One Programme brings all members of the country team together under one nationally-owned strategy that draws on the full range of UN expertise. With full participation of relevant national and international partners, the UN Resident Coordinator leads the UN Country Team through a programming process to create a set of strategic results based on national priorities, the internationally agreed development goals, and the UN’s capacity and comparative advantages. The outcomes are listed as measurable, costed outputs resulting from UN support to national partners. The RCs are obliged to report annually to their national government, according to the TCPR 2007. The government coordinates the relevant line ministries who participate in the programming exercise and ensures appropriate prioritization on the government side, just as the Resident Coordinators do for the UN system, bringing in resident and non-resident agencies. The One Programme is revised regularly to reflect countries’ emergent needs. While joint programmes can be useful mechanisms for UN agencies to implement together, the main point of One Program is joint programming as a process of planning and thinking together, and possibly also implementing together. The issue of “joint programming” has been one of the key gains that emerged from the Pilots. The UNCTs are truly exploring how the UN system can respond to national priorities by joint analysis, joint thinking, joint prioritization, and joint budgeting. Joint programming is enabling greater responsiveness to national priorities. Through joint programming, UN Country Teams are looking at the UN system-wide and, more inclusively, drawing on the mandate, experience and expertise of all UN agencies to address the national priorities. The One UN Programme has allowed space for cross-cutting themes, the normative agenda, increased possibility for upstream work required by governments, and increased consideration of the experience and expertise of all UN agencies, including the non-resident agencies. This increased role in policy support resulted in more coherent advocacy by the UN system on national priorities and the MDGs. Institutional mechanisms for programme implementation have been established to facilitate the challenge of implementation, including a common operational document (a single consolidated implementation plan), and clear reporting lines and accountability frameworks within the UNCT based on an agreed division of labor. |