UN Country Team Concept Paper

ONE UNITED NATIONS IN MOZAMBIQUE

December 2006

The overall goal of the One UN Initiative in Mozambique is to improve programme delivery and results through a more coherent, better coordinated, funded and managed UN. This overall goal will guide all decisions taken by the UNCT to move this agenda forward.

A VISION OF ONE UN IN MOZAMBIQUE

Under the overall leadership of the Government of Mozambique and the Resident Coordinator, the UN system in Mozambique aims at delivering tangible development results as one team through the implementation of one country-owned and relevant UN programme. This programme includes all UN system entities, members of the UN Country team as well as non-resident agencies. It is implemented within the context of one budget framework and common premises as appropriate, in close cooperation with other international development partners and national partners, including civil society organizations. This ongoing process towards One UN in Mozambique is to be implemented over the coming two to three years.

For the last few years, the UN in Mozambique has been moving towards better coordination and increased alignment. This process has incrementally moved forward with efforts to effectively reposition the UN in the changing aid environment of Mozambique. This process needs, however, to accelerate in line with the recommendations of the TCPR (2004), the Excom Principals Retreat (July 2005) and the Report of the Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel (November 2006).

This paper reviews the progress made and the current situation of the UNCT vis-à-vis the UN Reform agenda and describes the next steps needed towards One UN in Mozambique. The Prime Minister’s leadership in the Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on UN System-Wide Coherence, provides an opportunity for the UNCT to accelerate further progress. The Prime Minister has also explicitly expressed how warmly the possibility of a joint office is welcomed and she is convinced, based on her own experience with the donors´ coordination under the Direct Budget Support that improved UN coordination will result in enhanced United Nations impact. The overall guiding principle is to maximize the effectiveness and results of the UN in Mozambique in order to maximize its contribution to accelerating progress towards achieving the MDGs.

CURRENT STATUS OF THE REFORM PROCESS OF THE UN IN MOZAMBIQUE

The UN System in Mozambique comprises of eight agencies (FAO, UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, WHO) with physical in-country presence, a UNAIDS Secretariat and with 11 other agencies (IFAD, ILO, OCHA, UNDESA, UNIDO, UNIFEM, UN-Habitat, UNHCHR, UNODCP, UNCDF, UNV) covering Mozambique from other countries, regional offices or Headquarters. The UN system in Mozambique has viewed the evolving aid environment as an opportunity to initiate reflection at the country level on the future role of the UN in the new General/Direct Budget Support (GBS/DBS) environment, and to expedite the implementation of the UN Reform, joint programming modalities and the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. It is therefore very important to place the One UN Initiative in the framework of the ongoing efforts and initiatives in Mozambique.

Re-positioning of the UN

The rapidly evolving development assistance environment in Mozambique, with an increased focus on GBS and sector wide funding, has provided the UN family with an opportunity to accelerate UN Reform activities at country level. In 2005, the UNCT organized a series of internal consultations, including a UN Regional Seminar on DBS, interacted closely with bilateral development partners and donors, expanded its technical partnership with the World Bank, provided support to the ScanTeam mission commissioned by the Norwegian Ministry of Cooperation to assess the role of the UN in the changing environment, organized a High Level Joint Mission on Harmonization and Simplification (composed of high level representatives of Norway, Sweden, DFID, the World Bank and UNAIDS), and supported the meeting of the High Level Panel on System Wide Coherence in Mozambique.

The process has brought the UN Country Team closer together and allowed the UN to act as one family and speak with one voice, building blocks towards multi-sectoral technical support, upstream and downstream, on an emergency as well as on a longer term development basis. The UNCT has identified seven areas where the UN has a comparative advantage (see below). The UNCT believes that the UN has a greater role to play with, for and closer to the Government in the new environment because of its neutrality, impartiality, regulatory/normative role, technical expertise, more general expertise in capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, provision of services, enhancing the voice of the civil society, sudden onset emergency and ability to create and nourish partnerships. There are also increased efforts by the UN to play a pro-active role in upstream policy dialogue under the Joint Review process of the PARPA and through the Development Partners Group (DPG) co-chaired by the UNRC and the WB Country Director. The UNCT has moved forward in engaging more proactively in the SWAp and the Programme Aid Partnerhsip (PAP) Working Groups, taking on convening roles in the sectors (for Health, HIV/AIDS, Gender, Education, Agriculture and Rural Development, Poverty Analysis and Monitoring Systems)

