The inter-governmental meeting to review the UN Delivering As One (DAO) program last week has heard from the eight pilot countries that it is the way to go and there is no way back to business as usual.

The three day conference aimed at reviewing the progress of the pilot phase of DAO as it enters its third year. The new approach is being tested in eight countries, namely Albania, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Pakistan, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uruguay and Vietnam.

Prime Minister Bernard Makuza emphasized that the whole process is intended to improve the living standards of people and have a real impact on their lives. "It has to respond to the needs and aspirations of the citizens of the pilot countries," Makuza said.

The UN Deputy Secretary General, Asha-Rose Migiro hailed Rwanda as the only pilot country that has developed one development program. Migiro pointed out that there was increased authority and coordination of government over UN activities in respective countries which she termed as a sign of ownership of UN activities in the pilot countries.

Initiated in 2006, the program was part of the UN reforms aimed at avoiding fragmentation of its assistance by bringing all its agencies to work as one at country level, thus increasing efficiency, effectiveness and the impact of developmental activities undertaken by the UN.

Governments of the eight pilot countries agreed to experiment the UN system's impact through more coherent programs, reduced transaction costs for governments and lower overhead costs for the UN. On top of the pilot countries, they are six other countries that voluntarily adopted and are implementing the DAO program namely, Benin, Bhutan, Kiribati, Malawi and Papua New Guinea.

During a meeting in Maputo in May last year, members of the DAO pilot countries identified some of the major challenges towards a more cohesive and coherent one UN system. They included lack of predictability and timely funding, lack of harmonization and simplification of business practices, high transaction costs of the UN generally, poor alignment of UN activities with the priorities of pilot countries and low level of operational capacities.

Some of these issues were once again mentioned during the Kigali meeting. For example, while highlighting constraints Rwanda is facing with the One UN system, Pichette Kampeta Sayinzoga, the chief economist at the ministry of finance, came back at the unpredictability, timely funding, harmonization and simplification of business practices which she said was mainly caused by bureaucracy which is still evident in some UN agencies.

On top of that, she outlined other hindrances such as the inability of the UN to match the rate at which the country is developing and lack of competence in some UN agencies to deal with the reforms being made.

Country priorities

Apart from the challenges, DAO has numerous positive experiences to draw from. For instance the One UN fund reduces competition from different UN agencies. Furthermore, increased use of country systems ensures that funds are spent in priority areas.

According to Sayinzoga, there has been institutionalization of national priorities and coordination thanks to the existence of a single partner rather than dealing with different agencies. "It makes it easier to hold one person accountable," Ms Sayinzoga said.

Finance Minister James Musoni also confirmed the advantages of the DAO. "There is a general feeling among the pilot countries that the DAO is far better than the way business was conducted before and the tendency is to improve on what has been done rather than going back to business as usual," Musoni pointed out, adding that it also encourages countries to take ownership of the UN's activities.

While the aim of the one UN is to have the various UN agencies operate under one umbrella and have one budget, program and leader, Musoni thinks that resources earmarked for areas such as health, food security among others should be managed by specific UN agencies, and a proposed One UN fund could supplement the earmarked resources.

"We are looking for additional resources, and we believe that the One UN fund should be able to help us increase our resource mobilization," he said.

Rwanda is now set to launch its own evaluation of the DAO pilot phase to assess what has and has not worked. "Country led evaluations ensure credibility and ownership and will be important for global evaluations," Musoni said.

On the other hand, an independent UN commission will carry out a similar assessment. At the end of the pilot phase in 2011, both evaluations will be used to determine the way forward.