Trusteeship Council: Interactive Dialogue: The Pact for the Future and the UN Initiative, From Commitments to Delivery

Thank you, President, for convening today’s interactive dialogue on the Pact for the Future and the UN80 Initiative focused on moving from commitments to delivery.

It is an honour to join the Secretary-General and Ambassador Naanda in making some opening remarks. I am happy to be here in my capacity as the former co-chair of the mandates working group, but also as the former co-facilitator of the modalities for the Summit of the Future.

New Zealand is proud of our long-standing, active engagement in the UN. We deeply value the Organisation as a cornerstone of international stability, international law, and multilateralism. Eighty years on, our commitment to the Spirit of San Francisco is undiminished. 

But New Zealand also understands that expectations of the people we serve have evolved over the last 80 years, and so the United Nations must also evolve to meet these expectations. 

Together, the Pact for the Future and the UN80 Initiative provide an opportunity to revitalize multilateralism and to make the UN fit-for-purpose. They are complementary and mutually reinforcing.

The Pact provides a policy framework to accelerate action, including on the Sustainable Development Goals, and in response to emerging challenges. The UN80 Initiative represents an opportunity for enhanced operational effectiveness and efficiency in an era of complex geopolitics and constrained resources. 

New Zealand was proud to have partnered with Jamaica to develop Resolution 80/251, Mandate Creation, Implementation and Review for an Efficient and Effective United Nations, as part of UN80 workstream 2.

But agreements such as the mandates resolution and the Pact don’t mean anything if we don’t do what we have undertaken to do. 

For too long we have congratulated ourselves on getting a text over the line. But these self-congratulations have often been the end of our collective leadership effort. 

We must work together as leaders of this Organization – in our capacities as chairs of committees, co-facilitators of processes, presidents of boards, organizers of groups of friends, co-sponsors of initiatives, and managers of our missions, to change the habit we have fallen into of “setting and forgetting”.   

So, what will it take in practice to move from commitment to implementation? I wish to suggest five priority elements: 

1. Implementation and accountability mechanisms: We must embrace evidence-based decision-making to review our collective performance and hold ourselves - and each other – to account. 
2. Partnerships: We must strengthen our partnerships, including with civil society and other stakeholders, to ensure we deliver people-centred multilateralism. And, we must rebuild trust amongst ourselves as Member States.  
3. Comparative and competitive advantage: We must entrust and delegate actions to the parts of the UN system which are best equipped to handle them. 
4. Modernisation: As we transform the UN into an agile, technologically adept and operationally streamlined Organization with a stronger focus on on-the-ground delivery, we must take into account the interests of future generations.
5. Financial and political will: All the other elements I have mentioned will be difficult to achieve without predictable financing and a political recommitment to multilateralism.

Finally, I wish to congratulate Ambassadors Wallace and Brattested on their appointment as co-chairs of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Mandate Implementation Review. We have important work to do in the months ahead to implement the principles and actions agreed in resolution 80/251 across the UN system. 

I also wish to encourage the President of the General Assembly, the Secretary-General and his executive office, and the wider UN system to continue to ensure that UN80 Initiative workstreams are positioned to deliver on the Pact.

Thank you, President.