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1. Delivering as One How the eight pilots are bringing UN agencies together to provide better support to countries unite and deliver effective support for countries
2. What is Delivering as One? Progress Challenges Lessons learned and what it means for you
3. Delivering as One is an initiative to increase the UN system’s impact. 1
5. In 2007 eight pilot countries volunteered to test Delivering as One.
6. The UN Development Group and the Development Operations Coordination Office support the pilots. UNDG DOCO Regional Directors Teams ALBANIA VIET NAM MOZAMBIQUE CAPE VERDE URUGUAY PAKISTAN RWANDA TANZANIA
7. The pilots are applying four principles to Deliver as One.
22. It’s a challenge to involve government counterparts, use national systems and define our role in Middle-Income Countries. Rwanda: The Government signs the One Programme.
How to use this Presentation Use “presenter view” when showing it so you can read the notes. Print the notes pages as a script for yourself and a handout for audiences. For a 45-minute presentation use the whole deck. For a 5-minute presentation use only the introductory slides and the “key point” slides marked with the dark blue background. Hide or delete any slides that aren’t relevant to your audience.
We’ll cover the following topics in today’s presentation. What is Delivering as One, including some background and an explanation of the four “ones”. The progress the eight pilot countries have made since beginning in 2007 Challenges that the pilots and the UN system has faced, and how we are trying to resolve them Lessons learned from the pilot experience, and how you can apply these lessons in your own work. Lastly I’ll point you to some online resources where you can find out more. After each topic, I‘ll pause for 5-10 minutes for questions and comments.
“ Delivering as One” is a pilot initiative that is testing ways to increase the UN system’s impact on the lives of people in programme countries by delivering more coordinated, effective and efficient assistance. The Secretary-General launched the initiative in January 2007 in eight self-selecting programme countries: Albania, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uruguay, and Viet Nam. It is part of the UN system’s response to mandates from the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, and other governing bodies, most notably the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review resolutions of 2001, 2004 and 2007. The main objectives of “Delivering as One” are to increase the impact of the UN system at country level by increasing national ownership of UN activities, reducing transaction costs generated by UN organizations, and increasing the UN’s efficiency and effectiveness. By harnessing expertise from across the UN System and creating synergies between UN organizations, we hope “Delivering as One” will increase the impact of UN operational activities in support of national priorities, and help countries to attain the Millennium Development Goals and other development objectives.
Based on the agreements made by UN Member States at the 2005 World Summit, the Secretary-General formed a High-Level Panel on System-wide Coherence to consider major reforms on how the UN system works in the fields of development, humanitarian assistance, and the environment. Its report, “Delivering as One,” was released in November 2006. The High-Level Panel offered a number of recommendations. For development operations, it organized its proposals around four “ones.” One Programme One Empowered Leader and Empowered Team One Budgetary Framework One Office It’s important to note that these “ones” were based on existing guidance from the General Assembly in the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review (TCPR). In many ways, they were an endorsement of what the UN system was already doing and a call to push further. The panel proposed the launch of “Delivering as One” pilot exercises, in which selected UN Country Teams would put the four ones into practice.
When the Secretary-General launched Delivering as One, the governments of eight countries — Albania, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uruguay, and Viet Nam — volunteered to become “Delivering as One” pilots. The pilot countries agreed to work with the UN system to capitalize on the strengths and comparative advantages of the different members of the UN family. Together they are experimenting with ways to increase the UN system’s impact through more coherent programmes, reduced transaction costs for governments, and lower overhead costs for the UN system. It is critical to emphasize here that the objective of these efforts is to deliver as one – working and planning together in a coordinated way to reduce duplication, increase efficiency, and encourage donors to pool their funds so we can be more strategic and deliver real impact.
The pilots are supported by the UN Development Group, which unites the 33 UN funds, programmes, agencies, departments, and offices that play a role in development. The group’s common objective is to deliver more coherent, effective and relevant support to countries. Established by the Secretary-General in 1997, the UNDG designs system-wide guidance to coordinate, harmonize and align UN development activities. In cooperation with UN Regional Directors Teams , the UNDG also helps country team members develop and apply new and better ways of working together. This work includes special support for the eight “ Delivering as One ” pilot countries. The Development Operations Coordination Office supports both the UNDG and the eight pilots. It facilitated the preparation of the 2007 stocktaking report for major stakeholders in the UN system and member governments. DOCO also helped carry out the Maputo Seminar for the eight Delivering as One governments and other reform countries. DOCO provides direct technical and financial support to the eight pilot countries, including an average of an additional $200,000 per year to each pilot.
The eight pilots are making reforms based on four principles: One Programme, One Leader and Team, One Budgetary Framework, and One Office. These changes respond to varied needs while drawing on all parts of the UN system, whether based in the country or not. The exercise has already helped to align our programmes and funding more closely to national priorities. It has strengthened government leadership and ownership. It’s ensuring that governments have access to the experience and expertise of a wider range of United Nations organizations to respond to their national priorities. Several issues we work on have seen increased emphasis, most notably being support to the productive sector, employment, trade, protection of the environment, adaptation to climate change, the global food crisis, and the financial crisis. This improvement has emerged from a process where UN agencies that aren’t physically present in the pilot countries have been able to spend more time advising their governments without having to set up costly offices. Let’s take a quick look at the four ones, and how they work.
