Mission of Japanto the United Nations Permanent
' (212\223-4300 www un.int/japan/ Phone: New York,N.Y.10017 Plaza, 866 UnitedNations J A P Art N

BY STATEMENT H'E.MR.TosHIRo ozAwA AMBASSADOR NATIONS OF MISSION JAPANTO THEUNITED PERMAMENT OF CONSULTATION THEPLENARY INFORMAL ASSEMBLY GENERAL NATIONS OF THEUNITED REVIEW ON MANDATE 1 9J U N E2 0 0 6

Mr. Co-chair, Bob Orr for providing W e t h a n k y o u f o r c o n v e n i n gt o d a y ' s m e e t i n g . W e a l s o t h a n k M r . 5 years. The briefing u s w i t h h i s a n a l y s i so n t h e 3 8 2 n o n - r e n e w e dm a n d a t e so l d e r t h a n was very helpful.

MANDATESOLDERTHANFIVEYEARSANDNoN-RENEWED
would |ike to Before going to specific proposals and the road ahead, my delegation o m e n t i o n o u r p r e l i m i n a r y b s e r v a t i o n so n t h e s e 3 8 2 m a n d a t e s . older than 5 First, it appears that these 382 mandates do not cover all active mandates ( l ) o f 1 4 D e c e m b e r 19 4 6 i s t h e y e a r s a n d n o n - r e n e w e d . F o r e x a m p l e ,G A r e s o l u t i o n5 8 regular budget' original mandate for funding of technical assistance activities under the i n c l u d e di n t h e This mandatehas not been renewedin the recent 5 years, but it is not further Registry. As the Secretariat acknowledges, the Registry does require improvement. number of S e c o n d , a m o n g t h e s e 3 8 2 m a n d a t e s ,t h e r e s e e m s t o b e o n l y a l i m i t e d "non-recurrent." "effectively a c t i v e " m a n d a t e s . O n l y ' l 1 6 m a n d a t e s a r e c l a s s i f i e da s "recurrent mandates," some appear to be time-bound, and thus not Among the "effectively active" as of today. "renewed" e x a c t l y m e a n s ' F o r e x a m p l e 'y o u T h i r d , m y d e l e g a t i o ni s p u z z l e d b y w h a t mandate cannot argue that a new mandate which address only a small part of its original "renews" the old mandate in its entirety. Similarly, a mandate that authorizes the of Secretariat to review an older mandate but does not authorize it to changethe content s h o u l dh a v e t h e o l d m a n d a t ec a n n o t b e i n t e r p r e t e da s a r e n e w a lo f t h e o l d m a n d a t e . W e "olderthan 5 yearsand m o r e c l a r i t y o n t h e s e p o i n t s i f i n d e e dw e a r e t o d i s c u s sm a n d a t e s

non-reneweo. But, more imporlantly, we wish to make a plea to the Member States that the approach of "mandates l o o k i n ga t o l d e r t h a n 5 y e a r s a n d n o n - r e n e w e d " i s n o t o n l y i l l o g i c a lb u t a l s o , very unproductive. Japan has consistently argued that, for the short-term, we should pursue a results-oriented approach, which will enable us to agree on reasonable but tangible results in the short-term. With this in mind, my delegationwill circulate a list of proposals by Japan during the past informal GA plenary meetings as attachment to the

text of today' s statement. We do not expect that all of these proposals are going to be agreed, but we do think they are good candidatesfor action.

REGULAR PROGRAMME TECHNICAL OF COOPERATION M r .C o - ch a i r,
Today, my delegation would like to elaborate on one of our proposals in this list, a proposal on the regular programme of technical cooperation.

While the regular programmeof technical cooperationfalls, incidentally, under the "5 year old non-renewed," categoryof the our referenceto this programme shouldnot b e m i s c o n s t r u ea s o u r a c c e p t a n c e f t h i s a p p r o a c h . d o I n t h e 0 6 / 0 7 b i e n n i u mr e g u l a rb u d g e t ,$ 4 4 , 8 6 0 , 0 0is allocated for this programme. 0 About 80 per cent of these resourcesare used for the employment of advisers. We u n d e r s t a n dh a t 7 6 a d v i s e r s r e e m p l o y e d n d e rt h i s programme. That is to say, most t a u of the money does not benefit developing countriesdirectly through field projects or trainings.
The budget fascicle, i.e. section-wise budget draft, provides the objective of the regular "The programme of technical cooperation as follows: objective is to support, through the transfer of knowledge and expertise, developing countries, least developed countries, countries with economies in transition and countries emerging from conflict in their capacity-buildingefforts towards the achievement of internationallyagreed development goals and the outcomes of United Nations conferences and summits." This statement of objective is so generalthat it fails to provide any real sense of the unique role that the programme is intended to fill.

