| GB.267/TC/4
267th Session November 1996 |
| Committee on Technical Cooperation | TC |
FOURTH ITEM ON THE AGENDA
Reports of the UN Joint Inspection Unit
(a) United Nations system support for science and technology in Africa;
(b) United Nations system support for science and technology
in Asia and the Pacific;
(c) National execution of projects;
(d) Evaluation of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development
of Africa in the 1990s (UN-NADAF):
Towards a more operational approach?
1. In accordance with established procedures, reports of the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) of the United Nations are submitted to the Governing Body when comments of the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) on the reports are available. The Office has contributed to the preparation of the above reports(1) and provided comments on them for consideration by the ACC.
2. The following is a summary of the Director-General's comments to the ACC, with a number of specific comments on these reports. In order to save space, the JIU recommendations are referred to in an abbreviated manner.
( a) United Nations system support for science and technology in Africa
3. In general, the Office concurs with the contents of the report and supports the evaluation of the ILO project entitled "Centre national de qualification professionnelle" (SEN/82/005 -- "National Vocational Skills Centre"), included in the review. The UN system should continue its efforts to strengthen institutional capacity in science and technology in Africa, combining regional support with country approaches. The findings and conclusions of the report would have been even more useful if it had included an in-depth analysis of the effects of macroeconomic policy incentive schemes, price distortions, economic liberalization and structural adjustment policies on the transfer of science and technology to low-income countries and least developed countries.
Recommendation 1: Institutional-building functions
4. The suggested normative framework for the design, execution and evaluation is not only useful for institution-building projects in this field, but should be applied to technical cooperation projects in general. In adapting the framework for ILO projects, it will have to include social aspects, tripartism, international labour standards, to mention only a few concerns specific to the ILO.
Recommendation 2: Sustainability
5. The ILO's procedures and guidelines address aspects of sustainability in project design, monitoring, evaluation and reporting.
Recommendation 4: Technical backstopping:
- funding organizations should consider a set of penalties, which also take into account the past performance of both the executing agency and the national counterpart institutions;
- project agreements should specify and quantify the direct technical inputs by the executing agency.
6. Both sections (a) and (b) of the recommendation seem to refer to the traditional rather than the new implementation modalities, such as national execution and programme approach. Under the latter the main responsibility for programme design rests with the funding agency and the national executing agency, rather than with the UN agency. Concerning section (a), the idea of introducing a set of penalties seems inappropriate and impractical to implement and does not improve performance. The current established monitoring, evaluation and reporting tools, i.e., work plans, progress reviews, tripartite reviews, evaluations, etc., all provide for corrective action, if needed. Section (b) of the recommendation refers to project inputs, whereas the programme approach, inter alia, focuses on outputs and impact.
7. The Office supports the rest of the recommendations, which are the following:
Recommendation 3: Programme approach
Recommendation 5: Chief Technical Adviser
Recommendation 6: Linkages to the production system
Recommendation 7: Regional setting
(b) National execution of projects
8. The report provides timely feedback on the national execution (NEX) of projects, which represents an important conceptual and operational transformation of the UN's development cooperation system. The ILO's basic attitude towards NEX has been governed by the principle of maintaining the quality of its development activities and strengthening countries' capacity to implement NEX. In the process of negotiations on projects for NEX, the framework involving the government, UNDP and specialized agency or agencies should be maintained.
Recommendation 1:
- the resident representative should seek the Government's agreement when formulating the national strategy note;
- when formulating the country framework programme, member States, that so desire, should receive the technical opinions and advice of the specialized agencies;
- all the specialized agencies should participate in the formulation of the country framework programme;
- implementing agencies should be selected in a transparent manner and in a spirit of genuine cooperation.
9. The Office supports the four specific measures proposed above. In implementing them every effort should be made to secure the full involvement of the specialized agencies in the formulation and implementation of the country framework programme.
Recommendation 2: A special fund should be set up within UNDP to finance training programmes --
- by governments or specialized agencies;
- to organize training seminars for the benefit of senior staff and decision makers, including those [seminars] at the International Training Centre of the ILO, Turin;
- to encourage the establishment of inter-agency teams to advise governments, inter alia, on national execution of projects;
- to promote at the country level the establishment of multidisciplinary and multisectoral teams.
10. The Office agrees in general terms. Concerning section (b) of the recommendation, the Office fully supports the involvement of the International Training Centre of the ILO, Turin, in the implementation of this recommendation. As regards section (d) of the recommendation, the involvement of workers' and employers' organizations in the national consultative process should have been singled out, either in conjunction with the proposed multidisciplinary and multisectoral teams or in any other appropriate framework.
Recommendation 3: The specialized agencies should continue their efforts to decentralize their technical services at the country or subregional levels.
11. The ILO has achieved considerable results in decentralizing its technical services to the field and making them available to its constituents.
Recommendation 4: UNDP, jointly with the specialized agencies, should --
- formulate a definition of national execution projects;
- establish clear regulations on the management of project funds and on the method of compensation and reimbursement of expenditure in favour of specialized agencies;
- establish, in consultation with the Government, clear systems for the use of local resources and external inputs as well as for the determination of salaries and allowances of local personnel assigned to NEX projects.
