[Mr. President], members of the Executive Board, colleagues, and friends, thank you for joining us today for this session.

Report highlights 

I will open by flagging a few highlights of this 2024 Annual Report.

First and foremost, and as Haoliang said, UNDP in 2024 continued to be on track in its delivery of the Gender Equality Strategy 2022-2025. 

Second and more importantly, I am very proud to say that external stakeholders recognize that this is one of the most effective, high-value areas of work at UNDP. This is a finding based on UNDP´s strategic plan evaluation and a brand perception survey of more than 380 external stakeholders. 

In 2024, UNDP showed what it means to lead with purpose in two critical areas:

• We helped over 140 million women make their voices heard at the ballot box;
• and supported nearly 300 million to access the services and financial tools they need to break the cycle of poverty. 

From polling stations to fiscal reforms, we were there—removing barriers, shifting systems, and proving that when women rise, societies move forward.

I am pleased to share that our support for the creation and financing of integrated care systems has grown. Inter-agency collaboration and joint advocacy contributed to this success.

We also learned that our work on insider mediation in crisis and fragile settings – present in more than 25 countries- is very effective in overcoming the persistent exclusion of women in peace processes; and that access to clean energy reduces women’s time poverty - disproportionate time spent on unpaid care and domestic work - and accelerates economic empowerment, but we need to do more to challenge structural inequalities.

Excellencies, comprehensive programmes that empower women require sustained and sufficient resources, and budget cuts may compromise our support for national development priorities in the near future.  

Development Results

While services are key, ending poverty requires a major shift in economic thinking.

That is why, through our flagship programme, Equanomics, 28 countries initiated fiscal policy reforms with equality objectives, examining public revenue and expenditure. 

For instance, Lebanon established an Observatory on Taxation, a groundbreaking tool to gather and disseminate sex-disaggregated data and trends related to correcting disparities affecting differently women and men.

As I mentioned, we also supported the development and expansion of integrated care systems in 16 countries.

For instance, North Macedonia formalized unpaid care work and created flexible employment pathways—especially for Roma women, women with disabilities, and in rural areas.It’s a powerful example of how investing in care can unlock economic opportunity and drive inclusive growth.

On environment, UNDP integrates our work on NDCs through the Climate Promise with our work on equality. In 2024, we helped over 63 countries to promote the empowerment of women through their nationally determined contributions. 

44% of countries strengthened institutional capacities of ministries of environment, energy, finance. 

26 countries integrated women’s leadership into national climate plans. 

On Signature Solution 6, I am proud to share that the Gender Equality Seal for Public Institutions is part of our commitment with a modern public service, today is present in more than 25 countries, for instance, the Ministry of Management and Public Services Innovation in Brazil has trained 500,000 public servants on integrating race considerations in policies and services. 

We cannot realize our ambitions alone. UNDP holds a unique value as multilateral partner and with UN-Women, as the UN system coordination leads, we remain their closest partner in 75 countries; and our country offices co-chaired inter-agency theme groups in 48 countries.

Institutional Results

Let me turn now to our Institutional Results: Excellencies, UNDP’s institutional performance continues to be strong. 

I am happy to report that UNDP in 2024 maintained its outstanding performance score by exceeding or meeting 94% of targets on the System- Wide Action Plan 2.0 on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (UN SWAP) indicators.

We are already preparing the conditions to implement UN Gender Equality Acceleration Plan and the UN SWAP 3.0

We broke records and 66 country offices got certified by the Gender Equality Seal for CO. With 11 gold, 30 silver and 25 bronze Seal recipients. Special mention to 13 crisis-affected countries.  

In June 2024, UNDP concluded the first round of the Equanomics Global Learning Lab, involving a cohort of 60 economists. How is this impacting our work with partners?

In Cambodia, with the government, we run a macro-modelling to simulate national economic growth driven by public investments in care. This is pioneer work, excellencies.

The path to an equal future

UNDP has completed three successful years in implementing its Gender Equality Strategy, demonstrating solid achievements despite global uncertainties and crisis.

Mr. President, Excellencies, today, we embrace the challenge to focus more and scaling up our impact, in times of a shift in official development assistance frameworks. 

Mr. President, Excellencies, we thank you for your continued support in this work.