‘ One Programme’ brings all members of the country team together under one nationally-owned strategy that draws on the full range of UN expertise. With full participation of relevant national and international partners, the UN Resident Coordinator leads the UN Country Team through a programming process to create a set of strategic results based on national priorities, the internationally agreed development goals, and the UN’s capacity and comparative advantages. The outcomes are listed as measurable, costed outputs resulting from UN support to national partners. The RCs are obliged to report annually to their national government, according to the TCPR 2007. The government coordinates the relevant line ministries who participate in the programming exercise and ensures appropriate prioritization on the government side, just as the Resident Coordinators do for the UN system, bringing in resident and non-resident agencies. The One Programme is revised regularly to reflect countries’ emergent needs. While joint programmes can be useful mechanisms for UN agencies to implement together, the main point of One Program is joint programming as a process of planning and thinking together, and possibly also implementing together.
The empowered Resident Coordinator is expected to provide strategic leadership throughout the programming process, bring together relevant analytical capacities – both national and international – and develop synergies between various UN “assets” and linkages between the UN entities with their respective mandates and other partners. The RC leads the process in a collegial and participatory way, but will be held accountable by the government and UN organizations to ensure that the UN system is responding to the most relevant and strategic national priorities in an effective and timely way. The RC provides ongoing guidance and support to the UN Country Team during programme implementation, including by mobilizing additional resources. The RC prepares an annual report of the progress made against each result, based on agency commitments and reflecting actual expenditures. Each agency retains authority and accountability over the use of agency resources. The agencies support the leadership role of the empowered RC over the preparation and revision of the UN plan and budget framework. The RC’s performance is assessed by a team of Regional Directors of relevant funds, programmes and specialized agencies reflecting input from UNCT members. The RC also holds UNCT members accountable for the results they committed to deliver.
The UN Country Team’s agreed, costed results are presented in one financial framework, showing each agency’s planned input together with the funding source. Unfunded results are also identified. Each participating UN agency identifies the resources it expects to provide – whether in-kind or monetary – subject to funds being available. At the end of the year, agencies and government departments provide information on progress made against the planned results and actual expenditures, to give governments a clear picture of UN support. The results in the financial framework can be funded by agencies’ core resources, national government contributions, direct contributions from donors, and a specific country coherence fund established for interested donors. This “coherence” or “Delivering as One” fund is managed by the Resident Coordinator on behalf of the UN System.
‘ One Office’ harmonizes and simplifies the team’s business policies and procedures, allowing them to reduce overhead. Where it makes sense, some or all of the team may move into a common UN House. Where it will reduce overhead costs and increase effective support services, the UN agencies will co-locate and share support services such as procurement, IT, and human resource management. Agencies located in government ministries should remain there, as close relationships with the government are important for effective support. The 2007 stocktaking report indicated that of the four ‘Ones,’ progress on the ‘One Office’ was the slowest with many of the UNCTs and Governments reporting that the One Office has shown limited signs of tangible progress so far. This is partly because a ‘One Office’ takes longest to establish and has varying security implications.
The pilots report that their Governments are exercising increased national leadership over UN programmes and taking a stronger role in steering UN agencies to support national development priorities. The pilot country teams also say they are better aligning their capacity to the needs of country programmes, and the use of One Fund is showing the potential to be an important country-level source of predictable funding.
Government leadership/ownership As noted in both the Government reports to the Deputy Secretary-General and the UNCT Stocktaking reports, the Pilots are clearly country-led and reflect the principle of “no one size fits all.” Through the Pilots, the UN Country Teams are interacting more effectively with governments, listening to national priorities, and finding ways to organize the best response to those priorities. As a result, the UN system is more fully aligning its programming to support national priorities, national reform processes (including the Paris Declaration), and national development plans – including the MDGs – with greater government leadership. Government engagement and ownership of the One Programme, including monitoring and oversight, is growing stronger. In some instances, government leadership and its overall coordination role has been undertaken at higher levels. National coordination mechanisms have been strengthened. Communication between the UN system and government, and the interaction between government and donors and other stakeholders, has improved as a result of a more coherent UN Country Team led by the Resident Coordinator, as well as enhanced government coordination mechanisms.
One Programme The issue of “joint programming” has been one of the key gains that emerged from the Pilots. The UNCTs are truly exploring how the UN system can respond to national priorities by joint analysis, joint thinking, joint prioritization, and joint budgeting. Joint programming is enabling greater responsiveness to national priorities. Through joint programming, UN Country Teams are looking at the UN system-wide and, more inclusively, drawing on the mandate, experience and expertise of all UN agencies to address the national priorities. The One UN Programme has allowed space for cross-cutting themes, the normative agenda, increased possibility for upstream work required by governments, and increased consideration of the experience and expertise of all UN agencies, including the non-resident agencies. This increased role in policy support resulted in more coherent advocacy by the UN system on national priorities and the MDGs. Institutional mechanisms for programme implementation have been established to facilitate the challenge of implementation, including a common operational document (a single consolidated implementation plan), and clear reporting lines and accountability frameworks within the UNCT based on an agreed division of labor.