Harmonization and Alignment – Implementation of the Paris Declaration

Progress has been made to align UN planning, monitoring and evaluation tools and coordination mechanisms with those of the Government and other development partners. The establishment of the Working Group on implementation of the Paris Declaration, including donors and the UN, under the chairpersonship of the RC has helped in the implementation of various activities to improve harmonization and alignment and to coordinate the monitoring of joint commitments: the merging of the UN and EU project databases, sector alignment of MoUs and the mapping of all ongoing Paris Declaration activities to identify gaps and initiate a systematic mechanism to monitor progress in harmonization and alignment activities. Having also recognised that its annual planning and M&E cycle are not aligned with that of the Government, the UNCT decided to fully align with the Government’s annual planning cycle, starting with the elaboration of the AWP for 2008 in May 2007 (i.e. when the 2008 PES is developed) rather than in December 2007.

Harmonization of the new PRSP/PARPA and UNDAF

The preparation of the country’s second poverty reduction strategy (PARPA II, 2006-2009) took place concurrently with the elaboration of the third generation of the CCA/UNDAF (2007-2009). The UNCT decided to align the UNDAF with the PARPA, both in terms of content and cycle and to use the PARPA and MDG Report as the basis for developing the UNDAF. The UNCT also agreed upon a strategic and well-coordinated participation in the development of the PARPA. This exercise was conducted through 22 Working Groups. A UN PARPA II Task Force analyzed the working groups´ activities, identified the groups/areas most relevant for the UN and selected lead and associate agencies, representing all of the UN, to participate in the targeted groups. It was envisaged that this approach would also address the concern raised by many bi-lateral donors that the UN Agencies are too diverse in their scope of intervention and sometimes overrepresented in various donor fora. The result is a national document with a strong pro-poor poverty reduction focus and extensive mainstreaming of human rights, HIV/AIDS, gender and other UN core values supporting clearly defined national targets that are in line with the MDGs.

THE FOUR PILLARS OF ONE UNITED NATIONS IN MOZAMBIQUE

ONE LEADER

The country team has made progress in the implementation of the One Leader concept. The RC is recognized by all heads of agencies as the team leader. For all UN related issues, activities, or events, or even for Agency specific activities which have broader UN relevance, the UN speaks with one voice through the RC or through a Head of agency, on behalf of the whole team. The recruitment in 2006 of a UN communication officer, working in close collaboration with agencies communication officers, also contributes to coordinating the UN voice in Mozambique. The appointment in 2006 of a UNDP Country Director as manager of UNDP´s day-to-day operations also aims to strengthen the RC system, allowing the RC to focus on UN-wide issues. With reference to Annex C in the UNDGO’s report from the Joint Office Retreat on 12 May 2006, on possible scenarios for typologies, Type D with a Unified UN representation, separate Agency Representatives and Offices seems to be the ideal set-up for Mozambique.

The country team has already contributed to strengthening the Resident Coordinator´s Office by establishing critical functions, funding some of them through cost-sharing and supporting the RC in mobilizing funds with the local donor community. For example, a M&E officer and a national disaster management officer will be recruited with funding provided locally by the UNCT and the donor community. Further funding from the UNDGO is required in order to expand the scope of the functions of the RCO.

The introduction of the 180 degrees assessment in 2007 as a peer review mechanism may also contribute to building the country team.

While many of the details for the operationalizing of the concept of an "empowered RC" are yet to be defined as part of the new RC accountability framework and recommendations of the High Level panel, including pending legal issues to be sorted out at inter-agency and intergovernmental levels, the Mozambique country team supports the strengthening of the RC system in a practical way. Specifically, the RC will take the lead for common issues that require the UN family to speak with one voice, and have common position and views. UN Agency Representatives will continue to lead agency specific representation in-country, and the UN family will work to identify opportunities where clustering of representation might increase efficiency and effectiveness in achievement of results.

