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This session will engage in dialogue on the evaluation of WFP's corporate emergency response to the Sudan region crisis from 2023-2025.

The evaluation roundtable provides an opportunity for dialogue on the strategic evaluation of WFP's contribution to social protection and the evaluation synthesis of WFP's engagement in UN humanitarian coordination. WFP's Management Plan provides unique insights into how the organization navigates changes in income, earmarking, strategic funding instruments for anticipatory action, needs assessments and planning assumptions to deliver. Although complex, it provides member states with a realistic understanding of the complexities of managing different funding streams, which can help facilitate effective decision-making. Check out our previous analysis for more info: https://www.reformworks.org/post/wfp-management-plan

While Guy Ryder provided a general summary of the state of implementation of UN80, the focus of this briefing was on the Shared Platform Initiative (Work Package 13), the Regional Reset (Work Package 6), and the Joint Knowledge Hubs (Work Package 7).

Under the UN80 New Humanitarian Compact, the United Nations recognizes the importance of the Rome-based agencies’ robust alignment to maximizing their collective impact on food security in fragile settings, particularly given that food insecurity is reaching record levels. The joint informal meeting with be briefed on efforts to realize operational efficiencies and strengthen strategic collaboration globally and at country level, including through data sharing and joint analysis anchored within existing data systems and United Nations sustainable development cooperation frameworks (UNSDCFs) and by advancing the Humanitarian Reset and locally led, context-specific approaches.

The assessment concludes that a merger of UNWomen and UNFPA is feasible and that the real challenge lies in "how risks are managed and how the process is designed, sequenced and governed to strengthen delivery while preserving mandate integrity, operational continuity, donor confidence and political legitimacy". Responses by civil society appear generally to be negative with the International Planned Parenthood Federation indicating on their website that it is 'alarmed' that the proposal will have detrimental impacts on the UN's work on gender equality and sexual and reproductive health. The Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation has also circulated a formal letter indicating their concerns about the merger, including that "preliminary findings indicate that, while the merger would cost $56 million to $110 million, savings are estimated at $32 million to $38 million annually once it is completed" (A/80/710).

In his presentation, the UN Secretary-General positioned the Pact for the Future as the strategic vision for the future UN with UN80 as the vehicle to operationalize that vision. In her presentation, the Co-Chair of the Adhoc Informal Working Group, Ambassador Schwalger of New Zealand stressed the importance of member states' commitment and role in implementation of the mandate resolution.

The resolution (A/RES/80/251) sets out principles to guide mandate creation, implementation and reviews, and proposes a continuation of the Working Group for another year from 1 May 2026 with two new co-chairs. The next iteration of the working group would have concrete tasks to develop criteria, templates and models for the mandate processes set out in the resolution; consider the SG's review of inactive, duplicative, or fully implemented mandates; and receive the SG's proposals for collective mandate reviews.

Several changes to the financial rules and regulations were proposed by the Secretary-General to alleviate the liquidity pressures on the UN Secretariat when member states pay their assessed funding late or not at all. In the absence of agreement on these or any other solutions, these issues will be considered at the second resumed session starting in May. In addition, the Fifth Committee deferred consideration of the proposal for a new internship programme, which would include financial support for unpaid interns until next year. This is the second time that the Fifth Committee has been unable to find agreement on the internship programme and deferred it.