WITHOUT INCREASED RESOURCES, UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT GOALS WILL HAVE TO BE REDUCED, G77 TELLS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

Press Release
ECOSOC/5773

WITHOUT INCREASED RESOURCES, UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT GOALS WILL HAVE TO BE REDUCED, G77 TELLS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

Continuing Segment on Operational Activities for Development, Council Begins Review of Relevant General Assembly Recommendations

United Nations operational activities for development were designed to benefit developing countries and should be conducted at their request, in accordance with their own policies and initiatives, the representative of Indonesia told the Economic and Social Council this morning.

Speaking on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, he said the tragic shortfall between the demands of the United Nations system for operational activities and the diminishing level of available resources was the central dilemma facing the entire development cooperation process. Unless that bleak situation was rectified, the goals and objectives of the United Nations development programmes would have to be drastically reduced, he said, addressing the Council as it began review of General Assembly recommendations on operational activities.

The representative of Canada said the Organization's reform process could not be considered a success unless it led to measurable improvements in the quality life of people in developing countries. The United Nations system must be able to show that its work was contributing to national efforts to meet the goals set at recent global conferences.

Speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated States, the representative of Austria said that coordination at the field level was vital to ensure the impact of United Nations operational activities. Greater efforts were needed to establish common United Nations administrative services at the field level and at Headquarters, if efficiency and financial gains were to be made.

A representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) noted that as the number of "United Nations houses" grew, it was important to connect the specialized agencies through information and knowledge networks. That would allow the United Nations Development Group and the United Nations system to function as an organic whole at the country level rather than as agencies which happened to share premises and services.

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In introductory remarks, Assistant-Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs Patrizio Civili said the forthcoming triennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development could have special significance. It could constitute a turning point in policy-making by taking stock of the managerial framework. Trends in the distribution of resources also needed to be addressed and should go beyond core funding to include other partnerships and actors.

The Chief of the Development Cooperation Policy Branch of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Alfred Haemmerlie, also addressed the Council this morning.

Statements were made by the Republic of Korea, Cuba, Russian Federation, China, Romania, Japan, United States and Egypt. The observer of Switzerland also spoke.

Also addressing the Council were representatives from the World Bank, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Council will meet again at 3 p.m. this afternoon to continue its discussion of follow-up to policy recommendation of the General Assembly as part of its segment on operational activities for international development cooperation.

Council Work Programme

The Economic and Social Council met this morning to continue its segment on operational activities for international development cooperation by considering follow-up to policy recommendations of the General Assembly.

The Council had before it a report by the Secretary-General on the triennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system (document E/1998/48 and Add.1). The report emphasizes the interdependent component of development cooperation in a globalizing context for such issues as private capital flows, transforming new technologies and communication. In regard to such cross-cutting components, themes such as human rights, gender and governance shape the orientation of nationally determined priorities supported through operational activities for development. In response, within the United Nations system, efforts are being directed towards linking research with normative and operational activities.

Traditional approaches to technical and financial assistance are being replaced with flexible approaches directly linking assistance with capacity- building, the report states. Overall, the system is paying attention to upstream policy and advocacy functions, replacing the project approach with a programme approach and supporting forums and mechanisms fostering policy dialogue between partners in development.

Field-level coordination of United Nations operational activities involves the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident coordinator system, which engages country representatives of other organizations of the United Nations system, the report states. Since operational activities are conceived and designed with the objective of contributing to national development, national plans and priorities constitute the frame of reference for national programming of operational activities. While the country strategy has been found to be of limited long-term impact, the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), now in a pilot phase, involves not just funding and programming but other components having system-wide implications.

An addendum to the report presents comprehensive statistical data on resources dedicated by the United Nations system for operational activities for development for the year 1996. The report indicates contributions from governments and other sources for operational activities of the United Nations system, expenditures and procurement activities within the system.

The Council will also consider guidelines for the review of policies and procedures concerning technical cooperation among developing countries (document E/1997/110), prepared by the UNDP. The UNDP proposals, transmitted to the Council in a note from the Secretary-General, for the most part reaffirm guidelines approved by the Administrative Committee on Coordination

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(ACC) in 1993. The revised guidelines, to be approved by the General Assembly after review by the Economic and Social Council, include measures on the following topics: overall policy, financing, data and information, training, focal points, the special unit for technical cooperation among developing countries, networking, procedures and reporting.

According to the guidelines, the developing countries themselves had primary responsibility for the promotion and implementation of such activities. Yet, the United Nations system should provide strong support to the developing countries through increased UNDP country allocations and programme resources, and through the mobilization of additional funds from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector. Developed countries and their various funding agencies should be encouraged to support this cooperation through triangular arrangements.

