Delivering as One has brought together partner countries, donors and UN country teams with fresh energy, momentum and a greater sense of common purpose. By strongly encouraging the eight pilot country teams— Albania, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Pakistan, Rwanda, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay and Viet Nam – to implement reforms and by giving them broad latitude to innovate and experiment with ways of working together as one UN team, Delivering as One has tested a number of different and ways of working together differently..

Key lessons
In 2008, countries reported the following in their Stocktaking Reports: specific progress in Delivering as One can be seen in the following areas:

National Ownership: The Governments of the pilot countries exercised national leadership over UN programmes and UNCTs ensured that UN capacity was better aligned to the needs of the country.

One Programme: All Delivering as One pilots have begun the first year of implementing their One Programme. The One Programmes have focused on a sub-set of outcomes within the context of the UNDAF and clearly articulating where there is scope for more effective inter-agency collaboration.

One Budgetary Framework and One Fund: The coordinated approach to funding by donors contributing un-earmarked resources to Country Funds (or ‘One UN Funds’) established by pilot countries is one of the central elements of the Delivering as One experience.

One Leader: The Delivering as One approach has helped to enhance the role of both the Resident Coordinator and the UNCT.

Communicating Together: There has been an increased impact of the UN speaking with one voice, through a “One Communications” approach.

Harmonized and Simplified Business Practice: Under UNDG guidance, the pilots have worked jointly on inter-agency harmonization of some key elements of their business operations.

Capacity Assessments: All the pilots made progress in assessing the alignment of the human resources capacity of UN organizations with the needs of the One Programme and the Government;

Evaluation: An M&E; network for the pilots has been set up. Work in defining the vision, addressing the gaps in information and data as well as strengthening the M&E; framework of the Delivering as One initiative have been under way.

Challenges

From the 2008 Stocktaking Reports, it is clear that the Delivering as One countries have led innovations and an increased level of coherence. However, there are some key challenges identified. They include:

• Lack of predictable and timely funding;
• Slow pace of global reform to harmonize and simplify business practices;
• Countries need to reduce transaction costs; Need for the development of a single results report;
• Need for improved alignment of UN system capacities with the priorities of programme countries;
• Insufficient use of national operational capacities and systems.