Allow me to cite some more specific complaints about this programme: Criteria used for the selection of projects have not been reviewed since '1980

Decisions for projects funded from this scheme do not require GA authorization. There is no designated programme manager for the regular programme of technical cooperation. Therefore, there is no one who could be responsible to the General light Assembly for defendingthe allocationsof resources or for proposing changes in the of changing priorities for the system as a whole. There is no one to be held accountable t o t h e G e n e r a l A s s e m b l y a s t o h o w t h e $ 4 4 m i l l i o np l u s m o n e y h a s b e e n s p e n t a n d h o w effective the work done under this programme has been' There is no reporting requirement towards the General Assembly. Therefore, the General Assembly is basicallyprovided with information on how the money might be used provided little when the budget is approved, but the Member States are subsequently information on how it was actually used. To sum up, the General Assembly is asked to approve a significant level of resources for each biennium, but the use of the resources is determined later on the basis of the reouests, but no reporting is provided to the GA on how the funds approved were used. Faced with outcry from some Member States regardingthe total lack of accountability, the Secretariat acknowledgedin the budget fascicle for the current bienniumbudget that "ln the absence of formal programmatic reporting,the achievements attained within the framework of the regular programme have not always been tangible." This is a typical c a s e o f m i n c i n gw o r d s . It is quite natural for my delegation to come to the conclusion that under the regular programme of technical cooperation there is serious lack of procedures for proper oversight, accountability and follow-up on the use of funds authorized by the General Assembly. In fact, these problems have been observed by ACABQ over a number of years. In the budget fascicle for the current bienniumbudget,the Secretariat belatedly indicated "performance reporting" for this budget section. Also, the SG their intention to initiate

proposed in this report A/60/133 to operate this programme under one programme manager. Furthermore, it is now argued that the decentralized system of the regular programme of technical cooperation is useful and necessary to respond flexibly to requests from developingcountries.

however,my Judging from the institutionaland systemic flaws of this programme, believes that such makeshiftmeasurewould only obfuscateproblems rather delegation countries. We do not accept the than provide value for money for the developing assumptionthat the decentralizedsystem of the regular programmeof technical servesthe demand the developing of countries. Sincemost of the advisors cooperation do not have additionalincome,their advisoryservices are likely to be supply-driven ratherthan demand-driven.
Therefore, my delegation proposes to totally discontinue the regular programme of "development t e c h n i c a lc o o p e r a t i o n . A t t h e s a m e t i m e , i n o r d e r t o k e e p t h e envelope" intact, my delegation proposes to redirect the resources fully to the Development Account. The Development Account is known to have appropriate procedures for oversight, perFormancereview, accountability and follow-up reporting. you If look at the Development Account's website (http:,//www.un.orglesaldevaccount/home.html ), you could understand why Member States can expect much better utilization of resources from the Development Account. The Development Account uses a three-phase project cycle, starting with the initial project design,followed by project implementationand completed by evaluation and closing. Followingthe approval by the General Assembly of the concept papers contained in the budget section for the Account, implementingentities will prepare detailed project documents based on further consultations with stakeholders (implementingpartners and target groups) and submit more thorough analyses of issues and needs for review and approval by the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, who is the programmemanager of the Account in his capacity as convenor of the Executive Committee on Economic and Social Affairs. The implementingentities are required to submit annual progress reports to the programme manager. These reports serve as a basis for monitoringthe progress made

Assembly. Lessonslearnedare then distilled reportsto the General and for preparing of manager the Account may entities.The programme and sharedwith the implementing by selectedreviews the status of implementation undertaking decideto further examine a s a n d w h e nr e q u i r e d . o l n P e J a p a n ' s p r o p o s atl o d i s c o n t i n u t h e R e g u l a r r o g r a m m e f T e c h n i c a C o o p e r a t i o a n d programmatic shift. Account does entail significant move the funds to the Development the United Nationsand serve shift that can strengthen This is the sort of programmatic t h e i n t e r e s to f u s a l l . T h a n ky o u .

MANDATE REVIEW Examples of proposalsmade by Japan in the past i:rformal GAplenary meetings
Maintenance of International Peace and Securitv

territories currently on its agenda. Committee has a negligible impact on the 16 non-self-governing Promotion of Sustained Growth and Suetainable Development

division of responsibility and consolidation of duplicated activities. be redirected to the DevelopmentAccount. concentrateon other activities such as sharing information on good practices. Development ofA-frica recommendations to Member States on streamlining them in the context of NEPAD and priorities identified by the African Union. Promotion of Human Rights promotion of human rights. Effective Coordination of Humanitarian

Aseistance

Third Committee should be consolidated into a sinsle item in the GA plenarv. Disarmament minutes every two years to adopt a report indicating that it could not reach consensuson a substantive agenda. It is duplicated by work in the First Committee. rnandate overlaps those of the SRSGsfor Burundi, the Central African Republic,DR-Congo,and the Great Lakes Region, as well as those of the Special Advisor for Africa and the Group of Experts for the DR-Congo. duplication should be examined. Promotion of Justice and International Law years its work has not had a significant impact. In addition, its program of work is duplicative with other bodies. Gender Equalitv and Empowerment of Women SpecialAdvisor on Gender Issues, UMFEM,
r4rwrl r^t

and INSTRAW.

nnlrr rha Tnror-agencyNetwork on Women and Gender Equality, but also the Chief Executive Board for Coordination needs to be utilized more effectivelv with the view to ensurins senior manasement level involvement. United Nations Research and Tlainins Institutions regular budget, then considerationshould be given to its possibleconsolidationwith an appropriate entity. prejudice to our assessmentofthe activities ofthese institutions. Other Issues given its extensive overiap of work with that of the Fifth Committee and ACABQ. The committee should be discontinued. The payment of travel expensesfor participants, which u'as initiated as an experiment over 20 Jiearsago, should also be discontinued.