nextWhy is UNICEF perceived to be resisting UN simplification and
harmonization efforts?
UNICEF, among all UN agencies, has in all probability the most up-to-date
programme guidelines, reflecting the latest on inter-agency consensus and
harmonized procedures. UNICEF staff around the globe are among the most active
participants in inter-agency taskforces. Still, the word goes that UNICEF is the
most difficult agency when it comes to further simplifying and harmonizing
policies and procedures.
Because UNICEF has the most to lose. Our programmes and our credibility have
been the envy of many other agencies. Because our programmes are based on
time-proven policies and procedures. Our programmes have been the basis for
successful advocacy and policy change in developing countries. We don’t want to
give up our programme process unless somebody can propose something better. So
far, several important simplification and harmonization agreements have been
adoptions of UNICEF guidelines.
I am the first to cut out any unnecessary steps and bureaucracy in negotiating a
new country programme. Reduce paper. Advocate for focus. Streamline. And stress
synergies.
But there is no shortcut to good programming. There is no over-simplistic way of
turning a vision for children’s rights into a series of activities and
dollar-cheques. Especially when donors want to see results of their investment
and the comptroller is breathing down your neck. Randomly taking chunks out of
the necessary logical chain between the enthusiastic speech of the
representative and the bank-reconciliation of the finance clerk does not work.
The purpose of UN reform is to have better-planned and better-coordinated
programmes, and to transfer resources with as little red tape as the auditors
will allow. Simplification and harmonization must improve, not compromise the
quality of our assistance.
But harmonizing the programme cycles of UNICEF and the International Maritime
Organization will merely force the Ministers of Deep Sea Fishing and Education
to bore each other with their speeches during the Joint Strategy Meeting. I am
waiting for the day that the recipient countries and the donors no longer ask:
Did you harmonize? But: Are we getting better programmes?
(28 February 2003)
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