Development Account Projects
Enhancing national capacities for the effective implementation of the United Nations development agenda and assessment of progress
Background:
Five years after the Millennium Summit, effective implementation of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), had become more crucial than ever. World leaders at the 2005 World Summit agreed to adopt and apply more ambitious national development strategies. The Summit envisaged a stronger Economic and Social Council system and its regional and functional commissions operating as a unified system around the single framework of the broader UN development agenda. Thus the 2005 World Summit Outcome mandated the Economic and Social Council to hold annual ministerial reviews, to enable efforts geared towards the implementation of the development agenda and assess progress made by states.
To assist countries in the design of more ambitious national development strategies, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs developed six policy notes in 2006, in the strategic areas of (a) macroeconomics and growth, (b) finance, (c) public investment management, (d) technology, (e) social policy and (f) trade. These policy notes concentrate on critical areas where standard agency sourcebooks and development guidelines do not adequately reflect internationally agreed development goals. The project will use the policy notes as the basis for advisory support of governments to design equitable national development strategies. Under the auspices of ECOSOC, the Annual Ministerial Reviews are a new mechanism that will assist countries in the implementation and assessment of national development strategies, help the international community to review and fine-tune development policies, and put limited resources to the best use in support of all internationally agreed development goals, with the hope that they will bring together all elements of the UN Development agenda in a coherent and coordinated manner.
The project will be executed by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Objective:
To strengthen capacity for the design and assessment of national development strategies.
Expected accomplishments:
- Enhanced capacity of national Governments to assess the implementation of national development strategies in accordance with internationally agreed development goals, including the MDGs.
- Governments better equipped for formulating effective policies towards the achievement of the goals of their national development strategies.
Implementation status:
This project began implementation in 2008. Four 2-day National Voluntary Presentation (NVP) workshops in 2008 will be developed at the national level for those countries that volunteer national presentations at the ECOSOC Annual Ministerial Review (AMR), followed by six in 2009. These NVP workshops will assist countries to draft National Reports (NRs) highlighting successful projects or policies, case studies, and policy interventions/projects that have been replicated elsewhere, and will enhance capacity of countries to engage with the Economic and Social Council. The project will also establish a network of global partners/experts to support governments in assessing the implementation of their national development strategies, in coordination with Resident Coordinators. These will include experts in their individual capacities, NGOs as well as private sector, and academic and research institutions in developed and developing countries. A dedicated website and policy database on national assessment and reporting will be developed, where materials would be available to the ECOSOC as well as to all Member States, national administrations, local governments, and civil society organizations. The content would include lessons learned from past AMRs, NRs, latest innovations, cases, new strategies, national reviews and universal access to the network of global experts.
