EU Statement – UNICEF Executive Board: Positioning to achieve the UNICEF Strategic Plan, 2022–2025

Mr President, Madam Executive Director,

I am speaking on behalf of the European Union as a donor.

The European Union is convinced that it is our common duty to deliver the best possible results for children. Therefore, we welcome your update on the implementation of the recommendations contained in the evaluation report.

Climate change puts almost every child at risk; affecting their access to food, clean air and water, healthcare and education. The implementation of a number of recommendations regarding climate and environmental action is in this context more than timely.

We support UNICEF's efforts to integrate climate action across its work, as well as recent undertakings to strengthen capacities in emergency preparedness and anticipatory action, in cooperation with sister United Nations agencies, the IFRC and other partners.

We are keen to see the implementation of pending recommendations by the end of this year. Shifting towards more holistic and multi-sectoral approaches will be key to achieve outcome-level change. It will also be important to strengthen partnerships and to seek better external convergence, including with the rest of the UN system and through pooled resources. In this regard, we strongly support the use of digital systems for UNICEF and its partners to better monitor outcome-level results.

Mr President, allow me to highlight three points:

1. UNICEF's determination to clarify accountabilities for the delivery of the Strategic Plan and the roll out of its updated accountability system is welcome. We look ahead to upcoming actions intended to facilitate the innovation and further enhancement of project management. In that spirit, as reflected in the design of the current Strategic Plan, we appreciate Management's commitment to strengthen change management capabilities, including through the full implementation of a corporate framework for guiding change management across the organisation.

1. We support the development of UNICEF's capacity to estimate resource requirements for achieving key Strategic Plan outcomes, in collaboration with other UN agencies, and based on an estimate of the cumulative resources needed by the different national and international actors involved. Consequently, we would like to hear more about the new approaches UNICEF is working on in this regard.

1. The importance of efforts to foster collaboration and ensure a joined-up approach to data, research, evaluation and knowledge management, notably projects piloted at the level of country offices such as the equity map, must be underlined. We are counting on the full implementation of UNICEF's updated global knowledge management strategy and we particularly support capacity-building activities, which should positively impact the elaboration of country programmes.

I thank you.