Opening Remarks of the UN Resident Coordinator at the UN Philippines Partners’ Dialogue 2026

Excellency DFA Undersecretary Maria Andrelita S. Austria
Assistant Secretary Leila C. Lora-Santos

Excellencies, Ambassadors, Dear colleagues,

It is a pleasure to welcome you all today, and in particular to see such strong representation from the diplomatic community, with over fifty embassies present. Your presence is a clear reflection of the International Community’s partnership with the Philippines and of your commitment to multilateralism.

Let me begin by expressing my sincere appreciation for your continued engagement, support, and trust in the work of the United Nations in this country.

2025 was, by any measure, a challenging year globally. We witnessed growing geopolitical tensions, economic uncertainty, and a considerable contraction in development financing. In fact, global official development assistance recorded its largest decline on record—more than 23 percent—at a time when needs are increasing everywhere.

In the Philippines, these global pressures have been compounded by domestic challenges, particularly continued exposure to climate and disaster risks. Last year alone, twenty-two typhoons affected the country, disrupting livelihoods, infrastructure, and essential services, and reminding us once again of the scale of vulnerability.

Yet, in this context, the Philippines has demonstrated remarkable resilience and leadership.

We have seen decisive responses to emerging crises, including the recent energy shock, where swift government action helped stabilize supply and mitigate impacts. We have also seen strong commitment to long-term development priorities—particularly in human capital—with education reaching historic levels of public investment.

At the same time, governance reforms have continued to strengthen institutional credibility, and the mid-term update of the Philippine Development Plan has shown an important capacity to adapt policies to an evolving global and national context.

Progress in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region also remains encouraging. Despite ongoing challenges, peace dividends are increasingly visible, with improvements in incomes, reductions in conflict, and expanded access to services, as the region moves toward an important electoral milestone.

Against this backdrop, the United Nations has remained fully engaged, agile, and focused on delivery.

Despite global constraints and pressures on the multilateral system, we maintained continuity across all Cooperation Framework outcomes in 2025. This was made possible by strong partnerships with Government, by your continued support as development partners, and by a diversified funding base that has helped sustain our operations. Our overall delivery reached USD 189 million in 2025, a 40 percent increase compared with 2024.

Everywhere, and in the Philippines, the United Nations is upgrading its work—UN 2.0.

Our focus is increasingly on systems transformation, moving beyond individual projects toward integrated, policy-driven, and investment-ready solutions. This means combining governance, climate, social protection, legal frameworks, and financing approaches to respond to complex and interlinked challenges.

Our work continues to embrace the leave no one behind approach—a human rights–based and inclusive approach to youth, indigenous peoples, rural women, persons with disabilities, migrants, and refugees, who are among those most affected by different crises.

Resilience remains at the center of our work. In a context of compounded shocks—from energy transition to food systems—we must ensure that resilience is no longer sectoral or reactive, but systemic and anticipatory.

We are scaling up the use of data, digital technologies, including AI, and innovation. From improving targeting of vulnerable populations to strengthening policy modelling and service delivery, these tools are becoming essential to delivering results at scale.

At the same time, we are fully committed to improving the way we operate.

This year, the United Nations in the Philippines will roll out the Common Back Office, a key reform that will allow us to enhance efficiency, reduce operational costs, and maintain a strong and capable presence in the country. This is part of a broader effort to ensure that we remain a relevant, responsive, and high-performing partner.

With that, I will now invite colleagues from our four Outcome Groups to present key 2025 results and 2026 priorities:

• OG1A – Kyungsun Kim, UNICEF
• OG1B – Christophe Bahuet, UNDP
• OG2 – Khaled Hassan, ILO
• OG3 – Tristan Burnett, IOM

[Presentation]

As you know, there is an ambitious efficiency reform process called UN80, started this year by the Secretary-General. Some administrative actions have already been implemented, while others, more ambitious, are and will be submitted to Member States for their consideration and decision.

Following these presentations, we will hear from the Embassy of Switzerland, which will present briefly a practical guide to the UN Operational System, and then open the floor for discussion.

Let me conclude by reiterating that the United Nations remains fully committed to supporting the Philippines—not only in responding to immediate challenges, but in advancing long-term, inclusive, and resilient development.

We look forward to your insights, your guidance, and your continued partnership.

Thank you.