The panel is established to follow up on the call made by the global leaders during the 2005 World Summit for strengthening system-wide coherence accross the various development-related agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations. The panel will develop concrete and comprehensive analysis and recommendations to the UN. Its recommendations will be presented to the General Assembly in September 2006.
- Norway is one of the UN's strongest supporters, Mr. Stoltenberg says. - We want a UN that is even more efficient and goal-oriented. This is important in order to increase world-wide support for the organisation. We should learn from voluntary organisations as well as from the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation. A stronger and more efficient UN will make it possible to achieve the goals set at the turn of the millennium, the Prime Minister says.
Norway is the fifth largest contributor to UN activities within development, humanitarian assistance and environment, and has for years been a leading country in strengthening and reforming the UN.
The members of the panel are; Mr. Shaukat Aziz (Prime Minister, Pakistan, co-chair), Mr. Gordon Brown (Chancellor of the Exchequer, UK), Ms. Luisa Dias Diogo (Prime Minister, Mozambique, co-chair), Mr. Mohamed T. El-Ashry (Senior Fellow, Egypt), Mr. Robert Greenhill (Deputy Minister, Canada), Ms. Ruth Jacoby (Director General, Sweden), Mr. Ricardo Lagos Escobar (President, Chile), Mr. Louis Michel (Commissioner, Belgium), Mr. Benjamin W. Mkapa (President, Tanzania), Mr. Jean-Michel Severino (Director General, France), Mr. Jens Stoltenberg (Prime Minister, co-chair), Mr. Keizo Takemi (MP, Japan), Ambassador Randall L. Tobias (Coordinator, USA).