Norway has been a member of the United Nations ever since the organisation was founded in 1945. In fact, the first Secretary-General was a Norwegian, Trygve Lie. The UN has always been a mainstay of Norway’s participation in the international community. Norway gives priority to the efforts to make the UN a strong and effective organisation that serves as a cornerstone for an international legal order and a worldwide security system, efforts that have become more important over the last 15 years.
For a relatively small country like Norway, it is important that the UN functions well as a forum where all member countries can be heard, irrespective of their size and independently of other power structures elsewhere in the world. But in order to function properly, the UN needs credibility and resources. Norway therefore supports the ongoing efforts to reform the UN.
A more effective UN
In the 1990s Norway and the other Nordic countries launched the “Nordic UN Reform Project”, which focused mainly on ways of making the UN more effective in the social and economic areas. Many of the proposals resulting from the project were included in the Secretary-General’s reform package. Norway supports the reforms and has repeatedly emphasised the lack of correspondence between the magnitude of the tasks the UN is required to carry out and the inadequate financial and human resources that the member countries make available for these tasks. Norway has pointed out that the reforms need to include better co-ordination, both between the various UN specialised agencies and between the UN and the International Monetary Fund, the International Development Fund and the World Bank.
Poverty reduction and social development
Norway considers the UN specialised agencies and programmes to be important instruments for promoting economic and social development in the poorest countries. In September 2000 the world’s leaders adopted the Millennium Declaration containing the Millennium Development Goals. These goals, which include halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, are to be achieved by 2015, and are the guiding principles for development programmes throughout the UN system. The goals have also been the focus of the development efforts of other countries and organisations since 2000. They are at the core of Norway’s own Action Plan for Combating Poverty and are a guiding principle in all our development co-operation.
Peace efforts
Norway actively supports the efforts to strengthen the UN’s capacity for conflict prevention and crisis management, and also the UN’s role in various ongoing peace processes. UN peacekeeping operations are an important instrument in the international efforts to promote peace and security, and Norway is a substantial contributor. Norway was a member of the Security Council in 2001-2002, and in this capacity emphasised the importance of a coherent approach to peace and security. This involves giving weight to the underlying causes of conflict, and including conflict-preventive and peace-building efforts in peacekeeping operations. Norway will continue to promote closer co-operation between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the rest of the UN system in order to improve the co-ordination of the UN’s political and development activities and ensure a more efficient use of UN resources in general.
Democracy and human rights
Democratic development and respect for human rights are among the main goals of Norway’s foreign and development policy, and Norway is actively seeking to strengthen the UN’s role in these areas. Among the areas to which Norway gives special emphasis are the protection of civilians, human rights defenders and the rights of indigenous peoples. Norway helped to set up a secretariat for the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which is currently being headed by the Norwegian Ole Henrik Magga.
Norway’s contributions to the UN
Norway’s contributions amount to 0.65 per cent of the UN’s regular budget and the budgets for UN peacekeeping forces. However, its regular contributions are small compared with its voluntary contributions. In 2002 Norway’s regular contributions totalled about USD 33 million (including regular contributions to specialised agencies and to peacekeeping operations), while its general and earmarked voluntary contributions (excluding those to the World Bank and the regional development banks) came to USD 430 million.
Norway is also among the largest contributors, in absolute as well as relative terms, to the UN funds and programmes, which are the main executive organs in the UN system. Norway is one of the main contributors, for example, to UNDP, which co-ordinates the activities of UN funds and programmes at country level, and Norway co-operates closely with this programme. Norway is also represented on the boards of UN funds and programmes, and in 2003 is Vice-President of the Western Group of Countries on the boards of UNDP and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
A number of individual Norwegians have also occupied important positions in the UN in the years since its foundation. Among these are the first Secretary-General, Trygve Lie, Gro Harlem Brundtland, a former Norwegian prime minister who has recently ended her term as Director General of the World Health Organisation, former foreign minister Thorvald Stoltenberg, who was High Commissioner for Refugees, Terje Rød-Larsen, who has been the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to the Middle East since 1999, and Jan Egeland, who was recently appointed Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Humanitarian Relief Co-ordinator.
Norway is also currently financing 50 to 60 associate professional officers in various UN agencies. About 15 to 20 new Norwegian-financed associate professional officers are appointed every year.
By the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs