EU Presidency Statement - Operational activities for development

Mr. President,

1. I have the honor to speak on behalf of the European Union. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe associated with the European Union Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the other associated countries Cyprus, Malta, Turkey, endorse this statement.

Mr. President,

2. The European Union would first of all like to thank the Secretary-General for the various reports submitted to us under this item on the agenda and in particular the recommendations for the triennial policy review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system, which will make a useful contribution to our discussions. For the European Union, the triennial review comes at a strategic moment. A few years on from the series of reforms proposed by the Secretary-General and the initial decisions of the Member States at the last triennial review, it will enable us to formulate a resolution which will help the United Nations, and especially its operational activities for development, to progress further along the path towards being an effective, efficient and accountable instrument. It is particularly fortunate that this exercise is taking place mid-way between the Millennium Summit and the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development. The Millennium Declaration and the major conferences of the previous decade set an ambitious development agenda. As the Secretary-General rightly points out in his "road map", political will and additional resources will be the major challenges of the future. It is up to the United Nations system to help national governments implement this agenda, each organization according to its terms of reference and individual identity but above all its comparative advantages. This issue, particularly the question of how, and in which areas, the Funds and Programmes and the specialized agencies will help the programme countries to achieve these international development goals, will be an issue of prime importance for the European Union in the years to come.

3. The European Union is convinced that the multilateral system has an irreplaceable role to play in implementing this common agenda. In that multilateral system, the UN Funds and Programmes and the specialized agencies are particularly well placed: their neutrality, their access to global expertise, their dedicated and highly qualified teams all contribute to making them a more powerful instrument for implementing this agenda than their share of the total multilateral aid budget might suggest. That is why the European Union wishes to be a major partner of the UN bodies. In terms of finance, the EU Member States and the Commission are by far the biggest donors of the operational agencies. I can assure you, Mr. President, that they intend to continue and deepen this cooperation.

4. The European Union welcomes the progress made since the last triennial review, particularly with regard to coordination between UN operational agencies in the programme countries, strengthening of the system of resident coordinators, including a better balance between men and women, and relations with the Bretton-Woods institutions. It also welcomes in this context the role of the Office of the United Nations Development Group (UNDG). Despite this undeniable progress, the UN system has not yet realized its full potential. Among many things, the selection process of resident coordinators and their training should be strengthened. The Union hopes that this triennial review will provide us with an opportunity to reflect further on the measures that are needed at the various headquarters to maximize the results of operational programmes. The exercise we are about to embark on should therefore aim at the adoption of measures, which are both ambitious and realistic: ambitious because of the issues at stake, and realistic so that measurable progress can be made within the space of three years.

Mr President,

5. With regard to the United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks (UNDAFs), the discussion last July in the operational segment of the Economic and Social Council clearly showed that Member States had a number of questions about the exact nature of the various programming frameworks, the level of ownership by programme countries, the proliferation of such frameworks and the ensuing transaction costs, as well as the precise link between the programming frameworks of the United Nations and the World Bank. Despite some semantic confusion during this debate, the European Union noted that there was general agreement on the concepts involved in the various instruments and their relationship with the development policies of the programme countries.

6. The European Union would here like to repeat clearly that the starting point for any allocation of resources must be the national development plan: this obviously means that governments must shoulder their full responsibility for framing their strategies for the achievement of the international development goals. The UN's operational organizations can make a useful contribution to this planning process, downstream by assisting with a detailed analysis of development problems, particularly via the Common Country Assessment (CCA), and upstream by responding to these plans with a UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF). In some 70 developing countries, particularly the poorest, the national development plan will in practice take the form of a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). Inasmuch as they reflect a national, concerted strategy, realistic goals, quantified indicators, specific measures with figures for their budgetary implications, and a system for monitoring the impact of the development programmes on poverty, these Strategic Papers will be a reference point for the European Union in its development programming, especially for the African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP) with which the Union has recently signed a twenty-year agreement. In this connection we welcome the interest shown by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in enhanced cooperation with the other interested parties. It is now up to the UN's operational organizations to coordinate their activities more closely with those of other donors.

7. The UN Development Assistance Frameworks (UNDAFs) therefore do not in any way replace national development plans, but should be based on them: the Framework should in practice represent the concerted response of the Funds and Programmes and of all specialized agencies at national level, the UN system's "business plan" for achieving the international development goals. It goes without saying that a coordinated response of this kind will have a much bigger impact on the ground than isolated interventions by the Funds and Programmes. The UNDAF should also push the operational organizations to become more active partners in SWAPs, both at the political and at the technical level. Under these conditions, the European Union is convinced that this triennial review will be able to take us beyond the current initial phase of the UNDAF: the involvement of all the UN operational agencies in the preparation of these Frameworks will thus be strengthened, and their quality will undoubtedly be improved.

8. In order to be credible, national development plans must be based on a comprehensive analysis of the situation, based on the facts and drawn up in a participatory manner. With the introduction of the Common Country Assessment (CCA), the UN system has acquired an instrument, which makes it possible, if necessary, to assist governments in making such an analysis and tying it in with the international development goals defined by the Millennium Declaration and the major conferences. This calls of course for an efficient Resident Coordinator System. Its content apart, the preparation of a Common Country Assessment also implies a more intense dialogue between the UN system, the government, parliaments and civil society organizations, consultations that the European Union regards as essential.

