ECOSOC 12TH JULY 2007

Operational Activities Segment


Item 3: Operational activities of the UN for international development cooperation:
a) Follow-up to policy recommendations of the General Assembly (GA) and the Council
b) South-south cooperation for development

Opening statement by Mr. Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs to the operational activities segment of the ECOSOC
Introduction of the report of the Secretary-General (SG) on the triennial comprehensive policy review and of the 2007 comprehensive report of the financing of operational activities for development

The resolution 59/520 set policy guidelines for the UN system’s development work at the country level. It stressed an overarching purpose: to make the UN more effective and efficient in its support to developing countries to achieve their priorities and the internationally agreed development goals, including the MDGs.
The forthcoming GA will negotiate a new TCPR resolution.
Since the 2004 TCPR, the development landscape has change dramatically. The 2005 Paris declaration on Aid Effectiveness reiterated the central importance of national ownership and leadership, and emphasised new aid modalities.

Mr. Sha Zukang has introduced two reports of the SG:
Ø The TCPR report analyses the implementation of Assembly resolution 59/250. Its main focus is to assess to what extent and in what ways the UN system has provided effective and efficient support to developing countries, to realize their national development priorities and achieve internationally agreed development goals.
The report reviews the sustainability of the outcomes of the UN development system’s operational activities.
It reviews also the adequacy of funding and current funding modalities of operational activities for development.
The report shows that progress has been made in selected areas, such as capacity development, promotion of South-South cooperation, transition from relief to development, gender mainstreaming and evaluation.
Ø The second report, “Comprehensive statistical analysis of the financing of operational activities for development of the UN system for 2005”,shows the decline of the core share of total contributions.


Statement on behalf of the Group 77 and China by Ambassador Munir Akram of Pakistan:
Ambassador Munir Akram take this opportunity to highlight some issues of particular concern to G77 and China in the context of TCPR:
Ø One, the reaffirmation of the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review of operational activities establishes key system wide policy orientation for the development cooperation. G77 and China believe that the TPCR should determine the course of action for UN operational activities and should not be preempted by other processes.
Ø Two, the fundamental characteristics of the UN operational activities for development must remain the universal, voluntary and grant nature, the neutrality and the multilateralism, as well as their ability to respond to the development needs of program countries in a flexible manner.
Ø Three, the need for a strengthened global partnership for development, based on the recognition of national leadership and ownership of development strategies should be a guiding principle of UN operational activities at the country level.
Ø Four, the primary thrust of TCPR process should be driven by a vision of a stronger role of the UN on development issues, and by the need to fully implement all agreed commitments.
Ø Five, the central issue remains the quantity and quality of development assistance from the UN system. The continuing imbalance between “core” and “non-core” resources remains a major reason for the incoherence of the UN development programs, including at a country level. Importantly, the share of core resources over the total contributions received by the UN system has been falling continuously. At present, over 45% of the funding provided by UNDP is devoted to projects relating to governance, while only 25% is being spent on poverty programmes.
Ø Six, the guiding principle of the UN operational activities should be to provide more efficiency in delivery.
Ø Seven, coherence at the national and international level also involves the Bretton woods institutions. They should be a part of any integrated approach to development cooperation.
Ø Eight, there is no “one size fits all”. There should be no restrictions on the ability and sovereignty of national governments to determine their own development priorities or select their development partners.
Ø Nine, the importance of the regional dimension of development is manifested in the mandates given to the regional commissions. Improved coherence at the regional level will require strengthening existing UN regional mechanisms for horizontal coordination.
Ø Ten, South-South cooperation is complementary to North-South cooperation, and is a way to enhance exchange of best practices and support among developing countries.
Ø Eleven, it is important that operational activities for development take into account the need to promote national capacity building in developing countries. In this regard, the UN system should make optimal use of the available national expertise and technologies, ensuring the promotion and transfer of new technologies to developing countries.
Ø Twelve, developing countries should have access to new and emerging technologies, including information and communication technologies.

The group of 77 and China is also concerned at the inordinate emphasis on issues such as Human Rights, gender and civic engagement in the context of the UN’s operational activities for development. They should be promote in all countries and not only to developing countries.
The Group is concerned that these issues, as well as humanitarian assistance, if included as objectives of UN developmental cooperation could result in discrimination against the developing countries, distort their national development plans and strategies and could be misused to introduced new conditionalities on international development assistance.

Brazil, Indonesia, Venezuela, Angola, India, Cape-verde joint themselves at the G77 and China’s statement.


Statement by H.E Ambassador Fransisco Xavier Esteves, Permanent Representative, Portugal,
On behalf on the European Union
The EU members states envisage the 2007 TCPR as an important opportunity to give further impetus to the ongoing reforms shaped by the past TCPR. A more effective and efficient UN will be an even more important partner for member states in ensuring that development assistant delivers results in each pillar of sustainable development.
The EU views that assisting governments in developing capacity to achieve the international agreements and standards to be at the very core of the UN’s development work.
The UN systems ability to assist in capacity development has to be further strengthened and its role clearly defined. In this regard, in line with GA resolution 59/520, EU calls on all entities to use national execution and the use of national expertise and technologies as the nor for implementation of operational activities.

