Governance of United Nations Development - HR Portal

1 Governance of United Nations Development : Recharging multilateral cooperation for the post-2015 era Prepared for the German Development Institute Kristinn Sv. Helgason Timo Mahn Advance, unedited version 18 October 2014 iiContents Abbreviations v Executive Summary viii 1. Introduction 1 2. Current Governance system of UN Development 7 7 Agency-specific .. 9 Country-level .. 10 Major challenges .. 14 3. The changing functions of UN Development 16 A universal post-2015 Development agenda .. 18 The changing purpose of Development cooperation .. 21 Diversification of Development financing .. 22 Implications for UN Development .. 22 4. Governance requirements for a post-2015 era 25 A post-2015 agenda and emerging Governance demands.

2 26 Authorizing environment .. 30 Capacity .. 43 Cost-effectiveness .. 49 5. Options to strengthen Governance of UN Development in a post-2015 era 54 Option 1 ECOSOC as system-wide Governance mechanism .. 54 Option 2 Joint Executive Board for funds and programmes (fulltime) .. 55 Option 3 Development Board (fulltime) .. 55 6. Conclusions and recommendations 61 Bibliography 64 iii Tables Table 1: UN Development functional groupings .. 25 Table 2: Regional group representation in governing bodies .. 32 Table 3: UN membership by income grouping .. 33 Table 4: Regional grouping share of UN membership and Development operations .. 34 Table 5: WEOG representation in governing bodies and contribution level .. 35 Table 6: Constituency representation in governing bodies within UN Development .

3 37 Table 7: The GEF as a bridge between the UN and Bretton Woods institutions .. 40 Table 8: High-level estimates of annual cost of servicing agency Governance .. 52 Table 9: High-level comparison of four Governance options for operational activities in the post-2015 era .. 58 Table 10: Key conclusions and recommendations .. 61 Figures Figure 1: Analytical framework - the strategic triangle concept .. 4 Figure 2: The interdependence of domestic & global agenda for sustainable Development .. 19 Figure 3: Governance of UN Development in era of MDGs .. 28 Figure 4: Governance of UN Development in post-2015 era .. 29 Figure 5: Policy coherence in UN Development in a post-2015 era .. 45 Figure 6: Options to strengthen Governance of UN Development in a post-2015 era.

4 57 Boxes Box 1: UN Development .. 5 Box 2: Selected messages from earlier reports on reform of UN Development .. 6 Box 3: Functions of Executive Boards of the funds and programmes .. 11 Box 4: Historical overview of establishment of key system-wide mechanisms .. 12 Box 5: UN inter-agency coordination mechanisms .. 13 ivBox 6: UN Development and strategic positioning .. 17 Box 7: The Executive Board of the World Bank .. 41 Annexes Annex 1: Key recommendations of earlier reports on improving the functioning of governing bodies of UN Development ..lxvi Annex 2: Historical overview of evolution of UN lxxviii Annex 3: Selected challenges in entity, system-wide and country-level Governance .. lxxxii Annex 4: Composition of governing bodies of entities engaged in operational activities by regional grouping.

5 Lxxxiv Annex 5: Entities reporting to GA/ECOSOC and engaged in operational activities in 2012 .. lxxxvii Annex 6: Mainstreaming of QCPR in work of governing bodies of Fs/Ps reporting to GA or ECOSOC .. lxxxix Annex 7: Mainstreaming of QCPR in work of governing bodies of specialized agencies .. xci vAbbreviations CEB Chief Executives Board for Coordination CEO Chief Executive Officer CSD Commission on Sustainable Development CSOs Civil society organizations DaO Delivering-as-one DB Development Board DESA Department of Economic and Social Affairs DPGs Domestic public goods EBs Executive Boards ECA Economic Commission for Africa ECE Economic Commission for Europe ECLAC Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean ECOSOC Economic and Social Council ESCAP Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

6 ESCWA Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia FAO Food and Agricultural Organization Fs/Ps Funds and Programmes DOCO Development Operations Coordination Office GA General Assembly GEF Global Environment Facility GPGs Global public goods G-77 Group of 77 and China HLCP High-Level Committee on Programmes HLCM High-Level Committee on Management HLPF High-Level Political Forum JEB Joint Executive Board JIU Joint Inspection Unit IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development ILO International Labour Organization IMO International Maritime Organization ITC International Trade Centre ITO International Telecommunication Union MDGs Millennium Development Goals NGOs Non-governmental organizations OCHA Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance ODA Official Development Assistance OECD/DAC Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development .

7 Development Assistance Committee OHCR Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights OIOS Office for Internal Oversight Services RC Resident Coordinator Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (2012) SAs Specialized agencies SDGs Sustainable Development Goals QCPR Quadrennial comprehensive policy review UN United Nations UNAIDS Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS UNCDF United Nations Capital Development Fund UNCT United Nations country team viUNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UN Development United Nations Development UNDG United Nations Development Group UNESCO United Nations Educational.

8 Scientific and Cultural Organization UNEP United Nations Environment Programme UNDAF United Nations Development Assistance Framework UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNEG United Nations Evaluation Group UNFPA United Nations Population Fund UN-Habitat United Nations Human Settlements Programme UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNICEF United Nations Children s Fund UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization UN-OAD UN operational activities for Development UNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime UNOPS United Nations Office for Project Services UNRWA United Nations Relief and Works Agency UNV United Nations Volunteers UN-Women United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women UPU Universal Postal Union UNWTO United Nations World Tourism Organization WB World Bank WEOG Western European and Other States Group WFP World Food Programme WHO World Health Organization WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization WMO World Meteorological Organization vii About the authors Kristinn Sv.

9 Helgason is the Deputy Chief of the Development Cooperation Policy Branch in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs in the United Nations Secretariat. He is also a Visiting Professor in the Global Affairs Division of Rutgers University in New Jersey. Between June 2012 and August 2013, Helgason served as the acting Chief of the Development Cooperation Policy Branch in DESA. He was the architect and coordinator of the substantive preparations of DESA for the 2012 quadrennial comprehensive policy review of the General Assembly of operational activities for Development of the UN system, which culminated in a landmark Assembly resolution 67/226. He has also led an effort in the past three years to transform statistics, analysis and reporting by the Secretary-General on funding of UN operational activities for Development , which account for some two-thirds of all system-wide activities of the Organization.

10 In 2009 and 2010, he was one of the two main resources persons of the Office of the Deputy Secretary-General for the intergovernmental negotiations on UN system-wide coherence, which resulted, inter alia, in the establishment of UN-Women. Prior to joining DESA, he worked in UNDP as Governance Adviser, first in New York and then in Zimbabwe, and as the Coordinator of the Sub-regional Resources Facility for South and West Asia based in Pakistan. Before joining UNDP, he was on the staff of UNEP, first in Nairobi and then in Japan as part of a team charged with establishing the UNEP International Environmental Technology Centre. His public service career started in his own country, Iceland, where he served in the Ministry for the Environment.