Review of the Functioning of the Reinvigorated Resident Coordinator System, Including Its Funding Arrangement

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 2021.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

3 entities

(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
Section 1	Overall policymaking, direction and coordination	10	Unavailable
Subprogramme 1	Intergovernmental support and coordination for sustainable development	21
Section 1	Overall policymaking, direction and coordination	18

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

3 entities

(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
Section 1	Overall policymaking, direction and coordination	10	—
Subprogramme 1	Intergovernmental support and coordination for sustainable development	21	—
Section 1	Overall policymaking, direction and coordination	18	—

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report · 2024

Year	Symbol	Title		Mandate resolution
2024	A/78/753	Revised estimates relating to the proposed programme budget for 2024 under section 1, Overall policymaking, direction and coordination, and section 29B, Department of Operational Support report of the Secretary-General		A/RES/76/4

What subjects does this mandate have?

4 subjects

Coordination Within UN System Financing Organizational Reform Resident Coordinators

What’s in this document?

19 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General entitled “Review of the functioning of the resident coordinator system: rising to the challenge and keeping the promise of the 2030 Agenda”,² and the inclusive consultation process, led by the Secretary-General and the Deputy Secretary-General, regarding the objectives and content of the review to assess progress made and identify areas where further action is needed;

²A/75/905.

Welcomes the progress made in implementing the mandates of resolution 72/279 on the repositioning of the United Nations development system and in creating an empowered, independent and impartial resident coordinator system, and recognizes that further efforts are needed to maximize the contribution of the United Nations development system to respond to the challenges of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development³ and a better recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that will accelerate the implementation of the Goals in the decade of action, in accordance with national development policies, plans, priorities and needs;

³Resolution 70/1.

Also welcomes the strengthened contributions of the resident coordinator system to the results of the United Nations development system, enabling more coherent and impactful system-wide support to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, including through the facilitation of more tailored contributions of United Nations country teams and greater coherence, transparency and accountability of the United Nations development system in support of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, and underscores the importance of preserving and utilizing the strengthened capacities of the reinvigorated resident coordinator system for coherent and effective responses by the development system in the decade of action;

Recognizes the contributions made to the special purpose trust fund for the funding of the resident coordinator system, in particular United Nations entity cost-sharing contributions under the United Nations Sustainable Development Group cost-sharing arrangement, as well as voluntary contributions by a number of Member States, some above their relative share, and takes note of progress made in implementing the 1 per cent levy on tightly earmarked third-party non-core contributions to United Nations development-related activities;

Re-emphasizes that adequate, predictable and sustainable funding of the resident coordinator system is essential to delivering a coherent, effective, efficient and accountable response in accordance with national needs and priorities, and decides to provide sufficient funding for the resident coordinator system⁴ on an annual basis starting from 1 January 2022 through the continuation of the funding model established by resolution 72/279, with its existing arrangements;

⁴In line with A/72/684-E/2018/7.

Urges contributors to the 1 per cent coordination levy on all tightly earmarked third-party⁵ non-core contributions to United Nations development-related activities to ensure that the levy is applied in full on all applicable funding, including amendments to agreements signed prior to March 2019, and requests entities of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group to continue to collect the levy consistently and coherently;

⁵The levy would not be charged on local government cost-sharing and cooperation among programme countries.

Strongly urges all Member States to provide voluntary contributions, as possible equivalent to or above their relative share, to the funding of the resident coordinator system, and requests the Secretary-General to closely monitor the funding situation of the resident coordinator system and to report annually on progress made in generating adequate, predictable and sustainable funding for the resident coordinator system as part of his existing reporting to the Economic and Social Council at its operational activities for development segment;

Invites the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly with recommendations for its consideration should the proper functioning of the reinvigorated resident coordinator system not be enabled through the generation of adequate, predictable and sustainable funding, taking into account, in this regard, the proposals made in the report of the Secretary-General entitled “Review of the functioning of the resident coordinator system: rising to the challenge and keeping the promise of the 2030 Agenda”;

Requests the chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group to present, for the information of the Economic and Social Council at its operational activities for development segment in 2022, a results framework with multi-annual performance indicators and targets for the resident coordinator system, including its funding model, and to use the framework as a part of the regular annual reporting on the Development Coordination Office, to ensure accountability towards Member States;

