1 May 2018: The President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) circulated to Member States the final draft of the resolution on the repositioning of the UN development system, based on six weeks of intergovernmental negotiations. The draft will remain under silence procedure until 4 May at 1:00 pm, and if there are no objections, it will be sent to the UNGA plenary for consideration.

In a letter to Member States, co-facilitators of the negotiation process Sabri Boukadoum, Permanent Representative of Algeria, and Ib Petersen, Permanent Representative of Denmark, wrote that they count on governments’ “continuous spirit of flexibility and cooperation” so the membership can adopt the text as is and proceed “without further delay” with the changes required to ensure a UN development system that is “strategic, accountable, transparent, collaborative, efficient, effective and results oriented,” as called for in the 2016 Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR).

On ‘A new generation of UN country teams (UNCTs),’ the draft text requests the Secretary-General to work through the UN Sustainable Development Group, and in consultation with concerned Member States, to determine appropriate criteria regarding the presence and the composition of UNCTs, based on country development priorities and long-term needs and the approved UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF). It further requests the Secretary-General to conduct a review of the configuration, capacity, resource needs, role and development services of multi-country offices, in full consultation with involved countries to improve their contribution to country progress in achieving the 2030 Agenda, to be presented at the 2019 session of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Operational Activities Segment (OAS).

By the text, governments welcome measures by the Secretary-General for advancing common business operations, including common back-offices, and with the target of 50% common premises by 2021, to enable joint work and generate greater efficiencies, synergies and coherence.

On ‘Reinvigorating the role of the Resident Coordinator (RC) system,’ Member States decide to separate the functions of the RC system from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative. They also decide to provide sufficient funding annually from 1 January 2019 through:

• A 1% coordination levy on tightly earmarked third party non-core contributions to UN development-related activities, to be paid at source;
• Doubling the current UNDG cost-sharing arrangement among UN development system entities; and
• Voluntary, predictable, multi-year contributions to a dedicated Trust Fund to support the inception period.

This proposal for funding the RC system, which the co-facilitators describe as a hybrid solution, was circulated separately in late April for governments’ consideration. The write that it represents an effort to reflect different views while ensuring the “necessary predictability and sustainability of resources that an impartial and empowered Resident Coordinator system will need.” The co-facilitators intend to circulate a technical note containing details on the key elements of the RC funding model.

On ‘Funding the UN development system,’ the text invites Member States to contribute on a voluntary basis to the capitalization of the UN Joint Fund for the 2030 Agenda at US$290 million per annum. By the draft, governments welcome the Secretary-General’s proposal to launch a Funding Dialogue in 2018 with the view to finalize a Funding Compact in the form of a commitment between the UN development system and Member States. They further request the Secretary-General to report on the outcome of the Funding Dialogue at the 2019 OAS. They specifically note that the Funding Compact “relates to voluntary funding” of the UN Development system as well as other contributions.

On ‘Following-up on the UN development system repositioning efforts at the global, regional and country level,’ the text requests the heads of the entities of the UN development system, under the leadership of the Secretary-General, to submit a system-wide strategic document to the 2019 OAS.

The draft resolution also requests the Secretary-General to report to ECOSOC on progress in the implementation of the mandates contained in the resolution, as well as on the mandates contained in the QCPR resolution, as part of his annual reporting to the 2019 OAS. The Secretary-General needs to report also to the UNGA 74th session, for its further consideration and to inform the next cycle of the QCPR to be launched in 2020. [Draft resolution and co-facilitators’ letter] [SDG Knowledge Hub coverage of UN reform processes] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on RC funding proposal]