The Reform of the United Nations aims at enhancing relevance and effectiveness of UN programmes and operations as a priority concern of the Member States. In 2005, at the World Summit, world leaders reaffirmed their commitment to a strengthened United Nations with enhanced authority and capacity to effectively and rapidly respond to the full range of global challenges of our time. Based on the outcome document of 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. By their nature, these challenges also expand the possibilities for collective action by States and other entities and actors, such as civil society and the private sector, enabling the UN to be the focus for concerted action to advance the common good.

The UN Reform aims at:

1. Increasing positive trends.
2. Better alignment of the UN Development Assistance Framework with national priorities.
3. Harmonization and simplification of procedures.
4. Improvement of UN Resident Coordinator System.
5. Harmonized approaches to cash transfer.
6. Enhance coherence and inclusive planning and programming.
7. Promote moving into common premises.
8. Integrate crisis and post-conflict support.

In the report “Delivering as One”, released in 2006, the High-Level Panel offered a number of recommendations for development operations. The proposal is organized around four “ones.”

• One Programme: bringing all members of the Country Team together under one nationally-owned strategy that draws on the full range of UN expertise.

• One Empowered Leader and Empowered Team: 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.

• One Budgetary Framework: presenting coasted results in one financial framework, showing each agency’s planned input together with the funding source.

• One Office: harmonizing and simplifying the team’s business policies and procedures, allowing them to reduce overhead and moving into a common UN House.

The High-level Panel proposed the launch of 8 “Delivering as One” pilots, in which selected UN Country Teams would put the four ones into practice to plot changes at country level. The eight pilots are: Albania, Pakistan, Vietnam, Cape Verde, Rwanda, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Uruguay. In 2010 these countries entered into their 3rd year of implementing the Delivering as One model and experiences has shown that the UN, host Governments, and development partners alike, significantly benefit from the increased cooperation, coordination and harmonization of UN programmes and operations. 

In the context of UN Reform and the “Delivering as One” modality, the UN has established a range of tools for UN Country Teams striving to strengthen and improve their support to development. The major instruments for the implementation of the reform are the Common Country Assessment (CCA), the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), joint programming and a joint monitoring of the progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

A series of benefits will result from the implementation of the UN Reform.

• Implementing the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. Working coherently helps the UN put the Paris Declaration into practice by strengthening the capacity of countries to manage their own development, and managing for results through strong, transparent and accountable partnership.
• More relevant programming. By thinking, planning and implementing programmes together, UN organizations can provide better technical assistance, support for capacity development and engagement in the upstream policy advice and sophisticated technical assistance according to government’s request.
• Increased efficiency and lower overhead costs. By simplifying and harmonizing business practices and using common services and premises, UN country Teams can reduce their overhead expenses. Cost savings liberate more funding for development programming and make every tax dollar the UN spends more impactful.
• Clear picture of full UN system support to the country. Bringing all of the UN Country Team’s work together in a common programme supported by a common funding framework provides donors and partners wit a clear overview of the full range of UN operational activities, financing and funding gaps. This helps donors plan their own expenditures more strategically and effectively.
• Clear communications between the donors and partners and the UN. Communication between the UN and government improves thanks to more coherent UN Country Teams led by resident coordinator working in tandem with government coordination mechanisms.
• Wider and deeper agency involvement. A more coherent UN increases involvement by non-resident UN agencies. From this process, UN agencies that are not physically present in country are able to spend more time advising their governments without having to set up costly office.
• Greater use of national systems. The UN system is seeking to make use of national systems and capacities wherever possible, and to develop national capacities to implement programmes. This helps to strengthen governments’ ability to absorb and use direct budget support from donors.

“Delivery as One” milestones

V High Level Conference on Delivering as One UN, Tirana 27-29 June 2012

Government representatives from more than 40 countries, representatives from donor governments and senior UN officials expressed their strong commitment to take Delivering as One beyond the current stage and to bring about a more coherent, efficient and effective United Nations development system.

IV High Level Intergovernmental Conference on Delivering as One closes- Montevideo, November 10th 2011.

Government and United Nations representatives from more than 40 countries, both recipients and donors of assistance for development, agreed to continue advancing the process of reforming the UN area of development cooperation. The final outcome document of this IV High Level Intergovernmental Conference on this process, highlights the role of the United Nations as the “most legitimate, universal and representative forum to discuss the development agenda”.

High-level Tripartite Conference, Hanoi, 14-16 June 2010

The Hanoi Conference represented an important opportunity to review the achievements and challenges related to the Delivering as One initiative. After three years of piloting new ways of working together for a more relevant, coherent and efficient support by the United Nations system to national development priorities, this Conference represents the first opportunity, based on the findings of the country-led evaluations, to learn lessons and arrive at recommendations for the way forward.

Intergovernmental Meeting on Delivering as One - Kigali 2009

Government representatives from the eight Delivering as One pilot countries met in Kigali to share their experiences in making UN development operations more coherent, effective and relevant. The pilot Governments agreed to keep pressing forward with their leadership of the Delivering as One initiative. They called on UN agency headquarters, governing bodies, Member States, and donors to keep supporting the Delivering as One process and make changes where needed. The meeting also launched the country-led evaluation process called for in the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review and in the General Assembly resolution on System-wide Coherence.