Ministry Statements & Speeches:
Executive Director,
New Zealand commends UN Women for its continued leadership in advancing gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in an increasingly complex global environment. In this context, UN Women's triple mandate remains more important than ever.
We particularly welcome UN Women's focus on reaching those most at risk, including in fragile and crisis-affected settings, and its efforts to strengthen national systems, support women's organisations and movements, and promote locally led approaches. We continue to value UN Women's normative leadership and its role in ensuring that gender equality remains a system-wide priority across the United Nations.
New Zealand places particular importance on UN Women's engagement in the Pacific. Women and girls across our region continue to face disproportionate challenges, including climate-related risks, economic vulnerability, low levels of political representation and high rates of gender-based violence. We welcome UN Women's continued work to support women's leadership, resilience and economic empowerment in Pacific Island countries.
Turning to the broader system context, New Zealand strongly supports the Secretary-General's UN80 initiative. We need a UN development system that is more focused, efficient and coordinated, while ensuring that gender equality remains central to the UN's work. Reform efforts should strengthen delivery and impact at country level while preserving the expertise and mandates that Member States have entrusted to UN entities.
As we consider proposals under the UN80 process, New Zealand supports evidence-based reform and has carefully considered discussions regarding a potential merger of UN Women and UNFPA. While we remain committed to ambitious reform and welcome efforts to identify greater efficiencies and coherence across the system, we are not currently convinced that sufficient evidence has been presented to demonstrate that a merger would deliver efficiency gains of a scale that would outweigh the associated risks. We are also concerned that merger proposals have not adequately demonstrated how the distinct mandates, normative functions and comparative advantages of both organisations would be protected.
We would therefore welcome continued work on ongoing and alternative reform options that could strengthen coordination, improve efficiency and enhance impact while safeguarding the unique strengths and mandates of both entities. We look forward to further analysis and discussion of these options as requested by the Executive Boards.
Finally, New Zealand remains concerned about the challenging funding environment facing UN Women. Core funding remains essential for UN Women to deliver on its mandate and maintain its normative leadership. We encourage all partners to continue supporting the organisation through quality funding.
In closing, New Zealand reaffirms its strong support for UN Women and its vital role in advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls globally.