United Nations Development Efforts

As one considers the different UN agencies and departments responsible for the global governance of its development efforts, it can be helpful to refer to the Organizational Chart of the United Nations System.

The United Nations Development Group (UNDG) coordinates UN development efforts. UNDG is an instrument for UN reform, created by the Secretary General in 1997, to improve the effectiveness of UN development at the country level. UNDG brings together the operational agencies working on development. The Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) chairs UNDG on behalf of the UN Secretary General.

UNDG develops policies and procedures that allow member agencies to work together and analyze country issues, plan support strategies, implement support programmes, monitor results and advocate for change. These initiatives increase UN impact in helping countries achieve the MDGs, including poverty reduction.

The full UNDG membership has grown to 28 agencies, plus five observers. The group meets at least three times yearly to decide on issues related to country level coordination to achieve the MDGs.

UNDG’s Executive Committee consists of the four funds and programs that report directly to the Secretary General: the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is an Ex-Officio member of the Committee. The Executive Committee focuses on reforming the work methods of the funds and programs and manages the mechanisms of UNDG. It meets every other month and is chaired by UNDP’s Administrator.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN's global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP is present in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges.

UNDP publishes annual Human Development Reports. According to UNDP, the Human Development Report was first launched in 1990 with the single goal of “putting people back at the center of the development process in terms of economic debate, policy and advocacy.” Since the first Report, four new composite indices for human development have been developed — the Human Development Index, the Gender-related Development Index, the Gender Empowerment Measure, and the Human Poverty Index. Each Report also focuses on a highly topical theme in the current development debate, providing analysis and policy recommendations. National human development reports have been published at the country level in more than 120 nations.

The Human Development Report is an “independent” report in that it is commissioned by UNDP and is the product of a selected team of leading scholars, development practitioners and members of the Human Development Report Office of UNDP.

While UNDP is responsible for the in-country development efforts of the United Nations, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) engages in policy development.

DESA serves as an interface between global policies in the economic, social and environmental spheres, and national action. DESA works in three main interlinked areas:

• It compiles, generates and analyses a wide range of economic, social and environmental data and information on which Member States of the United Nations draw to review common problems and to take stock of policy options;
• It facilitates the negotiations of Member States in many intergovernmental bodies on joint courses of action to address ongoing or emerging global challenges; and
• It advises interested Governments on the ways and means of translating policy frameworks developed in United Nations conferences and summits into programs at the country level and, through technical assistance, helps build national capacities.

Three DESA divisions are responsible for development policy: the Development Policy and Analysis Division, the Division for Social Policy and Development, and the Division for Sustainable Development.

DESA’s Development Policy and Analysis Division aims to contribute to a strengthening of international cooperation for the economic and social development of all countries, and to foster their effective integration into the world economy in the context of the UN Development Agenda. The Division’s core functions include:

• Monitoring and analyzing global economic trends and prospects and formulating advice for global macroeconomic policy coordination;
• Analyzing long-term development trends and preparing policy advice on the international development agenda; and
• Serving as the secretariat for the Committee for Development Policy.

Although managed by DESA’s Development Policy and Analysis Division, the Committee for Development Policy was established in 1965 as a subsidiary body of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). ECOSOC is an inter-governmental body responsible for formulating policy recommendations to Member States and to the United Nations system on matters pertaining to development.

The Committee for Development Policy provides inputs and independent advice to ECOSOC on emerging cross-sectoral development issues and on international cooperation for development, focusing on medium- and long-term aspects.

Each year, ECOSOC advises the Committee about the theme(s) that the Committee should consider at its annual session. The General Assembly, the Secretary-General and the subsidiary bodies of ECOSOC can also propose, through the Council, issues for consideration by the Committee. In addition, based on its expertise, the Committee itself often provides more general advice to ECOSOC concerning critical issues and the international development agenda.

The Committee is also responsible for undertaking, once every three years, a review of the list of least developed countries (LDCs), on the basis of which it advises ECOSOC regarding countries which should be added to the list and those that could be graduated from the list.

In accordance with the Council’s resolutions, the Secretary-General nominates 24 experts, in their personal capacity, as members of the Committee for three-year terms. ECOSOC has responsibility for deciding on appointments to the Committee. In making the nominations for the Committee, the Secretary-General takes into account the need to have a diversity of development experience, including ecologists, economists, and social scientists, as well as geographical balance, gender balance, and a balance between continuity and change in the membership of the Committee.

DESA’s Division for Social Policy and Development has as its main objective the strengthening of international cooperation for social development in the context of the comprehensive and detailed framework of commitments and policies for action by Governments, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations provided by the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development. The Division for Social Policy and Development focuses on the three core issues of poverty eradication, employment generation, and social integration.

DESA’s Division of Social Policy and Development is responsible for managing the United Nations Commission for Social Development which is one of the ten functional commissions established by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 1946 to advise and assist it in carrying out its work.

