Two ongoing reform processes inside the United Nations have direct bearing on the work and the political realities of sustainable development.
These particular processes are generally referred to as ‘the 169 initiative’, as they take their mandate from 169 of the Outcome Document of the UN World Summit held from 14-16 September 2005 (A/RES/60/1).
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The most prominent of the two reform processes, politically speaking, is the reform on System-wide Coherence. This process is headed by a High-level Panel under the leadership of well-known officials. Some observers are of the opinion that the System-wide Coherence process may have overarching responsibilities. Should therefore ‘the environment’ or ‘sustainable development’ have been mentioned in an indirect or insignificant manner in the report from this reform process, it may have well affected how these issues are dealt with by the UN and the international system in the future.
Paragraph 169 of the Outcome Document invited the Secretary-General to launch work to further strengthen the management and coordination of United Nations operational activities so that they can make an even more effective contribution to the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, including proposals for consideration by Member States for more tightly managed entities in the fields of development, humanitarian assistance and the environment.
On 16 February 2006, the UN Secretary-General announced the formation of a 15 member High-level panel to explore how the United Nations system could work more coherently and effectively across the world in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance, and the environment.
The panel presented their report, "Delivering as One", at the 61st session of the General Assembly, on 20 November 2006. As regards the environment and sustainable development, they gave the following recommendations:
Environment: building a global consensus and capacity for action
- International environmental governance should be strengthened and more coherent in order to improve effectiveness and targeted action of environmental activities in the United Nations system.
- An upgraded UNEP should have real authority as the environment policy pillar of the United Nations system, backed by normative and analytical capacity and with broad responsibility to review progress towards improving the global environment.
- United Nations agencies, programmes and funds with responsibilities in the area of the environment should cooperate more effectively on a thematic basis and through partnerships with a dedicated agency at the centre.
- Efficiencies and substantive coordination should be pursued by diverse treaty bodies to support effective implementation of major multilateral environmental agreements.
- GEF should be strengthened as the major financial mechanism for the global environment.
- The Secretary-General should commission an independent and authoritative assessment of the current United Nations system of international environmental governance.
Sustainable development
- A stronger partnership between UNEP (normative) and UNDP (operational) should build on their complementarities.
- Sustainable development should be mainstreamed into the work of the Economic and Social Council.
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This taskforce is headed by Switzerland and Mexico.
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This taskforce is headed by Belgium and Mali.
Two ongoing reform processes inside the United Nations have direct bearing on the work and the political realities of sustainable development.