Ad Hoc Working Group on the Revitalization of the Work of the General Assembly

– As delivered –

Statement by H.E. Tijjani Muhammad Bande, President of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly

2 March 2020

Distinguished Co-Chairs,

Excellencies,

Distinguished Delegates,

Allow me first to thank the Co-Chairs, His Excellency Mr. Michal Mlynár; Permanent Representative of Slovakia and Her Excellency Mrs. Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, Permanent Representative of Ghana, for convening this inaugural meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Revitalization of the Work of the General Assembly.

I am confident that their leadership and constructive engagement with you will guide us to consensus.

I also thank the UN Secretariat for their invaluable support to the co-chairs so far. Their timely advice and engagement will remain key to the success of this process.

I commend Her Excellency Ambassador Sima Sami Bahous, the Permanent Representative of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for her contributions to this process throughout the 73rd session.

Some might feel that progress in the process of revitalizing the GA is too slow – and maybe they are right. But great achievements have been made since the establishment of this Working Group, for instance, on the selection and appointment process of the Secretary-General, on elections and on strengthening my Office.

We should continue to look for “low hanging fruits” pushing through continued progress.

I hear a growing number of voices arguing that we need to focus our efforts more  and that it is increasingly difficult for delegations to follow and cover all events in a meaningful way.

While High-Level meetings and side events may present good and useful opportunities to raise awareness and exchange views on a variety of subjects and challenges, it seems to me that it would be useful to focus our attention more on the challenges of our time.

The number of non-mandated events has been on the increase since 2014. In fact, the number of non-mandated meetings in 2019 was 42% higher than in 2014. More than 75% of all meetings in New York and Geneva, respectively, were non-mandated meetings in 2019. Overall, 82% of meetings serviced by DGACM were non-mandated meetings in 2019. Overall, 82% of meetings serviced by DGACM are non-mandated meetings.

In this period of financial constraints, we need to be mindful of putting additional burden on the organization’s capacity and resources. It will be prudent of us to reflect and rethink our activities.

Maybe the time has come to find ways to reduce the number of both mandated High-level meetings under the auspices of the GA as well as side events arranged by Member States and organisations.

Are you ready to make some changes?

We also have to look at the suggestions to end consideration of some items, while biennializing and triennializing other items/resolutions.

I call upon all of you collaborate and ensure that we more progress during this session and keep focused on the theme for the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations, “The future we want, the UN we need: reaffirming our collective commitment to multilateralism.”

On my side, I will continue to engage the General Committee to discuss how to improve and streamline our work, especially considering its broad representation across regions, interest groups and geo-political influence. An increased and strengthened role for the General Committee, would in my view benefit the General Assembly and could be one of our key deliverables for this session.

We should continue to improve the process of selection and appointment of the Secretary-General and other Executive Heads.

I thank again all Member States that have contributed to my Office, through contributions or secondment of staff. This support is instrumental to the success, so far, of the seventy-fourth session.

I am upholding and upgrading the best practices inherited from my predecessors in strengthening the accountability, transparency and institutional memory of my office.

My office has started the process of converting the workspace assigned to OPGA staff to a modern, flexible workspace in order to best serve the needs of the Office. This refurbishment has been made possible by a contribution from the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and will serve not only the 74^th session of the General Assembly, but will provide an environment which is conducive to productivity and efficiency for future sessions.

My Office published a Road Map, which is regularly updated to show our priorities and the way ahead. I hope Member States find this tool useful for their own planning also.

I look forward to further engaging with you in April in more detail on the work of my Office.

Excellencies,

Distinguished delegates,

The time has come for us to explore concrete actions. The broad membership of the General Assembly expects nothing less from us.

Each of us has a responsibility to increase the efficiency of our work. My Office stands ready to assist you throughout this process.

As we enter the Decade of Action and Delivery, a revitalized United Nations General Assembly that is transparent, accountable with improved and efficient working methods will help us meet our obligations.

As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, now is the time to galvanize multilateral action in the revitalization of our work to ensure a better world.

I thank you.