Migiro underlines effectiveness of UN ‘delivering as one’ initiative

Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro today stressed that the United Nations “delivering as one” initiative had enabled the Organization and its agencies to strengthen the collective capacity to support countries’ efforts to overcome poverty, hunger, inequity and achieve other development priorities.

“Governments now have greater access to the broad range of expertise and resources of the UN family,” Ms. Migiro said in her closing remarks at the end of the 4th High-level Conference on Delivering as One in Montevideo, Uruguay.

“One programme has helped to eliminate duplication. Importantly, it has also improved the way we address cross-cutting issues such as gender equality, human rights, productive capacities and environmental sustainability.”

The so-called “Delivering as One” scheme was launched in 2007 to respond to global challenges and test how the UN can provide more coordinated development assistance in countries that volunteered to become pilot cases – Albania, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uruguay, and Viet Nam.

Ms. Migiro said that the initiative had empowered UN Resident Coordinators and country teams, noting the that coordinators now had greater role in helping articulate programmes and allocate resources around national priorities.

“Consensus building, mutual respect and accountability, responsiveness and pragmatism – those are some of the key words associated with the resident coordinators’ functions. Still, an important message from this conference is that there is a need to formalize their authority,” she said.

“We must forge ahead with strengthening the Resident Coordinator system. All organizations must give priority to implementing the Management and Accountability System for the UN Development and Resident Coordinator System,” she stressed.

The Deputy Secretary-General also called for the strengthening of partnerships with governments and a growing range of partners.

“We must also look at funding, in particular at innovative solutions to mobilize more core,

un-earmarked and predictable resources.

“During these three days, you have made it clear that in an interdependent world, multilateralism is more important than ever. The UN system offers a uniquely inclusive platform. By delivering as one we can use it to maximum effect,” she said.