Madam President,

China thanks Madame Phumsile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women for her statement, appreciates the draft UN Women Strategic Plan 2018-2021, and wishes to make the following statement.

Firstly, more attention should be paid to women's economic empowerment. Only by helping women eliminate poverty and achieve development, can gender equality and women's empowerment be realized, which is all the more important for women in developing countries. We hope that UN-Women will increase its input in women's development in the new plan to, in particular, help eradicate women’s poverty, and improve their education, employment and health. We note that in the draft new strategic plan, women's income security, decent work and economic autonomy is the third strategic priority area. We recommend that women's education and health be also integrated in this area. We believe that the proportion of funding for women's economic development should be the highest in all priority areas.

Secondly, the principle of national ownership of programs must be adhered to. UN Women, in carrying out programs in countries, should respect their needs, priorities and national ownership. It should also strengthen communication and consultation with relevant government departments in program countries in order to truly benefit the people from these programs. China appreciates the multiple references to the "national ownership" principle in the new draft strategic plan, and hopes that the plan will give it an even stronger reflection and have it implemented in practice.

And thirdly, more assistance should be given to developing countries. Due to various restricting factors, developing countries face enormous challenges in achieving gender equality and women's empowerment. In developing the new strategic plan, UN-Women should give stronger focus on developing countries and help them overcome difficulties. Support should be given to strengthening capacity building in developing countries, in particular by giving technical assistance to gender data collection and analysis, and assisting women in innovation. The flagship projects should be results-oriented for achieving real impacts.

Thank you, Madam President.