The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)
Statement by Grete Faremo to the UNOPS Executive Board
Under-Secretary-General Faremo delivers statement at First Regular Session of the UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS Executive Board in New York. This was UNOPS first official statement to new members of the 2018 Executive Board.
The Secretary-General has called for a more field-focused United Nations. A UN that is more decentralized, with more people and resources in the field and less administration at headquarters level. UNOPS has always been field-focused. We continue to improve this model to secure strong impact on the ground.
Ms. Faremo spoke to UNOPS new four-year strategic plan, and its three contribution goals – efficiency, effectiveness and access to new funding – underscoring how these areas position the organization to further enhance UN cooperation and the Secretary-General's reform agenda.
Ms. Faremo spoke to the organization's implementation work in peace and security contexts (such as in Yemen), Small Island Developing States (such as in Antigua and Barbuda) and in health infrastructure (such as in Kenya).
UNOPS soon-to-be launched gender strategy, which commits the organization to achieving gender parity across our workforce by 2020, was discussed at length. The new strategy is modeled after the UN's system-wide gender targets.
Ms. Faremo spoke to UNOPS unique challenges in this area, with a great deal of our work taking place in conflict-affected areas, engineering and construction, but expressed a personal commitment to gender balance across our operations.
"Beyond the issue of balancing our staff at all levels, we aim to develop a gender balancing strategy in the design of our projects. Our partners may or may not have included gender considerations in their project specifications. But we will get to a point where we are able to point out gender relevant effects of different possible project designs and propose new solutions."
