Operational Activities for Development of the United Nations System

A/RES/70/221View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 25a Operational activities for development of the United Nations System, published in 2016.

What other versions does this mandate have?

14 versions · 1983–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/155

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/RES/80/155	Operational activities for development of the United Nations system	1,704	49%Compare
2023	A/RES/78/166	Operational activities for development of the United Nations System	1,593	74%Compare
2022	A/RES/77/184	Operational activities for development of the United Nations System	1,641	63%Compare
2022	A/RES/76/220	Operational activities for development of the United Nations System	1,074	64%Compare
2020	A/RES/74/238	Operational activities for development of the United Nations System	811	64%Compare

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report · 2023

Year	Symbol	Title		Mandate resolution
2023	A/78/72 E/2023/59	Implementation of General Assembly resolution 75/233 on the quadrennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development of the United Nations System report of the Secretary-General		A/RES/77/184

What subjects does this mandate have?

8 subjects

Capacity Building Development Assistance Economic Cooperation Among Developing Countries Governance Operational Activities Poverty Mitigation Programme Evaluation Specialized Agencies

What’s in this document?

58 operative paragraphs

Introduction

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General submitted to the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council on the implementation of General Assembly resolution 67/226 on the quadrennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system;³

³A/70/62-E/2015/4.

Also takes note of the note by the Secretary-General transmitting the report of the Joint Inspection Unit on an analysis of the resource mobilization function within the United Nations system⁴ and the note by the Secretary-General transmitting his comments and those of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination thereon,⁵ and decides to postpone the consideration of these documents to its seventy-first session, in 2016;

⁴A/69/737.

⁵A/69/737/Add.1.

Further takes note of the reports of the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation on its eighteenth session⁶ and on its intersessional meeting held on 8 September 2015,⁷ and welcomes the decisions adopted at those meetings;⁸

⁶Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-ninth Session, Supplement No. 39 (A/69/39).

⁷SSC/18/IM/2.

⁸Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-ninth Session, Supplement No. 39 (A/69/39), chap. I, and SSC/18/IM/2, chap. I.

Recalls Economic and Social Council resolution 2015/15 on operational activities for development, and expresses appreciation for the guidance provided by the Council on the implementation of General Assembly resolution 67/226;

Reaffirms the request by the Economic and Social Council that the United Nations funds and programmes make every effort to continue to improve monitoring and data-collection methods, with a view to contributing to the further enhancement of the analytical quality of the report of the Secretary-General on operational activities for development of the United Nations system;

Urges the organizations of the United Nations development system with responsibility for operational activities for development that have not done so to fully align their strategic plans and their strategic planning and budgeting cycles with the quadrennial comprehensive policy review, taking into account their respective mandates;

Recognizes the importance of continuing to strengthen and improve the results-focused delivery of operational activities for development of the funds and programmes of the United Nations system in order to maximize their support towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, which build upon the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals and seek to address their unfinished business, also recognizes in this regard that the most vulnerable countries, in particular African countries, the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States, deserve special attention, as do countries in situations of conflict and post-conflict countries, and further recognizes that there are also serious challenges within many middle-income countries;

Calls upon the organizations of the United Nations development system at Headquarters, regional and country levels to improve coordination among organizations working on common themes;

Funding of operational activities for development of the United Nations system

Reiterates that core resources, because of their untied nature, continue to be the bedrock of the operational activities for development of the United Nations system, and in this regard recognizes the need for the organizations of the United Nations development system to address, on a continuous basis, the imbalance between core and non-core resources and to report to the Economic and Social Council in 2016, as part of their regular reporting, on the measures taken to address this imbalance;

Emphasizes that international public finance plays an important role in complementing the efforts of countries to mobilize public resources domestically, especially in the poorest and most vulnerable countries with limited domestic resources, notes that an important use of international public finance, including official development assistance, is to catalyse additional resource mobilization from other sources, public and private, also notes that providers of official development assistance have reaffirmed their respective commitments, including the commitment by many developed countries to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income for official development assistance to developing countries and 0.15 per cent to 0.20 per cent of gross national income for official development assistance to the least developed countries;

