Permanent Mission of Austria to the United Nations

Multilateral Development Cooperation

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Over the last years the UNDP has undergone wide-ranging reforms in response to criticism from donors and massive cutbacks in contributions. New management methods, revision of the programmes and decentralisation from New York to 131 country offices headed by resident coordinators all meet the demands of Austria and other member states. The UN Millennium Summit in September 2000 gave the UNDP the primary responsibility for combating poverty, which it carries out in accordance with the World Bank's Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers. Reform of both organisations had increasingly led to duplications. Therefore, Austria and other countries demanded that the mandates of all the organisations active in this field should be clearly differentiated from each other. The establishment of six trust funds (energy, environment, governance, combating poverty, communication technology, and crisis prevention and reconstruction) should lay the emphasis on areas in which the UNDP is particularly strong. Austria welcomes these reforms and is actively engaged in the discussion of the future relationship between the UNDP and the UN Office for Project Services. The UNDP is not financed from the general UN budget, and the situation remains critical. Donors are increasingly financing specific UNDP programmes instead of its central budget from which its running costs are met.

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

The UNFPA is a decentralised UN programme with a clearly defined mandate to control demographic development. The best strategy to this end has been found to be educating girls and strengthening the role of women in developing countries. Countering the spread of HIV/AIDS is another central activity. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid of Saudi Arabia, who became UNFPA director in 2001, established cooperation with Austria on projects for women in Afghanistan. An agreement was reached with the International institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg (near Vienna) on the holding of a Global Science Panel on Population and Sustainable Development in Laxenburg during 2002 with Austrian co-financing. Despite UNFPA's recognised success, the trend of falling contributions continued in 2001, which led to the cancellation of some important family planning programmes.

United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF)

UNICEF, founded in 1946 as an emergency programme and restructured on a permanent basis in 1953, now has the principal objective of establishing health care and social facilities for children in developing countries. It also campaigns for children's rights and played a leading role in the drafting of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of Children. It is supported by national UNICEF committees which raise a substantial proportion of its funds from private sources. The World Summit on Children and the Children's Forum that were due to be held on 16-21 September in New York had to be postponed till 2002 after the terrorist attacks on 11 September. In December 2001 UNICEF published its mediumterm strategy for the period 2002-2005. Its priorities are girls' education, development in earliest childhood, immunisation, HIV/AIDS, and the protection of children from violence, abuse, exploitation and discrimination.

United Nations Junior Professional Officer Programme

This programme enables young graduates to gain experience of the work of an international organisation over a period of two years. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs meets the entire costs for Austrian participants. The dual aim of this programme is to provide additional assistance for an international organisation as well as broadening the experience of the trainees, who are mostly sent to developing countries. Austria also provides support for their transfer to the regular staffs of their respective UN organisations. In 2001, there were 12 Austrians in service under this programme in Rwanda, Nicaragua, Kenya, Uganda, Palestine, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Ethiopia and Bhutan and in the central offices in New York and Geneva. Of the 23 Austrian participants since 1996, a total of 13 were subsequently appointed on regular contracts by UN organisations.

United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO)

UNIDO is increasingly concentrating on the development of sustainable industries and other economic branches with an emphasis on the build-up of industrial capacities, assistance with the exploitation of export opportunities on the basis of liberalisation and market opening, and in the field of energy and waste disposal. Director-General Carlos Magarinos was re-elected for a second term of office, and will continue his policy of consolidation with the aim of integrating UNIDO more closely into the international development debate. UNIDO was prominently represented at the UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC III) and will be deeply involved in the conference on Financing for Development as well as the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. The ninth UNIDO General Conference in December discussed the organisation's future orientation, when Austria and the EU advocated a concentration on the LDCs and on the environmental aspects of industrial production. The new UN contribution scale is now being applied to UNIDO in a suitable form. Austria was elected to the UNIDO Industrial Development Board for four years and to the Programme and Budget Committee for the next two years.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

The most important UNCTAD event in 2001 was the Third UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC III) in Brussels in May that was dedicated to bringing about specific improvements in the situations of 49 of the world's poorest countries, especially as regards combating poverty. The commitments agreed to will be implemented under a joint action plan over the next ten years. The EU contributed substantially to the conference's success, and opened the European market to the products ("everything but arms") of all 49 countries free of tariffs and quotas. Other major industrial countries announced their intention to follow the European lead. Another important result was the increased untying of aid to the LDCs by the OECD countries. Austria held the cochairmanship of the Round Table on Energy which was prepared and carried through in cooperation with Mali, UNIDO and UNCTAD. UNIDO was commissioned to implement the results.

United Nations Commission for Human Settlement (UNCHS-Habitat)

The central event in 2001 was the UN Special General Assembly on Human Settlement (Istanbul+5) in New York on 6-8 June, which drew the attention of the world to the challenges of urbanisation during the third millennium. Habitat also continued to make progress with its internal reforms. The most visible result is the transformation of the Commission into an established UN programme, which considerable strengthened Habitat within the UN system. Austria's activities within Habitat are mainly concentrated on urbanisation, combating poverty, and water supply.