Introductory remarks to ACABQ UNRWA Commissioner-General, Ms. Karen Koning AbuZayd June 15 2009

Proposed programme budget for the biennium 2010-2011
Part VI "Human rights and humanitarian affairs"
Section 25 "Palestine refugees" – A/64/6 (Sect25)

Distinguished Chair and Members of the Committee,

Thank you for this opportunity to discuss UNRWA’s budget requirements for the 2010-2011 biennium. My presentation will summarize UNRWA’s operational context and the progress achieved to date in our ongoing project of management and process reform. I will indicate that UNRWA’s context and its current reforms underscore the urgency of the need for the Agency to be provided on a sustained basis with adequate resources.

Operational Developments

An adverse political and security environment remains of great concern in three of UNRWA’s five fields of operation In Gaza, the large-scale armed conflict which ended in mid-January caused extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and a large number of deaths and injuries. Unprecedented demands were placed on UNRWA, which led the UN emergency response. Both the UN Security Council and the General Assembly passed resolutions in January urging Member State support for UNRWA’s emergency assistance.

UNRWA now carries the heaviest responsibility for recovery activities in the Gaza Strip, accounting for $346 million of the UN’s $613 million Consolidated Appeal budget for 2009 (covering January through September). To date, donors have pledged $185 million to UNRWA. In addition to activities in emergency assistance, recovery and reconstruction planning, UNRWA continues to deliver its regular education, health, and other social services to the more than one million refugees in Gaza.

UNRWA’s emergency response activities are similarly critical in the West Bank and Lebanon. In the West Bank, UNRWA has appealed for $84.9million to address emergency needs for 2009. In Lebanon, UNRWA continues to respond to the relief and recovery needs of the refugees displaced in the north of the country as a result of the 2007 destruction of the Nahr el Bared refugee camp, a previously thriving community of 30,000 people.

As a humanitarian and human development agency, UNRWA aims to ensure all refugees enjoy the best possible standards of assistance, protection and human development as enshrined in the UN Charter and other standards, including those prevailing in the host countries. Our emergency response capabilities, which I have referred to, are at the heart of our humanitarian work. The development aspect of our functions are built around UNRWA’s regular programmes in the areas of primary education (and in Lebanon, secondary education), comprehensive primary health care, social safety-net, infrastructure development, camp improvement and microfinance. These essential, mainly public services are delivered directly to refugees by UNRWA’s 29,000 staff, the majority of whom are refugees themselves.

UNRWA provides elementary, preparatory and secondary education to 475,000 pupils. It provides vocational training to 6,400 students. In 2008 it performed over 9.5 million patient consultations in its 127 clinics. Through its relief and social services programme, it delivers targeted assistance to over a quarter of a million of the most vulnerable refugees, including those most affected by poverty. Persons with disabilities receive educational and rehabilitation services, and technical assistance to community-based organizations has promoted social development at the local level.  UNRWA's self-financed Microfinance Programme over nearly two decades has awarded over 140,000 loans at a value of some $150 million.

Over the decades, the needs of the 4.7 million refugees UNRWA now serves have grown in scale and complexity alongside intensifying stakeholder demands for more effectiveness at the programme and management levels. Over time, these pressures have made the Agency’s financial and human resource limitations untenable. Accordingly, while UNRWA continues to make a substantial contribution to the human development of Palestine refugees, the indicators which once documented the Agency's successes in health, education, relief and social services are now in decline.

A major factor behind this decline is chronic underfunding over decades. Voluntary contributions have increased in absolute terms in recent years, reflecting strong and growing donor confidence in UNRWA. However, the funding shortfall between the Agency’s core programmatic needs and the voluntary funding provided persistently remains large, threatening our ability to sustain existing service levels and rendering impossible efforts to improve services. In 2008 the funding gap was $87.4 million. The anticipated gap for 2009 is $107 million. We are concerned that the global financial crisis may depress contributions towards the 2010-2011 voluntary budget and set back even further planned improvements in the standards of service delivery on which the refugees count for their well-being. These deficits mean no improvement in living conditions or quality of services. Double shifted schools and 100 patients per doctor per day will remain the ‘norm’ as will the lack of maintenance and repairs or replacement of outdated and old equipment.