A large number of relevant information systems and data banks have been established by various organizations, the report notes. The guidelines recommend that arrangements should be made for improving, expanding and updating, on a systematic and continuing basis, existing information on capacities, including inventories and directories of institutions. United Nations bodies which maintain information databases should make such information available to developing countries through the Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC) Information Referral System.

Organizations have adopted various internal mechanisms, mainly through the establishment of agency TCDC focal points, for promoting those activities, the document states. The core functions of the focal points should be standardized and they should be assured access to the senior decision-makers in the various organizations. The UNDP should promote regular coordination and consultation among the TCDC focal points of the United Nations system. It should also play a pro-active role within the United Nations system in an effort to expand the application of TCDC.

A significant degree of networking had taken place among institutions in developing countries, both at the initiative of the countries and as a result of the promotional efforts of the United Nations. Those arrangements offered opportunities for the application of innovative approaches to TCDC, especially in implementing long-term development programmes and projects, the report states. Appropriate measures should be taken by the United Nations to ensure the full sustainability of TCDC networks. All organizations of the United Nations development system needed policies and procedures in order to make TCDC an integral part of their programmes and projects.

Introduction of Documentation

Introducing the documents before the Council, PATRIZIO CIVILI, Assistant-Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs,

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said the forthcoming triennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development could acquire special significance and constitute a turning point. The various global conferences had advanced international understanding of the responses required to address changes in the world situation. Several of the United Nations reform processes were being accelerated and converging to create concerted responses to important issues. That growing convergence, includes an emphasis on national ownership.

Regarding funding, he said a more balanced view was emerging on the crucial value of official development assistance (ODA). Trends in the distribution of resources needed to be addressed in the triennial policy review. The review should constitute a turning point in policy-making, taking stock on the managerial framework. The scope and range of the review should go beyond core funding, to include other partnerships and actors.

Statements

HERIJANTO SOEPRAPTO (Indonesia) and on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, said that operational activities for development were critically important for enabling developing countries to take the lead in advancing and managing their own development processes. Globalization had eroded multilateralism and resulted in many complex and negative effects on developing countries. For most developing countries, the operational activities of the United Nations had become an important tool. The Group of 77 and China attached great importance to the triennial comprehensive policy review. It was important to remember that operational activities were for the benefit of developing countries and should be conducted at their request, in accordance with their own policies and initiatives.

Stressing the central dilemmas facing the entire development cooperation process, he referred to the tragic shortfall between the demands of the United Nations system for operational resources and the diminishing level of available resources. The growing range and complexities of the Organization's system went far beyond what the system could provide due to declining financial resources. The proposals for arresting and reversing the decline of core resources made by the boards of United Nations funds and programmes served as a foundation for future work. Unless that bleak situation was turned around, there could be no choice but to drastically reduce the goals and objectives of the United Nations development programmes.

ERNST SUCHARIPA (Austria) for the European Union and Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Cyprus, said effective coordination at the field level was a crucial factor in the impact of United Nations operational activities. Much remained to be done in ensuring the full participation of all the Organization's development agencies. Further efforts were required to ensure

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"ownership" by all the relevant actors, including national governments, of the resident coordinator system. The UNDAF should lead the development of common thematic priorities for participating agencies, he added.

Identifying other programme-related issues where further work was required, he said that there was need for simplification of planning and administrative procedures. The Union also wished to see continued harmonization of procedures, and emphasis on national capacity-building to secure improvements on the national execution modality, ensure the sustainability of programmes and enhance national ownership. Follow-up to major United Nations conferences must also be pursued actively in all operational activities. The union believed that there was still room for improvement in the way the Organization monitored and measured the impact of operational activities at the field level. Also, timely evaluation with clear criteria should be built into all projects, and lessons learned fed back into the system.

He said that greater efforts were needed to establish common United Nations administrative services at field level, and at headquarters when appropriate, if efficiency and financial gains were to be made. The Union also recognized the crucial importance of sound and predictable funding for the Organization's programmes and activities.

JI WON SUH (Republic of Korea) said institutional memory was a crucial element in the process of capacity building. The Secretary-General's report clearly pointed out the lack of systematic documentation of initiatives and lessons learned. The United Nations Development Group should establish a standard mechanism for data collection, because the various elements of records were required for a meaning evaluation process. The standardization of records and indicators would function as a common language for stakeholders. His Government also believed in the continued importance of a regional dimension of operational activities. Regional development had the unique capacity to foster multilateral interaction and peace-building at regional and subregional levels.