ONE PROGRAMME

The UN Team in Mozambique, in collaboration with the Government and partners, has recently finalized the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2007-2009. The 2007-2009 UNDAF, as the core One UN programme in Mozambique, represents a significant improvement in comparison to the first two UNDAFs by outlining the measurable results of the UN and clearly delineating the complementary roles and contributions of each Agency. It is more country-owned, both in substance and cycle, with the national development framework. It builds on the country assessment conducted by the Government and is more strategic, focused and results-based. All UNDAF outcomes/outputs involve at least two, preferably three or more UN agencies – single UN Agency activities are not included. The development of the UNDAF has brought the country team closer together and has also promoted joint programming and the beginning of joint programmes.

The UNDAF delineates seven areas where the UN can add value to policy dialogue and advocacy or programme implementation:

 Advocacy for UN core values, including human rights, gender equality, human security and the Millennium Development Goals.  Normative and technical advisory support, setting standards and ensuring quality control, in addition to providing technical advice according to the agencies´ respective mandates.  Strengthening of national capacity at both central and decentralised levels, particularly strengthening Government capacity to deliver the additional resources channeled from DBS through the State Budget.  Support to national scale-up of evidence-based programmes.  Support to national humanitarian response in sudden onset emergencies.  Bringing the voice of the civil society to the table.  Building partnerships between all stakeholders.

For the UNCT in Mozambique to advance further as One Programme, the following steps should take place:

1) Focus on effectively implementing the ambitious UNDAF including:

 the establishment of the Monitoring and Evaluation working group, chaired by the RC and supported by a M&E professional and jointly developed and commonly agreed M&E mechanisms, aligned with national M&E processes..

 the building blocks for joint programming include the designing of various joint programmes (e.g. Prevention of HIV/AIDS, Poverty Monitoring, Millennium Villages).  the implementation of the UN joint HIV/AIDS team programme

 annual review of progress towards the expected results and based on this analysis, planning for the following year.

2) Develop an UNDAF PLUS by April 2007 in order to capture the diversity of UN interventions, especially from the specialized and non-resident agencies as well as transboundary and regional integration issues that are not currently captured well in the UNDAF. It will also be a contribution to the development of the next UNDAF, which should capture as much as possible the diversity of the UN contribution while being as strategic and focused as possible.

3) Further align UN programming and planning with Government planning and budgeting, notably by moving forward UN planning to May and having one annual review with Government, rather than several, from 2007 onwards. In order for the UN contributions to be on budget, annual work plans (AWPs) between the respective UN agency and Government Ministry have to be approved by end June. AWPs for 2008 will therefore be signed in June 2007.

4) Develop the One Country Programme for the next programming cycle, depending on the Government cycle of the next Five Year Plan, which is still to be determined. This programme will capitalize on the lessons learned from the preparation and implementation of the 2007-2009 UNDAF, of UNDAF PLUS, and of joint programmes. It should lead to the development of a single Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP), as continuing to have distinct, stand-alone” country programmes would defeat the whole purpose of One Programme.

ONE BUDGETARY FRAMEWORK

While most of the details of this component of the One UN have to be agreed at the Headquarters level, at the country level the UNCT has already taken steps for a joint Resource Mobilization Strategy using the UNDAF (2007-2009) as the reference document. Funding gaps in Other Resources have been identified and contacts with HQs are advanced for a Joint HQs Support for mobilizing resources for the Mozambique UNDAF.

COMMON PREMISES AND SERVICES

The UN system in Mozambique has been exploring the possibility of having common premises for the last ten years at least, examining various options with the Government and even with the private sector. The donors in Mozambique have also supported the idea. The UNCT has recently reconfirmed its commitment in principle to common premises, as a way of promoting a more unified presence at the country level, reducing costs, and building closer ties among UN staff. Cost-effectiveness for UN organizations should, however, be the leading principle for eventual decision regarding common premises Most recent contacts with the UNDG Working Group on Common Premises and Services highlighted the need to recruit a project manager to support the OMT for managing the process, including reviewing agency requirements, performing a cost benefit analysis, and writing a full proposal on the option that is most viable. The WG will also take full account of the spirit of the report of the HLP in this regard.The aim of the UNCT is to finalize the steps of proposal development, site identification, decision-making process and funding arrangements by June 2007 and, possibly, if the common premises option confirmed as cost-effective and appropriate, to start implementation immediately afterwards. Several sites have already been considered and recently the possibility of using the WFP compound – owned by WFP – have been put on the table. While this is still in its very initial phase, this option seems very attractive and feasible.

