UN RC statement at Delivering Results Together Fund Practice Meeting

Colleagues from the UN System,

Honorable guests,

First, I would like to thank UNDOCO for choosing Addis Ababa as the venue for this global DRT-F practitioners meeting. The popularity of Addis as a meeting venue usually creates additional demands on our RC Office. However, we are more than compensated by having great opportunities like this one which allow myself, as well as members of the UN Country Team and the RC Office, to learn first-hand about latest developments and initiatives under the UNDG agenda and to exchange our views and experiences with eminent colleagues from Headquarters, the Regional UNDG and other Delivering as One countries.

With regards to the focus of this event, the Ethiopia UN Country Team has greatly benefited from the DRT-F since 2014 providing integrated UN policy advice to Ethiopia through a number of initiatives including Social Protection Joint Policy Initiative, Counter Trafficking and Migration Policy and Practice in Ethiopia and Joint Policy Initiative for Women’s Health Rights. 3 Ethiopia UNCT has been breaking new ground by understanding the policy dimension as one of the fundamental pillars of the DaO process.

The DaO structure in Ethiopia therefore includes a Joint Policy Advisory Team which serves as a UN internal think tank to inform and nurture the other DaO pillars, in particular the One Programme and Communicating as One. The latter has a strong emphasis on joint UN advocacy on key development and humanitarian themes with the organization of a series of national multistakeholder policy fora on Food Security, Youth Employment and Social Protection, for example. Currently, the Joint Policy Advisory Team, together with nominated UN focal points is supporting the rollout of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs in Ethiopia.

The basis for the SDG rollout is a comprehensive Action Plan which allows the UN system to closely partner with Government on promoting and localizing the SDGs, as well as providing technical support to monitoring and reporting, as well as to financing of the SDGs. 4 We are particularly happy to note that this DRT-F practitioners meeting not only serves to take stock of the achievements under DRT-F but also looks forward to determine future mechanisms for providing integrated UN policy advice. Just a few weeks ago, the UN here in Addis was hosting consultations of the Independent Advisory Team nominated by ECOSOC to discuss the future long-term positioning of the UN system under the 2030 Agenda.

The consultations clearly confirmed the role and comparative advantage of the UN system in managing such a comprehensive agenda that brings together the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. The Independent Team of Advisors also stressed the need for the UN system to become “fit for purpose” so that it can provide effective leadership and support to achieving the SDGs, in close alignment with their targets and indicator frameworks. In this sense, the outcomes of this meeting can make an important contribution towards equipping the UN system with the tools and resources for serving as a lead 5 partner to countries in the implementation and achievement of the SDGs.

On behalf of the Ethiopia UN Country Team, I wish you a successful meeting that results in informing emerging integrated policy frameworks for SDGs implementation. Let me conclude by emphasizing that we are fully committed to supporting the successor arrangements coming out of this meeting which seem to be very much in line with the future role and positioning of the UN system in Ethiopia and many other countries within Africa and in other regions.