Panel: Streamline UN aid, gender work
NEW YORK, 9 November: A high-level panel Thursday outlined bold steps to streamline and raise the efficiency of UN work on development, womens issues, humanitarian aid and the environment.
The report on system-wide coherence, titled “Delivering as One”, was prepared by a 15-member panel co-led by Prime Ministers Jens Stoltenberg of Norway, Shaukat Aziz of Pakistan and Luisa Dias Diogo of Mozambique, and was appointed by UN chief Kofi Annan.
The report furthers measures called for at a 2005 world summit that followed up on the so-called Milennium Development Goals and complements reforms under way at the United Nations.
The panel recommended consolidating three UN entities tackling gender issues into a single agency led by a director with under-secretary-general rank “to guarantee organizational stature and influence in UN system-wide decision-making,” the report said.
The executive director would act as chief adviser to the UN secretary general on gender equality and womens empowerment issues.
Womens groups immediately welcomed the proposal.
– We and our colleagues around the world are pleased that one of the panels boldest recommendations is for an independent womens agency that will strengthen the UNs capacity, leadership and resources for gender equality, said June Zeitlin, executive director of Womens Environment and Development Organization, a New York-based international body advocating womens equality in global policy.
– We believe that this consolidated agency will provide a stronger voice for women at both the global and country level, she added.
If approved, the new entity will consolidate womens units within the UN, including the Office of the Special Advisor to the Secretary-General, the Division for the Advancement of Women, and the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). It will be headed by a new under-secretary general.
Meanwhile Stoltenberg said another goal of the panel was to respond to the “lack of coherence (sammenhæng) and lack of coordination” in UN activities in a given country, where overlapping work by several agencies has led to “excessive” administrative costs.
UN development work is fragmented, weak and not properly structured to meet a countrys needs, the study said.
– No one facing todays challenges would design the UN system as it currently stands. To leave it the way it is would mean giving in to short-term national and institutional interests, Mr. Stoltenberg said
The report stated that currently more than one third of UN Country Teams have ten or more agencies on the ground, and several with more than 20, resulting in “incoherent” programme interventions and “excessive” administrative costs.
– “We have proposed a bold but realistic agenda for action, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said, adding: – It should ensure that the UN is well funded, and can respond more effectively to the needs of countries and communities everywhere.
Among recommendations was establishing “One UN” Country Programmes, which would streamline UN agency activities and be led by resident coordinator and handled by a strategic Sustainable Development Board.
This board would eventually bring together boards of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), and the UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF). The UNDP administrator would serve as a UN Development Coordinator, reporting to the Sustainable Development Board, the report suggested.
– We want the UN to be a strategic player at the country level, supporting us in the preparation and implementation of our nationally-owned development strategies, Luísa Diogo, Prime Minister of Mozambique, said.
“The UN should “deliver as one” at country level, with one leader, one program, one budget and, where appropriate, one office,” the panel said, adding, that an independent task force should “further eliminate duplication within the UN system and to consolidate UN entities, where necessary.”
The savings, of as much as 20 percent a year, would recycle to the One UN Country Programs.
The panel suggested a new funding mechanism in support of the poverty-reduction millennium development goals to provide multi-year funding for the One UN Country Program.
The report furthermore proposed establishing five pilot One Country Programs by 2007, and Annan indicated that several countries, notably Vietnam, had expressed interest in participating.
Addressing concerns that the proposed changes may demand too radical structuring, the panel readily replied. – The most radical and dramatic thing we can do, is to do nothing. Maintaining the status quo would represent a victory for inertia (træghed), Mr Stoltenberg noted.
In the coming weeks, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will formally present the report to the General Assembly and will transmit it to his successor, Ban Ki-moon.
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