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ChristineMarie
November 11th, 2007, 10:03 PM
Catalyst for Progress and Change - How the Millennium Declaration is changing the way the UN system works Five years have passed since world leaders adopted the Millennium Declaration, affirming both the values they considered essential to international relations in the twenty-first century and the central role of the United Nations in ensuring collective responses to global problems.

The 2005 World Summit, to be convened in New York this September, has spurred much reflection on the progress made since then.
To prepare the ground for bold action by the Summit, the Secretary-General released earlier this year In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All. His report exhorts Member States to use the Summit to strengthen the world’s system of collective security, to forge a genuinely global and multisectoral strategy for development, and to intensify efforts to secure human rights and democracy for all peoples.

Meeting thereafter in the United Nations System Chief Executives Board (CEB), the Executive Heads of all the system’s organizations expressed strong support for the overall thrust of the Secretary-General’s report and for its basic premise: the need for a comprehensive response to today’s challenges, one which addresses development, security and human rights—and their interlinkages—in a balanced way.

Since 2000 the organizations of the UN system have mobilized, individually and collectively, to help advance the Millennium Declaration’s implementation. Drawing on the “Road Map” provided by the Secretary-General towards this end (A/56/326), the CEB has devised common strategies to support intergovernmental follow-up processes and to drive effective inter-agency responses to the Millennium Declaration and related outcomes of other global conferences.

More recently, the system has begun to focus also on preparations for the forthcoming Summit. Earlier this month, a major inter-agency initiative produced a comprehensive report on the progress achieved thus far in each of the world’s regions towards the Declaration’s development objectives, The Millennium Development Goals Report 2005.

Prepared by the CEB, the present report, One United Nations—Catalyst for Progress and Change, has a complementary aim. The report’s shared reflection elaborates the work of the UN system to help governments meet all of the Declaration’s objectives and considers how to address challenges to further progress on that front. The report shows how the Declaration has brought the UN system together with a new unity of purpose and in a new spirit of cooperation and collaboration.

Much of what has transpired in the world since the Declaration’s adoption demands that we now revitalize consensus on the key challenges and priorities ahead—and that we convert that consensus into collective action. The organizations of the UN system stand together poised to adapt and intensify their efforts, with the support of Member States, and on behalf of them and their peoples, to bring the vision of the Millennium Declaration to life.

http://www.unsystemceb.org/oneun/

ChristineMarie
November 11th, 2007, 10:06 PM
Achieving an inclusive, purposeful mobilization of all resources and capacitiesDocument Actions 9. As at the national level, a determination to mobilize all resources and capacities in the most inclusive and purposeful way possible should continue to drive change within the UN system. This means a system-wide commitment to overcome fragmentation and the pursuit of narrow interests; to surmount the obstacles to policy coherence and cohesive action inherent in system structures; to integrate sectoral interventions effectively; and to launch more multidisciplinary and well sequenced responses.
10. Further action on this front must take several forms, which include: promoting the participation of all parts of the UN system, in the pattern of the global conferences; engaging parliaments and local authorities and all forces of civil society in policy development and implementation; ensuring, within and across organizations, that the system’s conceptual and standard-setting work and its country-level operational activities proceed in a mutually reinforcing manner; and achieving a much more unified system presence at the country level.

http://www.unsystemceb.org/oneun/summary/es09_10

ChristineMarie
November 11th, 2007, 10:06 PM
The way forward for the UN systemDocument Actions 4. In this report, the organizations of the UN system resolve to build “One United Nations.” Although not the only multilateral player, One United Nations could serve as a unique agent and catalyst of progress, applying its varied strengths to a common purpose. It would both support and build on regional and bilateral cooperation. It would engage in concerted effort with all actors—State and non-State—to advance synergies. Its constituent organizations would together have the ability to attract sustained political support, to formulate coherent policies and to translate those policies into coherent programmes and operations that yield concrete results. It would derive direction from a common set of goals and hold itself accountable for better results. The overall result of One United Nations, so defined, would be an international environment more conducive to progress and real change in the conditions and quality of life of peoples throughout the world.
5. Achieving One United Nations will require of the UN system specific changes in policy and in practice, similar to those that citizens increasingly demand of their governments. The report’s concluding chapter elaborates three categories of change: deepening understanding and better managing knowledge; achieving an inclusive, purposeful mobilization of all resources and capacities; and increasing transparency and accountability

http://www.unsystemceb.org/oneun/summary/es04_05

ChristineMarie
November 11th, 2007, 10:09 PM
One United Nations (Box 5.3)Document Actions Box 5.3: Report of the Panel of Eminent Persons on UN-Civil Society Relations
Given the rapidly changing international environment—particularly the spread of social movements accompanying the information revolution—the Panel of Eminent Persons on UN-Civil Society Relations called for the United Nations to become more attuned and responsive to citizens’ concerns and enlist greater public support. The report of the Panel, entitled “We the Peoples: Civil Society, the United Nations and Global Governance” (A/58/817 and Corr.1, June 2004), outlined a set of proposals for enhancing civil society engagement covering four main areas: ensuring the United Nations became an outward looking organization; connecting “the local with the global”; helping strengthen democracy in the twenty-first century; and embracing a plurality of constituencies. The report advocated a paradigm shift in how the UN works, calling on the Organization to foster "multi-constituency" processes that incorporate into its work the perspectives and capacities of citizen groups, policy advocates, businesses, local governments and parliamentarians.


Noting that the proposals of the Panel aim to strengthen the United Nations, enrich intergovernmental debate and improve the services it provides to the world's people, the Secretary-General endorsed the report and called for greater involvement by civil society in the work of the Organization. The Secretary-General suggested that the contribution of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in intergovernmental bodies be built into the General Assembly's regular business and called for improving the UN Secretariat's dialogue with NGOs, including by giving them easier access to information and documentation.

http://www.unsystemceb.org/oneun/boxes/0503