UN80: Workstream Three: Secretary-General briefing on UN80
Statement by H.E Mr James Larsen, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations
28 May 2026
Thank you Secretary-General and as noted, I speak for CANZ.
We wish to make four points on your UN80 progress report.
First, CANZ welcomes the progress made on several work packages, which are improving the efficiency and effectiveness of our United Nations.
We encourage continued work on reforms to improve interoperability, reduce duplication, and strengthen system-wide coherence.
The New Humanitarian Compact – particularly the work led by USG Fletcher to strengthen common services and improve humanitarian delivery systems – is a strong example of this.
We also recognize the significant potential of common administrative platforms and system-wide shared services and critical common enablers to enhance efficiency, transparency, and coherence and to strengthen UN delivery.
We encourage you to press forward with these efficiency reforms, including in your 2027 budget proposals. We are committed to supporting you in these efforts, including through our engagement in relevant intergovernmental processes.
Second, we see strong potential in the country team and regional reforms to improve how the UN works on the ground to delivers results. We look forward to advancing discussions on these at the ECOSOC Operational Activities Segment in June.
To fully realise their potential, country and regional structures need to be tailored to specific contexts. This requires a clear understanding of in-country needs and capacities, including service delivery in remote areas, and close collaboration with local partners such as host governments and regional organisations. We welcome your recognition of this point in your latest report.
Strengthening the Resident Coordinator system will be critical to address fragmentation, improve coherence, and better align the UN’s work with national and regional priorities. We support strengthening and diversifying the tools available to RCs, including improvements to funding and accountability arrangements.
Third, we believe that the proposed entity mergers, and other structural proposals, should be judged on their merits and based on clear evidence, including regarding their ability to strengthen delivery and impact while fully preserving agreed mandates and programmes. We once again underscore the pivotal role of the Executive Boards in reviewing merger proposals.
We also welcome your commitment to provide further information, through dedicated reports, on all proposals requiring Member States’ decisions, so Member States can be confident that our decisions are properly informed.
Fourth, we, the Member States, the UN leadership and the Secretariat, must reaffirm our commitment to reform.
The adoption of resolution 80/251 was an important milestone towards improving our Organisation. We must now redouble efforts towards its effective implementation. CANZ remains committed to doing so.
As you note in your report, impactful reform requires a cultural shift centred on greater efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, and accountability.
Achieving this shift means holding both the UN system and ourselves as Member States, to higher levels of transparency, efficiency, coherence, and accountability for results.
We must also be clear in our expectation that the next Secretary-General needs to demonstrate a strong commitment to urgent, sustained and ambitious reform.
Ultimately, it is our collective responsibility – as the United Nations – to sustain this reform momentum to achieve a more efficient and effective Organisation, at a time when it is needed more than ever.
Thank you.