At the 2005 World Summit, heads of states and governments resolved the mainstreaming of Human Rights throughout the UN system. Further efforts are needed in order to build up the UN country team’s capacity to support efforts of member states in strengthening their national human rights promotion and protection system.
The EU reiterate that accountability for gender-mainstreaming and women’s empowerment should be given higher priority within UN agencies.

The EU considers that South-South cooperation is an integral part of the worldwide global effort for development. The EU also sees the potential for an increased role of the UN system in strengthening funding partnerships among developing countries.

The effectiveness of international efforts to prevent crises and to manage their aftermath of crises is crucial to meet the internationally agreed development goals.
In transition situation, the UN needs to further develop a coherent, coordinated and effective response for the UN system as a whole and that’s why the EU urges the UN system to intensify efforts regarding the simplification and harmonization of administrative procedures and funding structures.

Moreover, the EU considers the Resident coordinator system to be a fundamental instrument to ensuring an effective and efficient coordination of operational activities for development at country level. A strengthened RC system, integrated UN programmes and new instruments and interagency mechanism such as joint programming pose new challenges with regard to accountability, oversight and governance, both for the RC system and for individual UN organizations. The EU therefore proposes to include a section on “accountability, oversight and governance” in future TCPR reports and GA resolutions on TPCR.

The EU considers the issues of funding for the UN’s operational activities both at central and country-level as a key question, with the objective of ensuring multi-year, adequate, predictable and timely core funding. In this regard, the EU considers a “code of conduct” or “principles for good multilateral donorship” to have the potential to mitigate distorting funding patterns”.

The EU considers that it will be essential to modernize and achieve full compatibility between UN organizations on processes for resource planning, human resources, common services and evaluation, as there are important drivers and effectiveness in the UN system.
Efforts to reduce transactions costs and improve efficiency should benefit developing countries in the first place.
A more comprehensive accountability framework would be needed in order to bring legitimacy to a strengthened RC system, to enable effective implementation of new interagency mechanisms and for clarity of accountability for the individual agencies at country level.




Statement by H.E Makio Miyagawa, Deputy Representative of Japan to the UN and other international organizations in Geneva
The ultimate objective of UN operational activities should be to find the most effective means of delivering services to communities and people in need so as to ensure human security.
Ø Improved functioning of the UN development system
1) CCA (common country assessment) / UNDAF(UN development assistance framework)
At the country level, the CCA/UNDAF has increasingly been guided by strategic considerations and focused on helping developing countries achieve the MDGs. In addition to the CCA/UNDAF, the UN now has the integrate peacebuilding strategy of the PBC.
At the regional level, the role of regional commissions should be carefully reviewed.
2) RC system
One important question is “how are we to ensure that the UNDP functions as an impartial and neutral manager of the RC system?”
First, we need to ensure that the UNDP’s dual roles are clearly delineated and decide on the nature and function of the necessary internal firewall.
Second, we need to see how the UNDP will streamline its activities and eliminate overlap with other agencies.
Third, we should carefully analyse and evaluate the result of the eight pilot programmes.

Ø Operational activities
There are five issues :
1) Capacity develoment
Its necessary to emphasise the importance of national capacity building; capacity development of national governments is essential.
2) South-South cooperation
Because no adequate strategic framework for South-South exists, regular resources are insufficient, their availability is unpredictable and information-sharing among agencies is limited. Japan belives that the TCPR need to provide UN activities with a strategy to guide south-south cooperation.
3) Gender mainstreaming
The TCPR needs to be debate and adopted taking that discussion into consideration.
4) Transition from relief to development
Particularly in post-conflict, the UN development system needs to work closely with the PBC, and the TCPR should indicate how and in what areas.
It is important to ensure a smooth handover from the Humanitarian coordinator to the EC system. In this regard, the UN system should seek to systemize better coordination between OCHA and UNDP.
Moreover, the UNDP should work closely on this issue with other humanitarian and development agencies.
5) Community-based bottom-up approach
It is important to deliver and create an impact at the community level. Primary responsability for achieving the MDGs rests with national governments. Consequently, national ownership is important. Such collaborative efforts are needed to protect and empower people at the community level, to help them address muliti-sectoral human security challenges. In this context, promoting partnerships with civil society groups, NGOs and local entities is crucial.




