Secretary-General, Prime Minister
Excellencies Heads of Agencies, Funds and Programmes
Distinguished participants,

It is a great honour to serve on this panel and to have this opportunity to meet with the heads of the whole UN system and the specialized agencies at the Chief Executives Board meeting.

And it is a great opportunity to meet with this group of leaders, who are gathered for the sake of system-wide coordination, and who manage the larger part of what I think of as our common international public sector. We look forward to listening to you, to draw from your experience, and to learn.

The terms of reference of this panel is such that it will be more relevant to some of you than to others. We will look at how the structures we have created to deal with development, environment and humanitarian assistance can be made more effective, on how we can create more system-wide coherence. That was what leaders called for in 2005, recognizing that thew UN opeational role stems from its normative mandates.

Our focus will be in particular on the millennium development goals, and the prime aggregate expressions of our common targets for human development. There are other targets, yes, but if we reach the millennium goals, so much else will subsumed and settled in that process.

I believe that we will meet many sceptics in the half year we have before us. I would be surprised if there were not some sceptics in this room. But rest assured

We are on this panel because we believe in the United Nations system. We are in favour of a strong such system And we believe that friends of he system should be open and serve constructive criticism if the if the system at time fails to adapt to expectations and best practises found elsewhere in the world.

We have had two days of extensive discussions in New York we have outline elements in a work-plan. We have not reached any conclusion or formulated any recommendation.

That we will do after and open, consultative process with a great number of stakeholders. And you stand out among them.

I stand here as a representative of a country which is a staunch supporter of the UN.

We are a founding member and the seventh largest contributor in absolute terms.

As a donor we reached the 0.7 mark decades ago.

Our development policy enjoys a high rate of approval.

The Norwegian government believes in a UN-centric world order

Our partners can look to Norway for reliability, and I hope, trustworthiness.

We have been fortunate enough to take such a position in the world.

As much as we believe in more equal distributuion and more equal opportunity at home.

As much do we believe that such policies must guide us internationally.

We are fundamentally committed

to more international solidarity

within and between generations.

And to the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter.

However,

Over the past decades, the international community has adopted a series resolutions, declarations, plans of action, etc. dealing with the shortcomings and uneven distribution of development and opportunity.

At Rio, Cairo, Beijing, Copenhagen, Johannesburg etc, we solemnly pledged to rectify aberrations of development trends

I remember my scepticism

when I attended the Millennium Summit here almost six years ago

As Prime Minister.

I remember my doubt when we sealed the words of the Millenium Goals

-would we ever be able to deliver on those promises?

- had we again been using to bold words?

- and what would it do to the credibility of the sphere of politics

If again our acts would fall short of our words.

It was then I developed a compelling urge to at least see on MDG be realized.

The Government of Norway closed ranks behind the goal of immunizing every child, and thereby saving millions of little children from dying unnecessary deaths.

We have increased Norwegian funding for that goal.

We will support these activities with 1 billion USD by 2015.

This must succeed.

And I am convinced that it is possible to measure the correlations between our increased effort and our growing success. But it must be possible to measure even better alaso in other development areas.

As my Colleague PM Aziz often says; What can be managed can be measured.

Countries such as mine will be more forthcoming with finance and funding when we are able to show the results more clearly.

That in turn will strengthen the UN.

Thus we can create ¨not a vicious but a virtuous circle,

And we need your help in the process.

The UN cannot be everything to all countries.

But it can be the chosen enabler for many.

It can be that when it focusses on what it does best

And when it is responsive to country needs and priorities

During our discussions in New York, it was brought to my attention that 20 different UN bodies work on the issue of access to clean water.

That example illustrate that reform and change must be possible, that it is possible to reduce fragmentation, avoid duplication, and tighten control and audit.

We must also try to develop incentive systems sets a premium on effectiveness. And member states must take great care not to send contradictory signals in various governing boards. Indeed the number of governing body itself must accept close scrutiny.

While we explore the rooms for improvement we will seek to formulate a vision of what the UN should be like ten years from now, taking account of global trends and management yardsticks by which we should measure it.

No doubt the, world has witnessed tremendous improvement in life conditions for billions of people over the past decades. Not least due to the achievements of organizations represented here today, interacting with country breaking out of the chains of poverty.

This panel is determined to make a difference. It will ask critical questions. But remember:

Not to change the present situation. To continue running the UN system in its present configuaration

Is also a decision.

We cannot not make decisions on what kind of UN we want and need.

I am looking forward to working with all of you improve and renew the present UN instititional capacity. And I thank you for your attention