ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL REVIEWS GENERAL ASSEMBLY RECOMMENDATIONS ON UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT POLICY
Press Release
ECOSOC/5713
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL REVIEWS GENERAL ASSEMBLY RECOMMENDATIONS ON UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT POLICY
19970708 Focus on Capacity-Building, Field Coordination(Reissued as received.)
GENEVA, 7 July (UN Information Service) -- The Economic and Social Council this afternoon reviewed General Assembly recommendations on United Nations development policy, with much of the discussion focusing on the proposed strengthening of the resident coordinator system and capacity-building work.
According to the representative of Jamaica, capacity-building, including human-resource development, and its sustainability were essential for development activities. Priorities should not be narrowly focused, and there should be flexibility for each country to choose its priorities according to its needs, she said. Her views were echoed by the representative of Pakistan, who said special attention had to be given to the building of national capacities, including emphasis on accountability and responsibility; an integrated approach to system development was needed internationally, including use of joint training programmes.
Discussion this afternoon was based on a report of the Secretary-General on the operational activities of the United Nations for international development cooperation. The report lists, among other things, measures envisaged to strengthen the role of the coordinator of United Nations development activities in the field and outlines further proposed reforms to provide a more coherent response to development problems, in accordance with recommendations made by the General Assembly.
The representative of Malaysia said he would have liked for the report of the Secretary-General to contain a more explicit statement of problems related to capacity-building, resources and field and regional cooperation. The delegate of Uganda said for his part that United Nations reform should not be seen as merely a cost-cutting exercise -- the true point should be to make the system more efficient and effective by improving programme delivery. Effective coordination of United Nations operational activities at the field
and country level was in the best interests of recipient countries as well as of the Organization, he added.
The Council will meet in plenary session again on 10 a.m. Tuesday, 8 July, to review reports of the Executive Boards of the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Children's Fund and the World Food Programme.
Statements
PATRICIA DURRANT (Jamaica) said capacity-building and its sustainability were essential for development activities. Priorities should not be narrowly focused, and there should be flexibility for each country to choose its priorities according to its needs. Capacity-building should also include human-resource development. The proposed regional strategy notes should be developed further, while taking into account experiences at regional and subregional levels.
SYED RAFIGUL ALOM (Bangladesh) said special attention had to be given to the building of national capacities, including emphasis on accountability and responsibility; an integrated approach to system development was needed internationally, including use of joint training programmes. It was further important to build development schemes from the bottom up, starting with local communities and the informal sectors that played a major role in many developing economies. The overall system needed to be scrutinized to see if development programmes contributed to national "ownership" of the development process, or not. Information and knowledge within and outside a country should be shared when a programme was begun; coordination was well and good, but had to be created right from the very beginning, in order to avoid duplication of effort. For technical cooperation, the countries themselves should take the initiative, as it was the countries themselves who often put in the most resources and furthermore knew the needs and shortcomings of their situations.
SELMA ASHIPALA-MUSAVYI (Namibia) said the operational activities of the United Nations were complimentary to the development activities of developing countries, and were therefore very important. However, reliability of resources were indispensable for programmes to eradicate poverty. Funds and programmes could not satisfy the needs of developing countries with a decreasing resource base, and there was a need to widen the traditional donor base. The success of the resident coordinator system depended on the capacity, openness and willingness of the head of the system to work toward the development of a specific country. Developing countries should have a role in the procedure for the selection of coordinators, because they were better able to gauge their needs. Reform of operational activities for
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development were welcome, and this reform should strengthen the funds and programmes world in the field.
ALI REZA EGHLIM (Iran) said opportunities should be given to intergovernmental processes to further discuss and review some of the ideas on coordination involving development programmes and their financing. The main function of Resident Coordinators was to enhance the efficiency of United Nations programmes at the field level; however, that should not affect the independence and authority of individual programmes. Greater efficiency of course could improve the effectiveness of programmes and reduce their costs. Steps should be taken to ensure that reforms did not increase the financial burdens on host countries; and programmes should be aimed at improving capacity building for developing countries; such programmes, further, needed to be assessed on a regular basis.
SHUKRI IBRAHIM (Malaysia) would have liked to see the report of the Secretary-General contain a more explicit statement of problems related to capacity-building, resources and field and regional cooperation. The three important elements of successful operational activities were: where were the resources coming from and was there hope for more resources; how effectively the resources were being used, and what procedures were in place to facilitate effective implementation. National governments should take the lead in identifying the sphere of capacity-building they needed.
HAROLD ACEMAH (Uganda) said that United Nations reform should not be seen as merely a cost-cutting exercise -- the true point should be to make the system more efficient and effective by improving programme delivery. Effective coordination of United Nations operational activities at the field and country level was in the best interests of recipient countries as well as of the United Nations, as it helped to avoid duplication and ensured optimal use of resources. For that reason Uganda supported strengthening the resident coordinator system; it further supported national execution of projects as this was one way to promote indigenous and sustainable capacity building. It felt that strengthening capacities in developing countries was necessary for achieving poverty eradication, rapid economic growth, and political stability. Uganda also supported the regional dimension of United Nations operational activities, and agreed that the impact of development programmes should be evaluated regularly; the country hoped that donors would provide additional resources to enable the United Nations to undertake such evaluations.
SAVITRI KUNADI, Additional Secretary at the Ministry of External Affairs of India, said the United Nations funds and programmes had exerted considerable efforts in recent years to enhance their efficiency. But greater intergovernmental discussion was necessary to further define an international consensus on the range of measures that had been contemplated to further enhance the efficiency and functioning of funds and programmes. The question
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of increasing resources proportionately to the growing needs of developing countries was an essential part of the overall reform process of the United Nations development system, and a crucial factor that needed to be addressed if the effectiveness of operational activities was to be enhanced. It was also imperative that the decline in core funding for operational funding be addressed. A serious also needed to be taken at available mechanisms such as annual pledging conferences. The debate over the importance of peace building in the process of development was likely to continue.
KARIN SHAM POO, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), responding to questions and comments from country delegations, said what was called the United Nations Development Assistance Framework was intended to better coordinate programmes related to Governments and development, and was not intended to lead to increased costs for Governments. One goal of the process was to streamline the preparatory process of programmes and projects; in its pilot phase the programme had started with 11 countries, with nine to be added next year; some countries were well along in the process, others were just beginning. Where programme cycles had not been harmonized, that had to be done, to ensure the same timing and to allow reviews of programmes applied to each country to be carried out appropriately. "Cost effectiveness" was not related to dollars and cents alone -- it was not easy to quantify all the elements of cost effectiveness, but the subgroup reviewing the matter was trying to come up with an concept that took everything into account.
Within the framework on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF was doing its very best to protect children in all situations, she said in response to remarks made this morning by the representative of Swaziland.
ALFRED HAEMMERLI, Chief of the Operational Activities for Development Unit of the Department of Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, said UNDAF reports were prepared in close cooperation with governments. The areas where regional strategy note and country strategy reports would be brought together had not been chosen yet. And if, as the representative of Malaysia said, the problems affecting capacity-building, resources and regional and subregional cooperation were not specified, that was because the information was not complete; next year a more in-depth evaluation of the issues would take place.
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