Significant agreements have been reached in recent years on improving the amount, quality and focus of Official Development Assistance (ODA), starting with the Millennium Declaration (2000) — which forged a global consensus around key development priorities (Millennium Development Goals) — and the Monterrey Declaration on Development Financing. These high level UN agreements have been followed by important technical commitments on improving the quality and predictability of aid (Rome and Paris declarations), the main principles of which are captured in the 2004 and 2007 General Assembly resolutions on operational activities for development, as well concrete engagements to increase ODA to the poorest countries.
While reaffirming the centrality of the UN system in the global development architecture, the World Summit 2005 highlighted needed improvements in order for the UN system to deliver on the high level commitments that had been agreed upon in the Millennium Declaration and subsequent engagements. A High-Level Panel on System-Wide Coherence produced a report in November 2006 entitled “Delivering as One,” in which they recommended that the UN at country level should pursue greater coordination through having One Programme, One Budgetary Framework, One Office and One Leader. These recommendations are being implemented to differing degrees in eight pilot countries, based on local conditions and perceived priorities: Albania, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uruguay, and Viet Nam. Debate on the Report continues in the General Assembly.
In its Triennial Comprehensive Policy Reviews of 2004 and 2007, the General Assembly called for the UN system to become more coherent, efficient and effective, and achieve greater impact, in the countries in which it operates. The major elements in which the UN needs to become more coherent are programming (through improved UNDAFs and their implementation plans) and common services and harmonized business practices in order to improve the effectiveness and relevance of operational activities in responding to national development priorities.
The UNDG Toolkit for improved functioning of the UN development system at the country provides a comprehensive structure to support countries in planning and implementing the change effort required to improve development impact and increase efficiency of the UN development system. It is a repository of the guidance, lessons learned and tools deriving from the experiences of the eight “Delivering as One” pilot countries, and from the experiences of UN Country Teams (UNCTs) that have pursued efforts to become more coherent, effective and relevant. The Toolkit also contains the existing UNDG guidance on programmes (such as the revised UNDAF Guidelines) and operations (such as thse related to Common Services). It should serve as a comprehensive resource to support countries in their efforts towards an integrated programme and operations approach in the development of the UNDAF and its implementation plan towards greater coherence, effectiveness, and relevance of the UN development system at the country level. The Toolkit aims to:
Provide a framework (building on existing tools and approaches) to help countries develop a comprehensive change effort for their programmes and operations;
Make tools available — including guidance notes, activity plans and descriptions, templates, sample documents — to be used by UN Country Teams on an à la carte basis;
Be user-friendly and non-prescriptive. The Toolkit directs users to those activities most relevant to their needs. Note: most of the tools provided are suggestions and not requirements. The UNDAF remains the recommended common programming tool for the UN development system as a whole and is mandatory for all organizations guided by the TCPR resolutions.