The Commission for Social Development consists of 46 members elected by ECOSOC.

Since the convening of the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995, the Commission has been the key UN body in charge of the follow-up and implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action.

As a result of the Summit, the mandate of the Commission was reviewed and its membership expanded from 32 to 46 members in 1996. It meets once a year at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, usually in February for about two weeks. Each year since 1995, the Commission has taken up key social development themes as part of its follow-up to the outcome of the Copenhagen Summit.

At the end of the Summit, Governments adopted the Copenhagen Declaration, the Ten Commitments, and the Programme of Action of the World Social Summit. The Ten Commitments include:

• Create an economic, political, social, cultural and legal environment that will enable people to achieve social development;
• Eradicate absolute poverty by a target date to be set by each country;
• Support full employment as a basic policy goal;
• Promote social integration based on the enhancement and protection of all human rights;
• Achieve equality and equity between women and men;
• Attain universal and equitable access to education and primary health care;
• Accelerate the development of Africa and the least developed countries;
• Ensure that structural adjustment programmes include social development goals;
• Increase resources allocated to social development;
• Strengthen cooperation for social development through the UN.

Five years later, Governments reconvened in Geneva in June 2000 for the 24th special session of the United Nations General Assembly, to review what has been achieved, and to commit themselves to new initiatives.

Since the Summit in 1995, the UN General Assembly has annually considered the issue of implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development, taking stock of follow-up activities undertaken at the national level and within the United Nations, including in its subsidiary bodies ECOSOC and the Commission for Social Development, as well as sharing experiences, lessons learned and obstacles encountered. Each year, the Assembly has held a general debate and adopted a resolution on the implementation.

DESA’s Division for Sustainable Development provides leadership and is an authoritative source of expertise within the United Nations system on sustainable development.

Sustainable development is defined as balancing the fulfillment of human needs with the protection of the natural environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also in the indefinite future. Sustainable development does not focus solely on environmental issues. More broadly, sustainable development policies encompass three general policy areas: economic, environmental and social. In support of this, several United Nations texts refer to “the interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars” of sustainable development as economic development, social development, and environmental protection.

DESA’s Division for Sustainable Development promotes sustainable development as the substantive secretariat to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) and through technical cooperation and capacity building at international, regional and national levels.

The CSD was created in December 1992 to ensure effective follow-up of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED - also known as the Earth Summit), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where world leaders signed the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity; endorsed the Rio Declaration and the Forest Principles; and adopted Agenda 21, a 300-page plan for achieving sustainable development in the 21st century.

The CSD is composed of 53 members elected by the ECOSOC from amongst the Member States of the United Nations for terms of office of three years. The CSD meets annually for a period of two to three weeks; and receives substantive and technical services from DESA’s Division for Sustainable Development. The CSD reports to the Economic and Social Council and, through it, to the Second Committee of the General Assembly.

In addition to administering the CSD, the context for the work of DESA’s Division on Sustainable Development is the implementation of Agenda 21, the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and the Barbados Programme of Action for Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States.

The goals of the DESA Division on Sustainable Development are:

• Integration of the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development in policy-making at international, regional and national levels;
• Wide-spread adoption of an integrated, cross-sectoral and broadly participatory approach to sustainable development;
• Measurable progress in the implementation of the goals and targets of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.

The Division on Sustainable Development engages in the following activities to achieve its stated goals:

• Facilitate intergovernmental negotiations, consensus-building and decision-making through the provision of substantive support to the work of the CSD and other related bodies;
• Provide technical assistance, expert advice and capacity building to support developing countries and countries with economies in transition in their efforts to achieve sustainable development;
• Facilitate inter-agency and inter-organizational cooperation, exchange and sharing of information, and catalyze joint activities and partnerships within the United Nations system and with other international organizations, governments and civil society groups in support of sustainable development;
• Promote and facilitate monitoring and evaluation of, and reporting on, the implementation of sustainable development at the national, regional and international levels;
• Undertake in-depth strategic analyses to provide policy advice to the USG/DESA, UN system and intergovernmental fora focusing on cross-cutting and emerging sustainable development issues.

The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) is an autonomous UN agency engaging in multidisciplinary research on the social dimensions of contemporary problems affecting development. Through its research, UNRISD stimulates dialogue and contributes to policy debates on key issues of social development within and outside the United Nations system.

UNRISD was created in 1963 as part of the first United Nations Development Decade. The Decade emphasized a “new approach to development,” in which “purely economic indicators of progress were seen to provide only limited insight and might conceal as much as they indicate.” UNRISD thus became a pioneer in developing social indicators and broadened the development debate. Since then, the Institute has sought to promote a holistic and multidisciplinary approach to social development by focusing on decision-making processes, often conflicting social forces, and the question of who wins and who loses as economies grow or contract and societies change.

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