What is UNSIA?

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What is UNSIA?

BACKGROUND

Rational and Goals of the UNSIA

The United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa (UNSIA) was designed to rationalize United Nations assistance to Africa, including that of the Bretton Woods institutions, through more effective coordination, synergistic actions, capacity building and by facilitating genuine partnerships.

With the successful adoption of political and economic reforms in an increasing number of countries the mood of optimism was spreading. Despite encouraging results however, poverty is still pervasive. The spread of HIV/AIDS, displacement from civil conflicts, disruption of livelihoods, prolongation of human suffering and scarce resources for development, all contribute to the intractability of poverty.

The UNSIA was therefore launched first, to help Africa help itself and second, to ensure that the United Nations system’s commitment to support Africa’s development efforts was sustained in a comprehensive and coherent manner. A number of problems were associated with the launch. First, early skepticism arose from claims of insufficient consultation throughout Africa and among major donor partners, hence African ownership was doubted. Second, the $25 billion announcement at the time of the launch sent mixed messages as to how the Special Initiative will generate additional resources, particularly in light of declining ODA and scarce investment flows. Third, in the absence of a clear intergovernmental legislative framework, misperceptions that the UNSIA was conceived to undermine UN-NADAF, further disparaged the credibility of the new Initiative. Implementation has, therefore, sought to overcome these difficulties in the years since the launch, recognizing however that a ten-year process must be framed in reality.

IMPLEMENTATION

African leadership and ownership

In addressing the root causes of problems facing the continent, the UNSIA seeks to reinforce visionary African leadership, empower people, revalidate African development priorities set out in the 1995 Cairo Agenda for Action and, ultimately, to build sustainable partnerships. In the context of the Special Initiative, country-driven strategies then become the primary basis for external assistance.

The joint launch of the UNSIA, involving the then Chairman and the Secretary-General of OAU, the Heads of State of Ghana and Senegal, the Vice-President of Kenya as well as the support of other senior Africans at similar events on the Continent, were a signal demonstration of African ownership. The foundation of a new partnership between Africa and the United Nations system was in early construction. One year later, African leadership support for UNSIA was formally reaffirmed, first at the level of OAU Annual Conference of Foreign Ministers, and subsequently at the June 1997 Summit, by African Heads of State and Government in Harare, Zimbabwe. The need for the involvement of CSOs and NGOs to deepen the national ownership of UNSIA is recognized. While progress to date has been limited, efforts are being made to increase the CSOs/NGOs advocacy for constituent building and strengthening of partnerships in the implementation of UNSIA priority areas.

With respect to sector priorities, Ministers of Education, as part of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), endorsed the UNSIA framework and assumed leadership for its timely implementation. Similarly, Ministers of Health reviewed the thrust of the UNSIA and confirmed its consistency with their agenda to undertake health sector reform, rendering services more accessible and affordable. Both ministerial groupings identified capacity building and broadening of consensus as crucial for effective implementation of the Special Initiative.

With the formal endorsement of the UNSIA as the implementation mechanism of UN-NADAF at the 37^th session of the Committee for Programme Coordination (CPC), African missions to the United Nations are becoming more supportive. That decision and the recent General Assembly resolution resulting from it, now provide the intergovernmental underpinning needed to enhance collaboration between the Office of the Special Coordinator for Least Developed Countries (OSCAL) and the UNSIA Secretariat. The CPC also recommended that regional cooperation and integration and economic diversification should be incorporated into UNSIA programme priorities. Discussions are underway between both organizations on how best to incorporate these activities within a joint programme of work, already in place for other priority sectors.

Sustainability of UN system commitment

The second goal of the Special Initiative is to honor the United Nations system’s commitment to support the Continent’s development efforts as reflected in its own identified priority areas, through appropriate goal-oriented country and regional programmes around which true partnerships between Africa and the international community can be built.

The March 1996 launch was unprecedented in that it brought together all Executive Heads of the United Nations Specialized agencies and organizations, including the Bretton Woods institutions, to pledge their commitment to Africa, a renewal of hope and optimism. The collaborative arrangements among United Nations Specialized agencies were defined during the fourth ACC Steering Committee meeting in Nairobi, in April 1996. The best illustrations of progress are demonstrated in countries where Government policies and strategies are clear and in those sectors where coordinating agencies have provided determined and creative leadership:

World Bank overall commitment to UNSIA and collaborative leadership with UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF and WHO of cluster coordination in education and health, have resulted in greater programme coordination, holding out the promise for additional resources. Work plans for fifteen countries with low enrolment rates at primary education levels are being finalized. This will pave the way for tangible progress towards dramatic improvement of low enrolment rates in those countries;

ECA and UNDP leadership in governance is geared to improve coordination arrangements and reinforce resource mobilization strategies for those countries that are participating in the annual Africa Governance Forum. Fourteen countries participated in the first Forum in Addis Ababa in July 1997 and another sixteen are expected to attend the next Forum in mid-1998. Governments of Switzerland and Norway have already pledged their support for the organization of the Forum. The European Commission and the Government of the Netherlands are considering to provide additional funding;

