HANOI, 29, December: Viet Nam has become the first country to be included in the One-UN initiative designed to reform UN programmes in member countries. The effort, begun on a trial basis, will streamline UN activities in each country.
Viet Nam News spoke with John Hendra, the UN Resident Co-ordinator in Viet Nam, about the UN reform process in the country.
Could you elaborate on the UN Reform?
The UN reform is an ongoing process of making improvements in the way the entire UN family of organisations works. The goal is to adapt to new conditions and provide for changing needs in all of the areas in which the UN is active: development, peace and security, international law, social issues and more.
UN reform is a means to deliver better service to the governments and people the UN serves.
In February 2006, then-Secretary General Kofi Annan established a High-Level Panel to explore how the UN system could work more coherently and effectively across the world in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and the environment.
The group, known as the High-level Panel on UN System-wide Coherence in the Areas of Development, Humanitarian Assistance and the Environment, is co-chaired by Luisa Dias Diogo, Prime Minister of Mozambique; Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway; and Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan.
The work by the panel is intended to lay the groundwork for a fundamental restructuring of the UN operational work, complementing other major reform initiatives currently under way at the UN.
The panel examined good experiences and challenges in the areas of governance, funding, management, coherence, business practices and effectiveness.
On November 9, the High-Level Panel presented the report Delivering as One to the UN-Secretary General and the UN General Assembly.
What is the UN Development Group and its role in reform?
The UNDG is an instrument for UN reform, created by the UN Secretary General in 1997, to improve the effectiveness of UN development at the country level. The UNDG brings together the operational agencies working on development.
The group is chaired by the administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Kemal Dervis, on behalf of the secretary-general.
The UNDG develops policies and procedures that allow member agencies to work together and analyse country issues, plan support strategies, implement support programmes, monitor results and advocate for change.
These initiatives increase UN impact in helping countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including poverty reduction.
How has Viet Nam shown leadership in UN Reform?
Viet Nam is a world leader in aid effectiveness. It is no coincidence that the goal of One UN has progressed most in Viet Nam as it has taken a leading role among developing countries in promoting the aid effectiveness agenda and in implementing the provisions of the Paris Declaration.
As further evidence of the strong national commitment and leadership, the Prime Minister has been closely engaged in the One UN Initiative, and approved the Agreed Principles, Objectives and Instruments to achieve One UN in Viet Nam and the Terms of Reference for the Tripartite National Task Force.
The United Nations Country Team considers Government leadership of the reform process a sine qua non for successful reform.
In September 2005, a discussion paper on UN reform was prepared by the then-UN Resident Co-ordinator and current UNICEF Representative in Viet Nam, in part to stimulate thinking on necessary change in the way the UN operates at the country level.
The note was timed to coincide with preparations for the 2005 World Summit in New York, with UN reform being a prominent item on the summit agenda.
A subsequent paper on the One UN Initiative was prepared in early 2006, outlining the necessary UN reform measures within the larger context of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and its local contextualisation in Viet Nam: the Ha Noi Core Statement on Aid Effectiveness.
What is the Paris Declaration?
In March 2005, more than 100 representatives of governments and international organisations, including those from more than 50 developing countries, attended the first High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Paris.
The participants put their signatures to a set of 56 action commitments, grouped into five areas: Ownership, Alignment, Harmonisation, Managing for Results, and Mutual Accountability.
Although these commitments build on the content of previous agreements, the Paris Declaration is not only more comprehensive but also reflects a more broad-based consensus.
What is the Ha Noi Core Statement and why is it relevant to UN reform at the country level?
In 2005 the government and donors produced the Ha Noi Core Statement on Aid Effectiveness (HCS) which translates the Paris Declaration into Partnership Commitments for Viet Nam, essentially localising the Paris Declaration to Viet Nam.
The Core Statement includes 14 indicators with indicative targets for 2010. In many cases these targets are more ambitious than those in the Paris Declaration. The HCS is now being monitored alongside the Paris Declaration in Viet Nam and is a guiding document for improved aid effectiveness.
What is the Tripartite National Task Force?
The One UN initiative is being implemented in a collaborative manner under the leadership of the Government of Viet Nam and within the context of the Ha Noi Core Statement.
The Government has established a Tripartite National Task Force (TNTF) to guide the implementation of the One UN Initiative consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Office of the Government, the participating UN Agencies, funds and programmes and bilateral donors.
