Madame President,

The Chinese delegation thanks Madam Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UN Women, for her statement and would like to make the following observations on the draft UN Women Strategic Plan 2018-2021 and the integrated budget for the biennium 2018-2019.

First, the new strategic plan should be developed and implemented more from a development perspective. Only by helping women eliminate poverty and achieve development, can gender equality and women's empowerment be realized. The Chinese delegation notes that in the draft new strategic plan, women's income security, decent work and economic autonomy is the third outcome. We maintain that women's education and health should also be integrated in this area. China hopes that, when UN Women implements the new strategic plan, more efforts should be made to promote work in women’s development and support developing countries to eradicate poverty and improve education, employment and health for women.

Second, as resources are limited, they should be better allocated. China notes that, in the new draft, the estimated allocation of resources for peace, security and humanitarian work account for 32% of the total, resources for eradicating violence towards women account for 29%, while resources for women’s economic empowerment only account for 20%. It needs to be pointed out that women’s peace and humanitarian work is restricted to a small number of countries and regions. For most developing countries, women’s economic empowerment is the priority area that requires urgent support. We recommend that UN Women adjust the estimated allocation of resources and put more focus on women’s development so that the resources for this work could have the highest proportion. We also call on developed countries to increase their contribution to this area.

Third, the principle of national ownership of programs must be adhered to. China appreciates the multiple references to the principle in the new draft strategic plan. We hope that UN Women upholds this principle in earnest as it implements the new plan. When carrying out programs in countries, the agency should respect their needs, priorities and national ownership. It should also strengthen communication and consultation with relevant government departments in program countries to truly benefit the people.

Fourth, UN women should expand and improve the financing channels. In recent years, UN Women’s financing sources have become increasingly diversified and its financing capacity has also increased. We suggest that UN Women, while consolidating its traditional donor basis, make efforts to increase the number of non-traditional donors and their amount of contributions, achieve a higher proportion of contribution to the core resources, and ensure the predictability thereof. When building partnerships with civil society and the private sector, it is important to comply with relevant United Nations financial and management regulations and to maintain the organization’s independence.

China attaches importance to the financing of UN Women, to which it has contributed 2 million US Dollars this year. China will continue to do so in the years to come so as to help contribute to resolving UN Women’s financing problems.

Thank you. Madame President.