Remarks by Dr. Diene Keita, Executive Director of UNFPA: Engagement with the UN80 Initiative UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS Executive Board Joint Segment

Mr. President,

Excellencies,

Distinguished Members of the Executive Board,

Esteemed colleagues,

Reform is credible only when people experience the difference. That is the standard by which UNFPA approaches the UN80 initiative.

UNFPA fully supports the Secretary-General's leadership and his ambition for a United Nations that is more coherent, more efficient and better equipped to deliver. We are contributing technical, operational and normative expertise across 12 of the 31 work packages.

The objective is clear. The question before us is which arrangements will best achieve it.

Institutional structures are instruments, not ends in themselves. Our mandates - and the people we serve - are the purpose.

Every option should therefore be judged against the same tests. Does it safeguard and strengthen the mandates entrusted by Member States? Does it preserve the field presence, expertise, commodities, humanitarian reach, data systems and political space required to deliver? Does it improve accountability, financing and impact?

Mandate without capability is a promise without the means to keep it.

Today, I will focus primarily on Work Package 4: the potential merger of UNFPA and UN Women and the alternative options under consideration. Let me first briefly situate this within UNFPA's broader engagement in UN80.

On human rights, we are helping to shape a system-wide response that keeps internationally agreed rights - including sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender equality - central to reform.

On country configurations and the regional reset, we support government-led, context-specific approaches under an empowered Resident Coordinator system.

Strong Resident Coordinators and strong agencies are mutually reinforcing. Country Programme Documents may be simplified, but they must remain instruments of country ownership and Executive Board accountability. Coordination does not replace governance; we need both.

On the Humanitarian Compact and common supply chains, we support efficiency while safeguarding sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence services as life-saving interventions. Common systems must recognize the specialized procurement and technical expertise required for sexual and reproductive health commodities.

On the UNAIDS transition, we support a strong coordination and advocacy platform that preserves its multisectoral, rights-based approach and civil society leadership.

On operational transformation, UNFPA is co-leading the Business Innovation Group on global shared services, common back offices and common premises. We are also contributing demographic intelligence to the UN Data Commons.

Excellencies,

Let me now turn to Work Package 4.

Following the guidance of our Executive Boards, UNFPA and UN Women jointly submitted a complementary analytical package. Prepared under the guidance of the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, with analytical support from Ernst & Young, it examines the operational, financial, legal and programmatic implications of the two pathways already under consideration. It introduces no new reform scenario.

The analysis broadly confirms the findings of the Strategic Merger Assessment. It also underscores the significance of transition costs and the need to protect mandates and maintain programme continuity.

For UNFPA, continuity is not an abstract institutional concern. It means uninterrupted reproductive health commodities; maternal and newborn health care; humanitarian and gender-based violence response; population data, census and national planning support; and country programme delivery. Disruption would carry real consequences, particularly in humanitarian and fragile settings.

At the same time, let me be equally clear: whatever institutional model Member States ultimately choose, there is substantial scope for deeper collaboration between UNFPA and UN Women, and I am committed to pursuing it.

The financial analysis must be read with care. It is not a cost-reduction plan, and its projections are not guarantees. Under the assumptions tested, the alternative options could generate annual savings of up to US$15 million from 2030, against transition costs of up to US$39 million over three years. They could be implemented progressively within existing legal and governance frameworks over an estimated one-to-four-year period.

A structural merger is projected to require nearly twice the transition investment and more than four years to implement. It would also require institutional restructuring and a General Assembly decision, with careful phasing to protect programme continuity.

The merger pathway shows higher potential net savings. At the same time, within the scope and assumptions tested, the analysis did not identify distinct additional programmatic or operational benefits beyond those potentially achievable through the alternatives. Both pathways would draw on the same possible funding sources, and none has yet been identified that would avoid adjustments to current planning.

These are projections, not conclusions. They should inform - not predetermine - Member States' judgment.

Excellencies,

As the Secretary-General has underscored, the overall direction and scale of UN80 now lie in the hands of Member States. Any decision affecting mandates or governance must proceed through the appropriate intergovernmental processes, informed by credible evidence and a clear understanding of benefits, costs and risks.

You entrusted us with this mandate. You approve our strategic direction. You hold us accountable for results. Your perspectives, questions and scrutiny are not peripheral to reform; they are essential to getting it right.

As I said yesterday, this Board can expect three things from me: I will engage with an open mind. I will present the evidence with candour. And I will listen.

I will not ask whether a proposal protects UNFPA as we know it. I will ask whether it safeguards and strengthens what Member States created UNFPA to do - and whether it enables us to deliver better for women and girls, young people, and societies navigating demographic change.

Once Member States decide through the appropriate intergovernmental process, I will implement that decision with discipline and loyalty. Until then, my responsibility is to present the evidence without embellishment, and the risks without understatement.

That is how we make reform credible. That is how we make multilateralism tangible in people's lives.

Je vous remercie de votre aimable attention.