EFFICIENT, EFFECTIVE, COHERENT UNITED NATIONS CAN MAKE REAL DIFFERENCE IN LIVES

OF PEOPLE IT SERVES, SAYS DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL TO VIENNA CONFERENCE

 

Following is UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s address to the high-level conference on United Nations System-Wide Coherence: the Next Steps, in Vienna, 4 March:

We have converged here today to agree on ways we can work together for a stronger and more coherent United Nations system.  It’s not often that many of us get to talk about these matters face to face, and I would like to thank the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) very much for giving us this opportunity.  Excellencies, we need to seize this opportunity and reflect with open minds on how we can keep moving forward, how we can make the United Nations system more efficient, effective and coherent.  As we move ahead, I urge all of you to keep a focus on the ultimate objectives: a United Nations that makes a real difference in the lives of the people that it serves; a United Nations that provides meaningful support for national development priorities; and a United Nations that helps countries to attain the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.

We all recognise that the United Nations can and should be an indispensable force driving forward the discourse on human development, by building a global consensus to scale up the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals, by playing a leading role in promoting sustainable development, by responding rapidly to humanitarian disasters and by mobilising international action to address global challenges such as climate change.

At the same time, we have also seen how the United Nations work on development and the environment is often fragmented and weak.  Inefficient and ineffective governance and unpredictable funding have too often contributed to incoherent policies, duplication and operational paralysis across the system.  Excellencies, as we are too well aware, cooperation between organizations has been hindered by competition for funding, mission creep and outdated business practices.

We cannot and we are not standing idle in the face of these challenges.  We must keep working together to reduce this fragmentation and increase our effectiveness, efficiency and coherence as a development partner for Povernments.

This positive change has been guided by our Member States through their consensual decision on the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review (TCPR).  We look forward to further guidance through ongoing discussions of the High-Level Panel’s report on system-wide coherence.  It is an honour to have with us today the co-chairs of the General Assembly process, and I am eager to hear from them on how best we can advance this important agenda.

We have already before us some initial lessons learned from the first year of the eight “Delivering as One” pilots.  So far, they have given us a lot to think about and to act on.

I would like to draw your attention first of all to the foundation for our work, the 2007 Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review, which has given the United Nations system a significant mandate to become more coherent, efficient and effective.  The TCPR recognizes the central role of the Resident Coordinators in improving the effectiveness of the United Nations system’s response to national development priorities.  It also emphasizes that the Resident Coordinators, supported by the United Nations country teams, should report to national authorities on progress made against the results agreed in the United Nations Development Assistance Framework.  On both counts, the TCPR emphasizes that the Resident Coordinators should play a central role in ensuring that the United Nations activities are aligned and accountable to national development strategies.  This is essential if we are to create more coherent United Nations country teams.

I also think it’s important that the TCPR formally establishes the United Nations Development Assistance Framework as a key instrument for bringing the United Nations system together in a more coherent and effective way that is aligned with national development priorities.  The TCPR also emphasises that, in pursuing coherence and effectiveness, the system should strive for inclusiveness, drawing on the important mandates and expertise of all UN agencies in supporting national priorities.

These mandates from the TCPR, as well as others, provide us with guidance from the Member States as we endeavour together to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of our work.

I look forward to hearing more from Ambassadors Kavanagh and Mahiga on the General Assembly’s continuing discussions on coherence.  And I commend them for the constructive leadership they have shown in moving the process forward.

The timing of our meeting is also opportune, as we can now more concretely discuss the progress made towards strengthening United Nations coherence, as well as the challenges that remain, with the benefit of the stocktaking process reports that have reflected on the pilot experience thus far.  From the feedback from the Governments and from the United Nations country teams, we can already look to a number of lessons learned.

Of primary importance, national ownership and leadership is an essential component of increased coherence.  It’s clear that we can only support national priorities by working together as one United Nations system, bringing together our respective capacities and expertise.

I am very pleased that by all accounts -- from United Nations country teams, United Nations agencies and, most importantly, from Governments themselves -- the pilot experience has indeed demonstrated a more significant alignment with national development plans.

I am also pleased to hear that the pilot experience has achieved important strides in encouraging and enabling the United Nations system to work together as one, with a positive change in attitude and a greater drive to work in partnerships for greater impact -- a message that again, I hear from Governments and from the United Nations organisations themselves.

At the same time, we also need to discuss how to continue addressing the challenges that we still face.  We need to recognise that the slow pace of reform and change at Headquarters is hindering the pilots.  We have to ensure that the global tools and processes are in place to support and strengthen a more efficient United Nations at the country level.  There needs to be increased clarity on Resident Coordinator authority and mutual accountability within the United Nations country team. 

While we will have the chance to delve further into these issues over the next two days, we should also use this opportunity to find ways to surmount the challenges we will face as we move forward and seek to demonstrate concrete results.

First, I wish to see everyone working together to ensure that we implement the “One Programme” in the eight pilots, and we have to ensure that they show real results.  We must also ensure that Governments remain engaged and in the lead as we address the remaining difficult issues -- including transaction costs -- that are critical to the broader discussions on United Nations efficiency and coherence.

Second, as a system we need to distil the lessons we are learning from the pilots, and apply them to other United Nations country teams -- where it’s appropriate and requested by Member States.  This gives us an important opportunity to realise the United Nations Development Assistance Framework as a key instrument in bringing us together to apply our mandates and expertise to supporting national priorities.

Third, those of us at Headquarters need to take full responsibility for providing our colleagues at the country level with the support and flexibility they need as they respond to national requests to become more coherent and efficient.  In particular, we need to harmonize our business practices more quickly and effectively.

Finally, I would like to highlight the essential role that the specialised agencies and the non-resident agencies play in the United Nations system’s overall effort to achieve greater efficiency, effectiveness and coherence, by drawing on your important mandates and expertise to support national development priorities.  I think the fact that we are meeting here at UNIDO’s headquarters symbolizes the importance of their role.

I am particularly pleased to hear that, through the pilots, agencies were able to promote their mandates within the framework of United Nations agency cooperation, and that technical and advisory roles in their respective substantive mandates were reconfirmed, accepted and strengthened.  And I have also heard that the pilots have encouraged many United Nations organisations to introduce internal adjustments to adapt to the changes stemming from this process.

At the same time, we would be remiss not to acknowledge the challenges that remain for the United Nations system as a whole, and certainly for the specialised agencies -- the significant time and staff requirements; the different business models that create an inherent disadvantage for funding and participation; different cycles for programme planning; and limited experience with programming tools such as the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), to mention a few.

As we move forward, I would like to see even greater inclusiveness and more progress in how specialized agencies adjust their planning and budgeting systems to support robustly the “Delivering as One” pilots and greater United Nations coherence at the country level.  We need to have oneness in our own agency to support Delivering as One more effectively.  All this we must do while keeping national development priorities permanently in mind.

It is my hope that, over the next two days, this meeting will allow us to reflect on how we can move forward, together, to concretely resolve these remaining challenges before us.  The expectations on us are high, but the stakes are even higher.  We must not forget that our paramount challenge is to demonstrate that true coherence and effectiveness in the United Nations ultimately leads to greater impact in improving the lives of the people in the countries we serve.  We owe them nothing less.

Thank you for your attention and I wish you fruitful deliberations.

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For information media • not an official record