Ministry Statements & Speeches:
New Zealand warmly thanks you Executive Director Kanem for your leadership and unwavering commitment to advancing the rights and wellbeing of women and girls around the world. As this is your final Executive Board session, we acknowledge with deep appreciation your years of dedicated service and principled leadership of UNFPA.
Today, we welcome the progress report on the implementation of UNFPA’s Strategic Plan 2022/25 and the opportunity to underline the deep value we attach to UNFPA’s normative mandate. New Zealand reaffirms its commitment to effective multilateralism and UNFA’s critical work to advance gender equality, health and human rights globally.
As so many of us have stressed already, we are meeting at a time of unprecedented uncertainty for the UN system. New Zealand remains committed to protecting the norms and values of the UN and we support action that will enable the UN system to deliver on its core mandates in this fiscally constrained environment. In that regard, we are concerned by the ongoing decline in core resources and join others in calling for greater predictability and flexibility in funding. This is critical to ensuring that UNFPA can deliver on its mandate effectively and equitably, particularly in the most underserved contexts.
As a Pacific country, New Zealand remains committed to working alongside our Pacific partners and other Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to ensure that the region’s distinct needs—such as population resilience, youth engagement, and maternal health—are reflected in global decisions and resourced appropriately. We also welcome UNFPA’s emphasis on data, innovation, and humanitarian response, and commend its ability to operate with integrity and impact in some of the world’s most complex settings.
New Zealand looks forward to our continued partnership with UNFPA.