Premises shared by the UN organizations are an important component of the Secretary-General's UN Reform Programme. The objective of common premises is to build closer ties among United Nations staff and promote a more unified presence at country level in a cost-effective manner.

For the Secretary-General to officially designate UN common premises a UN House, the following criteria must be fulfilled: The common premises must house the office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator and the offices of all Resident Country Directors/Representatives of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNICEF and, as appropriate, WFP. The UN Country Team (UNCT) must demonstrate commitment to developing a framework for cost-effective, high quality and timely common services and where it makes sense. To date, there are 59 officially designated UN Houses worldwide.

In the context of the above, the Task Team on Common Premises (TTCP) is tasked with providing guidance and tools for UNCTs which intend to engage in UN House/UN Common Premises renovation, construction and/or relocation projects. In order to determine whether said projects are viable for (partial)funding, the TTCP requires the UNCT to finalize a formal proposal. The TTCP provides a framework for putting together these proposals and guidance as required.

The Transaction Model website is provided by the UNDG Task Team on Common Premises (TTCP) with the aim of providing UN Country Teams (UNCTs)with the background information and necessary tools to be used in establishing a UN House or UN Common Premises. Step-by-step instructions will enable your Country Team to:

• Prepare a UN House/UN Common Premises proposal
• Obtain the necessary supporting documents
• Understand the decision-making process in the TTCP
• Understand the reporting procedure/requirements and focal points between the respective HQs and UNCT

Building Performance Guidelines

These guidelines were developed by the International Code Council (ICC) for the UNDG Task Team on Common Premises. The intent of these performance-oriented guidelines is to provide an easy to use and flexible set of documents, which when applied to the design, renovation or construction of United Nations’ Common Premises (UNCP) office buildings, will result in office buildings with comparable levels of safety, function and performance, regardless of the country in which they are located. A key aspect to the guidelines is that, quite simply, they are guidelines—not regulations—and it is the responsibility of the designers and engineers using the guidelines to meet the requirements of local building regulations as well as the guidelines.