Grace Levin
Acting Counselor
U.S. Mission to the United Nations
New York, New York
March 2, 2020
AS DELIVERED
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My delegation is pleased to see the progress made on the Information and Communications Technology strategy and the many accomplishments that have been achieved including the reduction of a significant number of applications and the consolidation of ICT units; the implementation of security mechanisms to address cyberattacks; the modernization of important functions in the areas of peacekeeping, human resources management, and document management; and the implementation of accessibility features to facilitate access by persons with disabilities to the UN Careers Portal.
Notwithstanding these and other accomplishments, we continue to see challenges. I want to highlight some of these critical challenges and emphasize my delegation’s concern that these matters be addressed as soon as possible, noting we are in the final year of the ICT strategy implementation.
The General Assembly took decisions in resolution 69/262 and 72/266 B requiring that all Secretariat departments and entities fully comply with the ICT Strategy and all provisions of the Secretary-General’s Bulletin on the Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT). To avoid fragmentation and duplication, the U.S. supports the Secretary General’s decision that all ICT budgets are reviewed by OICT prior to their submission. This will help facilitate global sourcing opportunities and strong asset management. In this regard, my delegation looks forward to the revision of the Bulletin in line with resolution 72/266B.
The consolidation and integration of ICT, a key part of the Secretary-General’s management reform, has yet to be fully implemented with some 27 Secretariat units not yet consolidated.
While the state of information security has been significantly improved, in the face of constant and ever-increasing cyberattacks, the continued lack of compliance with ICT policy directives leaves the Organization increasingly vulnerable. It is essential that the Chief Information Technology Officer exercise full Secretariat-wide control over information security.
And finally, with the near completion of the enterprise resource planning project, the Umoja project team should be fully mainstreamed into OICT.
Before closing Mr. Chairman, my delegation would like to highlight the quality and relevancy of the JIU report on Managing Cloud Computing Services in the UN System. My delegation looks forward to discussing its timely recommendations including on the benefits and risks of the cloud and on the synergies from a UN system-wide perspective that could be achieved by maximizing the potential of the United Nations International Computing Center (UNICC).
We stand ready, Mr. Chairman, to engage on this important agenda item and look forward to the Committee’s productive dialogue in the coming days. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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