12 July 1993

30th plenary meeting

Operational activities for development

The Economic and Social Council,

Recalling General Assembly resolutions 44/211 of 22 December 1989 and 47/199 of 22 December 1992,

Noting with concern that the results of the 1992 United Nations Pledging Conference for Development Activities were well below expected levels and that the current trend of contributions in real terms to funds and programmes, particularly core contributions, is downwards,

Reiterating that the fundamental characteristics of the operational activities of the United Nations system should be, inter alia, their universal, voluntary and grant nature, neutrality and multilateralism, and that recipient Governments have the primary responsibility for coordinating all types of external assistance,

1. Takes note of the progress report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of General Assembly resolution 47/199, including the annexes thereto on the country strategy note, national execution and the programme approach;

2. Urges the heads of the funds, programmes and specialized agencies of the United Nations system to make every effort further to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their organizations, and to inform their governing bodies of measures taken in this regard in their annual reports;

3. Urges developed countries, in particular those countries whose overall performance is not commensurate with their capacity, taking into account established official development assistance targets, including targets established at the Second United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries and current levels of contribution, to increase their official development assistance substantially, including contributions to the operational activities of the United Nations system;

4. Requests the Secretary-General to seek to ensure that an effective methodology for evaluation of the programme approach, as called for in paragraph 13 of Assembly resolution 47/199, has been developed by June 1994, and to review the progress made by the United Nations system support, including an assessment of the experience gained of the implementation at the field level of the common United Nations system framework for the programme approach;

5. Also requests the Secretary-General to undertake a review of the progress made by the United Nations system in applying national execution at the country level, including an assessment of the experience gained of the implementation at the field level of the common United Nations system guiding principles for national execution, contained in the progress report on the implementation of Assembly resolution 47/199; 3/

6. Invites the Secretary-General to provide information on a regular basis to all participating countries regarding the steps being taken in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 9 of Assembly resolution 47/199 dealing with the country strategy note, including information on the forthcoming seminar on this topic, to be held at the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation at Turin, Italy;

7. Emphasizes the need to take full account of the factors outlined in paragraph 38 of Assembly resolution 47/199 in order to ensure an effectively functioning resident coordinator system, and invites the organs of the United Nations system, at the country level, to contribute, where appropriate, to the provision of the resources necessary to assist the resident coordinator in fulfilling his or her responsibilities;

8. Stresses the importance it attaches to the early and complete implementation of paragraphs 39 to 41 of Assembly resolution 47/199, on the strengthening and support of the resident coordinator system, including subparagraphs 39 (d) and (g) on widening the pool of qualified development professionals eligible for appointment as United Nations Development Programme resident representatives or resident coordinators and on enhancing the responsibility and authority of the resident coordinator for the planning and coordination of programmes;

9. Underlines the importance of making early progress on decentralization and delegation of authority, including approval authority within approved programmes, to field offices in the context of enhanced accountability;

10. Requests the Secretary-General further to develop the work programme for the implementation of Assembly resolution 47/199, contained in annex I to his report, 3/ with a view to setting results-oriented targets;

11. Stresses the need for future reports on the implementation of Assembly resolution 47/199 to focus on the outcomes and outputs of the activities of the United Nations system, in particular at the field level, rather than on the inputs;

12. Requests the United Nations system, including the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, to devote sufficient resources to the coordinated and effective implementation of Assembly resolution 47/199, including through temporary secondments of staff from the funds, programmes and specialized agencies of the United Nations system;

13. Decides to review the implementation of the present resolution at its substantive session of 1994, as part of the review of the implementation of Assembly resolution 47/199 called for in paragraph 54 of that resolution.