ECA leadership in Harnessing Information Technology for Development (HITD) has resulted in the agreement that African Information Society Initiative (AISI) becomes the implementation framework for HITD. With greater awareness, utilization of information technology, Internet connectivity, Africa is being prepared for taking advantage of the information revolution and coping with the challenges of globalization;

IMF and the World Bank association of HIPC with UNSIA creates an added forum for ventilation of the issues surrounding debt;

UNIDO’s support for the Alliance for Africa’s Industrialization, of which the Plan of Action was endorsed by the Conference of African Ministers in Ghana mid- 1997, further strengthened the integration of this priority sector within the UNSIA, an unambiguous commitment to partnership in Africa.

With the clarification that all African countries are entitled to participate in the Special Initiative, regardless of the stage of development, resources for upstream capacity-building activities are now becoming available. Cluster consultations and two technical working group meetings in Addis Ababa (March 1997) and in New York (September 1997), have made more explicit the extent to which policy and programme impediments need to be overcome before countries can begin to access resource flows from Sector Investment Programmes (SIPs). Resources from the World Bank (Norwegian Trust Fund) and UNDP Support for Policy and Programme Development (SPPD), are now becoming important sources for addressing upstream capacity-building needs for many African countries, facilitating experience sharing and promoting regional activities. Those countries with low primary education enrolment rates will be the first beneficiaries of these funds. Similar arrangements are being examined for the health sector.

Progress at the country-level is widely viewed as the primary measure of determining the added value of the UN Special Initiative. UN country team retreats in Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique and Togo, led by Resident Coordinators, have been helpful in defining the best ways to harmonize programming instruments and reporting requirements. While the common objective of these retreats was to take stock of the status of UNSIA implementation, discuss and resolve a number of issues and reach agreement and/or expand understanding on how to move forward, each was tailored to the country-specific needs as agreed by the UN country team. Those country-specific objectives included support for capacity building in implementation of SIPs in Ethiopia; building broad-based coalitions among the Government, donors, United Nations system and other partners in support of UNSIA and strengthening the Country Strategy Note (CSN) process in Ghana; and emphasis on the search for a strategy to deepen dialogue with the Government on the finalization of the Common Country Assessment (CCA) in Mozambique. In Togo, the main objective was to agree on the formulation and implementation of a joint UN system programme of support to the National Programme for Poverty Eradication. Participation of Government (Ethiopia and Ghana), donors (Ghana and Mozambique) and NGOs (Ghana), has set the pattern for other retreats being planned. Effective linking of UNSIA to existing, or planned, programming instruments was a constant preoccupation of participants, for example with the CSN (approved for Ghana, Mozambique and Togo), the CCA and Country Cooperation Framework (in draft for Ghana, Ethiopia and Mozambique), and the UNDAF pilot exercise. Although not specifically linked to the UNSIA, greater UN country team collaboration is also evident in Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Senegal and Zimbabwe, in most instances aiming at achieving the goals of the UN Special Initiative.

Support by bilateral donors for primary education in Senegal and Mozambique, resulted directly from consultations and agreements in the context of the Special Initiative. In Senegal, with the active collaboration of UNESCO, UNDP and the World Bank, France is leading the process of programmed support for Government efforts to overcome policy impediments. For instance the issue of accommodating the cost of teacher’s salaries within macro-economic framework is being addressed and will eventually contribute to greater resource flows through Sector Investment Programmes. Similarly, resource mobilization efforts in Mozambique led to a consultation on education hosted by UNESCO in Paris. Bilateral donors’ support was critical in assisting Government efforts to place primary education within macro-economic framework. These two examples are now being modeled by Zimbabwe, as authorities have requested the Resident Coordinator to liaise with UNESO for a similar consultation on education sector strategy scheduled to be held on 9-10 March 1998.

Fourteen countries, (Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo and Uganda), presented governance programme frameworks at the first Africa Governance Forum (AGF I) in Addis Ababa, in July 1997. Representatives of civil society, the OAU, donors and the UN system participated. Sixteen countries, (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mauritania, Mali, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) have been invited to the second Forum (AGF II) planned for June 1998 in Accra, and positive responses have been received from eight so far. While the first AGF discussed a wide-ranging agenda, the 1998 consultation, will focus on the theme of "accountability and transparency". In preparation for this event, national consultations are being planned, involving participation of as many stakeholders as possible. An organizational group including representatives of Ghana, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland, the Global Coalition for Africa, Transparency International, the World Bank and UNDP (MDGD and Africa), met on 10 February and agreed on plans for AGF II. Civil Society Organizations with track records in "accountability and transparency" issues will be invited to AGF II.

