UN INFO: Promoting Transparency, Collaboration and Accountability in Country Programming

Jon F. Kapp, Executive Director, Community Systems Foundation

Seth Davis, Communications Officer, Community Systems Foundation

​While UN Country Teams (UNCTs) work in support of national development across the world; historically, it has been difficult to report with precision and timeliness of the UN’s contributions to development as a whole. In his end-of-2017 report, Secretary-General António Guterres outlined a need and mandate for unprecedented UN reform. According to the Secretary-General, “By the end of 2019, a system-wide online platform for monitoring and reporting on the contributions of the United Nations development system to progress in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals should be put in place.” [1]  ​

​UN INFO is being developed to address the mandate for UN reform by assisting UNCTs to improve the state of planning, monitoring and reporting.  Community Systems Foundation (CSF) is providing technical assistance to UN Development Operations Coordination Office (UNDOCO) to develop the system.

By tracking “how the UN system at the country level supports governments to deliver on the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda,” [2] UN INFO positions the organization to report on national, regional and global contributions, while improving coordination, accountability and transparency.  This UN wide initiative aims to strengthen implementation of UN Development Action Frameworks (UNDAF) and Business Operation Strategies (BoS). 

As the UNDS Repositioning - Explanatory Note #1 notes, the absence of a global platform to assist UNCTs with coordination efforts leads to inefficiencies in regard to the transparency, collaboration and accountability of country programming. “There is no systematic approach to determine...that the right mix of capacities and expertise is available to host governments and meet their needs and objectives.” [2] 

To coordinate and report on activities between UN agencies, UNDOCO foresees this platform to include soon-to-be released internal and public-facing dashboards. Powered by the Data For All (DFA) toolkit, the planning and monitoring tools will generate data dashboards to report on the financial contributions of the UN system, progress in activities, and specifically, who is doing what and where in the context of joint UN action.   

As Resolution A/RES/62/208 notes, “coordination activities, while beneficial, represent transaction costs that are borne by both programme countries and the organizations of the United Nations system.” [3] By leveraging technology to improve strategic planning, monitoring and reporting functions, efficiencies and transaction costs will be reduced.  CSF and others believe that system strengthening will lead to an improvement in the quality of services and a reduction in costs of joint UN action. The UN reform is underway and CSF is striving to do it’s part.  ​

[1] General Assembly of the Economic and Social Council. “Repositioning the United Nations development system to deliver on the 2030 Agenda: our promise for dignity, prosperity and peace on a healthy planet.” Economic and Social Council. 21 December 2017 http://undocs.org/A/72/684

[2] United Nations Development System. “Proposals for a New Generation of UNCTs – Explanatory Note.” February 2018. https://www.un.org/ecosoc/sites/www.un.org.ecosoc/files/files/en/qcpr/1_%20A%20new%20generation%20of%20UN%20Country%20Teams.pdf

[3] General Assembly. "Triennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system." https://undocs.org/A/RES/62/208