Thank you Mr. President,

As this is my first contribution to the UNDP Board allow me to start by thanking the Administrator and the Associate Administrator for their hard work and in particular for their interesting and informative opening statements this morning.

Mr. President

In the view of the Netherlands, real and lasting improvements in the lives of people are only possible if development is based on a holistic approach. Inclusive economic growth, security, the environment, good governance, rule of law, education and health care are all interlinked. You cannot address the one without addressing the others. This understanding has brought us a package of Millennium Development Goals which can not be looked at separately. Governments, civil society and private sector, as well as the United Nations have a shared responsibility and we must step up our joint effort to achieve the MDGs.

Within the United Nations, UNDP has a central role to play in achieving the MDGs. For decades, UNDP has shown great strength at the country level, approaching poverty reduction in a comprehensive way and working demand-driven.

Before us lies the new draft Strategic Plan, which provides the basis for UNDP’s activities in the coming four years. As we are all aware, the plan is a compromise, resulting from consultations which took place during the past eight months. Inherent to a compromise is that it does not include all wishes of all parties; it is a give and take. In its entirety, the present Plan is acceptable to the Netherlands, although we would have liked to see stronger language in several areas.

In the first place, the Netherlands would have liked to see a more proactive vision of UNDP regarding its role as coordinator of the UN development activities. Increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the UN, among others in the field of development, is crucial. To that end, we are in favour of full implementation of the 2004 TCPR. We feel that the Strategic Plan could have been clearer on how UNDP will ensure a more coherent and effective contribution of UN organisations to national development plans. In addition, in our view more progress could have been made regarding the separation of the operational and coordinating role of UNDP.

Secondly, the Netherlands attaches great importance to the continuation of current, well-established practices when it comes to integrating cross-cutting issues such as gender equality and a Human Rights-based approach. The integration of cross-cutting issues does not impose any conditionalities. In our view it is purely a way to ensure that development activities are successful, sustainable, inclusive and effective.

The Netherlands supports both the operational and coordinating activities of UNDP. For many years now, we have been the largest donor. The current Strategic Plan will provide the basis for our new, multi-year core contribution to UNDP. As a donor country, the Netherlands is prepared to accept its reponsibility to provide more predictable, stable, multi-year, unearmarked funding. However, we can only do that on the basis of multi-year plans in which we have confidence.

In this light it is imperative for us that, in the interest of UNDP and its beneficiaries in program countries, we will be able to adopt the current Plan during this Board.

Finally Mr President,

We fully share the importance of south-south cooperation, national ownership and the need for UNDP to remain demand driven. We support these principles, which are central in the Strategic Plan before us.

We look forward to a constructive and conclusive discussion on the important issues on the agenda of this week.

Thank you Mr. President