Ministry Statements & Speeches:
New Zealand welcomes the draft UNFPA Strategic Plan for 2026–2029 and looks forward to its adoption at this Executive Board meeting. We commend UNFPA for its continued leadership in advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender equality, and the empowerment of women and girls.
This Strategic Plan is both timely and forward-looking. It builds on past progress while responding to today’s complex global realities. We particularly welcome its strong focus on equity and inclusion, youth leadership, and the integration of demographic resilience as a new strategic outcome.
We commend the Plan’s coherence and clarity. It presents a well-structured and integrated framework that connects global commitments with practical, country-level action. Its pragmatic design, anchored in realistic financing and a robust results framework, gives us confidence in its ability to deliver impact, even in the face of constrained resources and global uncertainty.
The Plan is well grounded in human rights principles and in a clear understanding of the comparative advantage of the multilateral development system. As such, we are confident it will help accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals, despite the mounting challenges facing member states in terms of ongoing conflict and fragility, climate change, and fiscal pressures.
New Zealand remains firmly committed to the full implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action and to achieving the three transformative results: ending unmet need for family planning, ending preventable maternal deaths, and ending gender-based violence and harmful practices.
We are proud to be a long-standing partner of UNFPA, and in that regard New Zealand was pleased to recently confirm our multi-year core funding to UNFPA for the next three years. The flexibility provided by such funding is even more important in a context of shrinking resources. We will continue to advocate for and invest in comprehensive SRHR, gender equality, and the rights and wellbeing of women and girls.
Our consideration of this Strategic Plan comes at a time of considerable uncertainty, and the multilateral development system is likely to undergo significant changes during the period it covers. Against this background, New Zealand stands ready to work with UNFPA, Member States, and the wider UN family to realise the full promise of this Strategic Plan. We remain committed to a multilateral development system that is inclusive and fit for purpose, that is an informed and effective partner for our Pacific neighbours, and that delivers for those most in need, now and into the future.