Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Wednesday called for preparing a comprehensive reform package with a phased implementation plan. He was presiding over the opening meeting of a panel for strengthening United Nations operational activities.
"The overarching objective of our efforts... should be to ensure the greatest possible delivery of both operational and policy assistance to developing countries," he told 15 global leaders assembled here to make recommendations in the area of development, environment and humanitarian assistance.
The Prime Minister, one of three co-chairpersons, spoke after the welcoming remarks by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who said that the appointment of the panel had come at a time of "great opportunity and high expectations" in the context of UN reforms process.
Officially called the 'UN Secretary General's High Level Panel' on 'System-wide Coherence in the Areas of Development, Humanitarian Assistance and Environment', its two other co-chairpersons are Ms Lumsa Dias Diogo, Prime Minister of Mozambique, and Liens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway.
On Tuesday night, the co-chairpersons held preliminary consultations to discuss the mechanics of the meeting.
Shaukat said, "The Panel offers a unique opportunity to advance the vision set out in the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document to strengthen the United Nations system and its collaboration with all multilateral financial trade and development institutions to support sustained economic growth, poverty eradication and sustainable development..."
"The UN system must utilise its unique advantages in supporting development."
He said, "We must see how to help the developing countries to evolve coherent national strategies, which can enable them to fulfil the 'Millennium Development Goals' and the internationally agreed goals.
"We must improve the effectiveness of the implementation of this strategy, both at the country level and the international level, both by the developing countries and the international donor community. We should utilise a 'bottom up' approach focusing on improving the system at the country level rather than a 'top down' approach responding to the preoccupation of donors...
"Apart from the structures for development co-operation the special requirements in the areas of humanitarian assistance and the environment also require review and rationalisation."
The panel was to conclude its opening meeting late in the night after holding two sessions.
Among the members on the Panel are Picardo Lagos Escobar, former President of Chile, Benjamin Mkapa, former President of Tanzania, and Gordon Brown UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Kemal Dervit and President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Lennart Bege are the ex-officio members of the Panel.
UN officials hoped that the panel would complete the work by the summer in order to be able to make formal recommendations for the next General Assembly session in September, with possible implementations to be carried out in 2007.
A New York-based small Secretariat will support the panel's work.
On April 5, the Prime Minister was to leave New York for Madrid for an official visit to Spain, during which he will also attend a Central Executive Board (CEB) meeting of UN agencies in Madrid from April 7 to 8. The meeting will be presided over by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
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