Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Blog : Blunt and brutal. But UN reform is possible. Blair, Brown and Benn can make it happen

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# One UN ! … to be a fact or fiction? « Global Nomad101 @ Monday, November 13, 2006 12:42 PM

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One UN ! … to be a fact or fiction? « Global Nomad101

# re: Blunt and brutal. But UN reform is possible. Blair, Brown and Benn can make it happen @ Monday, November 13, 2006 3:50 PM

The report on system-wide coherence of the UN is an interesting report that will trigger many different types of comments. One comment is that the report seems optimistic assuming the creation of a new body at the top in each country where the UN will do field operations would solve the effectiveness of currently fragmented UN activities. Is this more planning and coherence for coherence sake? Isn’t one implication that there will be less competition for results amongst agencies, with more emphasis on what donors collectively like to see happening and less emphasis on the substance of which activities are really needed? And with less emphasis on whether the current set-up of UN agencies at the global level is the most appropriate? Perhaps some mergers and exits might follow, but this report alone does not appear to suggest that; on the contrary it argues for more funds, organisations and upgrading of existing organisations.

The report is also relevant for the debate on possible Aid for Trade architectures. For instance, an MDG fund for 'One UN' operations might achieve the opposite of the Aid for Trade objectives in that such a fund might deal more with single issues that are not aimed at increasing attention for growth and trade (and responsible ministries), and productive capacities, which trade ministers from developing countries say are so desperately needed to take advantage of new trade opportunities (see ODI resources on Aid for Trade, including submissions to the Aid for Trade Task Force). It is not only about numbers of funds and agencies, but also about what gaps the organisations and funds would be filling. As an example, a current gap identified in the Aid for Trade debate relates to regional soft and hard infrastructure; could a national MDG fund deal with this?

Isn’t an important point about the existence of different UN agencies that they would have expertise in certain issues, rather than in certain countries? UN agencies have a comparative advantage in co-ordinating and delivering the provision of international public goods and other activities with international spillovers. Doing a system-wide review of multilateral agencies from scratch, I would not start at the country level, but start by thinking about what possible gaps UN agencies could be filling, based on what developing countries say. To take one example, if a gap were the generation of appropriate knowledge in the area of industrial development, then there would be a need to provide options to suggest the best possible architecture to generate such knowledge and that might involve UN agencies, bilateral donors and the private sector. Such thinking might be followed up by suggestions for how such knowledge could best be transferred and used by those that need it. Further information can be found in the 2005 UNIDO
report 'Supporting industrialisation: Improving market failures and providing public goods' pp80-84.

Dirk Willem te Velde

# re: Blunt and brutal. But UN reform is possible. Blair, Brown and Benn can make it happen @ Wednesday, November 15, 2006 5:23 PM

I am inclined to agree generally with Dirk. In my view the key problem facing the UN is not one of unity but of management. Creating global coherence might help improve management, but it might be a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

As Dirk says, greater system-wide coherence might tip the balance toward donors rather than the countries themselves. An exclusive focus on the country level change might detract from the UN's advantage, which is to take a global view. Further, there is nothing wrong with partial duplication of UN activities; different organisations have different assets, and one agency can act as a counterbalance to the excesses of another.

Management improvements can be addressed more directly. For a start, technical leadership is lacking. The UN and its agencies have no equivalent of Chief Operating Officers. They should.

Human resources management could be improved. Labour is inflexible and productivity low.

The culture is generally one of high politics and meetings, rather than technical output. This should change.

In-house knowledge management should likewise improve – currently too much information and expertise is scattered across various organisations, and in some cases within them.

Greater UN integration is to be applauded; but not if it avoids tackling management issues.

Daniel Gay

# re: Blunt and brutal. But UN reform is possible. Blair, Brown and Benn can make it happen @ Wednesday, November 15, 2006 6:45 PM

Dear Friends

Stakeholder Forum, UN NGLS and FBOMS (Brazilian Forum of NGOs and Social Movements for the Environment and the Development) have sent out a call for civil society views on the recent published Report of the UN Panel on System-wide Coherence in the fields of humanitarian affairs environment and development.Should you be interested in making comment then the relevent document can be downloaded from http://www.stakeholderforum.org/call%20for%20panel%20input.pdf

We have also this week had an article on the Panel report on the BBC web site at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6134690.stm which may be of interest to you. We mostly focus on the issues of the environment and sustainable development

warm regards

felix

Felix Dodds

# Blog-hopping: Global Nomad 101 « GlobaLab @ Tuesday, November 21, 2006 12:30 AM

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Blog-hopping: Global Nomad 101 « GlobaLab

Blunt and brutal. But UN reform is possible. Blair, Brown and Benn can make it happen

Friday, November 10, 2006 1:22 PM by Simon Maxwell

I welcome the release of ‘Delivering as One’, the Report of the High Level Panel on UN Reform. The Report is blunt and brutal. That’s what happens when you commission a report from three serving Prime Ministers and have Gordon Brown on the team.

The Report criticises the incoherence, fragmentation and unpredictability of UN work on international development. Quite right too, we can’t have 20 UN agencies in every country, all fighting for the Minister’s ear. Nor can we expect the UN to do its job, when donors withhold funding and cherry-pick their favourite projects.

The Panel’s ideas are right. One UN at country level, one management board internationally, one fund to provide the money. This isn’t going to happen overnight, but the milestones in the Report are realistic. There will be 40 countries doing this by 2010 and a complete roll-out by 2012.

