Overview
The reinvigorated Resident Coordinator system, four years on
UN coordination is crucial to tackle complex challenges
Four years ago, Member States agreed to boost development coordination to make the most of the UN’s offer to support countries and enable them to tap into the full UN expertise – at the country, regional and global levels – to secure hard won development gains and advance the SDGs.
The reinvigorated Resident Coordinator (RC) system, fully staffed, operational and powered by a new generation of Resident Coordinators, has proven its worth, ensuring timely, coherent and effective UN support to countries during another year of extraordinary challenges, as developing countries continue responding to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, amidst increased global volatility.
Enhanced coordination was pivotal to:
- Serve as first line of defense against the pandemic, guiding the UN development system’s collective efforts that protected, supported and serviced populations, partners, and clients
- Strengthen joint planning and programming through a new generation of Common Country Analyses and Cooperation Frameworks, going beyond sectoral approaches
- Harness the full expertise of the UN development system and other partners for sustainable development, including International Financial Institutions
- Scale up commitment to full transparency and accountability, including through a first-ever multi-annual results framework for the RC system
- Boost commitments to 2021 global summits and support national convenors of dialogues on critical SDG priorities
- Continue to advance UN development system reform implementation, including support for a renewed regional architecture and advancing the efficiency agenda
Four years into the reform we clearly see:
Evidence shows that coordination matters to speed up the SDGs
Host governments' and donor governments’ feedback on the Resident Coordinator system continued to improve
of host Governments report that, since the UN development system repositioning in 2018, the UN development system currently works together better, a 4% increase compared to 2020
of donor governments indicate that the Resident Coordinator system has improved coherence in UN activities, reducing duplication of efforts
of donor governments consider that the Resident Coordinator system has leveraged the comparative advantage of individual UN entities
UN teams recognize better support and programmatic coherence from a wide range of tools
Governments' perception of how Resident Coordinators have led the UN teams’ responses to COVID-19 remained positive in 2021:
of host Governments indicate that the Resident Coordinators have ensured a coherent UN response to the COVID-19 pandemic, just as indicated in 2020
of host Governments indicate that the Resident Coordinator-led UN teams’ response has been timely, a 11% increase compared to 2020
of host Governments indicate that the Resident Coordinator-led UN teams’ response has been comprehensive, up from 74% in 2020
of host Governments indicate that the Resident Coordinator-led UN teams’ response has been effective, compared to 77% in 2020
of host Governments indicate that Resident Coordinator-led UN teams' response has targeted at-risk groups, compared to 84% in 2020
of host Governments indicate that the Resident Coordinator-led UN teams’ response has been coherent with the Cooperation Framework/UNDAF, up from 81% in 2020
of host Governments indicate that the Resident Coordinator-led UN teams’ response has been coherent with the humanitarian response, compared to 84% in 2020
of Resident Coordinators believe that UN teams are providing support that is more coherent compared to the year before
To learn more visit the report's resource page and glossary.