While playing a catalytic role, the funds and programmes should ensure that universality, impartiality and neutrality were applied to operational activities, he said. The resident coordinator system should incorporate an in-depth study of programming plans. In addition, coordination at the field level should not be sought after for their own sake. The functionality of the operational activities should remain the key concept of the whole process.

Country level coordination should focus on eliminating functional duplications, and the work load of the resident coordinator should be monitored by the UNDG, he said. Regarding humanitarian relief and long-term development, the development agencies needed to provide inputs, from the earliest stages of relief operations, in order to facilitate the transition

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from relief to development. The decreasing volume of core resources required the increased involvement of the private sector and the Bretton Woods institutions.

FRANCOIS ROHNER, observer for Switzerland, said it was important for United Nations development agencies to step up their performance given the recent international events. Those institutions should continue to mobilize additional kinds of resources to meet the needs of many countries, particularly the least developed countries. The Secretary-General's report talks about system-wide regionally-based activities, but little space was given to activities at inter-regional and global levels. The system at the regional, inter-regional, and global level had comparative advantages as far as fund providers were concerned.

The report's chapter on financing did not fully meet expectation, he said. Regarding the coordinating system, most of players interviewed in the report agreed that financing and management of system should remain under UNDP. Measures should be set up to enhance the capability of the system to respond at the field level, wherever possible.

The resident coordinator system needed to be further strengthened, and measures were necessary to increase the complementarity of the various elements of the system. The UNDAF pilot phase would hopefully allow the United Nations Development Group to define guidelines that would allow them to be adapted to a variety of contexts. Regarding system-wide financing, the ongoing consultations should allow for a solution to provide for the solid financial basis of the funds and programmes.

PEDRO PEDROSO (Cuba) said that the resource situation of the Organization's operational activities was marked by uncertainty and decline. No greater efficiency or impact would be achieved unless a tremendous increase of resources trickled into the area of operational development activities. Future decisions taken on resources would prove decisive for operational development and would become the primary benchmark for all future policies and frameworks.

He said the United Nations must be mindful of the opinions of all Member States of the roles and policies of national governments. Development assistance could not be a substitute for national development. It was up to each country to shoulder the responsibility for coordination of procedures. Strengthening the system of the resident coordinator could be a goal, but not an end. It could only be viewed in its capacity to enhance development activities.

ROLANDO BAHAMONDES (Canada) said the time had come to consolidate efforts and focus on the effective implementation of the operational activities of the United Nations, particularly at the country level. The

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Organization's reform process could not be considered a success unless it led to better programming, better delivery and measurable improvements in the quality life of people in developing countries. The United Nations system must be able to show that its efforts -- on behalf of all Member States -- were contributing to national efforts to meet the goals of the global conferences. More support must be extended by the United Nations to strengthen the monitoring, evaluation and performance measurement systems, to build more harmonized approaches to those issues and programmes and to encourage joint evaluations.

Canada was encouraged by the work of the United Nations Development Group in the areas of country level coordination, he said. Measures had been taken to strengthen the resident coordinator system, including broadening the base of recruitment, but work still needed to be done. It was important to establish training programmes for the resident coordinators to help develop team-building, leadership and interpersonal skills. It was also important to retain a programme approach. In addition, there should be a clearer definition of the roles and responsibilities of the different United Nations bodies in the areas of peace-building.

YURI ISAKOV (Russian Federation) said strengthening national capacities was a priority task for enhancing the effectiveness of the development funds and programmes of the United Nations. Clearly there was great potential for further strengthening of inter-agency cooperation at both Headquarters and at the country level.

Solving the problems of coordination in the field required strengthening the role of the resident coordinators. A single inter-agency team should be established around the resident coordinator system. The coordinators should have larger powers, especially in interrelations with the host country and with the Bretton Wood institutions. There should also be a link between each resident coordinator and the parallel resident representatives.

YUAN SHAOFU (China) said the United Nations system for development cooperation and its organizations and agencies had provided the great majority of developing countries with useful technical assistance in economic and social areas. They had played a role in enhancing developing countries' ability to support themselves and had accelerated their economic and social development. The operational activities and related technical assistance should be further strengthened. Yet the core resources of the organizations and agencies of the development system had been experiencing a general downward trend. The lack of core resources had also led to the reduction in the implementation of numerous assistance programmes, which seriously undermined the interest of developing countries. Without a strong sense of responsibility and political will, no funding modality would be able to achieve the goal of increasing resources. Core resources should continue to come from the government contributions of developed countries.

