System-Wide Coherence

A/RES/63/311View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 107 Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit, published in 2008.

What other versions does this mandate have?

3 versions · 2008–2010

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/64/289

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2010	A/RES/64/289	System-wide coherence	6,074	12%Compare
2009	A/RES/63/311	System-wide coherence	1,590	15%Compare
2008	A/RES/62/277	System-wide coherence	2,393	–

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

6 reports · 2010–2012

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2012	A/67/320	Quadrennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system : recommendations report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/64/289
2012	A/67/201	Strengthening the institutional arrangements for support of gender equality and the empowerment of women report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/64/289
2012	A/67/93	Quadrennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/64/289
2011	A/66/120	Strengthening the institutional arrangements for support of gender equality and the empowerment of women report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/64/289
2010	A/65/531	Revised proposal for the use of regular budget resources for the normative support functions of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/64/289

What’s in this document?

22 operative paragraphs

Strengthening the institutional arrangements for support of gender equality and the empowerment of women.

Strongly supports the consolidation of the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, the Division for the Advancement of Women, the United Nations Development Fund for Women and the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, into a composite entity, taking into account the existing mandates;

Supports that the composite entity shall be led by an Under-Secretary-General, who will report directly to the Secretary-General, to be appointed by the Secretary-General, in consultation with Member States, on the basis of equitable geographical representation and gender balance;

Requests the Secretary-General to produce, for the consideration of the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session, a comprehensive proposal specifying, inter alia, the mission statement of the composite entity, the organizational arrangements, including an organizational chart, funding and the executive board to oversee its operational activities in order to commence intergovernmental negotiations;

Strengthening governance of operational activities for development of the United Nations system for enhanced system-wide coherence

Reaffirms that the strengthening of the governance of operational activities for development of the United Nations system should focus on enhancing existing intergovernmental bodies with the purpose of making the United Nations development system more efficient and effective in its support to developing countries for the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals;

Underscores that the governance of operational activities for development should be transparent and inclusive and should support national ownership and national development strategies;

Requests the Secretary-General, in consultation with the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, to propose to the General Assembly, at its sixty-fourth session, actionable proposals for the further improvement of the governance of the operational activities for development;

Also requests the Secretary-General, in consultation with the members of United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination and the United Nations Development Group, to propose to the General Assembly, at its sixty-fourth session, modalities for the submission and approval of common country programmes on a voluntary basis, bearing in mind the importance of national ownership and effective intergovernmental oversight of the development process;

Reaffirms the importance of strengthening evaluation as a United Nations system function and the guidance contained to this effect in its resolution 62/208, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General, in consultation with the members of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, to propose to the General Assembly, at its sixty-fourth session, modalities for the establishment of an independent system-wide evaluation mechanism to assess system-wide efficiency, effectiveness and performance, bearing in mind the evaluation functions carried out by respective United Nations organizations, the Joint Inspection Unit and the United Nations Evaluation Group;

Urges the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination and the United Nations Development Group to enhance the transparency of their activities through regular briefings to the General Assembly and through regular reports and effective interaction with the Economic and Social Council and relevant intergovernmental bodies;

Encourages continued and increased cooperation, coordination and coherence and exchanges between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions, and requests the Secretary-General, in consultation with the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, to regularly apprise the General Assembly of progress made in this regard as part of the triennial and quadrennial comprehensive policy review reporting process;

Improving the funding system of operational activities for development of the United Nations system for enhanced system-wide coherence

Emphasizes that increasing financial contributions to the United Nations development system is key to achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, and in this regard recognizes the mutually reinforcing links between the increased effectiveness, efficiency and coherence of the United Nations development system, achieving concrete results in assisting developing countries in eradicating poverty and achieving sustained economic growth and sustainable development through operational activities for development and the overall resourcing of the United Nations development system;

Stresses that core resources, because of their untied nature, continue to be the bedrock of the operational activities for development of the United Nations system;

Notes with concern the continuing imbalance between core and non-core resources received by the operational activities for development of the United Nations system and the potential negative impact of non-core funding on the coordination and effectiveness of operational activities for development at the country level, while recognizing that thematic trust funds, multi- donor trust funds and other voluntary non-earmarked funding mechanisms linked to organization-specific funding frameworks and strategies, as established by the respective governing bodies, constitute some of the funding modalities that are complementary to regular budgets;

Urges donor countries and other countries in a position to do so to substantially increase their voluntary contributions to the core/regular budgets of the United Nations development system, in particular its funds, programmes and specialized agencies, to contribute on a multi-year basis, in a sustained and predictable manner, and to undertake voluntary commitments to provide a greater share of system-wide contributions to operational activities for development as core/regular resources;

Requests the Secretary-General to include in his comprehensive statistical analysis of the financing of operational activities for development further analysis and actionable proposals on the current situation and perspectives in respect of core and non-core funding for the United Nations development system, notably the implications of various forms of non-core funding, in terms of predictability, country ownership and the implementation of intergovernmental mandates;

Also requests the Secretary-General to create a central repository of information on operational activities for development, including disaggregated statistics on all funding sources and expenditures, building on the his comprehensive statistical analysis of the financing of operational activities for development, and to ensure appropriate and user-friendly online access and regular updating of the information contained therein;

“Delivering as one”

Acknowledges the interim assessments of the progress made and the challenges remaining in efforts to increase coherence in country-level programming, including in the “programme country pilots”;

Encourages the Secretary-General to support “programme country pilot” countries to undertake expeditiously their own country-led evaluations with the participation of relevant stakeholders and with the technical support of the United Nations Evaluation Group;

Requests the Secretary-General to urgently undertake arrangements for an independent evaluation of lessons learned from the above efforts, as requested in resolution 62/208, and to inform the General Assembly of the modalities and terms of reference of this independent evaluation at its sixty-fourth session;

Underscores that the independent evaluation should be guided by the principles contained in resolution 62/208 with regard to national ownership and leadership and be conducted in the context of system-wide norms and standards, that it should be based on an inclusive, transparent, objective and independent approach, and that its outcome should be submitted to the General Assembly at its sixty-sixth session;

Harmonization of business practices

Calls upon the Secretary-General, in cooperation with the members of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, to continue progress in the simplification and harmonization of business practices within the United Nations development system, and requests the Secretary-General, in consultation with the System Chief Executives Board, to regularly inform the Economic and Social Council about progress being made and challenges encountered in this regard and to refer any matter requiring an intergovernmental decision to the relevant intergovernmental bodies;

The way forward

Decides to continue the intergovernmental work of the General Assembly on system-wide coherence on the issues addressed in the present resolution during the sixty-fourth session, with a view to achieving further substantive action in all areas, and resolves, at the conclusion of its entire process on system-wide coherence, to review and take stock of all its prior actions and deliberations in a single resolution or decision.