Lauding Chief Executive Board Role in Supporting Leaders’ Efforts on 2030 Agenda, Deputy Secretary-General Presents Annual Report to Economic and Social Council
Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, to the coordination and management meeting of the Economic and Social Council, presenting the 2017 annual overview report of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, in New York today:
Thank you for the opportunity to provide to you, on behalf of the Secretary‑General, a summary of the Annual Overview Report of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB).
As the highest-level internal coordination mechanism in the United Nations, the CEB’s key role is to strengthen synergies and promote coherence and coordination among the organizations of the United Nations system on issues of system-wide concern. It is also, one might say, an internal managerial “laboratory”.
The Secretary-General, as Chair, has steered the work of the Board towards supporting the second year of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by bringing the entities of the United Nations system closer together, in a deeper effort to transcend institutional boundaries. The Board adopted a new meeting format to ensure that it is well positioned to provide forward‑looking guidance, as well as thought leadership.
With the aim of bringing young people’s thinking and needs closer to United Nations leadership and into the shaping of the United Nations system’s future, the Secretary-General invited his Special Envoy on Youth to address and inspire the Board at its second regular session. Such interaction will continue.
In November 2017, the Secretary-General proposed, and the Board agreed, to separate operational support work addressed by the United Nations Development Group from the system-wide policy roles of the High-Level Committees on Programmes and Management, with the strengthened United Nations Sustainable Development Group being outside the architecture of CEB.
In support of the interlinked and indivisible nature of the 2030 Agenda, the Board pursues an approach that balances the three dimensions of sustainable development and integrates the development, peace, humanitarian affairs and human rights perspectives.
In that context, in 2017, the Board focussed on supporting the application of technological innovations by Member States for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals; agreed on a common approach towards leadership in the United Nations system; and promoted joint efforts in the area of risk and resilience.
As a result, CEB promoted system-wide actions that were anchored in a common vision and a sense of shared responsibility and that drew on the specialized capacities and expertise of the United Nations system as a whole.
Allow me to elaborate on three specific areas of focus. First, the Board examined the opportunities and challenges offered by scientific and technological advances.
The Board also concluded that technological innovations, when applied to business processes, have the potential to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of programme delivery. As a result, the Board decided to explore areas for United Nations system engagement on frontier technologies that include both the internal application of new technologies and the engagement of leading external experts on implications for the Organization and its work.
Second, a leadership framework was endorsed by the Board in response to the General Assembly’s request that the United Nations system align its staff capacities to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The framework provides a blueprint for building and strengthening United Nations capacity at all levels and in all functions and locations. It aims to foster broader cultural change against the backdrop of current reform efforts.
The leadership framework was developed by the High-Level Committee on Programmes, the High-Level Committee on Management and the United Nations Development Group, with facilitation by the United Nations System Staff College. It is rooted in the shared understanding that United Nations leadership must be norm-based, principled, inclusive, accountable, multidimensional, transformational, collaborative and self-applied. Leadership behaviours should manifest themselves in support of the 2030 Agenda in four key ways: achieving impact for the people we serve; driving transformational change; employing systems thinking and engaging in cocreation through partnership.
A third system-wide initiative was an analytical framework on risk and resilience, adopted by the Board in November 2017. This framework was developed in response to General Assembly and Security Council resolutions recognizing that an integrated and coherent approach among relevant actors is critical to advancing the objectives of the Organization across the three pillars.
The framework was developed through the High-Level Committee on Programmes, in a system-wide effort led by the World Food Programme (WFP). It has three elements at its core: systems thinking; the risk and resilience equation; and a prevention “lens”. These are explained in greater detail in the report, but in short, they are meant to form a coordinated approach to addressing threats that could hinder or reverse progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
The term “systems thinking” refers to the fundamental relationships among risks and other sustainable development issues at multiple levels, while the so‑called “risk and resilience equation” is useful for organizing efforts across pillars and defining collective outcomes. Applying a prevention lens is intended to help foster a proactive approach in the implementation of measures to increase resilience and lessen risks.
In November 2017, the Secretary-General called for the CEB members’ engagement on three key issues that deserve maximum attention and commitment from the entire leadership of the United Nations: promoting gender parity; combating sexual exploitation and abuse; and addressing sexual harassment within the organizations of the United Nations system.
As a result, efforts towards gender parity have been heightened across the United Nations system. Since the last Board meeting, system-wide efforts to combat sexual exploitation and abuse have been championed by the Secretary‑General’s Special Coordinator through direct communication with CEB entities that have a field presence. The Board also welcomed the Secretary‑General’s call for the establishment of a task force on addressing sexual harassment within the organizations of the United Nations system. The task force, under the leadership of the Chair of the High-Level Committee on Management, began its work late in 2017 and is expected to complete its work by the end of 2018.
The Secretary-General believes that the Board provides a valuable space for United Nations system leaders to explore opportunities for developing and scaling up system-wide efforts in support of the 2030 Agenda. He and the Board members share a strong commitment to work together and jointly contribute in every way they can in support of Member States’ ambitions. Thank you for your attention.