PANEL DISCUSSION with a UN Regional Directors team from Latin America and the Caribbean (afternoon meeting)
Effectiveness of the UN development system at the regional level

The moderator Mr.Denis Aitken gave the floor to Mr. Valdrack Jaentschke, Vice –Minister for Cooperation in Nicaragua. This one made the observation that the gap between rich and poor was more and more increasing. He called for a fair concurrency without subvention policies. The recipient governments of the help have to assure the coordination of it. The participation of the developing countries in the decision making process has to be strengthened and the specific needs of the country have to be taken into account. He reminded everyone that the week before his government reengaged itself to implement the ODM.

Mr. José Luis Machinea, Executive Secretary for ECLAC shared the challenges of its organization (more dialogue and coordination with other agencies) and strongly underlined the decrease of the amount of the help concerning the ODA in the LAC area.

Ms. Rebecca Grynspan, Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for the UNDP/LAC explained the main pillars its agency was implementing to improve effectiveness and efficiency of the UN system at the regional level to achieve sustainable human development for all (creation of a UN knowledge-sharing platform, Provide integrated inter-agency support and technical programming capacity to strengthen the performance of the UN country teams). She also proposed a UN Regional Leadership structure. Then she gave some results and spoke about the challenges, like the co-location and establishment of a UN Regional Hub to facilitate the provision of coordinated interagency policy advice and strategic guidance to UNCTs in Panama.

Mr. Nils Kastbery, regional Director of the UNFPA/LAC, stressed in a first time the necessity of the south-south cooperation. In a second time he spoke about the importance to be present on the field. The implementation of ODM must be realized in the poorest substratums.

Ms. Marcela Suazo, Regional Director of the UNFPA/LAC reminded the Assembly that in 2003, the four agencies of the executive comity (UNICEF, PAM, PNUD and UNFPA) had decided to meet regularly to make a common agenda in order to reach the ODM. Then she explained the way in which its agency was working.

Some delegations weighed in.

The delegation of the Philippines wanted to know the main reasons of the decrease of the help in LCA area.

The delegation of Belgium asked if this excellent cooperation at the regional level was the same at the national level. Belgium also asked if there were proofs which shown that the results of this cooperation were better than in situations where there wasn’t a regional cooperation as the LCA one.

According to the delegation of Colombia, a greater participation of the national authorities is necessary. Colombia added that the international community wasn’t aware enough of the importance of the realization of the ODM in the LCA area.

The Costa Rica raised two questions: what have been the crucial factors in the amelioration of the ODM? What are the new challenges which emanate from the Ministerial Declaration?

The delegation of Indonesia wondered what the place of ECLA in the structure was.

The delegation of Haiti wanted to know if apart from health’s field, others fields have been or no evaluated.

The delegation of Panama expressed his pride to welcome the first regional center of cooperation of the UN in Panama.

The delegation of Barbade shared its preoccupation concerning the decrease of the help in the region and wanted to know the reason of it and what can be done to fight against it. They also asked if in the new Panama’s Bureau different languages will be taken into account.

Then guest speakers answered to the delegations’ questions.

Mr. Valdrack Jaentschke underlined the fact that problems were still very important in the LCA region, in particular at the national level.

Mr. Luis Machinea insisted on the lack of the coordination at the national level. Then he explained that medium countries were seen as countries which didn’t need help, whereas it was completely wrong.

Ms. Gryspan said that it was important to strengthen the cooperation between the different organizations.

Ms. Suazo confirmed that conflicts between countries were real. Thus, she underlined the importance of the presence of the agencies on the field in order to gather information. But she said that to see the real impact of the cooperation, still many years will be necessary.

Mr. Katesbery specified that within the regional group, each country was evaluated. Concerning the reduction of risks, he said that many groups were working together to improve it.

MEETING GROUP 77

The group first reviewed the draft resolution of the coordination segment. They agreed with the general amendments that had been made essentially by Canada and Norway and most of the following discussion concerned the operating paragraphs nine and ten. The debate was mainly centred on the EU proposition to replace “representative of employers and workers” by “stakeholders” in the OP ten. Finally, the group decided to go along with the EU proposition, however also including “relevant stakeholders including government and representatives of employers and workers” as proposed by Barbados, which gave the concerned countries enough flexibility to identify the parties to be involved while not limiting the other UN agencies capacities to the tripartite specificity of the ILO.

The chair of the meeting then gave the floor to Honduras to present its proposed draft resolution on UN-INSTRAW. After a brief introduction on the draft resolution and on the remarkable work made by INSTRAW, the representative wished to hear comments from the other States. Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Argentina and El-Salvador all thanked Honduras for its initiative, fully supported the draft resolution and encouraged the other members to do so. Chile further backed the draft by pointing out that INSTRAW was the only institution involved in carrying research on gender equality and security issues and was highly involved in Latin America. Other States also supported the draft but expressed need for further review and final instruction from their respective capitals, namely Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Barbados, Cuba and the Philippines.

Finally, the president invited all the delegations that would have amendments or comment on the proposed draft to send it as soon as possible to the secretariat and requested the delegation of Honduras to provide the sources of the text.