• assesses the results achieved from current activities;
• assesses the continuing validity of legislative decisions of more than five years' standing;
• assesses the effectiveness of co-ordination with other units of the Secretariat and members of the United Nations family;
• recommends an order of priorities among United Nations programmes as defined in the strategic framework;
• gives guidance to the Secretariat on programme design by interpreting legislative intent so as to assist it in translating legislation into programmes; and
• makes recommendations with respect to work programmes proposed by the Secretariat to give effect to the legislative intent of the relevant policy-making organs, taking into account the need to avoid overlapping and duplication.

The Legislative basis and Chronology of Key General Assembly and ECOSOC Resolutions affecting the work of CPC

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, including its financial, administrative and procedural impact, its impact on the implementation of mandates across sections of the programme budget and the workload and the associated costs, 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 General Assembly reaffirmed that no changes to the budget methodology, established budgetary procedures and practices or the financial regulations may be implemented without prior review and approval by the Assembly in accordance with established budgetary procedures and requested the Secretary-General to present any proposed changes to the Financial Regulations and Rules of the United Nations (ST/SGB/2013/4 and ST/SGB/2013/4/Amend.1) and the Regulations and Rules Governing Programme Planning, the Programme Aspects of the Budget, the Monitoring of Implementation and the Methods of Evaluation (ST/SGB/2018/3) for the consideration of the Assembly.

Also in the same resolution, the General Assembly reaffirmed that parts I and II of the proposed programme budget shall 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 Assembly. It also reaffirmed the role of the Committee for Programme and Coordination as the main subsidiary organ of the Assembly and the Economic and Social Council for planning, programming and coordination, as well as in verifying that the programmes of activities of the Organization are implemented in line with the legislative mandates and that the full implementation of regulations and rules is ensured. The Assembly recommended that the Committee for Programme and Coordination, in accordance with its mandate, provide recommendations on all programmes of the proposed programme budget and recalled that it shall consider the proposed programme plans in accordance with its terms of reference, and appreciated the continuous efforts of the Committee to reach consensus on all programmes of the proposed programme budget.

Also in its resolution 77/267, the General 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 decided that the sessions of the Committee for Programme and Coordination 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, in 2024, and 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.

In the same resolution, the General Assembly also 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.

Also in the same resolution, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to ensure that all the Main Committees had access on their Committee Places of the e-deleGATE portal, for information purposes, before the start of the session, to the programmes of the proposed programme budget and the latest report of the Committee for Programme and Coordination.

In its resolution 77/254 on programme planning, the General Assembly took note with appreciation of the work of the Committee for Programme and Coordination. The Assembly welcomed the Committee’s report and commended the progress made by the Committee at its sixty-second session and increased engagement by all relevant stakeholders, noted with appreciation that the number of programmes without conclusions and recommendations from the Committee had reduced that year, and noted the letters provided by the Chairs of the Main Committees of the Assembly.

In the same resolution, the General Assembly endorsed the conclusions and recommendations of the Committee on the proposed programme plan for 2023 and programme performance for 2021, contained in chapter II, section A, of its report on the work of its sixty-second session (A/77/16), and requested the Secretary-General to ensure the timely implementation of the recommendations. The Assembly approved, on an exceptional basis and without creating a precedent, for programmes 3 and 20 of the proposed programme budget for 2023, a programme narrative that was composed solely of the list of mandates at the programme level and the objectives approved by the Assembly in its resolution 71/6 and the deliverables for 2023 at the subprogramme level. It also approved, on an exceptional basis and without creating a precedent, for programmes 13 and 21 of the proposed programme budget for 2023, a programme narrative that was composed solely of the list of mandates at the programme level and the objectives approved by the Assembly in its resolution 76/236 and the deliverables for 2023 at the subprogramme level. It further approved the programme plan for programme 6, Legal affairs, of the proposed programme budget for 2023, as contained in the report of the Secretary-General.