9. While recognizing that the initiative with regard to coordination and planning lies with the governments of the programme countries, the European Union again confirms its willingness to make a contribution to these processes, both by playing an active part in consultations between donors and governments and by providing financial support for technical assistance and capacity-building projects with regard to planning and coordination.

Mr. President,

10. For around ten years the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council have emphasized the problem of a lack of harmonization in the procedures of the United Nations operational organizations. The Union welcomes the fact that this topic is now on the agenda of the United Nations Development Group (UNDG). It has to be said that notwithstanding a consensus amongst the Member States on the need to harmonize procedures and despite the many resolutions on this subject, the operational organizations have made too little progress too late. For the record, in the Economic and Social Council in July, a large number of delegations had singled out this problem, emphasizing in particular the high transaction costs of the aid provided by United Nations agencies, in particular as a result of their differing programming procedures and financial policies. Even worse, despite the obvious opportunities, the UN teams had to abandon the setting up of joint programmes because they encountered major obstacles due to the same factors.

11. During the triennial review the European Union would therefore like to give top priority to the subject of the harmonization of procedures: the Union would like to see concrete results over the next few years. Contrary to previous resolutions, this review should define an agenda for the harmonization process, this means, identify by name the procedures, which need to be harmonized, draw up the responsibilities for implementation and follow-up, and define a precise calendar for achieving this aim. On the subject of those procedures which could be harmonized as a matter of priority, the European Union is specifically thinking of: the devolution and delegation of decision-making powers; the financial regulations; the procedures for implementing projects and in particular the requirements in terms of follow-up and reporting; the pooling of services in country offices; and the payment of national project staff. In the initial phase, the implementation of this agenda is the primary responsibility of the Funds and Programmes and their Respective Governing bodies: the European Union invites them to submit to ECOSOC as soon as possible, and not later than 2002, their agenda for the harmonization process, followed by progress reports starting in 2003. The European Union also encourages the UNDG Office to continue the discussion with Funds and Programs in this respect. Finally, a discussion on the harmonization of procedures is also taking place in the DAC between the bilateral donors and amongst the multilateral development banks. The European Union considers that the United Nations should also become involved in these exercises.

Mr. President,

12. Over recent years all the United Nations operational organizations have begun to introduce new methods of results-based management. The European Union is following these new methods with great interest: several of its Member States have also helped to put them in place. Results-based management is one of the key elements of the "Multi-year Funding Frameworks" (MYFF), recently introduced in most operational organizations. The aim of these MYFFs is to contribute to a better targeting of activities, a clearer division of tasks between organizations, a considerably greater impact of the operational programmes and better justification of the resources required for these programmes. The European Union is fully in agreement with the Secretary-General when he notes that it is still too soon to verify the results of these MYFFs. It is nevertheless confident that these efforts will bear fruit, and sees as proof of this a better quality of annual reports from the agencies, and since 2001 a slight increase following several years of financial crisis in the regular resources of the Funds and Programmes.

13. With regard to financial contributions, the European Union takes this opportunity to reiterate its basic position concerning the Pledging Conference within the General Assembly. Since the Funds and Programmes have introduced a MYFF approach, the decision to terminate this practice should be taken. As happened last year, the European Union will accordingly not take part in this Conference.

Mr. President,

14. A vital component of results-based management is the monitoring and evaluation systems in the operational organizations. The Secretary-General's report in this respect notes a certain number of weaknesses, in particular shortcomings in the monitoring of projects by country offices and the headquarters, and major difficulties in learning lessons and profiting from the recommendations made in evaluations. As the report confirms, the "institutional memory" of United Nations organizations is poor in the field. The European Union considers that this triennial review should emphasize the need to improve monitoring and evaluation systems. One possibility would be to ask the Secretary-General to carry out an evaluation of these systems in the operational organizations. A study should also be made of how to pool the results of evaluations between the various UN agencies. Finally, the European Union would like to encourage greater use of the joint implementation of mid-term evaluations and reviews.

Mr. President,

15. A tangible link between United Nations operational activities and the follow-up to the Millennium Declaration, greater synergy, firstly between the Funds and the Programmes, then between their assistance framework and the national plan, measurable progress in the harmonization and simplification of procedures, results-based programming, and more effective monitoring and evaluation systems, these are the priorities the European Union has set itself for this triennial review. It is obviously perfectly willing to discuss ways of ensuring the best inter-governmental follow-up to operational activities, inter alia by means of joint meetings of the Executive Boards, and to examine ways of reinvigorating the operational segment of the Economic and Social Council. It hopes that the informal discussions that will follow this debate will enable it to take up stances on the other matters raised in the Secretary-General's reports and thus to contribute to a debate which we hope will be full of ideas as well as operational conclusions.

Mr. President, thank you for your attention.

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• EU Presidency Statement - Operational development activities (9/10/2000)
• EU Presidency Statement - Operational activities for development (14/7/2000)