STATEMENT BY DEPUTY PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF SINGAPORE MR. MARK SEAH AT THE 2024 ANNUAL SESSION OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD OF UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS-UNDP SEGMENT: INTERACTIVE DIALOGUE WITH UNDP ADMINISTRATOR MR. ACHIM STEINER, 4 JUNE 2024, UNHQ CONFERENCE ROOM 3

Mr. President, Distinguished Members of the Board, Mr. Administrator,

1                 Singapore would like to express our deepest appreciation to the UNDP for your work and to Administrator Steiner for your strong stewardship, and we welcome the findings of the Midterm Review of the UNDP Strategic Plan 2022-2025. 

2                 The UNDP has a vital role to promote international cooperation to achieve the SDGs. It is therefore encouraging that the UNDP has been cross-linking country-level actions with its targets, using three enablers: digitalisation, innovation, and finance. It is our view that the UNDP should continue to promote South-South Cooperation in the discharge of its mandate, and we welcome that 16 percent of UNDP projects in 2023 contained output to advance South-South Cooperation, up from 12.7 percent in 2021. Allow me to make two quick points:

3                 First, we call for greater and more cohesive private sector resource mobilisation is needed. The private sector and business community must be transformed into ‘first responders’ for the SDGs. We welcome the UNDP’s efforts to generate investment-ready project pipelines and de-risking tools, in partnership with the private sector. However, there is a need for a clearer definition of the role of the private sector in such efforts and an overall strategic approach to cooperation with the private sector to reduce inequality and facilitate greater availability of resources for those in need.

4                 Second, the UNDP must facilitate the implementation of the outcomes of the Summit of the Future. The UNDP must ensure synergy between various development directives Member States have called for by pioneering new cross-cutting solutions. Singapore has worked closely with the UNDP’s Global Centre for Technology, Innovation and Sustainable Development (GC-TISD) to curate initiatives in important areas such as smart cities, digital inclusion, climate resilience, and sustainable finance, and to support fellow developing countries through capacity building programmes. We hope the Summit of the Future to turbocharge the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and set out pathways for a coordinated and efficient UN Development System, in which the UNDP must be a central player in this.

5                 Thank you for your attention. 

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