Remarks by H.E. Annalena Baerbock
President of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly
at an informal meeting of the General Assembly to hear a briefing on the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ80 Initiative
Thursday, 28 May 2026
ECOSOC Chamber
[As Delivered]
Excellencies,
Dear colleagues,
Dear Secretary-General and the whole team,
Thank you for joining this regular briefing on progress under the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ80 Initiative, which, today, will include an update from the Secretary-General on the Comprehensive Report.
The timing of this report is apt, coming just over one year since the launch of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ80 Initiative by the Secretary-General.
In that time, tangible progress has been made across all three workstreams.
Under Workstream one, the Membership responded to the ongoing liquidity crisis with the necessary restraint, meeting the revised estimates put forward by the Secretary-General while helping place the Organization on a more sustainable fiscal footing.
Under Workstream two, the recent adoption of the Mandate Implementation resolution heralds the beginning of a new, more efficient, more restrained and deliberate era of mandate creation, implementation and review. One in which Member States undertake the necessary collective due diligence before proposing new mandates, while simultaneously addressing the backlog of tens of thousands of existing ones.
And under Workstream three, recent briefings on the proposed mergers of Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ System entities have highlighted the complexity of assessing both the benefits and trade-offs of such reforms. They have also underscored a fundamental point: that success will require full engagement and buy-in of the Membership, so of all of you, every individual Member State.
Meanwhile, progress is also being made across other areas of this Workstream. This includes the New Humanitarian Compact, where planning timelines have been shortened and core planning documents streamlined, as well as the establishment of joint knowledge hubs, the expertise-on-demand mechanism, and the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Data Commons. Together, these efforts reflect a broader push to improve coordination, efficiency and delivery across the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ System, and shows, if we want all together to be better, we can achieve reform steps also in these fragmented times.
On each of the Workstreams, the recent Comprehensive Guide offers further detail. This will, we hope, be complemented by the Report, which should allow both the pace and depth of discussions to accelerate significantly.
Through it all, the voices of Member States must continue to be reflected at each new juncture. And on this, they have been clear: decisions under the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ80 Initiative, across all three workstreams, must be predicated on efficiency and delivery.
Assuring this requires comprehensive, evidence-based analysis before decisions are made, adequate consultation time, and full transparency, most notably for structural reforms, which must proceed strictly under intergovernmental oversight.
Colleagues, on these points, I would recommend that further efforts be made to strengthen the interlinkages between workstreams, recognizing that mandates and the work of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ System are inextricably linked.
The work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Mandate Implementation Review can and should feed into decision making on Workstreams 1 and 3… and vice versa, with decisions taken by Member States on mandates reflected in decisions on the budget, as well as on structural changes and programme realignments across the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Systems.
In this regard, I would especially encourage Member States to engage actively in the process within the Ad Hoc Working Group on the proposed templates, and to see how this can be applied elsewhere throughout the reform process, notably to influence decision-making under Workstream 1, which is currently ongoing in the Fifth Committee. So, this is interconnected and we should really ensure that the information flow is really interconnected within missions, but also within the System.
At its core, we must ask ourselves a fundamental question: what should the Secretariat look like in the decades ahead? Which offices and structures continue to provide clear added value, and where are reforms needed to improve efficiency, coherence and delivery?
And as the discussions are currently going on in the Fifth Committee, where many experts are, and less Permanent Representatives, this is a highly strategic and political discussion, and it should not be left solely to technical negotiations in the Fifth Committee, the Secretariat, or the often-intense budget discussions late in the year, at the ACABQ. This is a strategic discussion by the whole Membership.
It must go beyond negotiating individual posts or marginal adjustments. It should instead focus on a broader political and strategic debate among Member States on how the Secretariat ¡ª and indeed the wider Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ System ¡ª can be reformed in practical and meaningful ways to make our collective work more efficient and effective.
Excellencies,
Dear colleagues,
I would like to reiterate that while progress has been made, and some key decisions may be taken during this session or within the year, implementation will require long-term commitment and consistent follow-through, extending well into the 81st session.
So, let us use this momentum now, build on the foundation already established, sustain the momentum now underway, and continue advancing reforms that strengthen this institution not only for the years ahead, but for decades to come, which was started by the Secretary-General and the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ80 reform last year and everything we can deliver in the next months, will also pay into our common understanding that we can only be better together.
By this I now give the floor to the Secretary-General, H.E. Antonio Gueterres.
I thank you.
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