The consolidation of all UN Agencies into one UN House is an important component of the UN Secretary General's reform programme. A single UN House fosters unity and co-ordination in all work at the country level. There are more than 60 UN Houses already in operation worldwide. In Ha Noi, UN Agencies are currently housed in ten separate locations scattered throughout the city. It is an enormous challenge to facilitate programmatic synergies, efficient information sharing and overall harmonization. Meanwhile Government and donor partners must deal with Agencies at separate spaces, reinforcing our individual specialty differences and not the strength of our combined work.
It is clear that the eco-friendly and team-friendly Green One UN House for all UN organizations in Viet Nam is essential to integration, coordination and the realization of greater synergies. To date the Government has contributed a high-value land site, and on 8 September 2009 the Prime Minister of Viet Nam approved the Green One UN House project in Ha Noi. Now fully funded with generous commitments and pledges by donors from Spain, Norway, the U.K./DFID, Finland, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland, as well contributions from the participating UN organisations and the Sustainable United Nations (SUN) program of UNEP, plans are currently being developed for construction.
