Calling 2015 ‘Historic’ Opportunity to Advance Sustainable Development Goals, Economic and Social Council Holds Dialogue, Sharing Diverse Strategies

Stressing that 2015 provided a “historic” opportunity to advance the sustainable development agenda, United Nations and Government officials shed light today on strategies to make the Organization’s development system more nimble and effective in supporting priorities in countries worldwide over the next 15 years.

“To be fit for purpose in a post-2015 world, the United Nations must build on its successes and comparative advantages, and overcome remaining institutional obstacles to delivering collaboratively,” said Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Chair of the United Nations Development Group.

In a keynote address to the Economic and Social Council’s half-day dialogue on the matter, Ms. Clark said an integrated approach among Government ministries and United Nations development actors alike was vital to address poverty, socioeconomic vulnerabilities and resilience, as well as providing support to ongoing processes such as disaster-risk reduction, financing for development, and addressing climate change.

Increasingly, Governments saw the value of the “Delivering as One” business model for United Nations country teams, she said.  A recent survey of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs revealed that 78 per cent of programme countries had signed on to the model, resulting in less duplication of the Organization’s efforts and making it easier to deal with the United Nations system.  For its part, the United Nations Development Group had introduced standard operating procedures for country teams, which could be adapted to a nation’s specific context, in order to help Governments devise and implement the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF).

A new business operations strategy launched in 13 countries had significantly reduced costs in information and communications technology, human resources and other common services, she said, pointing to an estimated $12 million in savings in Ethiopia and $15 million in Rwanda over five years.  In Malawi, a joint monitoring framework between the Development Group and the Government enabled both partners to quickly identify bottlenecks and keep United Nations programmes on track.  The Organization was also focused on better equipping Headquarters to address the needs of country-level operations.

This year, the Development Group would pool and improve programming and funding instruments, develop a risk management framework for them, expedite the mainstreaming of South-South and triangular cooperation across the United Nations system, and put in place a new learning and performance management system to strengthen the Resident Coordinator system, she said.  To support sustainable development beyond 2015, the world needed a United Nations system grounded in cutting-edge analytics and strategies focused on tackling inequalities, lack of rights, and risk, as well as more open, common production systems.

Maria Emma Mejia Velez (Colombia), Economic and Social Council Vice-President, who opened the dialogue, said today’s session was a continuation of the Council’s 15 December stocktaking event on the post-2015 development agenda, as well as the first drafting session of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development.  The dialogue offered a critical opportunity to move forward a process that must ensure the United Nations system was up to addressing forthcoming challenges.

Following Ms. Clark’s address, several delegates stressed not only the need for quality and innovation in the United Nations work, but the space to take risks and try new things.  A universal mandate was important, as was more cost-effective use of the Organization’s limited funding.  Some speakers asked the Executive Boards of the Organization’s programmes, specialized agencies and funds to better coordinate their activities and be more accountable to Member States and the United Nations, including by holding more frequent meetings and increasing Member States’ involvement and partnership.

Delegations also called for greater transparency in setting development priorities and asked Ms. Clark to elaborate on the nature of the United Nations presence in the field, how development and humanitarian funding was configured, and how countries could transition from the Millennium Development Goals to the sustainable development goals.

In response, she welcomed the call for greater risk-taking, and innovative ideas, as well as greater engagement with the Executive Boards.  She cited examples of funding mechanisms to support development priorities and goals, such as Jordan’s new fund to implement that country’s national resilience strategy.  While strategic planning had improved in the United Nations system, un-earmarked funding had decreased.  Mechanisms such as the Millennium Development Goals Fund set up in 2007 and the One UN Fund, among other multi-donor trust funds, encouraged collaboration.

She acknowledged that while the traditional service delivery model was very relevant for some countries, others that had established a huge development capacity were seeking policy ideas and innovation.  The United Nations must be adaptable enough to meet the spectrum of all Member States’ needs, and it must build a culture of collaboration that transformed silos in the current system.

Paulina Maria Franceschi Navarro, Panama’s representative, stressed the need to adapt the system to the post-2015 development agenda through more flexible, cutting-edge arrangements, quality data, technical know-how and good practices.  Panama drew on its “People First” development platform and comparative advantage as a regional hub to forward that agenda.  She said national and regional systems must align their structures in their messages and communications, and country offices must embrace innovation.

Mahama Samuel Tara, Chief Director of Ghana’s Ministry of Finance, said the United Nations development system must base its future strategies on its role as a neutral arbiter when dealing with countries in transition.  At the country level, it could and should be a stronger partner, not a competitor.  Using its arbiter role to help guide policy and keep competing development partners in check was essential to reduce efficiency and duplication of efforts.  UNDP and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had made a positive impact on Ghana, he said, suggesting that in the long term the United Nations system be overhauled to advance its funding mechanism.

Admasu Nebebe Gedamu, Director of United Nations Agencies and Regional Economic Cooperation Directorate of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, praised the Organization’s critical support to help Ethiopia advance its development agenda, build key Government institutions and technological capacity, and said it should continue such involvement.  By devoting most of its economic development funding to pro-poor sectors, the country had experienced more than double-digit economic growth, achieved the Millennium target of halving extreme poverty, and had moved from a reactionary approach to disasters to a risk-reduction approach.  He called for greater harmonization of procedures of United Nations and Government partners, more core versus non-core resources, and less fragmentation.

Mira Karybaeva, Head of the Department of Ethnic, Religious Policies and Interaction with Civil Society, of the Office of the President of Kyrgyzstan, echoed other speakers’ support for the “Delivering as One” model.  She discussed the United Nations central role in promoting peacebuilding, human rights, social equity and poverty reduction in her country.  From 2005 to 2014, the Organization, as a strategic partner, had contributed $550 million towards those efforts through 21 specialized agencies, funds and programmes.

Following those speeches, the representatives of three countries:  Ferit Hoxha (Albania), Sofia Mesquita Borges (Timor-Leste) and Nguyen Phuong Nga (Viet Nam), took the floor as discussants.  They voiced support for the “Delivering as One” model to end the silo mentality.  They also expressed support for the use of standard-operating procedures and strong, coordinated United Nations country teams, which should be matched at the Headquarters’ level and by strong Government ownership and leadership. Shedding light on their respective countries’ development-related successes and challenges, they suggested ways in which the United Nations role could be improved.

Also speaking today were representatives of Guatemala, Tunisia, United Kingdom, United States, Russian Federation, Brazil, Japan, Sweden, Honduras, South Africa (on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China), Argentina, Kazakhstan, Australia (also on behalf of Canada) and China.  A representative of the European Union Delegation also spoke.