Pacific Islands Forum. We urge all UN agencies operating in the region to constantly assess their role and engagements against the central role of Pacific regional agencies. There are challenges in delivering effective support to the island States of our region and it is critical that we all look to maximise collaborative action and avoid duplication.
Finally, we note that the Pacific Islands Forum covers a vast region of island States and our region is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. A resolution entitled “Security and Climate Change” has been submitted by Pacific Small Island Developing States under agenda item 107. We encourage all Member States to support that resolution.
Thank you
