15 December 2014: The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) held its first in a series of discussions on the long-term positioning of the UN Development System. The dialogue focused on the governance, evolution and priorities of the System, taking into account the post-2015 development agenda.

The meeting took place on 15 December 2014, at UN Headquarters in New York, US. Member States responded to a discussion paper by Bruce Jenks and Bisrat Aklilu, titled ‘The Longer-Term Positioning of the UN Development System in the Post-2015 Development Agenda.’ The paper analyzes: the changing global development landscape; the consequences of the long-term positioning of the System; and the alignment of function, finance, partnership, organization, capacity, and governance.

María Emma Mejía Vélez, Vice-President of ECOSOC (Colombia) and meeting chair, asked Member States to provide guidance on how the coherence and flexibility of the UN Development System can be fed into the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR), and how these dialogues will continue going forward.

Thomas Gass, Assistant Secretary-General, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), stressed the need for credible data and evidence when internalizing the post-2015 development agenda in the work of the UN. Amina Mohammed, UN Special Adviser for Post-2015 Development Planning, also emphasized the need for a data revolution, while calling for involvement and incentives for all stakeholders.

Among the reactions to the discussion paper and the dialogue topics, some States felt the paper was “unbalanced,” and said the focus of the UN Development System should be poverty eradication. Others asserted that the System must also prioritize humanitarian and peace and security issues in its work. Others called for the QCPR to include restructuring the governance of the UN Development System. Some States proposed that the UN System Chief Executives Board (CEB) should become a managerial entity.

States also commented on specific development issues, and on how to make the post-2015 development agenda universal while prioritizing Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Middle Income Countries (MICs). Delegates requested that the UN Development System report on its work on capacity building, education, and job training. Some stressed that the operational functions of the UN on the ground are very different than its functions during the intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda, leading other delegates to call for greater alignment between these two perspectives. One Member State called for free access for national governments to better meet their own needs, and for more discussions on an “integrated results framework.”

ECOSOC will convene two further dialogues in the series in 2015. [Publication: The Longer-Term Positioning of the UN Development System in the Post-2015 Development Agenda] [IISD RS Sources]