Welcomes the efficiency gains achieved so far by the United Nations development system, stresses the need for the United Nations development system to, inter alia, further improve the implementation of harmonized business practices in order to optimize opportunities for collaboration and to redeploy efficiency gains for development activities, including coordination, and urges all entities of the United Nations development system to strengthen their reporting processes on efficiency gains and to include, inter alia, budgetary information on efficiency gains achieved in their annual reporting to their governing bodies;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that all resident coordinators, in particular resident coordinators who also serve as humanitarian coordinators or deputy special representatives of the Secretary-General, receive in an ongoing manner the necessary training and support to acquire the skills and knowledge needed to ensure they are well prepared and equipped to effectively exercise the empowered, strategic, effective and impartial leadership role envisaged for them, in accordance with their mandates, also requests the Secretary-General to have an updated and rolling pool of possible resident coordinator candidates with adequate, diverse and relevant expertise and skill sets and to take further measures to ensure geographical representation among the resident coordinators, with a view to improving representation of developing countries, and ensure gender balance, while recalling the principles that the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity are the paramount considerations in the recruitment and performance of international civil servants, and notes the resident coordinator leadership profile issued by the United Nations Sustainable Development Group in December 2020;

Urges the entities of the United Nations development system to promote inter-agency mobility, including by enhancing the resident coordinator function as a career path for their staff, and facilitate a mobile and flexible global workforce;

Requests the United Nations development system to ensure full adherence to a clear, matrixed, dual reporting model and to establish full mutual and collective performance appraisals, as defined in resolution 72/279, and to ensure accountability, and, inter alia, reaffirms that United Nations country team members are accountable and reporting to their respective entities on individual mandates;

Requests the Chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group to provide adequate information and tools to the governing bodies of the United Nations development system entities to facilitate their oversight role, including monitoring alignment and entity adherence to the dual reporting model;

Takes note of progress made in providing annual United Nations country team reports to programme countries on the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework or equivalent planning framework, urges the entities of the United Nations development system, as appropriate, to invest in and fully utilize the common UN-Info reporting platform to support the analysis of system-wide results, requests the Secretary-General, in line with the provisions of resolutions 72/279 and 75/233, to ensure that all resident coordinators and United Nations country teams present the results reports annually to their respective programme countries in a consistent and timely manner in order to ensure accountability, and to make the reports publicly available, with the consent of the respective Governments, and also requests the Secretary-General to provide Member States with the information needed to fully support and facilitate the establishment and functioning of an independent and well-resourced Evaluation Office, as indicated in the report of the Secretary-General,⁶ as a critical accountability tool;

⁶A/76/75-E/2021/57.

Takes note of the progress made thus far in the fulfilment of the funding compact commitments by all parties, noting its voluntary nature, and urges the full implementation by Member States and United Nations entities of commitments made in the funding compact;

Also takes note of the call of the Secretary-General on repurposing and recalibrating the United Nations Pledging Conference for Development Activities, and recalls its decision 75/511 B of 9 September 2021;

Recognizes the rapid, coherent and effective response of the United Nations country teams, under the leadership of resident coordinators, to the COVID-19 pandemic, including, inter alia, the leading role of the World Health Organization on the health response and of the United Nations Development Programme on the socioeconomic response and recovery efforts, calls upon all entities of the United Nations development system, in accordance with their respective mandates and in line with the provisions of General Assembly resolution 75/233, to integrate socioeconomic response plans into United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks that support national sustainable, inclusive and resilient recovery efforts for accelerated implementation of the 2030 Agenda and building back better in the decade of action, including by fully leveraging the entire United Nations development system and catalysing partnerships at the country level, including with international financial institutions and the private sector;

Requests the Secretary-General to report on the progress made in the implementation of the mandates contained in the present resolution and the mandates contained in resolution 75/233, as part of his annual reporting to the Economic and Social Council at the operational activities for development segment and to the General Assembly on the progress in the implementation of the quadrennial comprehensive policy review.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Table of contents

Who cites this mandate in the budget?