Philippines calls for judicious fund use in United Nations programs

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has called for transparency and the judicious use of funds in United Nations technical assistance programs.

Philippine Permanent Representative to the UN Carlos Sorreta recently made the call at the 57th Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.

“Funds should go more to concrete projects rather than to salaries and administrative costs. Technical cooperation should help transform people’s lives. It should not be used as an excuse to entrench high-paying jobs or for political purposes,” Sorreta said.

According to Sorreta, this is one of the key lessons from the three-year joint program on human rights that the Philippines and the UN embarked on to facilitate technical cooperation and capacity-building in support of national initiatives and institutional frameworks in six areas: domestic investigative and accountability mechanisms; data gathering on alleged police violations; National Mechanism for Monitoring and Follow-Up; civic space and engagement with civil society; drug control and counterterrorism.

The ambassador underscored that capacity-building projects, to be effective, must be aligned with national priorities, are time-bound and that national ownership must be respected to ensure sustainability of efforts.

“We now take full ownership of our human rights agenda, while maintaining spaces for focused collaborative undertakings with bilateral partners and civil society,” he added.

The UN Joint Programme was managed through a multi-stakeholder Steering Committee, led by the Department of Justice and the UN Resident Coordinator, bringing together various Philippine agencies, the Commission on Human Rights, UN agencies, civil society organizations and representatives of donor countries.