Vienna Chapter
Mr. Chairman,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Group of 77 and China and
I am pleased to convey to you our pleasure in seeing you presiding over
the 48th reconvened session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND). I
also take this opportunity to thank the Secretariat for the preparation of
this resumed session and particularly for the preparation of the extensive
budget documentation.
The Group would like to make some preliminary observations on the
main item of the agenda for this session, that is, the consolidated budget
of UNODC for the biennium 2006-2007.
We are happy to note that the budget document is more concise
compared with previous budgets. The Group notes that the pattern of the
budget document has changed in relation to the format used for budgets in
the previous years, which makes comparison difficult. To make the budget
document more user-friendly, the Group proposes that a glossary of
terminologies be added to the document. In the present budget document,
the term "General Purpose Funds", which was used in several
resolutions adopted by the CND, is replaced by the term "Core Funds".
This change of terminology, due to variation from what was referred to in
the earlier resolutions, is likely to create difficulties and confusion
for Member States. In fact, the guidelines for deployment of General
Purpose Funds and the priorities for the same were also prescribed in one
of the resolutions which was approved by the ECOSOC and the General
Assembly.
The Group is pleased to note that the consolidated budget has
increased by about 6% over the previous biennia. We share the concern
highlighted in the budget about the increase in the share of earmarked
funds and the decrease of the general purpose funds/core funds as
indicated in the Consolidated Budget for the biennium 2006-2007. The Group
urges flexibility on the part of Member States in their voluntary
contributions in order to facilitate the effective implementation of the
mandates given to UNODC by the Commission. This is especially important
given the fact that UNODC is facing a situation where on one hand the
earmarked contributions for the programme are going up, and on the other
hand, there is shortage of funds for the support and the core component of
UNODC. The situation becomes even more difficult because the regular
budget has maintained a zero growth, at a time when UNODC has been given
new responsibilities.
Furthermore, the Group notes with concern the report of the
Independent Evaluation Unit, that due to the strategic weaknesses
pertaining to a lack of an overarching organizational strategy and the
existing unstable and unpredictable funding mechanism, UNODC's ability to
deliver its programmes and projects effectively and efficiently is
threatened, thereby weakening UNODC's ability to deliver technical
assistance programmes to assist Member States to actively participate in
efforts to control drugs and crime.
The Group welcomes the approach of making the budget result-based, in
accordance to the recommendations of the Independent Evaluation Unit. The
achievement indicators would help in assessing the effectiveness of the
programme delivery as well as making improvements in the technical
assistance being offered to the Member States. In this regard, the Group
is of the view that the achievement indicators should be objective,
concrete and measurable. It is seen that some of the achievement
indicators do not meet these criteria. We would urge UNODC to continue to
further improve and refine achievement indicators.
In this context, the Group of 77 and China takes note of the
initiative taken by the Executive Director, in his note accompanying the
2004 Annual Evaluation Report, in which he calls for the consideration of
the establishment of an informal advisory group of Member States which
would assist the Office in examining ways and means of matching
anticipated funding with operation strategies. This initiative was also
highlighted by the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and
Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) on the consolidated budget for 2006-2007 in
paragraph 14, where it states that it would be valuable to establish a
consultative body to assist the Executive Director, in the management of
the drug programme and the crime programme.
In this regard we would also like to point out that the priorities
led down by CND sometimes differ from the priorities of major donor
countries and therefore we would like to encourage more dialogue among the
UNODC, and all stakeholders especially those countries where projects are
implemented to ensure that UNODC has sufficient funds to carry out
projects in all the regions in accordance with priorities set by the CND.
Therefore, the Group calls for the establishment of an intergovernmental,
open-ended informal consultative group.
Mr. Chairman,
Finally, Mr. Chairman, the Group wishes to indicate its preference
for a five days, Monday to Friday duration for the 49th session of the
CND. We would like to stress the importance of advance preparations and
consultations, between the Member States and the Secretariat to ensure the
successful outcome of the five days' session of the Commission. As for the
thematic debate for the 49th session, the preference of the Group is for
the theme on "alternative development, including preventive
alternative development", which we believe is essential to the
success of the world wide drug control strategy. The Group is of the view
of establishing an open ended working group with interpretation to
structure the content of the thematic debate, recalling the importance of
the establishment of such group during the last sessions of the previous
CND.
Mr. Chairman, these are our preliminary comments and the Group looks
forward to working with you and the Member States during the session.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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