Vietnam calls for budget guarantee for UN development system

ABO/NDO- Minister Counsellor Le Thi Minh Thoa, Deputy Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the United Nations (UN), called for international efforts to ensure financing for the UN development system’s operation during a debate of the UN General Assembly’s Economic and Financial Committee on October 14 in New York.

Thoa highlighted the important role of the UN development system in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and addressing global challenges, stressing that it is necessary to provide an adequate and stable budget and ensure a balance between the regular budget and the mobilised budget to strengthen development activities.

Development partners need to increase their contributions to the regular budget to ensure that UN development activities are neutral, voluntary, universal and multilateral.

Minister Counsellor Le Thi Minh Thoa, Deputy Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the United Nations speaks at the debate (Photo: VNA).

The Vietnamese diplomat expressed support for the reform of UN development system to increase efficiency and cohesion, and better support for countries' efforts to meet the needs, priorities and strategies of each country.

Thoa also shared the UN Secretary-General's assessment that UN agencies should strengthen skills, expertise and institutions to better support countries in the process of energy transition and digital transformation, ensuring food systems, eradicating poverty, and promoting social protection, education, health insurance and climate action.

Cooperation at the regional level also needs to be strengthened to optimise expertise in order to support UN coordinators and agencies at the country level, she said.

Delegates also called for securing funding for the UN development system, which can assist countries in realising sustainable development goals (SDGs). They said that the UN development system needs to improve the efficiency of the use of resources to meet the demands, priorities and plans of each country.

(Source: NDO)