12 November 2015: During an UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) informal briefing on the second phase of the dialogue on the longer-term positioning of the UN development system in the context of the 2030 Agenda, delegates discussed a roadmap and the establishment of an advisory group of experts to assist Member States during that phase.

The first phase of the ECOSOC dialogue took place from December 2014 to May 2015 and was composed of formal sessions, informal workshops, a civil society briefing, and a high-level retreat.

Chairing the meeting on 12 November 2015, at UN Headquarters in New York, US, Maria Cristina Perceval, Vice-President of ECOSOC (Argentina), announced that the briefing would also serve as a consultation on the second phase of the dialogue. She noted that this second phase will need more disaggregated data to define possible options in the six areas of focus of the dialogue, namely: interlinkages between the alignment of functions, funding practices, governance structures, capacity and impact of the UN development system, partnership approaches and organizational arrangements. She informed that the ECOSOC Bureau intends to support a proposal to create an independent high-level advisory group of experts to assist Member States in prioritizing options for strengthening the work of the UN development system during phase 2 of the dialogue.

Noting that the draft terms of reference for this advisory group have already been circulated to the membership, Perceval said the advisory group is expected to: provide analytical work to feed into the workshops and retreats of the ECOSOC dialogue; report to the ECOSOC Bureau; ideally include between 10 and15 members; be established by mid-December 2015, and start its work in January 2016. She added that the group could submit its report by the end of June 2016 so as to serve as a “key input” to the UN Secretary-General report on the quadrennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development of the UN system (QCPR) to be issued in August 2016. She also noted that this open-ended group would need to: be geographically and gender balanced; and be supported by UN extra budgetary resources, as its work could include regional and national consultations which would have cost implications. She called on Member States to provide inputs and comments on the terms of reference by 18 November 2015, after which these will be updated and submitted to the Bureau for adoption, she said.

As part of an interactive discussion with the floor, Germany remarked that the “successful adoption of the 2030 Agenda” implies the necessity to make the UN fit for implementing it, and remarked that the second phase of the dialogue should develop “more concrete” proposals for adoption by Member States.

Many delegates welcomed the establishment of an advisory group, with the EU noting that this initiative would facilitate an “informed intergovernmental dialogue.”

On the terms of reference, the EU, Switzerland, Norway and others noted that the advisory group should not only issue a report at the end of its work but should also provide written inputs throughout the dialogue’s session. Germany called for organizing an ECOSOC meeting after the release of the group’s final report, and the US stressed that the report of the group should take into account the timing related to the issuance of the UN Secretary-General report on QCPR so as to avoid “parallel tracks”. Switzerland, supported by Viet Nam, noted the need to use the work of the advisory group not as the only input but as a complement to other initiatives coming from the UN system.

Some Member States including the EU, Norway, Ghana, the Russian Federation and the US, called for clarifying issues such as the mandate, composition and funding arrangements of the advisory group. Germany said it could contribute financially to the establishment of the group, while others such as Ghana, said advisors should have various experiences and backgrounds, and the selection process should be transparent. Viet Nam asked that advisors have experience “in the field” at the country level. Colombia stressed the importance of selecting independent experts “not governmental representatives.” Germany called for adequate geographical representation, including representation from countries in special situations.

Perceval also introduced an updated roadmap on the second phase of the ECOSOC dialogue, and mentioned that this document will be periodically reviewed by Member States as the dialogue moves forward.

The proposed roadmap document includes three sessions, three workshops and two retreats. According to this document: the informal briefing on the second phase of the dialogue is part of session 5 (12 November 2015). Session 6 (22-24 February 2016) will focus on country perspectives on the UN development system programme and operational cooperation; and session 7 (4-6 April 2016) will discuss progress review and next steps.

The document also states that: workshop 5 (1 December 2015) will address the 2030 Agenda, including the UN development system programmes and operational cooperation implications and recent reviews; workshop 6 (10 February 2016) will discuss funding and organizational arrangements; and workshop 7 (17 March 2015) will be on governance and partnership approaches, and capacity and impact, including system-wide capacity needs of the 2030 Agenda.

Finally, the documents outlines that retreat 2 (30-31 January 2016) will consider the 2030 Agenda and forward-looking scenarios for the UN development system, while retreat 3 (7-8 May 2016) will focus on emerging findings and conclusions in ECOSOC dialogue areas.

While the proposed roadmap was supported by several Member States during the meeting, the EU called for the dialogue to focus on functions of the UN development system, with Norway mentioning that those functions should be discussed early in the dialogue. In addition, Norway, supported by Viet Nam, proposed that workshop 6 on funding and organizational arrangements planned for February 2016 be organized back-to-back with the ECOSOC Operational Activities for Development segment.

The ECOSOC dialogue has been called by ECOSOC resolution 2014/14, where the Council decided to convene a transparent and inclusive dialogue involving Member States and all relevant stakeholders on the longer-term positioning of the UN development system in the context of the post-2015 development agenda. The dialogue process consists of both formal and informal sessions over an 18-month period, and its outcome should serve as key input to the QCPR in 2016. [ECOSOC QCPR and Dialogue Webpage] [Report on the First Phase of the ECOSOC Dialogue] [Report of the UN Secretary-General on the Implementation of UNGA resolution 67/226 on the quadrennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development of the UN system] [IISD RS Sources]