Kemal Dervis, Head of the UN Development Group (UNDG) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) joined Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) Vice Minister Cao Viet Sinh to announce that Vietnam will be one of up to seven countries in the world to pilot United Nations reform at the country level.
"Vietnam is at the forefront of the United Nations move to 'deliver as one',” said Mr Dervis at a press conference today. “The United Nations family has to combine the diversity of skills and mandates present in its agencies to realize our tremendous potential as partners in development."
The announcement followed a meeting of the Government-led taskforce on UN reform. The taskforce is made up of representatives of MPI, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Office of the Government, the participating UN Agencies, funds and programmes and bilateral donors. Known as the Tripartite National Task Force (TNTF), it was set up to guide the implementation of the “One UN initiative” in Vietnam.
In September 2005, a discussion paper on UN reform was prepared by the United Nations country team in Vietnam in part to stimulate thinking on necessary change in the way the UN operates at the country level.
The note was timed to coincide with preparations for the 2005 World Summit in NY, with UN reform being a prominent item on the Summit agenda. Subsequent proposals on the “One UN Initiative” outlined the necessary UN reform measures within the larger context of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and its local contextualization in Vietnam: the Hanoi Core Statement on Aid Effectiveness.
The objective of the ‘One UN Initiative’ is to move beyond coordination towards “One United Nations.” For the participating agencies and programmes (currently, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, UNIFEM, UNV and UNAIDS), this includes working toward one programme, one office, one leader, one budget and one set of management practices and common services. If the UN is to deliver the best results for Vietnam, it needs to transform itself into a harmonized organization with unity of purpose, coherence in management and efficiency and effectiveness in operations.
“Vietnam is always pushing us to do things better, to be ever more responsive and efficient and the UN Country Team is working to answer that call for more effective assistance,” said UN Resident Coordinator John Hendra. “With this very exciting pilot opportunity, Vietnam is being recognized for its openness and drive to make the UN work better. In a sense, this pilot is like bringing global reform efforts home and the world will be very interested in what happens here as Vietnam is now literally at the epicentre of global reform efforts.”
Mr Dervis, who arrived yesterday evening, also held meetings with President Mr Nguyen Minh Triet, the Minister of MPI, Mr. Vo Hong Phuc and the UN Country Team. He is expected to travel outside of Ha Noi tomorrow to see examples of UN joint programmes.
This announcement comes nearly a month after the United Nations High Level Panel released its report, Delivering as One, which recommended among other things, “to deliver as one at country level, with one leader, one programme, one budget and, where appropriate, one office.” It is expected that the remaining pilot countries will be announced from United Nations headquarters by the end of December.
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Vietnamese
