19 February 2018: The permanent representatives of Algeria and Denmark have been appointed to lead intergovernmental consultations on the “repositioning” of the UN development system. The consultation process will begin following the UN Economic and Social Council’s (ECOSOC) Operational Activities for Development Segment (OAS), in March 2018.

In 2016 the UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution on the UN system’s operational activities for development, known as the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR). The resolution (71/243) called for: a “system-wide strategic document for collective action to support the implementation” of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; and a “comprehensive proposal” on improving the resident coordinator (RC) system. To respond to this mandate, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres presented a report in December 2017 containing several proposals for repositioning the development system.

UN Member States held a series of informal briefings to discuss the proposals, in January and February 2018, convened by ECOSOC Vice President Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve of Belgium. The informal consultations have led to “a general agreement among Member States to take the process forward under the auspices of the General Assembly, after the conclusion of the ECOSOC’s Operational Activities Segment,” according to a letter to Member States from UNGA President Miroslav Lajcak.

In that letter Lajcak also announces the appointment of Sabri Boukadoum, Permanent Representative of Algeria, and Ib Petersen, Permanent Representative of Denmark, as co-facilitators to lead the intergovernmental consultations on “the repositioning of the UN development system in the context of UN resolution 71/243 related to the quadrennial comprehensive policy review (QCPR) of operational activities for development of the UN system.”

The OAS will take place from 27 February-1 March 2018, in New York, US. It will provide the first official platform for Member States and other stakeholders to discuss the Secretary-General’s proposals. [Letter from UNGA President] [SDG Knowledge Hub story on informal briefing series]