Harmonization of business practices, systems and procedures may yield equally as important benefits in working together. At country level, the UNCT is also exploring the possibility of establishing joint offices at the decentralized level, with other agencies joining WFP and FAO in their decentralized ofices, as may be required.

In the context of the UN Reform, the UN in Mozambique has made progress in coming together on a number of fronts not only to achieve economies of scale but also to reduce transaction costs of its processes and increase its effectiveness. For example, the UNCT now has a common security system with clear lines of accountability. In addition, a joint UN travel service has been selected, preferred UN hotel rates obtained and favorable banking services have been agreed upon. Cost saving, if any, should be verified after one year of operations. The ICT infrastructure and services have also been upgraded.

Progress is also being made in the preparation of the Harmonized Cash Transfer Modality (HACT) and it is expected that the roll-out will commence in 2007.

Further progress can be made if some corporate inter-agency commitments and agreements are reached at HQ level. This is especially true in the areas of standardizing and harmonizing IT, financial and accounting procedures, human resource management and procurement.

In the area of procurement, for those activities remaining under the direct responsibility of the UN, the specialized procurement activities (e.g. drugs, agricultural inputs, etc.) will remain for the time being under the specific UN agencies having the necessary expertise. But for administrative goods, the UNCT will examine the potential for establishing a Joint Procurement System in the future. THE ROAD MAP

Key Principles

The operationalization of the One UN in Mozambique will be based on the following key principles:

 maximising results and impact while minimising transaction costs should guide the reform process  full commitment and ownership by the Government  real UNCT leadership, pro-activity and staff participation  continuous consultations with the donor community  resolve to build on country UN Reform experience and seize the opportunity of the new momentum  full commitment and support to this country driven initiative by the RD Team and Headquarters, including to ensure sustained funding for the RC system in Mozambique (RC Office and functioning).

Key preparatory activities (November 2006- February 2007)

. Development of the UN joint position and concept paper . High Level Consultations of UNCT with Government . Establish national partners and & UNCT Task Force/Steering Committee . Agency briefings of staff . Consultation with the Development Partners Group (DPG) . Establishment of Working Groups - Programme, Common Services, Common Premises, etc. . Finalisation of Roll-out Workplan . Development of proposal for longer term funding mechanism for RCO . Development of Resource Mobilisation Strategy for the UNDAF 2007-2009 and UNDAF Plus with support from Headquarters

Key milestones

. Finalization of UNDAF PLUS 2007 . Capacity gap analysis for achievement of UNDAF results (within UN and partners) 2007 . Development of a Common Premises Proposal 2007 . Sustained funding mechanism in place for RC system 2007 . Establishment of ”Model M: Mozambique” 2008 . Development of a Common Programme* . Board Approval of Common Programme . Move to Common Premises 2009 . Development of Common CPAP . Implementation of Common Programme

* Exact timeframe for development and finalisation of the Common Programme is dependent on cycle for development of the next Government PRS/National Plan.

Acronyms and Abbreviations:

AWP – Annual Workplan CCA – Common Country Assessment CPAP – Country Programme Action Plan DFID – Department for International Development EU – European Union FAO – Food and Agriculture Organization GBS/DBS – General/Direct Budget Support HACT – Harmonized Cash Transfer HIV/AIDS – Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome IFAD – International Fund for Agricultural Development ILO – International Labour Organization MDG – Milleniun Development Goals M&E – Monitoring & Evaluation OCHA – Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs SWAp – Sector Wide Approach TCPR – Triannual Compreensive Policy Review PARPA – Poverty Reduction Strategy PAP – Programme Aid Partnership PES – Economic and Social Plan RC – Resident Coordinator UN – United Nations UNAIDS – Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS UNCDF – UN Capital Development Fund UNCT – United Nations Country Team UNDAF – UN Development Assistance Framework UNDESA – UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs UNDGO – UN Development Group Organization UNDP – UN Development Programme UNFPA – UN Population Fund UNESCO – UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNHCHR – UN High Commission for Human Rights UNHCR – Office of the UN High Commisioner for Refugees UNICEF – UN Children’s Fund UNIDO – UN Industrial Development Organization UNIFEM – UN Development Fund for Women UNDCP – UN Drug Control Programme UNV – UN Volunteers WFP – World Food Programme WHO – World Health Organization