12. The Office agrees with this recommendation. These suggestions should be reflected in the revised and updated Programme and Project Manual of the UNDP. Although the revision would be concerned with all aspects of the programme and project process, it should apply, mutatis mutandis, to NEX. Section (b) of the recommendation is of particular importance to the ILO, as the field structure is spending more and more time supporting NEX without corresponding increases in financial resources. Improved methods of compensation and reimbursement of expenses should be explored.
(c) United Nations system support for science and technology
in Asia and the Pacific
13. By and large, the JIU report covers conventional technology. It should, however, be mentioned that new technology has played a key role in the globalization of production and in the dynamism of the emerging economies of the rest of Asia. The Office supports the main conclusion of the report that the ten institution-building projects selected for the review were successful in achieving their objectives and made a valuable contribution to fostering self-reliance in science and technology in Asia and the Pacific.
14. The report rightly points to gaps in the TCDC-type exchanges between developing regions. The Office supports the idea that greater interregional exchanges of information should be facilitated by the regional commissions with active support from UN specialized agencies.
15. The report includes four recommendations:
Recommendation 1: Technical cooperation achievements
Recommendation 2: Regional cooperation in Asia and the Pacific
Recommendation 3: Science and technology information systems
Recommendation 4: Significant strengthening of inter-regional collaboration in science and technology
16. The Office's views are adequately reflected in the ACC's comments on these recommendations. There is not therefore any need for additional comments.
(d) Evaluation of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s (UN-NADAF): Towards a more operational approach?
17. In addition to what is already mentioned about the ILO, in paragraph 191 on page 45 of the report, the following should be mentioned.
- The ILO, though affected by a resource crisis, has been able to maintain its core technical cooperation activities in Africa through the relocation of technical resources from headquarters to the region to support the establishment of the five MDTs in the early 1990s, and by limiting cuts in financial resources for field programmes to a minimum and increasing its efforts to mobilize extra-budgetary resources for technical cooperation locally at the national and regional levels.
- The ILO's commitment to the implementation of the UN-NADAF remains high, despite the limitations of resources. The ILO's Regional Office for Africa has actively participated in technical sessions of the UN Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) responsible for elaborating the UN-NADAF strategy and monitoring progress in its implementation. In this regard, ILO expertise has been provided to the IATF on how best to realize the employment and sustainable livelihood objectives of the UN-NADAF.
- Through the activities of the MDTs in Africa, and with support from headquarters technical departments, the ILO has been active in pursuing measures by the international community (within the framework of UN-NADAF) to complement efforts by African governments and their social partners towards economic recovery and sustainable development. Central to the ILO's approach in this regard are advisory services and technical cooperation projects aimed at reducing poverty through the formulation of policies and programmes to stimulate higher levels of economic growth and generate productive employment. The ILO's work in Africa in the areas of democratization and social protection aimed at reinforcing tripartism has been of direct relevance to the implementation of the New Agenda.
18. The recommendations included in the JIU report are by and large consistent with ongoing and planned action by the ILO to achieve its objectives in Africa. The following specific comments, however, are required:
Recommendation 1: Promoting the New Agenda
Recommendation 7: Women in development
19. The ILO's programmes in Africa, and in particular the work of the five Multidisciplinary Advisory Teams (MDTs), are fully in line with the New Agenda and also give priority consideration to the role women play in the development of Africa. ILO activities focus on productive employment and poverty eradication, social protection and working conditions, international labour standards and normative action concerning women workers. They include, inter alia, advisory services for governments in implementing the African Platform of Action with a focus on the critical areas of poverty and women's rights which are identified as two of the main priority concerns.
Recommendation 2: Reducing the cost of technical cooperation with Africa
Recommendation 4: Institutional capacity building
20. Technical resources have been relocated from headquarters in Geneva to the field structure. The use of national consultants and specialists in the implementation of ILO technical cooperation projects has increased. Furthermore, such projects have significant training components which enhance capacity building.
Recommendation 3: Policy advocacy and awareness campaign at the field level
21. Through collaboration and cooperation with other agencies such as the UNDP, ECA, the World Bank and the OAU, the ILO regional programme for Africa promotes and advocates labour-market and economic reforms which take into account employment and social concerns (e.g. collaboration with the World Bank on reform of labour codes in Africa).
Recommendation 5: Inter-agency cooperation and coordination
22. The launch of the UN system-wide initiative in Africa in March 1995 provides a consistent framework within which the ILO will continue its operational activities to support economic recovery and sustainable development. A major step in this direction have been the Country Objective Reviews, which are conducted by the ILO with government, employers' and workers' representatives. These reviews represent a major input into the country strategy put forward by the UN system and an important contribution to inter-agency cooperation and coordination.
Recommendation 6: Support for subregional integration
23. The new structure of the ILO in Africa -- the subregional area offices and MDTs and the coordinating Regional Office -- is ready to continue its efforts in promoting subregional and regional integration.
24. The rest of the recommendations included in the JIU report are addressed to the United Nations and to the Organization of African Unity, and therefore no specific ILO comments are needed.
25. The Director-General's comments on each of the JIU reports have, by and large, been reflected in the joint comments of the ACC.
26. Copies of the JIU reports and ACC comments are available for consultation.
Geneva, 9 October 1996.
1 (a) JIU/REP/94/1 -- A/50/125/Add.1; E/1995/19/Add.1; (b) JIU/REP/94/9 -- A/50/113/ Add.1; (c) JIU/REP/95/7 -- A/50/721/Add.1; (d) JIU/REP/95/12 -- A/50/885/Add.1.