Statement by H.E. Mr. Kazuo Kodama
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Deputy Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations

on Item 2: Financial, budgetary and administrative matters
at the 2011 Second Regular Session of  the Executive Board of UN Women

5 December 2011

Thank you, Madam President,

     At the outset, let me thank Ms. Bachelet for her clear statement of the issues to be discussed. I would like to commend the efforts of Ms. Bachelet and her team for having produced the Institutional Budget for 2012-2013. The Budget is significant not just because it is the first substantive biennial budget, but also because it is the first-ever institutionalized budget responding to embody the Strategic Plan and prepared under the newly-appointed senior management team.

     Japan welcomes that the Institutional Budget prioritizes the enhancement of the efficiency and effectiveness of UN Women’s operation and management while also focusing on field activities. Japan has placed utmost importance on both issues.  We also welcome that the Budget addresses the issues of improved donor reporting and more transparent access to information. Japan takes note of the prudence displayed in formulating the Budget by taking into account the current global financial situation and appreciates that the number of country offices was reduced from that in the Strategic Plan. We also appreciate that the Budget has adopted a pragmatic approach to increase new posts gradually according to the actual growth of contributions. For these reasons, Japan is pleased to endorse the Institutional Budget for the biennium 2012-2013.

     We expect that, with the approval of this Budget, UN Women will strengthen its field presence in a “tailor-made” manner in accordance with the different needs of each country and the varying degrees of presence of other UN agencies in order to effectively implement the Strategic Plan. Japan also hopes that the Executive Director’s initiatives on the organizational efficiency and effectiveness as well as the regional architecture review will be fully implemented, taking into account the needs from the field and that the Executive Director will be in a position to present the full and concrete results of these initiatives to us at the annual session of the Executive Board next year.

Madam President,

     This year’s developments in the Middle East and North Africa, the so called “Arab Spring,” offers greater opportunities and challenges in the region for gender equality and the empowerment of women. We welcome that the Arab States Division is newly created in UN Women. We also welcome the adoption of the resolution on “Women and political participation” by consensus in the Third Committee last month. We expect that UN Women will lead and coordinate the efforts of UN country teams and contribute to the tangible results on women’s political participation as a positive sign of gender equality and the women’s empowerment. In this regard, I would be very grateful if the Executive Director could share her thoughts on the UN Women’s strategy to address these issues confronting countries in political transition.

I thank you, Madam President.