The TNTF has been charged with the responsibility of producing a detailed roadmap and concrete plans for implementation of what has been called The Five Ones.
What is the objective of the One UN in Viet Nam?
The goal is clear: make the UN work better for the benefit of the people of Viet Nam. And it is also clear what needs to be done: UN Agencies should work more closely together to enhance impact, to reduce overlap and look for opportunities to strengthen and take better advantage of the specific skills and experience of UN agencies.
The objective of the One UN Initiative is to move beyond co-ordination towards One United Nations. If the UN is to deliver the best results for Viet Nam, the UN needs to transform itself into a harmonised organisation with unity of purpose, coherence in management and efficiency and effectiveness in operations.
Greater harmonisation and alignment is not an end in itself but a means to an end: the aim is to achieve more coherence, better results and greater impact in UN programmes for the benefit of all people in Viet Nam.
With the strong support of the Government of Viet Nam, an action plan towards One United Nations in Viet Nam was established, comprising five elements: One Plan, One Budget, One set of Management Practices, One Leader, and One UN House. This set of deliverables is also referred to as the Five Ones.
Who from the UN is currently involved in the One UN Initiative in Viet Nam?
Initially, the One UN Initiative consisted of UNICEF, UNDP and UNFPA because these three resident ExCom Agencies (members of the Executive Committee of the UN Development Group) have the advantage of sharing many common programmatic tools (such as UNDAF, synchronised Country Programme Documents) and operational procedures.
Meanwhile, UNAIDS, United Nations Volunteers (UNV) and most recently UNIFEM have joined the initiative. The One UN Initiative is an open process that ultimately strives to include the entire UN Country Team in one, several or all dimensions of One UN (there are 11 resident UN agencies and programmes in Viet Nam).
What do you mean by The Five Ones?
I will outline it as follows:
FIRST, The One Plan seeks to combine and synthesise the work of the six participating UN organisations – namely UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNAIDS, UNV and UNIFEM – to better support the Socio-Economic Development Plan (2006-2010) in Viet Nam. The One Plan will also achieve greater programmatic coherence and better focus on priority target groups.
Furthermore, a series of Joint Programmes is being developed by the UN Country Team in Viet Nam as an effective and inclusive mechanism for UN Agencies for greater UN-wide coherence and enhanced UN impact.
SECOND; One UN House. The consolidation of all UN Agencies into one UN House is an important component of the UN Secretary Generals reform programme. A single UN House fosters unity and co-ordination in all work at the country level. There are more than 60 UN Houses already in operation worldwide.
In Ha Noi, 11 UN Agencies are currently housed in 10 separate locations scattered throughout the city. It is an enormous challenge to facilitate programmatic synergies, efficient information sharing and overall harmonisation.
Meanwhile Government and donor partners must deal with UN agencies at separate spaces, reinforcing our individual specialty differences and not the strength of our combined work. These concepts are at the core of the Ha Noi Core Statement on Aid Effectiveness.
THIRD, One set of Common Services. One of the primary aims of the UN reform is to reduce the burden on national partners and to reduce the cost of doing business with the UN. Establishing common services is one way of doing things better, and cheaper.
Common services are joint operational arrangements, in areas like travel and accommodation services, banking, security, administrative and financial procedures, procurement, recruitment, joint training and IT support. For example, the UN can leverage significant reductions from service providers when they negotiate together as one larger business entity. By working together as one, agencies obviously also save staff time.
The UN Country Team in Viet Nam has adopted an Action Plan to achieve greater efficiencies, the success of which would be greatly enhanced by the establishment of One UN House.
FOURTH, One Budget. It was agreed with the Government of Viet Nam to start with the work on One Budget once a final One Plan is agreed upon, and there is a clearer sense of additional resources required, including through a set of Joint Programmes.
The UN Country Team is fielding consultancy support to assess how the UN is currently being funded while senior UNDP, UNICEF and UNFPA resource staff are helping to develop a coherent financing mechanism for the One Plan.
FIFTH, One Leader. It is has been proposed that enhanced functions and representational responsibility be given to the UN Resident Co-ordinator in Viet Nam to better represent all UN agencies as head of the UN Country Team.
Kilder: Vietnam News Service og The Push Journal
