Committee for Programme and Coordination
Legislative Basis: Chronology of Key General Assembly and ECOSOC Resolutions
1962: The Committee was established under the name "Special Committee on Coordination" by Economic and Social Council resolution on Special Committee on co-ordination with particular emphasis on the United Nations Development Decade. 920 (XXXIV) (1962)
1966: In its resolution 1171 (XLI) (1966) on Reports of the Special Committee on Coordination and the Joint Meeting of the Special Committee and the Administrative Committee on Co-ordination the Economic and Social Council decided "to change the name of the Special Committee on Co-ordination to 'Committee for Programme and Co-ordination'.
1976: The Economic and Social Council reviewed the terms of reference of the Committee for Programme and Coordination and approved the consolidated terms of reference as contained in the annex to resolution 2008 (LX) (1976).
In its resolution 31/93 on the Medium Term Plan, the General Assembly approved the consolidated terms of reference as set out in 2008 (LX) (1976) and instructed the Committee for Programme and Coordination to:
- Review in depth, on a selective basis, the major programmes of the plan and to recommend any necessary amendments to the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly
- To determine which programmes, sub-programmes or programme elements are obsolete, or marginal usefulness or ineffective and to recommend, as appropriate, their curtailment or termination
- To assess the degree of substantive co-ordination of selected programme within the United Nations system and to recommend the appropriate action thereon
1987: By its decision 42/450, the General Assembly decided that the Committee for Programme and Co-ordination should, from 1988 onward, be composed of thirty-four States Members of the United Nations, elected for three-year terms on the basis of equitable geographical distribution, as follows:
- 9 seats for African States;
- 7 seats for Asia-Pacific States;
- 7 seats for Latin American and Caribbean States;
- 7 seats for Western European and other States,
- 4 seats for Eastern European States.
2003: In its resolution 58/269 on strengthening the United Nations: an agenda for further change , the General Assembly requested the Secretary General to prepare, on a trial basis, a two year strategic framework to replace the four year medium-term plan and decided to take a final decision at its sixty-second session, on the format, content and duration of the strategic framework.
2007: Further to resolution 58/269, the General Assembly at its sixty-second session, in its resolution 62/224, endorsed the recommendation of the Committee for Programme and Coordination to maintain the strategic framework as the principal policy directive of the United Nations, which serves as the basis for programme planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation, with effect from the biennium 2010-2011.
2017: In its resolution 72/266A of 24 December 2017 on shifting the management paradigm in the United Nations, the Assembly, inter alia, approved the proposed change from a biennial to an annual budget period on a trial basis and decided that the proposed programme budget shall consist of:
- Part I: the plan outline, which endorses the long-term priorities and the objectives of the Organization;
- Part II: the programme plan for programmes and subprogrammes and programme performance information;
- Part III: the post and non-post resource requirements for the programmes and subprogrammes.
The General Assembly also decided that parts I and II would be submitted through the Committee for Programme and Coordination and part III through the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions for the consideration of the General Assembly. The Assembly also decided that the plan outline shall be submitted every three years.
2022: In its resolution 77/267, entitled “Shifting the management paradigm in the United Nations: review of changes to the budgetary cycle”, the General Assembly decided to lift the trial period effective from 2023 and requested the Secretary-General to continue with the submission of the programme budget according to an annual cycle. The Assembly also requested the Secretary-General to conduct a comprehensive review on the annual cycle, and to submit a report for consideration by the Assembly at the main part of its eighty-third session, in 2028.
In the same resolution, the Assembly reiterated that the Committee for Programme and Coordination and the Advisory Committee should examine the proposed programme budget in accordance with their respective mandates and, preserving the sequential nature of the review processes, submit their conclusions and recommendations to the Assembly for the final approval of the programme budget. It also requested the Secretary-General to assess a procedure to inform the Advisory Committee of possible resource implications that may result from the recommendations of the Committee for Programme and Coordination, for the consideration of the Assembly, to address the sequential nature of the review process under the annual cycle.
Also in the same resolution, it decided to extend the length of sessions of the Committee for Programme and Coordination to five weeks, starting from its sixty-third session, and that the sessions shall end no later than mid-June to ensure more time for substantial deliberation of the programmes and consultation with relevant United Nations bodies, starting from the sixty-fourth session of the Committee.
Furthermore, it reiterated that whenever the Committee for Programme and Coordination could not provide conclusions and recommendations on a given subprogramme or programme of the proposed programme budget, the plenary or the relevant Main Committee or Main Committees of the Assembly responsible for those mandates would consider the said subprogramme or programme at the very start of its session in order to provide any conclusions and recommendations to the Fifth Committee, at the earliest opportunity, and no later than four weeks after the start of the session, for timely consideration by the Fifth Committee. The Assembly also decided that the Fifth Committee would consider the report of the Committee for Programme and Coordination at the earliest opportunity during the main part of the sessions of the Assembly, under the agenda item entitled “Programme planning”, and no later than the first week of November.
