National Statement delivered by H.E. Anna Karin Eneström, Permanent Representative of Sweden to the UN, at the UNICEF Executive Board, 14 June 2022
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Mister President, Madam Executive Director,
Thank you for giving me the floor.
I would like to start by thanking Executive Director Russell for her visit to Sweden in May. This provided an excellent opportunity to build an even stronger partnership between Sweden and UNICEF, as well as to showcase that UNICEF’s newly established Global Innovation Office in Stockholm is already starting to deliver some very exciting initiatives.
Our partnership on innovation is in a way significant for what we see going forward. We are witnessing multiple and interlinked crises which put the multilateral system under extreme pressure. The pandemic, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, extreme price hikes on Food, Fuel and shortages of Finance – these challenges must bring us together and not divide us. We have to rethink things in light of these exceptional challenges. Innovative thinking and innovative solutions are required and with our partnership we stand ready to work hand in hand on this.
We welcome the positive results on UNICEF’s revenues for 2021 and, in particular, the increased funding from the private sector. Innovative solutions have played an important role in this success, and lessons learnt from fundraising during the pandemic can be built upon to ensure financing in the future.
However, in combination with innovative solutions for programming as well as finance, our traditional values and joint commitments of the UN are equally important. As one of the main contributors of core-support, Sweden would again like to stress the importance of flexible quality funding for UNICEF to be able to perform its work globally and remind other partners of our joint commitments on this in the Funding Compact.
Another cornerstone for the UN moving forward is the UN reform process. It is needed to make our joint efforts even more efficient and to reach the SDGs. UNICEF is a unique player and a well-known brand also outside the confines of the UN. With this special role UNICEF has the possibility, and the responsibility, to be one of the main driving forces of the reform process. Sweden expects UNICEF to shoulder this responsibility in an even stronger fashion during the coming years.
Thank you.