Director General/Executive Director
Distinguished participants,
ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning.
I would like to thank the Vienna Liaison Office of ACUNS for your longstanding and active participation in UN activities, and for taking the initiative to organize this conference.
One could say that the theme of the conference, "Facing Changing Realities: The Evolution of UN Policies", is very timely.
UN reform is a much discussed topic, particularly in this difficult economic climate. As the Secretary-General emphasized at a global staff townhall last week, we are expected to deliver more results despite limited resources.
This has necessitated a long, hard look at our working practices.
But this theme is also timeless, in that we are always evolving in order to meet existing and emerging challenges.
The UN is engaged in a continuous process of change and reform, and we are constantly striving to meet new demands and confront new threats.
This is obviously not easy for a global organization that is working all over the world, trying to solve some of the most challenging problems facing humankind.
But the UN's essential role as the platform for international action demands that we make this effort.
Therefore we have sought to improve transparency, accountability, integrity, efficiency and flexibility, even as we continue to help those most in need.
We are taking further steps to strengthen results-based management and enterprise risk management, as well as quality and transparency in financial reporting.
A major step is Umoja, a new global system to manage programmes and resources. Umoja will be implemented in Vienna in July 2015.
Moreover, on-the-ground coordination among UN agencies has been improved through the "Delivering as One" initiative, among other measures.
Overall, you can see a process of integration, both in terms of how we work and what we work on, at the UN.
Resource constraints and the global economic crisis have undoubtedly increased the momentum for reform, but they are not the primary driver of this integration process.
Rather, Member States and the international community have increasingly recognized the links between peace and security, human rights and development.
As the Secretary-General has repeatedly emphasized, "there can be no peace without development, no development without peace. And neither can be achieved without full respect for human rights and the rule of law."
At UNODC, we strive to achieve these fundamental goals of the UN, namely to safeguard health, human rights and justice, in drugs and crime policy.
This includes promoting a balanced approach in addressing the world drug problem, one that focuses on drug abuse prevention and treatment, and on promoting alternative livelihoods, as well as on countering the production and trafficking of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.
I understand that research undertaken by ACUN's students analysing the evolution of UN drug policy will be presented here later today.
This research is in fact very timely, as governments will gather here in March to take the discussion on the world drug problem forward at the High-Level Review.
Another important discussion which will have profound implications for our work in Vienna is the continuing dialogue on the post-2015 development agenda.
There has been a growing awareness that the world must address threats to justice and security, namely transnational organized crime, drugs, trafficking, terrorism and corruption, if we are to achieve sustainable development goals.
The recent report by the Secretary-General on advancing the UN development agenda beyond 2015, entitled "A Life of Dignity for All", identified major new challenges that have emerged since the MDGs were agreed.
Among these challenges is organized crime, including trafficking in people and drugs, which "violates human rights and undermines development".
The work of UNODC, as guardian of the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime and the UN Convention against Corruption, has thus come to the fore in the post-2015 discussions.
Our Office recently led consultations with an expert group to contribute to the development of an accountability framework for justice and security in relation to development.
The Secretary-General has also launched online consultations on the rule of law to promote a global discussion with states, civil society, academia and ordinary citizens.
This initiative, which can be found at blogs.un.org/ruleoflaw, will continue until the end of the month.
I encourage you to take part in this dialogue on what has emerged as a key issue of our time.
As the report of the Secretary-General emphasizes, "the deepening ways in which the lives of people and countries are linked demand a universal agenda addressing the world's most pressing challenges and seizing the opportunities of a new era".
Thank you once again for your participation and support, and I wish you fruitful discussions.