UN system delivery on its commitment to support the Special Initiative has been somewhat uneven. There are clear indications as shown above, that progress is made in several areas but information is lacking on implementation progress of some other priority areas such as: water, food security, trade and poverty eradication. Cluster consultations, joint work programmes, information exchanges and reporting are therefore of limited value. The goal of identifying synergies and therefore benefiting from the collective efforts of the UN system, is yet to be fully achieved. The adoption of a common communication and information strategy could assist in overcoming these challenges.

Donor Support

Positive signals of donor support of the UNSIA have been given during the G-7 meeting in Lyon 1996 and the Tidewater meeting in Japan 1997, as well as in several intergovernmental discussions, including those during the CPC in June 1997 and at the special session of the Security Council on Africa in September 1997. Further efforts are being pursued to translate these signals into concrete actions linking the Special Initiative with other initiatives, such as TICAD and OECD/DAC. In this way partnerships with Africa could be considerably enhanced and additional resources mobilized from the donor community in a more coordinated manner. This is even more important in light of the considerable decrease in the overall flow of ODA to African countries in the past years.

UNSIA and UNDAF

Important goals of the UNSIA include promotion of UN agency coordination and collaboration, enhanced harmonization in support of national priorities, lowered transaction costs, improved aid effectiveness and increased efficiency in the utilization of UN system’s resources. The new system-wide programming instrument, the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), designed to facilitate reform of the United Nations, though in its early stages, provides an opportunity to strengthen coordination and collaboration at country levels. The synergy between the goals of the Special Initiative and the strategic vision that governs UNDAF needs to be fully exploited. Initial work in ten pilot countries in Africa (Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, South Africa, and Zimbabwe), is a practical demonstration of how the United Nations country team harmonizes its efforts under the collegial leadership of the United Nations Resident Coordinator. Commonality of objectives between UNSIA and UNDAF, such as collaborative programming, are beginning to take shape but will need to be tested and implemented, particularly in those priority areas of the Special Initiative that have made significant progress to date, keeping in mind major UN conference goals.

Gender and population mainstreaming

Although it was agreed during the April 1996 ACC Steering Committee meeting that the crosscutting issues of gender and population should be fully integrated in all UNSIA priority areas, progress has not been discernible. At the Addis Ababa Technical Working Group (TWG) meeting, UNFPA called attention to the need for gender-desegregated data analysis and gender-focused training as essential steps for realizing gender-related goals. Similarly, the Ethiopia UN country team retreat recommended that gender focal points within each UN entity should incorporate UNSIA implementation in their agendas. Discussions involving the UNSIA Secretariat, UNIFEM, UNDP Africa and the ECA Africa Women’s Centre, are beginning to yield some progress and a work plan for gender mainstreaming within the UNSIA is being developed. UNFPA is preparing an action plan on population, to be presented to the ACC Steering Committee meeting.

Communication strategy and information dissemination

It has long been agreed that reliable information, generated and disseminated at predictable intervals, revealing best practices, or approaches to problem solving, will be of tremendous value in building the credibility of the UN Special Initiative. A common communication strategy has been deemed essential for effective political mobilization, African ownership, donor support and internalization within the UN system. All stakeholders will need to be fully involved, from conceptual stages through implementation, taking full advantage of relevant information technology. Publishing of a Newsletter, Africa Recovery periodic coverage, establishing and maintaining system-wide UNSIA-specific web sites, are important elements in this communication strategy.

THE WAY FORWARD

On 9 February 1998, the UNSIA Secretariat organized a retreat, co-chaired by the UNDP Administrator and the ECA Executive Secretary. The main objective of this retreat was to assess progress and put forward recommendations for the spring session of ACC and the seventh ACC Steering Committee meeting. Participants included representatives of coordinating and cooperating agencies of those Special Initiative priority-goals where marked progress is being reported, Resident Coordinators who led UN country team retreats and consultants with long and distinguished experience on Africa’s development. The retreat agenda enumerated positive developments and sought to place outstanding challenges in a manageable perspective. While acknowledging progress as set out in the preceding sections, the main challenges for the Special Initiative revolve around identifying in a convincing manner its added value, resource additionality in light of declining ODA and marginal investment flows for Africa, mainstreaming within the UN system, and building sustainable partnerships for Africa utilizing the Special Initiative as one vehicle. The retreat reached agreement on the conclusions and recommendations given below.

Concentrate maximum efforts in the near term on those areas where demonstrative results have been achieved under UNSIA, moving forward as rapidly as possible in areas of strength where a platform for further success has been build. The goals of UNSIA should be to build ambitious and substantive partnerships. The ingredients for such partnerships should include national leadership, national ownership, the demand driven nature of UNSIA, effective UN system support at country levels and demonstrated leadership of coordinating agencies. Based on these criteria and after careful review of progress achieved, a concentration around education, health, governance, harnessing information technology for development, gender and population have been suggested. This proposal will be discussed at the seventh ACC Steering Committee meeting.

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