Joint Statement at UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS Executive Board Annual Session, Joint Segment, Item 4 Ethics

Read the Joint Statement delivered by H.E. Ms. Miia Rainne, Deputy Permanent Representative of Finland to the United Nations, at UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS Executive Board Annual Session, on June 5, 2023.

Thank you Chair,

I am delivering this statement on behalf of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Columbia, Denmark, Estonia, the European Union as a donor, France,  Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Republic of Moldova, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and my own country, Finland.

Let me begin by extending our appreciation towards UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS for their ongoing efforts to strengthen ethical culture, independence, impartiality, and confidentiality of their Ethics offices. Building a strong organizational culture, based on ethics and integrity provides a robust foundation for improving agencies operational effectiveness.

We thank the Joint Inspection Unit for the comprehensive review of ethics functions in the United Nations system. We also commend them for providing a solid framework and developing a series of standards for analyzing and assessing the independence of an ethics function.  The recommendations by the JIU review of ethics functions as well as the review of whistle-blower policies and practices (JIU/REP/2018/49) must be followed closely. The management must support the critical roles and responsibilities of the ethics offices under the whistle-blower policy. We note the positive management responses on the reports by the Ethics offices. However, regrettably there are still UN staff members who need to reach out to member states or media in order to get their voices heard.

Due to the scarce resources in the Ethics offices and in keeping with efforts to reposition the UN Development System, we welcome and encourage Ethics offices’ collaboration with the Ethics Panel as well as the Ethics Office in order to promote harmonization, effectiveness and efficiency of the ethics functions in the UN.

Training and education in ethics form a basis for a strong culture of ethics. Considering the different socio-cultural, environmental and economic contexts in which UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS operate globally, training is vitally important. The Ethics offices need to work as advocates for UN system-wide values and principles, and through their activities promote ethical conduct and decision-making throughout the system, and management must also lead by example. We look forward to future reporting, including on whether these trainings have led to significant changes.

We applaud the joint UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS Ethics Awareness Month in May, and recommend that other agencies consider joining this initiative too.

Let me highlight a few positive trends and best practices reflected in the reports of the respective Ethics Offices:

We highly appreciate the plans of the UNDP Ethics office to develop an awareness and communication strategy to expand the scale and impact of its activities. We further encourage UNDP to continue collaborating with other UN System organizations to promote harmonization and the adoption of best practices throughout the system.

We would like to commend the UNFPA Ethics office for its inclusive ethics framework. We especially appreciate the focus on psychological safety and the consideration of the multiple factors that contribute to an organizational culture of trust. In order to foster a speak-up culture, we need to understand the complex socio-cultural, environmental and economic factors that make people decide to speak up. Furthermore, we welcome the creation of the UNFPA “Integrity Group” to promote a transparent and trusted internal justice system. We encourage UNFPA to continue this important work on promoting a culture of integrity, accountability and safety for all.

We note that 2022 was a volatile year for the UNOPS Ethics Office. We appreciate the efforts to promote and strengthen a culture of ethics at UNOPS by updating its policy on protection against retaliation, developing awareness-raising campaign to foster values-based decision-making and conducting an independent review of the independence of its function. We expect UNOPS management to implement the review’s recommendations, to continue to strengthen and uphold the independence of the Ethics Office, and to model ethical conduct from the highest levels of the organization, in order to restore the trust at UNOPS.

We highly appreciate the efforts made to strengthen the resources of each Ethics Office and we encourage the agencies to keep doing so. We particularly thank for the creation of the post of a Victim Support Specialist within UNOPS as well as the additional human resources allocated to the UNDP and UNFPA Ethics offices

As a follow-up to the Executive Board decision 2022/16, we would like to inquire on the efforts taken to develop further whistle-blower protection. What progress has been made and what are the lessons learnt. Furthermore, in your view, what are some best practices you have observed in other UN system organizations that you would consider adopting?

To conclude, we stress that it is in the joint interest of the Executive Board together with the Management of UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS and their Ethics offices to continue strengthening the ethics functions to increase awareness, trust and credibility of the United Nations, both internally and externally.

Thank you.