The following questions and answers provide an overview of UN reform globally, and in Viet Nam.

WHAT IS MEANT BY “UN REFORM?”

United Nations reform is the ongoing process of making improvements in the way the entire UN family of organizations works. The goal is to adapt to new conditions and provide for changing needs, in all of the areas in which the UN is active: development, peace and security, international law, environment, social issues and more. UN reform is a means to deliver better service to Governments and the people they serve.

• The UN should “deliver as one” at country level, with one leader, one programme, one budget and, where appropriate, one office.
• A UN Sustainable Development Board should be established to oversee the One UN Country Programme.
• A Global Leader’s Forum should be established within the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to upgrade its policy coordination role in economic, social and related issues.
• The Secretary-General of the UN, the President of the World Bank and the Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund should set up a process to review, update and conclude formal agreements on their respective roles and relations at the global and country levels.
• A MDG Funding Mechanism should be established to provide multi-year funding for the One UN Country Programme.
• The UN’s leading role in humanitarian disasters and transition from relief to development must be further enhanced.
• International environmental governance should be strengthened and made more coherent in order to improve effectiveness and targeted action of environmental activities in the UN system.
• A dynamic UN entity focused on gender equality and women’s empowerment should be established.
• A UN common evaluation system should be established by 2008. Other business practices, such as human resource policies, planning and results-based management, should be upgraded and harmonized across the UN system as a driver for better performance and results. The SG should establish an independent task force to further eliminate duplication within the UN system and to consolidate UN entities, where necessary.

• Ownership: Partner countries exercise effective leadership over their development policies and strategies and coordinate development actions.
• Alignment: Donors base their overall support on partner countries’ national development strategies, institutions and procedures.
  
• Harmonisation: Donor actions are more harmonised, transparent and collectively effective.
• Managing for results: Donors/partners manage resources and improve decision making for results.
• Mutual accountability: Donors and partners are accountable for development results.

Although these commitments build on the content of previous agreements, the PD not only is more comprehensive but also reflects a more broad-based consensus. Major efforts are being undertaken in numerous countries and regional bodies to stimulate implementation of the commitments, with any necessary adaptation to local circumstances and initial conditions, such as a country’s previous track record in aid harmonisation and alignment. Some donor agencies are taking a serious look at their internal incentive structures, asking whether they are consistent with the spirit of Paris. A plan for monitoring progress over the years to 2010 has been agreed.

For the full text of the Paris Declaration please visit: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/11/41/34428351.pdf http://www.mpi.gov.vn/oda/toancau/tuyenbotuparis/2005/6/60453.vip

From 2-4 Sept 2008, the Next High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness will take place in Accra, Ghana.

UN Reform in Viet Nam

For the UN to deliver the best results for Viet Nam, the UN needs to transform itself into a harmonized organization with unity of purpose, coherence in management and efficiency and effectiveness in operations. Greater harmonization and alignment is not an end in itself but a means to an end: the aim is to achieve more coherence, better results and greater impact in UN programmes for the benefit of all people in Viet Nam.

With the strong support of the Government of Viet Nam, an action plan towards “One United Nations” in Viet Nam was established, comprising of five elements: One Plan, One Budget, One set of Management Practices, One Leader, and a One UN House. This set of deliverables is also referred to as the “Five Ones.” (see below)

WHY WAS VIET NAM SELECTED AS A PILOT COUNTRY FOR UN REFORM?

While undoubtedly many factors contributed to the decision, proactive reform efforts by UN leaders in Viet Nam, support from donors and strong leadership by the Vietnamese Government were important reasons. In September 2005, a discussion paper on UN reform was prepared by the then UN Resident Coordinator and current UNICEF Representative in Viet Nam in part to stimulate thinking on necessary change in the way the UN operates at the country level. The note was timed to coincide with preparations for the 2005 World Summit in New York, with UN reform being a prominent item on the Summit agenda. A subsequent paper on the “One UN Initiative” was prepared in early 2006, outlining the necessary UN reform measures within the larger context of the “Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness” and its local contextualization in Viet Nam: the “Ha Noi Core Statement on Aid Effectiveness.” All of these events contributed to Viet Nam being selected as a pilot country for UN Reform in December, 2006.

WHAT IS THE “HA NOI CORE STATEMENT” AND WHY IS IT RELEVANT TO UN REFORM AT THE COUNTRY LEVEL?

In 2005 the government and donors produced the Ha Noi Core Statement on Aid Effectiveness (HCS) which translates the Paris Declaration into ‘Partnership Commitments’ for Vietnam, essentially localising Paris Declaration to Viet Nam. The Core Statement includes 14 indicators with indicative targets for 2010. In many cases these targets are more ambitious than those in the Paris Declaration. The HCS is now being monitored alongside the Paris Declaration in Vietnam and is a guiding document for improved aid effectiveness.

For the full text of the Ha Noi Core Statement please visit:
http://www.mpi.gov.vn/oda/vietnam/tuyenbotuhanoi/2005/6/60456.vip

HOW HAS VIET NAM SHOWN LEADERSHIP IN UN REFORM?

Viet Nam is a world leader in aid effectiveness. It is no coincidence that the goal of “One UN” has progressed furthest in Viet Nam as it has taken a leading role among developing countries in promoting the aid effectiveness agenda and in implementing the provisions of the Paris Declaration.