Organizational Development

In addition to the risks UNRWA’s funding shortfalls pose to services to refugees, they also place in jeopardy the Agency’s continued progress in management and process reforms.

Our organizational development – or "OD" - process represents UNRWA's most ambitious initiative to reform and strengthen management structures and processes. With strong stakeholder support, the OD is achieving results. Of particular interest to this Committee are the strides in reforming programme and budget management, including results-based management.

UNRWA is implementing best-practice programme cycle management alongside results-based planning and budgeting. A six-year Medium Term Strategy, which links UNRWA’s strategic goals to field implementation plans and budgets, will soon be finalized, following its endorsement by UNRWA’s Advisory Commission just last week. A monitoring and evaluation system has been created and decentralized models of individual accountability are in place, including in procurement and recruitment processes. The oversight function is being restructured and upgraded to ensure and that audit, inspection and investigations are streamlined and strengthened.

The positive impact of change is already being felt across our fields and operations. There is an enhanced sense of management responsibility and efficiencies are being gained in various processes.

This is an appropriate juncture at which to update you on the matter of vacancy rates, which you have followed with understandable concern in relation to all sections contained in the UN regular budget. UNRWA has made significant progress in reducing recruitment times and vacancy rates among international staff. The Agency’s vacancy rate for 2009 is only 5.9% in spite of the formidable challenges of recruiting staff in a handful of specialist positions in recent years. UNRWA shares the ACABQ’s concern to reduce vacancy rates further and will continue to do its utmost in that regard, despite the force majeure difficulties it faces on a recurring basis.

Distinguished Chair, and Members of the Committee,

UNRWA’s core programmes, emergency response and reform efforts fall heavily on existing staff including the small number of international staff, currently numbering 119, who are funded through the regular budget of the UN. UNRWA is presently benefiting from the services of a further 14 international positions, all funded from the Organizational Development budget.

As dedicated donor funds for the reform initiative expire at the end of this year, UNRWA seeks Member State support for inclusion of these posts in the UN regular budget for 2010-2011⁽¹⁾. The three posts proposed in the UNRWA section of the Secretary General’s regular budget under review today are among those 14. Donors have funded the OD process with the expectation that the required international posts would be streamlined into the UN regular budget. It is imperative that the United Nations fulfill this expectation by ensuring that resources are made available to embed these reforms into UNRWA’s information systems, business processes and regulatory framework.

I am grateful for the three additional P-4 posts in the submission before you. A Special Assistant for the Commissioner-General will provide essential support for an understaffed executive office stretched across three locations, and the recruitment of two Field Programme Support Officers will assist us to drive field-level improvements in monitoring, reporting and planning. I must, however, express my considerable disappointment with the wide disparity between the posts proposed for us and UNRWA’s actual needs. The OD process has affirmed the critical importance of the training, operational support, oversight, management, programme management and supervisory roles of international staff and the link between these roles and the effectiveness of UNRWA’s work on the ground. I cannot emphasize enough how critical it is that UNRWA be provided with the support it needs to ensure adequate coverage of these roles.

I submit that the contribution made by the Secretary-General’s budget to UNRWA’s financial needs is comparatively small when compared to the contribution that UNRWA makes to the fulfillment of the ambitions enshrined in the UN Charter. The $46.8 million proposed by the Secretariat for 2010-2011 amounts to approximately 2% of the projected $2 billion voluntary budget for UNRWA. Though comparatively small in dollar terms, the functions funded through the UN regular budget are indispensable to many aspects of UNRWA operations.

Distinguished Chair and Members of the Committee,

I conclude by expressing my sincere appreciation for the understanding this Committee has always shown for UNRWA’s circumstances and the constraints we encounter in our unique operational environment. I look forward to your continuing support in the future.

I thank you for your kind attention.