Reiterates the call for donor countries and other countries in a position to do so to maintain and substantially increase their voluntary contributions, in a manner consistent with their capacities, to the core or regular budgets of the organizations of the United Nations development system, in particular its funds, programmes and the specialized agencies, and to contribute on a multi-year basis in a sustained and predictable manner;

Notes that the majority of the increase in funding for the United Nations development system between 1998 and 2013 was in the form of non-core resources, resulting in an imbalance between core and non-core resources, and notes with concern that the percentage of core resources in the overall funding for operational activities continued to decline, representing only 25 per cent in 2013;

Stresses that funding for operational activities should be aligned with the national priorities and plans of the programme countries as well as the strategic plans, mandates, resource frameworks and priorities of the United Nations funds and programmes and the specialized agencies, and underscores in that regard the need to further strengthen the delivery of results and the results-based frameworks of the funds, programmes and the specialized agencies of the United Nations development system and to improve their reporting on outputs and nationally owned outcomes;

Notes that non-core resources represent an important contribution to the overall resource base of the United Nations development system and that they complement core resources in supporting operational activities for development, thereby contributing to an increase in total resources, while noting the need to make non-core resources more flexible, more predictable and better aligned with strategic plans and national priorities, and recognizes that non-core resources are not a substitute for core resources;

Recognizes that non-core resources pose challenges, in particular the use of restricted earmarked funding such as single-donor project-specific funding, by potentially increasing transaction costs, demand for additional reporting, fragmentation, competition and overlap among entities and providing disincentives for pursuing an Organization-wide focus, strategic positioning and coherence, and that they may also potentially distort programme priorities regulated by intergovernmental bodies and processes;

Notes with concern in this regard that contributions to pooled-funding arrangements, such as thematic funds of entities and United Nations multi-partner trust funds and joint programmes, accounted for only 10 per cent of non-core resource flows to development-related activities in 2013, and encourages all contributors of non-core resources to expand the use of less-restricted earmarked funding arrangements;

Notes the initiatives launched by the United Nations development system through the United Nations Development Group, in line with General Assembly resolution 67/226, aimed at further strengthening the use and management of joint funding mechanisms and approaches in order to improve the quality of non-core resources, and urges the United Nations development system to ensure that non-core resources are fully aligned with national needs and priorities and with the United Nations Development Assistance Framework process;

Welcomes the progress made by the United Nations funds and programmes and the specialized agencies in ensuring that available and projected core and non-core resources are consolidated within an integrated budgetary framework, based on the priorities of their respective strategic plans, and encourages all entities that have not already done so to develop such integrated frameworks in their next budget cycle;

Recalls the mandate contained in its resolution 67/226 with respect to taking concrete measures to broaden the donor base, and reiterates its requests to the United Nations funds and programmes, and encourages the specialized agencies, to report annually as part of their regular reporting to their governing bodies on concrete measures taken to broaden the donor base and increase the number of countries and other partners making contributions to the United Nations development system in order to reduce the reliance of the system on a limited number of donors;

Notes with concern that the mandate contained in its resolution 67/226 with respect to the development and operationalization of the concept of “critical mass” of core resources was not fulfilled as originally foreseen, notes the adoption in 2014 by the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Office for Project Services of decisions 2014/24 and 2014/25 and the adoption by the Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund of decision 2014/17, in which they noted common principles for the concept of critical mass of resources and core resources, requests the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Children’s Fund to consult further with Member States on ways to ensure a critical mass of core resources, for consideration and action during the quadrennial comprehensive policy review in 2016, and reiterates the request to the United Nations funds and programmes that have not yet done so to define common principles for the concept of critical mass of core resources, which may include the level of resources adequate to respond to the needs of programme countries and to produce the results expected in the strategic plans, including administrative, management and programme costs, in consultation with Member States, with a view to a decision being taken by their respective governing bodies in 2016;

