ASEAN values UN operational activities for development

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) appreciates the importance of the United Nations (UN) operational activities for development and believes that strengthening development cooperation is instrumental to consolidating and enhancing the mutually reinforcing pillars of the work of the UN.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) appreciates theimportance of the United Nations (UN) operational activities fordevelopment and believes that strengthening development cooperation isinstrumental to consolidating and enhancing the mutually reinforcingpillars of the work of the UN.

Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN, made the remark on behalf of ASEAN at a discussion on operationalactivities for development within the 69th session of the UN GeneralAssembly in New York, the US, on October 29.

Shesaid ASEAN welcomes the UN’s continuous commitment and invite the UNsystem to work even more closely with ASEAN to implement the JointDeclaration on Comprehensive Partnership between the two organisations.

ASEAN shared the concern of many countries aboutdeclining financial resources for development plans and called ondeveloped countries to meet their ODA commitments and the UN system tofocus on capacity building, which is crucial for the long-term abilityto address development challenges by developing countries, she added.

The bloc strongly supports actions and initiatives tostrengthen UN system-wide coherence at all levels, particularly the“Delivering as One” approach, which underlines the importance of strongnational ownership and alignment of UN programming with national plansand priorities.

The diplomat further said ASEAN encourages UN member states to promote South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation.

During the discussion, representatives from UN member states voicedtheir concern over the stagnation in funding for UN operationalactivities, which poses difficulties for the implementation ofdevelopment programmes and projects.

They called ondonor countries to honour their commitment to provide financing for theUN’s budget and the UN Development Programme in order to ensure theireffective operation.

On October 28, Ambassador Ngaalso gave a speech at another discussion on agriculture development,food security and nutrition.

She shared Vietnam’s experience inensuring food security and agricultural development, especially itsstrong political commitment to overall poverty eradication and policiesfacilitating production to contribute to regional and international foodsecurity.-VNA

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