Statement by H.E. Anna Jóhannsdóttir,
Permanent Representative of Iceland to the United Nations,
on behalf of the Nordic countries
UNICEF Executive Board
Item 7 on the UN80 Initiative and implementation by UNICEF
11 February 2026

Mr. President, Excellencies, 

I have the honour of delivering this statement on behalf of the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and my own country Iceland. 

We thank you for the update on the UN80 initiative. We appreciate the significant efforts invested in this complex process and welcome the dialogue with the Executive Boards. We also extend sincere gratitude to your teams – especially at country level - who continue to deliver under increasingly difficult circumstances, with rising expectations and steadily shrinking resources. 

In this context, an efficient, effective, nimble and well-coordinated UN Development System is urgently needed. The Nordic countries strongly support the Secretary General’s UN80 initiative and expect all UN entities to engage fully, with a clear focus on improved delivery at country level. Reform must enable the UN to act as one coherent system, with clearer leadership, fewer overlaps, and stronger collective results. We look forward to concrete system-wide reform proposals that are realistic, risk-aware and clearly linked to strengthened effectiveness and impact.

Protecting programmatic work at country level is essential. Given persistent financial constraints, reducing administrative costs is a must. We therefore welcome efforts across the UN Funds and Programmes, to adjust budgets, streamline structures and relocate staff to lower-cost duty stations. These are challenging but necessary steps. 

At the same time, efforts to strengthen the collective capacity of the UN development system must accelerate. We are seriously concerned by the slow progress on the Repositioning of the UN Development System.  UN Country Team reconfiguration and the establishment of common back offices – agreed years ago – remain far behind. As new initiatives are introduced, previously agreed measures must be implemented without delay. 

To support more decisive progress, we request clearer feedback on what is holding back implementation and which decisions or directives from the Executive Boards would help remove obstacles. 

Advancing joint administrative platforms at the global, system-wide level must become a higher priority. The few existing common back offices show that effective scalable models already exist – a point also underscored both by the UN Board of Auditors and the Joint Inspection Unit. We expect renewed momentum towards joint procurement, pooled logistics capacity, and shared service platforms. The integrated UN supply chain developed by UNICEF, WFP and the UN Secretariat is a promising example and should be expanded across both development and humanitarian actors. 

Another systematic challenge is incentive structures that continues to favour individual mandates over collective outcomes. These structures risks reinforcing fragmentation, duplication and mission creep- directly undermining the ambition of UN80. We call on all entities and governing bodies to change the incentives to strengthen collaboration, respect comparative advantages, and ensure joint results are encouraged, recognised, and rewarded. 

The Nordics remain strong supporters of the Resident Coordinator system. RCs play a central convening role and should serve as the single-entry point for coherent and targeted support to partner countries. We expect RCs to be fully engaged in driving UN80 implementation and for all UN agencies at country level to contribute to these efforts.

To conclude, international law and the UN Charter provide the foundation for all UN organisations. It is a priority for the Nordics for the UN to continue to uphold its normative mandates including human rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights and not least gender equality as a system wide priority – especially at country level. 

The Nordic countries remain fully committed to the long-overdue implementation of these reforms. The credibility of the UN system depends on its willingness to reform itself – and to do so with urgency, placing system-wide coherence above individual institutional preferences. Incremental progress is no longer sufficient.  Decisive and coordinated action across the entire UN system is now required.  

Thank you!