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His Government appreciated the efforts of the United Nations development system to implement the Secretary-General's reform initiatives, he said. The ultimate aim of coordination was to effectively enhance the ability of operational activities to respond to the increasing needs of programme countries. The resident coordinator should also be the country representative of a programme or fund. That would prevent the resident coordination at the country level from becoming another layer of bureaucracy. Regarding private capital and operational activities, his Government agreed that the complementary role of private capital should be fully integrated, on the condition that the nature of United Nations operational activities remained unchanged.

ALFREDO SFEIR-YOUNIS, representative of the World Bank, said the Bank had addressed the issue of poverty eradication since its inception. During the last decade, it had also deepened its involvement in macroeconomic management and social policy development. Addressing collaboration by the United Nations and the World Bank, he said that the relationship between the two entities had improved and reached new levels. There was also a favourable view regarding the process of bank decentralization process. It would provide an opportunity to enhance collaboration at the various country levels.

He said collaboration was a two-way process. The World Bank needed to be nearer to programmes in the field and work more closely with its client countries. In terms of development assistance, the World Bank felt that the "one size fits all" approach was not desirable. It was important to ensure that there were individual approaches for different countries. In response to the follow-up to United Nations conferences, he said that the Bank was fully committed to effective cooperation with all the Organization's agencies and to the idea of full ownership of programmes by countries.

SORIN MIHAIL TANASESCU (Romania) said the triennial policy took place in the context of the decline of available resources for the funds and programmes. The review should be based on the principles which had guided the activities of the funds and programmes from their inception: universality, neutrality, multilateralism and voluntary contributions. Equitable geographical representation also should apply to all the funds and programmes provided through multilateral assistance. The predictability of the core resources available for the programming cycle could become another agreed principle guiding the operational activities for development. Predictable resources were essential for medium-term programming, efficient delivery, and reduction of administrative costs and evaluation-related activities.

In 1997, Romania was included in the pilot phase of the UNDAF. The UNDAF constituted a commitment to the United Nations activities and a prerequisite for periodical evaluation of their implementation. In addition, it responded to the assistance needs of Romania in a period characterized by deep political, economic and social transformation. The experience of a

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country's resident coordinator was crucial for the elaboration and good implementation of the UNDAF.

In the long term, the UNDAF would strengthen the resident coordinator system and increase the role of the United Nations Development Group, he said. New efforts were necessary to clarify to what extent other specialized agencies of the United Nations were prepared to take part in the UNDAF and to coordinate with the funds and programmes already participating.

SOMAR WIJAYADASA, representative of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), said this year's triennial review was critical in light of the ongoing reform process. The Secretary-General's report correctly acknowledged the importance of reform measures, but there might be room for further analysis of how those reforms could be best applied to operational activities in the future to achieve a more unified, cooperative and coherent development system. Such analysis could lead to a stronger set of operational activities recommendations for consideration by the General Assembly.

The approach UNAIDS had pioneered at the country level had been cited by the Secretary-General as one that could be used in other areas of development, he said. The lessons learned since 1996 were of direct relevance to the concept of coordination in operational activities. At the country level, UNAIDS operated through theme groups on HIV/AIDS, which brought together the country representatives of all co-sponsors of the United Nations to coordinate their activities and combine strengths in response to HIV/AIDS. The theme groups had increased the coordination between the national governments and United Nations agencies.

NIKHIL CHANDAVARKAR, Director of the Division of External Relations, Bureau for Resources and External Affairs of the UNDP, said far-reaching reforms had been introduced by his agency so that it could remain relevant to programme country needs. Action had also been taken in various areas to ensure maximum impact on country-level activities. The UNDP had supported countries' efforts to reach targets agreed to at global conferences. Support had also been provided for initiatives to combat poverty. The UNDP had also worked with programme countries and other partners to improve evaluation and to use the results to improve performance at all levels. The agencies must be connected through information and knowledge networks so that the United Nations Development Group and the broader system could function as an organic whole. The UNDP Executive Board was working to ensure increased and predictable core resources for development operations.

WATARU NISHIGAHIRO (Japan) said the triennial policy review would take place in the middle of the implementation process of the Secretary-General's reform proposals. Japan strongly supported the reform measures, particularly the establishment of the United Nations Development Group, the promotion of UNDAF, and the strengthening of the partnership with the Bretton Woods

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institutions. The UNDAF was an extremely important initiative in promoting linkages between various United Nations development bodies.

It was necessary to enlarge the coverage of recipient countries and expand the participation of organizations, including the Bretton Woods institutions, he said. The resident coordinator system should be strengthened to support the effective working of UNDAF. It should be enlarged to cover the specialized agencies. The training programme for the resident coordinator system also should be refined.

Coordination should not be an additional burden for the recipient countries, he said. To that end, there should be a standardization of programme cycles and a simplification of procedures. It was important to ensure establishment of common indicators for monitoring, as well as South- South cooperation, so developing countries could learn from the experiences of others.

