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Although specific information on the briefing is not publicly available, the briefing will likely include discussion of the proposal to merge UNWomen and UNFPA, as outlined in the UN80 report on Workstream 3 "Shifting Paradigms: United to Deliver". Concerns have been raised by some European member states that such a merger could weaken UNWomen's normative mandate on gender equality.

Previously the Board received separate briefings on various organizational reforms, including efforts at making the organization more inclusive, the Headquarters Efficiencies initiative and the Future Focus prorgramme. The JIU governance review, like the WFP governance review, highlighted that many members struggle to keep on top of the disparate issues covered by the Board. Presumably this was a key reason that the Board decided at its last session to receive a comprehensive briefing on all the organizational change processes, including staffing changes, and their financial implications ahead of every session.

The comprehensive response plan was developed in response to the 2021 S3i scandal. It has involved significant changes to financial, management and ethical practices. More than a technical exercise, it has included extensive efforts at transforming the organizational culture of UNOPS with a stronger focus on continuously enhancing organizational performance.

Although often a pro forma exercise, the elections to these bodies are particularly relevant this year given the financial and liquidity crisis facing the UN. The ACABQ has significant influence over Fifth Committee decision making when it reviews budgets, including the revised budget for 2026 and the next budget for 2027 which will both spell out the key elements of UN80 for the UN Secretariat. As the International Service on Human Rights (ISHR) has pointed out in a recent study, the Committee has become increasingly politicized with some members trying, for instance, to undermine resourcing of agreed human rights mandates. Staff salaries and benefits, determined by the ICSC, are another potential area for cuts - one that has been highlighted by representatives of the United States at the opening of the Fifth Committee session. The Committee on Contributions is also the committee that decides when to invoke Art. 19 and suspend the voting rights of member states who have failed to pay their assessed funding.

The SG's messaging on the financial crisis has become significantly more direct in this address, in which he highlighted for the first time that if member states do not change their behaviors in paying arrears and agreeing on mitigation measures, the UN is racing towards bankruptcy. While many member states reiterated their support for multilateralism and UN reform, there were few concrete indications that member states will make more progress on the liquidity crisis than in the second resumed session in the spring at which no agreement was reached on the SG's request to create a mechanism to suspend the return of credits to member states when liquidity shortfalls threaten full budget implementation.