What has to happen next? The UK can provide an immediate lead:

Tony Blair should endorse the Report and announce that the Secretary of State for International Development, Hilary Benn, will immediately take charge of all UK government policy and funding for all UN agencies. As the Report says, “Without coherent policy and leadership within national governments, disparate policies and fragmented implementation will undermine the effectiveness of multilateral organisations”.

Gordon Brown is a signatory of the Report. He should endorse the recommendations and carry them through to the next comprehensive spending review, including in DFID’s Public Service Agreement.

Hilary Benn has the biggest contribution to make. He should immediately announce financial support for the pilot country programmes and the longer-term roll-out, including the proposed central funding mechanism. At the same time, he should deny funding outside this framework. A White Paper should be published in 2007 on how the UK will reorganise support to the UN’s development, humanitarian and environment work.

The UK is recognised and respected for its leadership on international development. An effective multilateral system is essential if we are to reach the Millennium Development Goals. Putting UK leadership at the service of the United Nations is what we must do next.

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The specific objective was to obtain a more detailed mapping and analysis of Danish and Norwegian development assistance with regard to baseline data on the Paris Declaration indicators, pointing to areas where special attention is needed.

David Booth

Re-thinking aid policy in response to Zimbabwe's protracted crisis
May 2007 - June 2007

Details:

Roundtable discussion on 4th June 2007 at the ODI office, to focus on the deepening crisis in Zimbabwe, current aid modalities and programmatic design.

Kate Bird

UNCT Rwanda Liaison
May 2007 - June 2007

Details:

Establishment of Single UN Budgetary Arrangement at Country Level: Liaison with Rwanda UNCT

Scoping DFID's Policy on Human Rights
April 2007 - October 2007

Details:

This is a desk based study to scope DFID’s current policy on specific human rights in the UN Human Rights Conventions. The output is a report which describes and analyses DFID’s current policy on human rights as it relates to the UK’s external relations.

Tim Braunholtz, Marta Foresti, Tammie O'Neill, Bhavna Sharma

Strengthening Public Expediture Management in Bosnia and Herzegovina
April 2007 - June 2007

Details:

The aim of the project was to improve consistency between government policy objectives and expenditure allocations by strengthening budget planning and preparation processes at State, Entity and Canton levels of government.

Short Term Consultancy for Strategic Conflict Assessment
April 2007 - May 2007

Details:

This is a strategic conflict assessment study for The Asia Foundation (TAF) based in Pakistan. This entailed: 1) Designing the analytic framework for the study for the local consultants.
2) Mentoring the local consultants. 3) Writing the national overview based on the regional papers prepared by the local consultants subcontracted by TAF.

Diana Cammack

2007 Annual Report on the Results and Impact of IFAD Operations
April 2007 - September 2007

Details:

ODI provided a range of inputs into the fith Annual Report on the Results and Impact of IFAD Operations preparation process including leading on, reviewing and co-authoring various chapters and papers; facilitating workshops etc.

Ed Hedger

Application of the Performance Based Allocation (PBA) System to Fragile States
April 2007 - June 2007

Details:

The aims of this project were to: Provide input for discussion at the coordination meeting of IDA15 EU deputies in June 2007; Provide scientific background information for strengthening the German position on the IDA15 special theme of ‘fragile states’ and for the German evaluation of the Performance Based System (PBA) in general; Provide recommendations on Germany’s position on PBA with respect to fragile states.

This project involves an analysis of World Bank data and analysis of current literature, including existing studies on PBA and fragile states and current debate within the World Bank, NGOs and the academic community.

Nick Highton, Cecilie Wathne, Rowan Putman

EU Aid Effectiveness
April 2007 - June 2007

Details:

This study on EU Aid Effectiveness has been commissioned by the European Parliament’s Committee on Development. The study selects a number of countries to look at as case studies with a particular focus on aid effectiveness at the EU level.

ODI/AAPPG Meetings Series: Parliaments and Development
April 2007 - May 2007

Details:

A series of public meetings on parliaments and development, jointly-organised by ODI and the Africa All-Party Parliamentary Group in April-May 2007.

Alan Hudson

Strategic Governance and Corruption Assessments
April 2007 - March 2009

Details:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands awarded ECORYS Nederland BV a contract for the implementation of ‘Strategic Governance and Corruption Assessments’ (SGACA). The overall objective of this project is to perform SGACA’s for up to 35 partner countries of Dutch development cooperation. The ultimate aim is to provide relevant and stimulating material that assists the local Royal Netherlands Embassy staff in preparing both specific governance strategies as well as multi-annual strategies for Dutch development assistance over the 2009-2012 period. ODI is a contract partner in this project.

Diana Cammack

Nepal Participatory Poverty Assessment
March 2007 - June 2007

Details:

Design and implementation of Nepal’s first post-peace process participatory governance assessment, commissioned by DFID Nepal.

This consultation for DfID resulted in the production of a participatory governance assessment which focuses on the grassroots experiences of citizens in post-conflict Nepal. The research process and ultimate presentation of findings in June 2007 aimed to explore the views of poor and excluded Nepalese citizens on the post-conflict state and the democratisation process, identifying their development priorities and illuminating the relations between poor and excluded communities and the government. The findings were then used to inform the development of the NPC’s 3-year Interim Development Plan and serve as the basis for a regional, district and community communications strategy.

Harry Jones, Sara Pantuliano

Contribute expertise to lesson-learning seminar in DfId
March 2007 - March 2007

Aid, Resource Rents and the Politics of the Budget Process
March 2007 - April 2007

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What do you think?

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