Stresses the need to avoid the use of core or regular resources to subsidize activities financed by non-core or extrabudgetary resources, reaffirms that the guiding principle governing the financing of all non-programme costs should be based on full cost recovery from core and non-core funding sources, proportionally, and in this regard notes the timelines agreed by the Executive Boards of the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) for an independent and external assessment, to be performed in 2016, of the consistency and alignment of the cost-recovery methodology with the quadrennial comprehensive policy review;

Takes note of decisions 2015/16 and 2015/18 adopted by the Executive Boards of the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Office for Project Services, decision 2015/14 adopted by the Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund and decision 2015/5 adopted by the Executive Board of UN-Women on the organization of structured dialogues with Member States on ways to finance the development results agreed in the strategic planning cycles of the respective entities, and in this regard notes the progress made and requests the Executive Boards of the United Nations funds and programmes and the governing bodies of the specialized agencies, as appropriate, to continue to organize such structured dialogues on an annual basis, while ensuring adequate preparation, including through informal dialogues and exchanges of information and analysis throughout the year, as part of their regular schedule of meetings, with a view to making non-core resources more predictable and less restricted/earmarked, broadening the donor base and improving the adequacy and predictability of resource flows;

Calls upon United Nations country teams to adopt as a practice the use of common budgetary frameworks as soon as possible, which would not constitute a legal constraint on resource spending authority, and requests United Nations funds and programmes, and encourages the specialized agencies, to continue to provide the necessary information on contributions to the resident coordinators, upon agreement with programme countries, improve the timeliness and quality of information provided and ensure that the common budgetary framework is a useful and effective instrument for strengthening the quality of system-wide resource planning in support of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework process;

Contribution of the operational activities of the United Nations to national capacity development and development effectiveness

Reaffirms the importance of the contribution of operational activities for development to the national capacity development and the development effectiveness of the United Nations development system in addressing the key areas identified in the quadrennial comprehensive policy review, recalls in this regard its request to the organizations of the United Nations development system to develop, for the consideration of Member States, a common approach for measuring progress in capacity development, including measures to ensure sustainability, as well as to develop, in a manner consistent with their mandates, specific frameworks aimed at enabling programme countries, upon their request, to design, monitor and evaluate results in the development of their capacity to achieve national development goals and strategies, and invites the Secretary-General to provide comprehensive and evidence-based updates on measures taken in this regard in his 2016 annual report on the implementation of its resolution 67/226;

Requests the funds and programmes of the United Nations development system, and invites the specialized agencies, to consider the findings and observations related to national capacity gaps repeatedly highlighted by programme countries to be addressed through the work of the operational activities for development of the United Nations system, including through the strengthening and use of national capacities, and to report to their governing bodies in 2016 with recommendations for implementation in this regard;

Notes that national monitoring and reporting systems and national procurement, financial and evaluation capacities have been underused, and in this regard reiterates the mandate contained in its resolution 67/226 that the United Nations development system make increased use of national public and private systems for support services as a means of strengthening national capacities and reducing transaction costs;

Requests the Secretary-General to include in his report on the implementation of its resolution 67/226 to the Economic and Social Council in 2016, in consultation with Member States, information on steps taken by the organizations of the United Nations development system to strengthen and use national capacities, including ensuring the long-term impact of capacities built, and to make proposals to address any obstacles and challenges;

Poverty eradication

Welcomes the integration of poverty eradication, as the overarching priority, into the strategic plans of some organizations of the United Nations system, in accordance with their mandates;

Underlines the need to better reflect the multidimensional nature of development and poverty, as well as the importance of developing a common understanding among Member States and other stakeholders of that multidimensionality, looks forward to a discussion of this matter in the context of the ongoing dialogues of the Economic and Social Council and the quadrennial comprehensive policy review in 2016, and in the context of the implementation and follow-up of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development⁹ and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda,¹⁰ and in this regard invites Member States, supported by the international community, to consider developing complementary measurements, including methodologies and indicators for measuring human development, that better reflect that multidimensionality;

⁹Resolution 70/1.

