The Seventh Meeting of the Steering Committee of the United Nations Peace and Development Trust Fund Successfully Held |
2022-10-14 15:50 |
On 14 October 2022, the seventh meeting of the Steering Committee of the United Nations Peace and Development Trust Fund (UNPDF) was held successfully via VTC. Mr. Courtenay Rattray, Chef de Cabinet of the Executive Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Navid Hanif, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Ambassador Dai Bing, Chargé d'affaire of the Permanent Mission of China to the UN, Mr. Shen Bo, Director-General of the Department of International Organizations and Conferences of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, and Mr. He Zhenguo, Director-General of the Department of Administrative and Law Enforcement of the Ministry of Finance of China, attended the meeting as members of the Steering Committee. The management team of the UNPDF reported to the meeting. The UNPDF was announced to be established for ten years by President Xi Jinping at the summit meetings commemorating the UN’s 70th anniversary in 2015. During the General Debate of the 75th Session of the UN General Assembly in 2020, President Xi Jinping announced that China will extend the Fund by five years upon its expiration. At the High-level Dialogue on Global Development held in June this year, President Xi Jinping announced to increase investment to the Fund. The Fund aims to support the work of the UN, promote multilateral cooperation, and make new contributions to world peace and development. Since its establishment, the Fund has supported more than 110 projects and benefited more than 100 countries and regions in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania. Ambassador Dai Bing said that the UNPDF has achieved remarkable results in this year. It has facilitated peace, security and development in developing countries, especially in Africa, promoted the implementation of the UN’s sustainable development goals, and deepened cooperation between China and the UN. China is currently the second largest contributor to the UN regular budget and peacekeeping assessments, and its scale of assessments to the UN has been growing continuously in recent years. Under such circumstances, China’s continued investment in and support for the Fund fully demonstrates its solemn political commitment and firm support for the UN. Ambassador Dai Bing emphasized that the Global Security Initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping contributed China’s vision to reducing the peace deficit facing humanity and provided China’s input to meeting global security challenges. The Global Development Initiative proposed by President Xi contributed China's strength to focusing on development issues and accelerating the realization of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, receiving positive response and support from the international community. China expects the Fund to continue to build high-quality projects in the field of peace and security and support the work of the Secretary-General, put development at the core of the Fund’s work, and foster new momentum for global development. China also hopes that the Fund will continue to strengthen project and budgetary management, amplify the cooperation results of the Fund, get more UN agencies on board, benefit more member states, and improve public awareness, reputation and visibility of the Fund. China is willing to use the Fund as a platform to deepen cooperation with the Secretariat, and continue to support the work of the UN and multilateralism. Director-General Shen Bo stressed that it is necessary to strengthen the planning, and improve the project design in accordance with the new situation and the needs of all parties. The Fund should expand the project effectiveness, and enhance oversight and evaluation to build the Fund into a flagship brand of cooperation between China and the UN, and play a greater role in promoting world peace and development. Director-General He Zhenguo stressed that China has been actively fulfilling its commitments and making contributions in a timely manner, which provides a strong guarantee for the operation of the Fund. It is hoped that the Fund will conduct in-depth research and analysis to ensure projects are "selected for the best", enhance budget implementation, oversight and evaluation, and report to the donor regularly. The UN Secretariat expressed its deep appreciation to the Chinese Government for its generous contribution, and said that the UNPDF has made positive progress and has become a seed fund, leveraging more resources and bringing bigger impact. The Fund has strongly supported the work of the UN in the fields of peacekeeping, counter-terrorism, and promoting peace and security in Africa. It is hoped that the Fund will explore and support cross-pillar cooperation projects and play a greater role in maintaining international peace and promoting common development. The Global Development Initiative and the Belt and Road Initiative have strongly promoted poverty reduction, economic development and connectivity, and played a huge role in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Secretariat is willing to continue to strengthen cooperation with the Chinese Government, implement projects well, and strengthen management, so as to continuously turn sustainable development from goals into reality. The Steering Committee meeting reviewed the overall work of the UNPDF, endorsed the proposed projects for 2022, and discussed better responses to the changes of international situation, enhanced management, evaluation, project design and flexibility. |