nextI know everybody frequently visits the UNDG website, to keep
abreast where UN reform has taken us, to preview the new procedures that are
waiting to be rubberstamped, and to learn about those lessons we get out of
this.
Perhaps not everyone noticed the posted lesson[1] on the
groundbreaking advances by a UN Country Team in jointly buying photocopy paper.
15,000 USD were saved. Finally, UN reform is beginning to pay off.
Since then, I have been trying to visualize the hundreds of representatives
mulling over this lesson, pondering the power of its message. But I will not
contemplate who actually reads the 45,000 USD worth of pulp still being
photocopied by the UN system in that country.
Surrealism aside. We know that the typical UN “Lesson Learned” has not been of
the sort that would quicken the pulse of any but its author. But there is a
meta-lesson to be had.
We are not going to be invited to the bigger development round-table because we
know how to save on costs of photocopy paper. We are going to be invited to the
negotiation table, if we can intelligently contribute to the discussion. If we
can produce insights that others don’t have, but want to hear about. If we can
produce the right mix of tangible, innovative and evidence-based recommendations
that will change the lives of children and people who are poor.
We might only have a couple of years left to pull together those insights,
document the body of experience from quality programmes for children, and show
the value we can add to the country-based development programming. If our
intellectual contributions will be recognized as useful to the country by the
main development partners, we will still be sitting at the table while others
are busy supplying the photocopy paper.
[1] The findings includes: “Interagency joint procurement saves money. It enhances the team spirit. External stakeholders begin to experience the "ONE UN" concept.”
(19 September 2003)
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