¹⁰Resolution 69/313, annex.

Reaffirms that the eradication of poverty is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development in developing countries, particularly in Africa, and underlines the importance of accelerating sustainable, broad-based, inclusive and equitable economic growth for the benefit of all people and the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals;

Also reaffirms its call in its resolution 67/226 for the organizations of the United Nations development system to assign the highest priority to the eradication of poverty, and in this regard acknowledges the request by the Economic and Social Council to the United Nations funds and programmes to include in their regular reporting to the Council information on steps taken, in accordance with their mandates, on the scaling up of efforts to address the root causes of extreme poverty and hunger, the sharing of good practices, lessons learned, strategies, programmes and policies, including capacity-building, employment generation, education, vocational training, rural development and the mobilization of resources, which are aimed at achieving poverty eradication and promoting the active participation of those living in poverty in the design and implementation of such programmes and policies;

South-South cooperation

Stresses that South-South cooperation is not a substitute for, but rather a complement to, North-South cooperation;

Notes the continued demand of programme countries for United Nations support for South-South cooperation, reiterates in this regard its request to the heads of the specialized agencies, United Nations funds and programmes and regional commissions to pay special attention to the implementation of projects related to South-South cooperation, including those managed or supported by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, and requests the Secretary-General, as part of his regular reporting to the Economic and Social Council, to provide an update on progress in this regard;

Recalls the requests contained in its resolution 67/226 on strengthening South-South cooperation, notes in this regard the progress made by some organizations of the United Nations development system in mainstreaming South-South and triangular cooperation into their key policies, strategic frameworks, operational activities and budgets, and welcomes the recommendations and measures, as set out in decisions 18/1 and SSC/18/3 of the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation,8 to strengthen South-South and triangular cooperation, including through the improved allocation of resources across the United Nations development system, including the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation;

Gender equality and women’s empowerment

Notes with appreciation the progress of organizations of the United Nations development system in implementing mandates contained in its resolution 67/226 on gender equality and women’s empowerment, including on the United Nations System-wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, and requests those organizations of the development system that have not already done so to accelerate efforts to implement the Action Plan, with a view to meeting its performance standards by 2017;

Reaffirms the requests contained in its resolution 67/226 to the organizations of the United Nations development system to enhance gender mainstreaming within the United Nations system and expand the use of the United Nations country team performance indicators for gender equality and the empowerment of women (the “scorecard”) as a planning and reporting tool for use by country teams in the context of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework process, and welcomes the global review of the gender scorecard tool being undertaken by the United Nations development system;

Transition from relief to development

Notes the importance of transparency and consultation with Member States in the context of operational activities for development on the implementation of the policy on integrated assessment and planning and the policy on United Nations transitions in the context of mission drawdown or withdrawal, as approved by the Secretary-General and the Integration Steering Group, stresses the need in this regard for transitional activities from relief to sustainable development to be undertaken under national ownership, and requests the Secretary-General to share information with and seek the views of Member States on the interlinkages between operational activities for development of the United Nations development system and the implementation and review of the elements of these policies that relate to operational activities for development of the United Nations development system;

Urges the United Nations development system to ensure that its support to recovery serves to bridge short-term emergency response and long-term development efforts by paying due attention to the social, economic and environmental dimensions of development needed for full recovery and for strengthening resilience leading to sustainable development, inter alia, by prioritizing tools, including, but not limited to, local procurement, cash transfers and social safety nets, where appropriate;

