Mr. President,

The Chinese delegation wishes to thank Ms. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under Secretary General and Executive Director of UN Women, for her statement. We appreciate the efforts that the Executive Board Secretariat has put in the preparation for the current Session.

Over the past year, UN Women continued to promote gender equality and women empowerment vigorously, conducted “Beijing + 20” global campaign and “He for She” initiative actively, and joined the United Nations System Response to the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa. At the same time, the management of UN Women focused its attention on improving its performance through evaluations, strengthening information disclosure and increasing transparency. China appreciates all the above efforts. Having perused the report of the Global Evaluation Advisory Committee on the external assessments of the evaluation function of the UN Women and other reports submitted by UN Women, the Chinese delegation wishes to make the following comments on its work:

First, it is essential to carry out normative support and country programs in a balanced manner. One of the major functions of UN Women is to provide support to the Commission on the Status of Women and other intergovernmental bodies and formulate global women’s development policies. In recent years, however, UN Women has generally focused more on country programs, with inadequate input in normative support. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and is a critical year in the formulation of the post-2015 Development Agenda. At this juncture, normative setting in the field of women is of paramount significance for global women’s development in the next 15 years. We hope that UN Women will increase both human and financial input in this regard, and promote serious implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action as well as the goals in the post-2015 Development Agenda that relate to women.

Second, it is imperative to adhere to the principle of country ownership while giving leading role to host countries. Given the variances across countries in terms of national circumstances and stages of development, UN women would do well to adapt itself to the local environment, design and implement country programs according to the actual needs of host countries, while providing targeted and constructive assistance. At the same time, UN Women should pay adequate attention to the leading role of host countries, strengthen coordination and cooperation with competent local authorities and other UN resident agencies, mobilize and utilize the initiative of all actors and maximize the efficiency of its own resources.

Third, it is critical to implement the recommendations from evaluations and audits and make better use of external monitoring institutions. China is pleased with the fact that the Global Evaluation Advisory Committee has given a positive assessment of the evaluations carried out by UN Women. Evaluation and audits will greatly help improve UN Women’s efficiency and efficacy. We note that UN Women has taken aboard all the recommendations of the evaluations and audits and set a timetable for item-by-item implementation. We hope that UN Women will convert the various recommendations to motivations for improving institutional development and provide a detailed account of the implementation of those recommendations in its future reports. We expect UN Women to make full use of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) and other external monitoring institutions.

Fourth, it is necessary to expand financing channels and ensure resource allocation for priority areas. China has taken note of the fact that in 2013, the majority of funding for UN Women came from voluntary contribution, whereas regular budget from the secretariat only accounted for 3%. We suggest that UN Women strengthen partnership with member states and other actors and go out of its way to secure and expand financing channels. China will give serious consideration to increasing its donation to UN Women in support of its implementation of the UN Women Strategic Plan, 2014-2017. The majority of the world’s poor are women, posing a serious challenge to sustainable development. We hope that UN Women will allocate its resources in a rational manner by prioritizing support for the economic empowerment of women in developing countries.

Thank you, Mr. President.