Economic and Social Council

 
57th plenary meeting
28 July 1995

 1995/50. Operational activities of the United Nations for international development cooperation segment

The Economic and Social Council,

Recalling General Assembly resolutions 44/211 of 22 December 1989, 46/219 of 20 December 1991 and 47/199 of 22 December 1992, in which the Assembly requested the Secretary-General to submit to it, through the Economic and Social Council, a comprehensive analysis of the implementation of the resolution,

Recalling also General Assembly resolution 48/162 of 20 December 1993 and its own resolution 1994/33 of 28 July 1994,

Recalling that, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 48/162, the role of the Council in its operational activities of the United Nations for international development cooperation segment includes the provision to the United Nations system of cross-sectoral coordination and overall guidance on a system-wide basis,

Recognizing that appropriate recommendations regarding the need to increase substantially resources for operational activities for development on a predictable, continuous and assured basis, commensurate with the increasing needs of developing countries, should be further considered in the open-ended working group of the General Assembly on a new funding system for operational activities for development, established pursuant to Assembly resolution 48/162, annex, section 3.B,

Having considered the note by the Secretariat on the triennial policy review of operational activities for development within the United Nations system 1/ and the report on the annual sessions of the United Nations funds and programmes,

Deeply concerned about the decrease in resources allocated to the operational activities for development of the United Nations system,

1. Takes note of the note by the Secretariat; 1/

2. Reaffirms that the strengthening of the efficiency and effectiveness of the operational activities of the United Nations system in the delivery of its assistance for development requires a real commitment to implementing General Assembly resolutions 47/199 and 48/162, including the need to increase substantially the availability of resources on a predictable, continuous and assured basis, commensurate with the needs of developing countries;

3. Considers that there is a need for additional measures to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the operational activities for development of the United Nations system, including, inter alia, programmes focused on meeting the specific needs of developing countries; giving priority in resource allocation to developing countries, in particular the least developed countries and Africa; appropriate cooperation among United Nations programmes and between them and those of other donors; and keeping administrative costs to a level that allows effective programme delivery;

4. Requests the Secretary-General to finalize the report requested in paragraph 55 of General Assembly resolution 47/199 and to submit to the Assembly at its fiftieth session, in consultation with Member States, a comprehensive analysis of the implementation of resolution 47/199, with appropriate recommendations, taking into account also the work and outcome of the open-ended working group of the General Assembly on a new funding system for operational activities for development and the need to implement paragraph 3 of resolution 47/199;

5. Reiterates that the United Nations funds and programmes should submit their reports to the Council in all the official languages of the United Nations in good time, to enable the Council to carry out its policy guidance functions, and should schedule their Executive Board meetings so as to ensure this;

6. Decides that in 1996 the high-level meeting of the operational activities segment should focus on strengthening collaboration between the United Nations development system and the Bretton Woods institutions in the areas of social and economic development, at all levels, including the field level;

7. Also decides that the themes for the working-level meetings of the operational activities segment should include:

(a) Field-level coordination issues relating to the follow-up of the theme of the high-level segment of the previous substantive session of the Council;

(b) Issues relating to the budgets of the United Nations funds and programmes, with the aim of:

(i) Promoting greater budgetary transparency with respect to resources, including administrative costs of different funds and programmes;

(ii) Addressing the linkages between administrative expenditure and programme expenditure;

(iii) Ensuring the most efficient use of resources;

(iv) Promoting budgetary transparency with respect to resources mobilized by developing countries for operational activities for development of the United Nations, including resources from the private sector;

(c) Issues relating to:

(i) Strengthening national capacity for management and coordination of international assistance;

(ii) Improving national participation in the process of evaluation of the efficiency and effectiveness of assistance provided by United Nations funds and programmes;

(iii) Promoting greater collaboration among United Nations funds and programmes in the evaluation of their activities;

(d) Issues relating to procurement, in particular from developing countries;

(e) Issues relating to the use of national experts and local technologies;

(f) Issues relating to the priorities to be given in particular to the least developed countries and Africa;

8. Further decides to review these themes at its organizational session for 1996, in the light of the discussion on the triennial policy review at the fiftieth session of the General Assembly.

Note

1/ E/1995/98.

Date last posted: 5 December 1999 13:27:00
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