Recognizes the need for the United Nations development system, as requested, to support inclusive country-level and country-owned transition from relief to development in countries affected by natural disasters or conflict, based on country-led assessments, while giving adequate attention to resilience, and underlines the importance of building strong partnerships by providing aid and managing resources more effectively and aligning these resources for results, in line with country priorities, and by enhancing transparency, risk management and the use of country systems, strengthening national capacities and the timeliness of aid and improving the speed and predictability of funding to achieve better results, while underlining the importance of thorough planning and coordination between the United Nations funds and programmes, the specialized agencies and the Secretariat, within their respective mandates, to better respond to the needs and priorities of the affected States;

United Nations Development Assistance Framework

Stresses the importance of regular reporting from the United Nations development system at the country level, in this regard requests United Nations country teams to comply strictly with existing reporting requirements, namely, those regarding the once per cycle progress report on the United Nations Development Assistance Framework and the evaluation report on the Development Assistance Framework in all programme countries, and, in addition, annual country results reports and evaluation reports in “Delivering as one” countries to programme country Governments, also requests United Nations country teams to share with programme country Governments, where available, all country progress reports, reviews and evaluations, and further requests that information on compliance be included in the report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of its resolution 67/226;

Requests the United Nations development system to ensure that reports to the Governments of programme countries are structured around the United Nations Development Assistance Framework or common planning framework outcomes, are linked to national development results and inform the Governments of the results achieved by the United Nations country team as a whole, and requests the Secretary-General, as part of his regular reporting to the Economic and Social Council, to provide an update on progress in this regard;

Resident coordinator system

Acknowledges that the resident coordinator system, encompassing all organizations of the United Nations development system dealing with operational activities for development, aims at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of operational activities for development at the country level through the promotion of more strategic support for national plans and priorities, makes operations more efficient and reduces costs for Governments;

Reaffirms the mandate contained in its resolution 67/226 with respect to the resident coordinator system, also reaffirms the importance of achieving diversification in the composition of the resident coordinator system in terms of geographical distribution and gender, further reaffirms the importance of the participation of all agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system on an equal footing in the resident coordinator system, requests the Secretary-General to make every effort in this regard to ensure the full application of these principles in the appointment of resident coordinators, notes the establishment in May 2014 of the new Resident Coordinator Assessment Centre, encourages all agencies in this regard to nominate qualified candidates for the Resident Coordinator Assessment Centre, and requests the United Nations development system to continue to identify solutions in order to strengthen its ability to efficiently recruit and deploy experienced resident coordinators at the appropriate level of seniority who meet the highest standards of integrity;

Reiterates the importance of the cost-sharing agreement for the resident coordinator system, notes in this regard the progress achieved in implementing the cost-sharing agreement for the resident coordinator system, notes the anticipated funding gap for the resident coordinator system for 2015, in this regard strongly requests the organizations of the United Nations development system that have not already done so to take appropriate actions to implement the agreement, subject to the approval of their governing bodies and without impacting programme delivery, including by paying their contributions in full, noting that the General Assembly has yet to approve the contribution of the Secretariat to the agreement, and reiterates its request to the Secretary-General to include in his regular reporting to the Economic and Social Council updates on agency-specific progress in this regard;

Requests the Secretary-General, with a view to addressing the funding gap expected for the resident coordinator system, and in consultation with all organizations of the United Nations development system, to make proposals to the Economic and Social Council at the operational activities segment of its substantive session of 2016 on ways to further develop the cost-sharing agreement in order to address the effective needs of the system, as part of his regular reporting;

“Delivering as one”

Reaffirms that the “no one size fits all” approach and the principle of the voluntary adoption of the “Delivering as one” approach should be maintained so that the United Nations system can tailor its approach to partnership with the individual programme countries in a way that best suits their national needs, realities, priorities and planning modalities;

