Commonwealth-UN Co-operation For Development
Project Officer:
Daisy Cooper
Page last updated:
March 31, 2006
Introduction | Reports | Contact the CPSU
The CPSU was commissioned in January 2005 to undertake a one year research project to discern how the Commonwealth can help strengthen and reform the United Nations’ development system. The project was supported by the Organisation of Commonwealth United Nations Associations (OCUNA) and funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). It was set against the background of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and their 5-year progress review at the Millennium Summit in September 2005.
During the one year project and on the basis of consultations and research, including a one-day consultation with Commonwealth country Ambassadors to the UN at the UN in New York and a CPSU presentation to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Annual Conference in Fiji, the CPSU published a report (see below, and the publications page) that made policy recommendations to the Commonwealth Heads of Government, who met for the Commonwealth Summit in November 2005.
As a result of CPSU’s work, eight Commonwealth governments (Guyana, Jamaica, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, UK) agreed to work together to secure a statement by Commonwealth Heads; in paragraph 35 of the CHOGM Communiqué, Heads agreed to take “action to strengthen the management and coherence of the UN humanitarian and development systems, so that the UN can fulfill its potential to help accelerate progress towards attainment of the MDGs.” This initial phase was successfully completed in January 2006.
In February 2006, the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed a High-Level Panel on UN system-wide coherence in areas of development, humanitarian assistance and environment. Five of the fifteen members of the panel are from Commonwealth countries. The panel is expected to make a formal presentation of its recommendations to the UN General Assembly in September 2006, with possible implementation in 2007.
By its nature, this “high-level” approach will take little account of how the UN operates and is perceived at “grass-roots” level.
The Panel’s mandate is to “examine a range of options on how best to strengthen the coordination of UN operational activities world-wide, including, as requested by Member States, the possibility of creating more tightly managed United Nations entities.”
Better co-ordination of the UN system is vital to achieve the MDGs, but this mandate to execute what is commonly known as the “mergers and acquisitions” policy on the 30+ UN agencies, could have devastating effects on many poor countries. For example, if the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the smallest UN agency, is abolished or subsumed, who at the international level will act as advocate for the protection of women’s rights? How will a centralised UN country office engage with rural and often marginalised people? If the UN regional office is strengthened in both the Caribbean and the Pacific to “improve coordination”, will some of the smallest and most vulnerable neighbouring island states be denied a local UN presence that would otherwise be the coordination arm on the ground in the event of a natural disaster? The UN has said much about “putting the UN into the hands of the people”, but this is not reflected in this most recent initiative.
The Commonwealth has always been a supporter of the UN, and has a unique role in the UN reform process. Unlike the regional or bloc groups operating at the UN, the Commonwealth is an association of developed and developing countries from every region of the world. As such, Commonwealth fora provide an interesting and unique way of making progress in an otherwise intractable field.
The Commonwealth now has a mandate from its 53 member countries to “take action” on the UN humanitarian and development reform agenda. The Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit has the expertise, experience and necessary networks to sustain momentum amongst member countries and to give a voice to Commonwealth civil society to realise it. Whilst CPSU’s initial one-year project has come to an end, the CPSU is committed to supporting the UN’s efforts and keen to contribute to the UN development reform debate in the near future.
'Millennium Development Goal 8 - Developing a Global Partnership for Development', presentation given by Daisy Cooper at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Annual Conference, Nadi, Fiji, 7 September 2005
'Improving the UN development system: is there a Commonwealth consensus?' Report of the Commonwealth-UN Co-operation for Development Project, July 2005
'Improving
the UN Development System: Is there a Commonwealth Consensus?'
One-day consultation organised by the CPSU in partnership
with the United Nations University, sponsored by the Department for International
Development UK
United Nations, New York, 1st June 2005
The purpose of the consultation was to:
- explore the perceptions of Commonwealth governments of the performance of the UN development system at country level
- discern Commonwealth views on the reform agenda of the UN development system
- examine where efforts should be focused in the Commonwealth to lever change
Follow the links below to download details of the meeting:
Press
Release
Consultation Programme
Background Note
Statement by H.E. Ambassador
Aminu B Wali, Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations
'The
UN, the Commonwealth, and the Millennium Development Goals'
Presentation given by Daisy Cooper at the 'Governance in the Commonwealth(s):
New Issues and Actors', Institute of Commonwealth Studies, 13th-14th March
2005