STATEMENT BY MR MARK SEAH, DEPUTY PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE TO THE UNITED NATIONS, AT THE 2024 UNITED NATIONS PLEDGING CONFERENCE FOR DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES 17 MAY 2024, NEW YORK

[Mdm/Mr] President,

1              Congratulations on your election as President of the 2024 United Nations Pledging Conference for Development Activities.  Singapore is pleased to participate in the first reformed and modernised Pledging Conference since the adoption of the 2021 decision 75/511 which, among other things, broadened the scope of the Conference to include all UN system entities with operational activities for development and focused the Conference on activities that the UN system as a whole delivers.  To this end, we thank the panellists for their presentations on development funding.  The presentations were certainly useful to our understanding of funding trends and how we can help step up funding in lagging areas. 

2             Singapore is pleased to have pledged a total of 665,000 United States Dollars for the United Nations’ development activities for 2024 to date.  This includes USD300,000 to the UN Development Programme.  [Note: Breakdown is at Annex.]  The relevant UN agencies, funds and programmes would have been informed earlier this year of our pledges.  Singapore will continue to respond to and support other United Nations activities throughout the year as and when opportunities arise. Pledges for these additional voluntary contributions will be conveyed to the relevant UN agencies at the appropriate time.

3             The SDG Summit last year turbo-charged progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.  We hope that our pledges, together with those of other countries, will contribute to these efforts through advancing the development initiatives of the United Nations system.

Thank you. 

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ANNEX

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