02 September 2010
























tool by hioxindia.com


 

Member States Hear Preliminary Analyses of "Delivering as One" Pilots

New York, 12 June 2008 – UN country teams, agencies, and national governments – along with the facilitators of Member State consultations – have undertaken two preliminary analyses of the “Delivering as One” reform initiative. First, UN country teams, national governments, and UN agencies participated in an informal stock-taking exercise, providing their preliminary impressions of the pilot programs in eight countries. The results of this exercise were published in April. Second, the co-Chairs for System-wide Coherence have delivered a preliminary analysis of the initiative, following visits to twelve UN agencies, funds and programmes. Both of these exercises will contribute to the eventual, more official, discussion of Delivering as One, which will take place after the second pilot year (2009).

“Delivering as One” – also called “One UN” – was recommended by the 2006 report of the High-level Panel on System-wide Coherence (HLP) and refers to a fundamental restructuring of UN development work to eliminate programme overlap between UN agencies and offices in each country. To test the restructuring, eight countries (Albania, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uruguay and Vietnam) have been operating as pilot countries since January 2007. The pilot programs have begun implementing UN development work with the HLP’s guideline of “One Leader, One Program, One Budget, and where appropriate One Office at the country level.”

Pilot Countries’ Stocktaking Exercise

Preliminary impressions of UN country teams, national governments and UN agencies were expressed during the 2007 Pilot Stocktaking Exercise (published April 2008).

Although not a formal component of the “Delivering as One” evaluations (to be conducted by the UN Evaluation Group), the stocktaking exercise provided the following preliminary analysis:

  • Increased government leadership and ownership is leading to greater alignment between UN and government development-related priorities;

  • UN agencies are demonstrating increased participation and joint programming; and

  • “One Programme,” “One Fund” and “One Leader” are proving to be effective tools.

The stocktaking exercise also notes, however, that progress during the first year has been held back by short-term start-up costs and workloads, and that of the four “Ones”, progress on “One Office” has been the slowest.

Agency Feedback on Pilot Programs

Ambassadors Augustine Mahiga of Tanzania and John Paul Kavanagh of Ireland, assigned by GA President Srgjan Kerim to serve as co-Chairs for the System-wide Coherence reforms, traveled to UN offices in Paris, Rome and Geneva in May 2008 to meet with representatives of twelve UN bodies:

UN Agency, Fund or Programme

UN Representative

UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation

Director-General Koichiro Matsuura (Japan)

WFP, World Food Programme

Executive Director Josette Sheeran (USA)

IFAD, International Fund for Agricultural Development

President Lennart Bage (Sweden)

FAO, Food and Agriculture Organisation

Deputy Director-General James G. Butler (USA)

WHO, World Health Organisation

Director-General Margaret Chan (Hong Kong)

ILO, International Labour Organisation

Assistant Director General

UNHCR, UN High Commissioner for Refugees

High Commissioner Antonio Guterres (Portugal)

UNCTAD, UN Conference on Trade and Development

Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi (Thailand)

UNAIDS, Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS

Executive Director Peter Piot (Belgium)

OHCHR, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

High Commissioner Louise Arbour (Canada)

UNOG, UN Office at Geneva

Director General Sergei Ordzhonikidze (Russia)

The co-Chairs used their meetings with agency heads to identify points of progress and ongoing challenges for the “Delivering as One” initiative, as follows. (Click here for their prepared remarks on 16 May).

Improved collaboration and cooperation among UN agencies, funds and programmes

  • UN agencies are demonstrating a mutual understanding of respective mandates, advantages and identities.

  • Joint Programming at country level is beginning to show clearer benefits.

  • Agency heads were keen to underline their commitment to ongoing reforms.

Increased awareness of the need to facilitate National Ownership of programmes

  • UN agencies are improving alignment between “Delivering as One” programme efforts and country priorities.

  • Several agencies have developed tailored performance indicators for specific countries, with other agencies prepared to develop such an indicator.

Role of the Resident Coordinator

  • Collaboration and mutual accommodation has increased as a result of the increased role and authority of Resident Coordinators in each country.

Funding Developments

  • · Agency heads are following the consensus established in the General Assembly to achieve administrative savings and to return such savings to development-related initiatives in the same country.

  • · There remain concerns, however, about striking a balance between core (agency) funding and non-core (country-based) funding.

  • · Concerns are also evident regarding the general unpredictability of UN funding.

Chief Executives Board (CEB) Developments

  • Mechanisms have been put in place to replicate existing CEB collaborations at the agency level.

  • CEB has adopted steps to harmonise business practices across the UN.

“No One Size Fits All”- Case of Albania

During their visits to agencies co-Chairs Mahiga and Kavanagh also visited Albania. As the sole European pilot country, Albania is in a unique position to utilise its “Delivering as One” experience to advance its candidacy to the European Union.

The co-Chairs’ described Albania as an example of the “Delivering as One” programme’s potential to be calibrated to meet the individual priorities of countries. The co-Chairs reiterated how the application of “no one size fits all” principle is fundamental to the overall success of the programme.

No discussion followed the co-Chairs’ presentation due to time constraints.

Next Steps

A growing number of countries have volunteered to apply the “Delivering as One” approach, but the co-Chairs have noted that there is no immediate intention to enlarge the pilot programme.

More substantial results of the pilots will only be available in their second year of implementation, 2009.

Documents

Co-Chairs’ Remarks on System-wide Coherence Visits to Agency Heads and Pilot Country (16 May 2008)

“Delivering as One” Pilots Stocktaking Exercise for 2007 (April 2008)

Delivering as One – Report of the High-level Panel on UN System-wide Coherence (9 November 2006)

ReformtheUN.org "Latest Developments" are a free email service. To subscribe, go to http://reformtheun.org/mailman/listinfo/latestdevelopments. Please forward this announcement to individuals and organizations interested in UN reform.