Statement by Marcos Neto, UN Assistant Secretary-General, and Director of UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, at the FutureGov Side Event organized on the margins of the 25th Session of the Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA).
14 April 2026
Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
On behalf of UNDP and UN DESA, and as the Director of UNDP’s Bureau of Policy and Programme Support, it is my great honor to welcome you to our annual FutureGov event.
Our focus this year on ‘partnership’ is particularly relevant as public sector institutions come under increasing pressure to respond to evolving demands, to deliver services that are more responsive, transparent, inclusive, and to remain resilient in the face of conflict and crisis.
Governments are navigating an increasingly complex environment shaped by fiscal constraints, declining levels of public trust, rapid digital transformation, and rising citizen expectations. According to the OECD, trust in national governments across its member countries averages just over 40%, highlighting a persistent gap between institutions and the people they serve. Meanwhile, the World Bank estimates that over 700 million people still live in extreme poverty, underscoring the urgency of delivering more effective public services.
In this context, strengthening governance is not abstract but tangible — enabling institutions to deliver better services, supporting better outcomes for people. At UNDP, we see this every day. From 2022 to 2024, UNDP supported 160 million people in accessing essential public services (source: UNDP Annual Report 2024). More broadly, UNDP partners with over 140 countries to strengthen governance, integrity, and public institutions.
To respond to the growing pressures, UN member states launched FutureGov as a High-Impact Initiative at the SDG Summit in September 2023, co-led by UNDP and UN DESA. FutureGov advances public sector transformation in support of the Sustainable Development Goals and supports countries in advancing governance systems that are fit for today’s challenges, and tomorrow’s demands.
With partnership at the heart of its delivery model, FutureGov has been exploring new ways of strengthening public sector institutions. For example, at the policy and technical level, UNDP and the World Bank are collaborating with the Civil Service Commission of Ethiopia to use behavioral insights to inform policy design and service delivery. In Uzbekistan, UNDP, in collaboration with the OECD, will support efforts to improve the environment for domestic and foreign investments. UNDP is also coordinating with the EU in Chad on the use of digital technology to strengthen public sector performance. In Nepal, UNDP is engaging with the IMF on governance and anticorruption diagnostics. Finally, UNDP and UN DESA have worked together in 5 countries to conduct the ‘3is diagnostic’, which assesses opportunities and challenges to strengthen inclusion, integrity and innovation at sectoral level.
Excellencies, distinguished guests,
FutureGov is not just about a forward-looking focus to public sector support – it is also about how we work – removing silos, creating synergies and building new forms of collaboration between UNDP, UN entities, IFIs and other organizations. It is a platform which enables us to move from fragmented interventions to more coordinated, system-wide efforts that strengthen how public institutions deliver for people.
The presence today of senior representatives from UN DESA, the OECD, the IMF and the World Bank is a strong testament to our joint commitment to collaborate at the global, regional and country level to better support public sector transformation.
To conclude, I wish to thank our donors and partners — many of whom are present in this room — for their support in making the FutureGov initiative possible.
I also thank the UN DESA ASG, participants from the UN permanent missions, government counterparts, CEPA members and colleagues from UN DESA, the World Bank, the OECD, the IMF for being here today and for being part of this shared effort.
And I encourage us all to further strengthen our partnerships in order to sustain and scale our efforts, in response to evolving governance challenges.
I wish you a successful event.
Thank you.
The statement was originally published on the UNDP website and is available here: www.undp.org/speeches/strengthening-governance-enabling-institutions-deliver-better-services
The FutureGov Side Event is supported by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Sub-Fund of the UN Peace and Development Trust Fund (UNPDF), as well as Denmark, Luxembourg, and the Republic of Korea, through the Governance, Peacebuilding, Crisis and Resilience Funding Window.
