(As delivered)

Statement by Mr. Katsuhiko Imada
Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations

On Agenda Item 149: Administrative and Budgetary Aspects of
Financing of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations

Second Resumed Session of the Fifth Committee
United Nations General Assembly
9 May 2017

 

 

Mr. Vice-Chair,

 

          The overview reports covering cross-cutting issues of financing United Nations Peacekeeping Operations have been an integral and indispensable part of PKO budgets. My delegation is of the view that these overview reports have a vital role in ensuring the administrative and budgetary consistency of all the missions, and provide an important basis for the overall policy discussion by the Member States in the 2nd resumed session of this Committee toward the efficient, effective and accountable management of peacekeeping operations.

 

          In this sense, my delegation wishes to thank Ms. Maria Costa, Director, Peacekeeping Financing Division, OPPBA, for introducing the Overview Report. Also, my delegation wishes to express appreciation to Mr. Carlos Ruiz Massieu, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), for the work of the Committee and for introducing the report of the ACABQ on this matter.

 

          A number of issues covered in these two reports are of key importance in the discussion on PKO budgets, and will require further discussion in the informals to follow. I would like to briefly touch upon a few that draw the attention of my delegation.

 

          Issues of support ratio and scalability, budgetary redeployment, programmatic activities - particularly the request made by the General Assembly in paragraph 69 of its resolution 70/286 and the relationships with the UN Country Teams - are among those that drew my delegation’s special attention. PKO missions, individually and in their entirety, need to have structures that meet the exact requirements to implement their mandates, but not in excess. My delegation expects serious discussion on these matters as they all relate to the principles of the financing of this Organization. In this connection, my delegation notes with great interest the observation by the ACABQ in paragraph 181 of its report regarding programmatic activities that further analysis is required in this regard and that it intends to keep this matter under review.

 

          My delegation also notes with great interest Chapter II of the report of the Secretary-General, “Direction forward for peacekeeping”, particularly paragraph 10, which says “To that end, the Secretary-General established an internal review team to examine existing recommendations for change in the peace and security architecture contained in, but not limited to, the three reports referred to in paragraph 6 above.”  My delegation believes that, in doing so, it is particularly important to give fair and careful consideration not only to the progress made so far but also to those issues that have not been agreed upon by the Member States/intergovernmental bodies, including those that the Secretary General has already gone for the realization of the recommendations so far. In this connection paragraph 13 of the ACABQ report also needs to be taken into account.

 

          I wish to conclude by reiterating my delegation’s basic positions, as mentioned in the opening of this session; that assessed contributions should only be used for adequate purposes; that resource requirements proposed by the Secretariat need to reflect the intention of the intergovernmental bodies in a correct and precise manner; and that the Fifth Committee is the body entrusted with the responsibility over administrative and budgetary matters.

 

Thank you Mr. Vice-Chair.