Funding New mechanisms such as the joint budgetary framework and One Fund have been effective tools, while UNCTs and governments have recognized there is flexibility in that not all resources have to be channeled through the One Funds. Partners (including governments) have a full and transparent overview of UN activities, financing and funding gaps. The emerging new approaches allow for highlighting funding gaps and joint resource mobilization at country level. Resource mobilization, including in partnership with the UN system, is becoming higher on Governments’ agenda. Some donors made additional resources available to fund pilot projects and committed themselves to increase programme funding through an un-earmarked window. All the pilots see “One Fund” as a tool to mobilize resources for the “unfunded” results of the One UN Programme. All the pilots are implementing arrangements for the administration, governance and the allocation of money for the “One Funds.”
Agency Involvement, Teamwork and Leadership There has been a positive change in attitude and behavior among the Pilots. UN agencies, including specialized agencies and non-resident agencies, report that they better understand each others’ mandates, expertise, business models, and comparative advantages. There has been an increased recognition of the value added and the function of the Resident Coordinator as the UNCT leader, and of the efforts to establish greater clarity of roles and accountability of the RC and agencies. The deployment of UNDP Country Directors is helping the RCs to fulfill their coordination role. The Pilots have allowed the UN system to have a much clearer division of labor, allocation of roles and responsibilities, and commitment to common and individual results with accountability of each agency. Mechanisms to do so include Codes of Conduct, allocation of lead roles in thematic working groups, and so forth. These initiatives have been important to facilitate the work of the UN Country Team and to ensure that the experience and expertise of all agencies are brought into the process. As the UN family is working in a more collaborative and coherent way, the governments’ burden of consultation and reporting vis-à-vis the UN agencies has been reduced.
Pilots are expected to make substantial savings as a direct result of simplification and harmonization efforts. Tanzania is projected to save at least $1.2 million in ICT and Procurement in 2009, while in Viet Nam future savings of at least $500,000 per year in operation costs are projected as a result of their Green One UN House. Mozambique is expected to make significant savings in its efforts to harmonize ICT. It is important to point out, however, that the different harmonization efforts in areas such as common IT and common premises require an upfront investment for the future benefits to accrue. Tanzania, Rwanda, and Viet Nam were among the first Pilots to undergo capacity assessments.Tanzania is already in the process of using its programme resources to create more balanced skill-sets and composition among its staff. In Uruguay, the capacity assessment led to launching change management efforts and the creation of a staff survey.
Decision-making processes RC empowerment Change management is time-consuming and has increased staff workload Large variety of reporting and planning formats Persistence of a project and agency mentality
Inter-Ministerial/Departmental coordination: Involvement of government counterparts in the planning and monitoring processes have varied Using national systems where possible UN’s comparative advantages in Middle Income Countries
The General Assembly in its 2007 Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review emphasized the need to conduct an Independent Evaluation of the Delivering as One pilot experience. The TCPR also calls for the SG to facilitate, though the UNEG, sharing of experiences between pilot countries, collecting lessons learned, and periodically evaluating progress/impact. UNEG proposed a three stage evaluation process for Delivering as One: 1) pre-evaluation evaluability, 2) process evaluation in 2009 and, 3) impact evaluation in 2011. UNEG completed the evaluability studies of the pilots in September 2008 and will be publishing its report in March 2009. The purpose of this report is to assess the preparedness of the pilots for a future evaluation; i.e. whether they have the necessary data and/or M&E framework that can track progress and impact. On the basis of these reports DOCO is working with the Pilots to enhance their M&E Frameworks. It is planned to formally end the Delivering as One pilot process once the process evaluation is complete.
Humanitarian Crisis and Natural Disasters can seriously affect progress.
Beyond general questions on the presentation, ask the participants what more they would need to know to apply these lessons in their own country. Is anything not clear?
It’s a lot of work! Strong support for UNDP Ops. Facilitation of ALL interagency mechanisms. Coordinate specific additional capacitates related to: Strategic Planning, M&E, Operations, Communications, Programming Principles Have resources available for catalytic activities. Politics is as important as Process Communicate, Communicate, Communicate Patience, patience, patience.
The real benefit of Delivering as One is that we are truly learning from each other and sharing best practices. Increasingly, the role that makes sense for us is to be agents of change in all the countries where we work. As a family we need to focus on the practical implications of Delivering as One: raising money together, writing and doing projects together, learning lessons together, and improving each other together. By doing this we can reduce the transaction costs the UN system imposes on governments and make more resources available to reduce poverty and build stable countries. By Delivering as One, we can use our resources in a strategic way to support developing countries’ efforts to transform themselves into prosperous societies where all human rights can be realized. I hope that you will help us get there.