HASSAN H. BAHLOULI, representative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), said in 1997 UNIDO had signed a new arrangement with the UNDP to strengthen coordination at the country level. That agreement was part of efforts to respond to the evolving nature of executing modalities at the field level. The UNIDO business plan, adopted last year, also called for the improvement of functional and programmatic coordination between field representation and other United Nations bodies. The UNIDO country offices would be integrated in the Organization's unified representation whenever feasible and cost-effective.

He said relevant reform proposals made by the Secretary-General had become part of the operational activities of UNIDO and were being carried out by all its field offices. The UNIDO had recently entered into a new partnership alliance with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on investment promotion and technology transfer, and was now in the process of negotiating similar agreements with other United Nations entities.

BETTY KING (United States) said the international community must identify priority efforts to improve operational activities over the next three years. Efforts were needed to implement the Secretary-General's reforms, particularly at the country level. To improve coordination of operational activities at the field level, the resident coordinator system should be strengthened and new structures were needed to reward and encourage service as resident coordinators.

The United Nations Development Group should make further efforts to improve the training of resident coordinators, she said. That would ensure that the best practices in team-building were followed and that all agencies' mandates were reflected by the resident coordinators. The United Nations

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Development Group should continue to refine the terms of reference for the resident coordinators to ensure the greatest possible impartiality and neutrality in the context of the system's current structure. The link between the resident coordinator and the UNDP resident representative should be maintained so that the resident coordinator remained a substantive player in the programming process.

The Secretary-General might consider further steps to integrate the specialized agencies more formally into the UNDAF process, she said. That would help to address problems arising from differences in programme and expenditure capabilities at the field level. The United States encouraged field-level collaboration with the Bretton Woods institutions.

GENEVIEVE ROUCHET, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said it was the agencies themselves that proposed their involvement in the UNDAF. Those agencies had not been involved in the preparatory phases and that was regrettable since they could have contributed even more to the Framework. However, the positive and negative aspects of the UNDAF must be considered and addressed in an effort to streamline programmes. On the various phases of the programme cycle, she said the various funds, programmes and specialized agencies should harmonize the length of their cycles.

She said the resident coordinator was an essential person who should be well versed in all relevant functions. Cooperation should be enhanced between agencies, such as the UNDP and the United Nations Development Group. There was also a need to immediately strengthen the common premises that served to provide system-wide documentation. That approach, however, had to be carried out bilaterally rather than unilaterally.

ADEL ABDELLATIF (Egypt) said the last triennial policy review of the century would provide a good opportunity to place future operational activities on a solid basis. The question of evaluation was very important, and it was startling to discover that the first review of operational activities had just taken place. The evaluations, from only six countries, proved the need to find more resources for impact evaluations in other countries.

There had been too much emphasis on the issue of reform in the Secretary-General's reports, he said. In addition, there were references to the United Nations Development Group, but no mention of its exact role in operational activities. There was a need to seek more information on how that role would be developed in the future. The report also put too much emphasis on the resident coordinator system. Other issues were more important and had received less consideration, including the question of resources and national execution.

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The question of resources continued to be the most important issue, he said. If the international community could not ensure the stability and predictability of resources, operational activities for development would be in danger.

FERDINAND LITTAUA, representative of the World Health Organization (WHO), said that at the policy and managerial level, recent studies had revealed that the United Nations bodies needed to work together if it was to have any noticeable impact at the country level. There was also a need for genuine and equal partnerships between the United Nations, governments and civil society in the pursuit of development activities. At the managerial level, clear objectives in national capacity-building were needed. It was also important to collect base-line data at the start of various projects, to maintain good records and to evaluate results.

Mr. CIVILI said the comments made today would be reflected in the revised documents that would be submitted to the General Assembly for the triennial policy review. The Consultative Committee on Programme and Operational Questions (CCPOQ) of the ACC would take up the participation of specialized agencies in the UNDAF process at its next meeting, and the results would also be reflected in the document. Reviews of operational activities were not new, but impact evaluations were unprecedented in the context of the triennial review.

ALFRED HAEMMERLIE, Chief of the Development Cooperation Policy Branch of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said the training programme for the resident coordinators operated at two levels. The first was at the United Nations system level through the CCPOQ. Intensive field coordination workshops had been initiated several years ago, and so far 90 country teams had participated. A review of the arrangements for the workshops was currently under way, including funding and the costs involved for agencies to bring their staff to the training centre. In addition, there was an individual training process for first-time and senior resident coordinators. That programme was managed by the UNDP and its human resources department.

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