Recognizes that pooled funding mechanisms are important tools in advancing “Delivering as one” in countries that have chosen to implement this approach, and encourages donor countries and other countries in a position to do so to prioritize the use of such mechanisms in order to maximize the impact of the “Delivering as one” reforms in those countries;

Notes that the concept of “operating as one” has progressed in some areas, and urges the Secretary-General to take appropriate measures through the United Nations Development Group and the High-level Committee on Management of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination to accelerate progress in fully operationalizing the concept of “operating as one”, including by bringing to scale common services based on successful field practices;

Regional dimensions

Also notes the improvements in collaboration between regional United Nations Development Group teams and regional coordination mechanisms, and in this regard requests regional teams and regional coordination mechanisms to continue to strengthen their support to United Nations country teams, including in the formulation of United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks and on priority regional or subregional issues of relevance, in line with national Government priorities;

Simplification and harmonization of business practices

Requests the United Nations funds and programmes to accelerate the implementation of the system-wide action plans of the United Nations Development Group and the High-level Committee on Management for the simplification and harmonization of business practices and to report on progress made to their respective Executive Boards in 2016;

Encourages all United Nations country teams to develop country-level business operation strategies, and recognizes that it is essential to ensure that United Nations country teams, as well as the specialized agencies, are made accountable for ensuring that the design and the implementation of such strategies, including by United Nations common service centres or units, are harmonized, cost-efficient and tailored to their country-specific requirements and that they enhance programme quality;

Results-based management

Requests the United Nations development system to ensure that its results-based management systems are not developed in isolation from national systems, and in this regard requests the United Nations development system to engage closely with national Governments on results-based management and with respect to the ways in which the results achieved by United Nations development assistance activities at the national level are defined, measured and reported on and, upon request, to provide support to those Governments and partner institutions that wish to introduce or adapt results-based management as part of their monitoring and statistical systems;

Evaluation of operational activities for development

Recalls its decision in its resolution 68/229 to conduct two pilot independent system-wide evaluations on the themes set out therein, expresses appreciation to those Member States and United Nations agencies that contributed extrabudgetary resources for these evaluations, reiterates its invitation to countries in a position to do so to contribute extrabudgetary resources for the effective and accelerated implementation of these evaluations, and looks forward to updates to the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council on progress in the implementation of the evaluations and to the completion of the evaluations in time for consideration by the Member States during the quadrennial comprehensive policy review in 2016;

Follow-up

Requests all organizations of the United Nations development system to ensure consistency and alignment with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in the context of midterm reviews and the elaboration of strategic plans and frameworks, and in this regard looks forward to a discussion of system-wide strategic planning, implementation and reporting in the context of the ongoing dialogues of the Economic and Social Council, the midterm reviews of strategic plans and frameworks and the quadrennial comprehensive policy review in 2016;

Recognizes the importance of United Nations operational activities for development in supporting Member States, upon their request, in mainstreaming the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda into their national plans, in full alignment with their national priorities and in support of national ownership of the Sustainable Development Goals;

Welcomes the ongoing dialogue of the Economic and Social Council on the longer-term positioning of the United Nations development system in 2015 and 2016, involving Member States and all relevant stakeholders, including the proposed workshops and retreats, which considers the interlinkages between the alignment of functions, funding practices, governance structures, including proposals for the reform of their composition and functioning, the capacity and impact of the United Nations development system, partnership approaches and organizational arrangements, and looks forward to this dialogue being reflected in the report of the Secretary-General on the quadrennial comprehensive policy review in 2016, which is to be submitted to the General Assembly for consideration and action by Member States during its seventy-first session;

Calls upon the relevant organizations of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates and resources, to ensure that no country is left behind in the implementation of the present resolution;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its seventy-first session a report on the implementation of the present resolution, and decides to include in the provisional agenda of its seventy-first session, under the item entitled “Operational activities for development”, the sub-item entitled “Operational activities for development of the United Nations system”, unless otherwise agreed in the discussions on the revitalization of the Second Committee.