This article was published in Development Today journal, Issue No. 18/06, November 20, 2006

The High Level Panel on UN reform calls for UN agencies to work as coherent country teams on issues ranging from gender to humanitarian aid to business practices. Here, IFAD President Lennart Båge, a panel member, pledges to join forces with other Rome-based agencies to break the cycle of famine in Africa.

“An indispensable instrument in an age of growing interconnection between peace and security, sustainable development and human rights.” This is what the Prime Ministers of Mozambique, Norway and Pakistan, the co-chairs of the High Level Panel on UN System-wide Coherence, said in calling for a stronger and more coherent UN system.

Yet, in recent years many people have seen the UN system as fragmented and ineffective and suffering from unpredictable and inadequate funding. Over the years the number of UN entities has grown considerably. Today, in many developing countries 15 or more UN entities are present, creating risks of duplication and placing an excessive burden on the administrative capacities of the host countries. Moreover, the increasing tendency of donors to earmark funding for specific activities makes strategic planning difficult, if not impossible for many UN entities.

The Panel’s report is very rich and covers many aspects of the UN system. The Panel recognised the UN’s key role in setting international norms and standards and addressing global issues as well as its important operational activities. The main thrust of the Report is to stimulate reforms that enable the UN system to “deliver as one, in true partnership and serving the needs of all countries”. The Panel’s recommendations are directed to UN work at country level and headquarters, as well as in the cross-cutting areas of gender, human rights and sustainable development.

At the country level the Panel calls for the different UN entities to work as a single team under the leadership of a stronger UN Resident Coordinator, with a single country programme covering all UN entities, prepared with the full ownership of the host country and underpinned by a single budgetary framework.p> The Panel recommends that five countries be selected in 2007 to pilot this new approach. Vietnam and Pakistan have already indicated their interest to be included. Subsequently, the One UN model would be extended to cover virtually all programme countries by 2012.

This single, “coherent” UN country team would be supported by corresponding arrangements at headquarters level with a new inter-governmental UN Sustainable Development Board, drawn from ECOSOC. The UNSDB would be responsible for approving the country programmes and giving strategic direction to the work of the system.

The Panel urges a streamlining of the environmental conventions and their Secretariats in order to reduce the burden on Member States, particularly developing countries. In the humanitarian field the Panel reviewed the experience of recent UN responses to humanitarian crises, especially in the Pakistan earthquake. The Panel called for the full funding of the Central Emergency Relief Fund to its USD 500 million target and a closer partnership between the UN, governments and NGOs.

The Panel urged the WFP, FAO and IFAD to help build long-term food security and break the cycle of recurring famines, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

Gender was a key issue in Panel discussions. The Panel has proposed the creation of a new UN gender equality and women’s empowerment programme by streamlining and consolidating three existing UN gender institutions. This new gender entity would be headed by an Under Secretary General and be assured of adequate resources to play a leader-ship role on gender issues as well as a catalytic role in addressing targeted operations. Mainstreaming gender issues will remain a key mandate of all UN organizations.

Another area of major concern for the Panel was to streamline and improve the business practices of UN organizations, especially those located in a single venue. This is an area which could result in greater effectiveness as well as significant savings.

Realising these reforms requires not only action at the intergovernmental level but also leadership within the UN system itself. To this end, the Panel called on the Secretary General and the UN Chief Executives Board to lead the process of reform.

I believe the Panel’s recommendations will have a far-reaching impact on the way the UN system works. My colleagues in other UN organizations and I look forward to working with the new Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, to strengthen our collaboration to deliver as one.

The three UN agencies in Rome, the FAO, the WFP and IFAD will work closely together to take our collaboration to a new level. We will respond fully to the Panel’s challenge of working together to help break the cycle of famines in Africa. Already, we are looking at ways to share policy and analytic functions, human resource recruitment and training, financial processes and administrative functions. At the country level, IFAD will play its full part in the UN team to help the system deliver as one the agreed UN country programme.

Lennart Båge served as an ex-officio Member of the High-Level Panel and is Chair of the UN’s Chief Executives Board High-level Committee on Programmes.