António Guterres (UN Secretary-General) on the…

Excellencies,The report I present today reflects a shared journey over nearly a decade.A journey marked by change.By difficult choices.And by steady, determined transformation.We began in 2017 with a clear objective: to ensure that the UN developmentsystem could support countries in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.The reports I presented at that time provided a candid diagnosis.The system was too fragmented when coherence was required.Too internally competitive when collaboration was essential.Too limited in structure and capacity to effectively respond to the needs ofcountries and people.Reaching our objective required ambition.It required:Closely aligning the UN development system with the Sustainable DevelopmentGoals themselves;Using the Pact for the Future to guide us, particularly its emphasis on better use ofdigital technology and Artificial Intelligence;Better aligning functions to country priorities;Strengthening capacities to deliver on country needs, enabling UNDP to focus onoperational delivery;And ensuring effective leadership and coordination within UN Country Teams.Together, with the strong support and guidance of Member States and colleaguesacross the system, we have reshaped how we operate.At the centre stands a strengthened Resident Coordinator system — empowered,independent, accountable and equipped to meet Member States' expectations.Cooperation Frameworks are enabling the system to work more closely aroundnational priorities.The UN development system has strengthened its coordination and responses.And we've reinforced accountability and transparency across the system.Together, the UN and Member States agreed on a Funding Compact — to providemore flexibility and predictability of resources to allow the system to work bettertogether.The report I am presenting today demonstrates the results of these reforms.Recent surveys show that 94 per cent of governments now assess UN developmentsystem support as effective.The share of host governments recognizing Resident Coordinators as effectiveentry points to the UN system increased from 62 per cent in 2019 to 90 per cent in2025.And 80 per cent of host governments report solid UN support in transformativeareas — from food, health and education, to digital learning and climate action.These results are reflected in people's lives:More people receiving food assistance.More children gaining access to education.More individuals and families benefitting from social protection.And more national institutions better able to deliver on development.We have also made progress on efficiency.In 2025 alone, UN entities reported well over $900 million in efficiency gains,including by streamlining services and supply chains, increasing the use of sharedservices and other measures.We will continue to relentlessly ensure sound financial stewardship of funds in themost effective and impactful way possible.Excellencies,The United Nations development system today is more coherent, more accountableand more closely aligned with national priorities than it has ever been before.But with less than 1,700 days until the 2030 deadline, many countries face growingpressures — slowing growth, rising vulnerabilities and debts, greater exposure toshocks, and shrinking fiscal space.At the same time, development financing is declining at an unprecedented pace.The system is better equipped — but increasingly under-resourced.This is a defining moment.The direction we choose now will determine whether the progress of the pastdecade holds — or unravels.I see four areas where action is essential to ensure the UN can deliver with thescale and urgency needed.First — more effective alignment with country and regional priorities.Despite best efforts, the UN development system remains fragmented.This limits the ability of UN Country Teams to provide integrated responses.Capacities present in country are not always the capacities needed to deliver thesupport required — including because Country Teams are responding toearmarked funding and project-based approaches.The work of regional teams often remains disconnected from needs on the ground.Missed opportunities persist to unlock development resources by working togethermore efficiently.This is why we must bring reforms to the finish line — and raise their ambition.At the country level, we will continue reconfiguring Country Teams aroundCooperation Frameworks with clear, sequenced targets and strategic fundingpathways.This also means more and better expertise that is easily accessible and better ableto support governments in their development efforts.At the regional level, we will bridge the gap between regional capabilities andcountry-level impact.Regional Platforms for Integration will unite capacities across development,humanitarian, and peace and security into light, responsive mechanisms — built toprovide timely, agile support to countries.This means no change in — or confusion of — mandates.Our goal is to ensure countries can access assets across the UN system to deal withcomplex challenges.To do this, we are recalibrating the leadership and capacities of the ResidentCoordinator system.We must ensure that Resident Coordinators can optimally lead Country Teams infast-evolving contexts and apply the full extent of the UN development system'ssupport on key issues, including climate change.We are also assessing potential mergers — between UNDP and UNOPS, andUNFPA and UN Women — to strengthen our ability to advance sustainabledevelopment and gender equality, while advocating for the rights of women, girlsand youth.At every step, we will respect mandates, consult with Member States and ensurethat reforms do not affect ongoing UN operations.Second — we are continuing the next phase of reform under the UN80 initiative.UN80 contains key proposals to identify efficiencies and ensure a greater share ofour resources — human and financial — are allocated for development results.These include:Joint knowledge hubs to streamline knowledge in priority areas; An expertise-on-demand mechanism for countries to access specialized UNcapacity; A unified service roadmap to expand shared services; And a technology accelerator platform and a system-wide data commons socountries can access the tools and information they need.These are practical measures designed to channel more resources and capacitytowards results on the ground.As we push forward on these important reforms, we will continue counting on thefull engagement and support of Member States.Third — funding.Contributions to the UN development system suffered the highest cuts among alldevelopment partners and are projected to decline further this year.Core funding remains well below agreed targets.Most funding continues to be short-term and tightly ear-marked — limitingflexibility and undermining collective priorities.And the RC system remains underfunded and dependent mostly on voluntarycontributions — and faced a $46 million shortfall in 2025.This places coordinated delivery at risk.While the provision of $53 million from the regular budget for the RC system wasa step in the right direction, it is not sufficient.Sustainable structural change cannot rely on temporary measures.We need more stable, predictable and flexible funding.I urge Member States to reach the 30 per cent core funding target called for by theFunding Compact, and help equip the system to deliver and succeed.And fourth — in these final years towards 2030, we need Member Statesthemselves to continue the push to achieve the SDGs.While the UN is reforming, Member States need to give coherent guidance acrossgoverning bodies of the UN development system.They also need to ensure their national budgets are targeted to development, job-creation, education and poverty-eradication.In the context of today's out-of-control military spending, countries need toreprioritize, and spend more on the instruments of peace and development and lesson the instruments of destruction and death.And I renew my call to Member States to support our efforts to reform the globalfinancial architecture and deliver meaningful debt relief to countries swamped bydebt.Last year's Sevilla Commitment pointed the way forward, and I call on allcountries to translate its great promise into reality for developing countries.Excellencies,Our experience over the past decade has shown that change is possible.The system we have built is stronger — but its success depends on continuedeffort, commitment and support.In short, reform can work — but we need to keep working together.Let's continue building a stronger and more effective development system thatdelivers for countries and people everywhere.Thank you.