As further evidence of the strong national commitment and leadership, the Prime Minister has been closely engaged in the “One UN Initiative”, and has approved the “One Plan” and the Terms of Reference for the Tripartite National Task Force. The United Nations Country Team considers Government leadership of the reform process a sine qua non for successful reform.

WHAT IS THE TRIPARTITE NATIONAL TASK FORCE?

UN reform in Viet Nam is a three-party undertaking – the Government of Viet Nam, the UN Country Team and the donor community. To implement the One UN initiative in a collaborative manner, a Tripartite National Task Force (TNTF) has been established under the leadership of the Government of Viet Nam and within the context of the Ha Noi Core Statement. The TNTF consists of representatives of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Office of the Government, the participating UN Agencies, funds and programmes and bilateral donors. The TNTF helps guide the implementation of what has been called “The Five Ones”.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THE “FIVE ONE’S”?

1. One Plan: The One Plan seeks to combine and synthesize the work of the 14 resident UN organizations in Viet Nam – namely FAO, IFAD, ILO, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNFPA, UN-HABITAT, UNIDO, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNIFEM, UNODC, UNV and WHO – within a single planning framework to better support the Socio-Economic Development Plan (2006-2010) of Viet Nam and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The One Plan brings greater programmatic coherence, greater synergies and helps the UN respond better to key national priorities. It presents the development challenges, the programme outcomes, outputs and expected results, implementing strategies, management responsibilities, and commitments of the Government and the participating UN Organizations.

Under the One PLan, a One Plan Management Plan (OPMP) has been established to outline how the UN Organizations participating in the One UN Initiative in Viet Nam will organize themselves in the most effective way so as to successfully implement the One Plan and other key elements of the "One UN Initiative". Under the OPMP, 11 Programme Coordination Groups (PCGs) are being established as an effective and inclusive mechanism for UN Agencies to work together on key shared issues such as HIV and AIDS, social and development policies, education and governance. The PCGs, will, among other things, coordinate the implementation of a specific set of outputs from the One Plan. The OPMP also stresses the use of common services as another way of doing things better, and more cheaply. Common services are joint operational arrangements, in areas like travel and accommodation services, banking, security, administrative and financial procedures, procurement, recruitment, joint training and IT support.

2. One UN House: 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.

The vision for the Green One UN House in Viet Nam is to retrofit the current UN Apartment Building into an environmentally friendly and healthy UN House for all resident UN agencies in Hanoi, with cutting edge eco-design and technology. This energy-efficient House will serve as a demonstration building for eco-design in the ASEAN region. To date Norway has pledged USD 1.8 million toward construction of the House, the United Kingdom USD 1 million, New Zealand NZD 500,000 and the UN Environment Programme USD 750,000, and the resident UN ExCom Agencies USD 1 million. Currently plans are being finalized for construction of the One UN House.

3. One Set of Management Practices: In order to simplify the complex and burdensome procedures of in-country UN agencies, the business practices of the UN’s system need to be organized in the most effective way so that they are better aligned with those of the Government, and reduce the burden and cost of doing business with the UN. To this end, the OPMP has incorporated one set of Harmonized Programme Project Management Practices (HPPMG) that organizes the UN’s systems in a more consistent and streamlined framework. Other efforts to harmonize the business practices of the participating UN Organizations are underway.

4. One Budget & One Plan Fund: In the spirit of partnership the Government and the UN are working together to mobilize the resources required for successful implementation of the One Plan. A single budget has been agreed upon, providing a clearer sense of total resources required. To mobilize and allocate donor funds for the unfunded part of the One Plan, a One Plan Fund has been established, providing streamlined way of financing the UN’s programmatic work.

5. One Leader: The UNCT has agreed to a One Leader MOU under which enhanced functions and responsibility are given to the UN Resident Coordinator in Viet Nam to better represent the participating Agencies in the One Plan. As the One Leader, the UN Resident Coordinator will take the lead on common issues that require the UNCT to speak with one voice, and present a common position and views. He/she will guide the strategic development and management of the “One UN” reform and promote joint decisions including all representatives of the Participating UN Organizations.

In addition to these “Five Ones,” several other changes that support the One UN Initiative have been implemented. For example, a One UN Communications Team has been operating since 2006 to facilitate internal communications among all UN organizations in Viet Nam, and to support the UN in speaking with “one voice” to the media and partners. An integrated Monitoring and Results Framework is now in place to ensure will ensure continuous monitoring and periodic evaluation of the One Plan.

WHAT UN ORGANIZATIONS ARE CURRENTLY INVOLVED IN THE ‘ONE UN INITIATIVE’ IN VIET NAM?

Initially, the ‘One UN Initiative’ consisted of six agencies: UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, UNAIDS, UNV and UNIFEM. In June of 2008, the remaining eight UN organizations resident in Viet Nam - FAO, IFAD, ILO, UN-HABITAT, UNIDO, UNESCO, UNODC, and WHO – officially joined several or all dimensions of One UN (i.e. became part of the One UN Initiative). IOM and UNHCR are also participating in some aspects of the Initiative. The ‘One UN Initiative’ is an open process for all resident UN Agencies and Programmes in Viet Nam.

For more on the history of UN reform in Viet Nam, click here.