97/12.  Recommendations on the United Nations Population Fund programming process

The Executive Board

1.        Takes note of the report of the Executive Director on the programming process of the United Nations Population Fund (DP/FPA/1997/9);

2.        Recognizes that the primary responsibility for developing a country programme lies with the Government of the programme country with the support of the United Nations Population Fund;

3.        Requests that in its programming process the United Nations Population Fund take into account the following, bearing in mind the need to limit the administrative burden:

(a)      That during the Programme Review and Strategy Development process, the United Nations Population Fund will offer briefings at the field level for interested parties on the emerging findings;

(b)      That the United Nations Population Fund will make available the summary of the Programme Review and Strategy Development process (the country recommendation), which will show: 

(i) proposed strategic actions and their rationale;

(ii) the comparative advantage of the United Nations Population Fund and its complementarity vis-à-vis other actors; and 

(iii) possible thematic areas, drawing throughout also on lessons learned from other programmes;

(c)      That the country recommendation will be made available by the secretariat to all members of the United Nations Population Fund, upon request, who may offer views on the recommendation, within six weeks of transmission, which the secretariat will take into account in further developing the programme; the United Nations Population Fund will inform the Executive Board of this process; these views will also be made available to all members of the United Nations Population Fund, upon request; the United Nations Population Fund may, if needed, arrange a discussion at headquarters with the participation of the programme country;

4.        Requests that country programmes presented to the Executive Board contain clear statements of purpose, deliverables (for each sub-programme area), financial parameters and the indicators by which the United Nations Population Fund will measure programme performance, effectiveness and impact;

5.        Decides that country programmes will be considered for approval by the Executive Board without discussion unless one is requested by more than one member, in writing, in principle two weeks before the session;

6.        Recommends that the efforts of working towards harmonized arrangements for country programming processes in the United Nations system should, when possible, be coordinated and harmonized with other funds and programmes;

7.        Requests that the operation of these arrangements be reviewed by the Executive Director at such a time as to allow a report to be presented to the Executive Board at its annual session 2000.

16 May 1997