Launched in 2006, the “One UN” pilot initiative is being formally tested in eight countries to see how the United Nations family – with its numerous and diverse agencies – can deliver results in a more coordinated fashion at the country level.

The objective is to ensure faster and more effective development operations and accelerate progress to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and other internationally-agreed sustainable development goals – in short, a UN development system that delivers more and better for the poorest and most disadvantaged.

“Delivering as One” (DaO) is based upon the four pillars of “oneness”: having One Programme jointly signed between the UN and the host government; One Leader and Team via the UN Resident Coordinator and the UN Country Team; One Budgetary Framework to monitor the UN expenditures and fund-raising within the country; and One Office, sharing the same premises to cut on costs and foster inter-agency cooperation.

DaO has brought together partner countries, donors and UN country teams with fresh energy, momentum and a greater sense of common purpose. By strongly encouraging the eight pilot country teams— Albania, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Pakistan, Rwanda, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay and Viet Nam – to implement reforms and by giving them broad latitude to innovate and experiment with ways of working together as one UN team, the DaO initiative has tested a number of different ways of working together differently.

The eight pilot countries as well as any other countries that became “self-starters” regularly participate to a series of high-level intergovernmental conferences on Delivering as One, to discuss the various challenges each country has faced and how they have elected to respond to these challenges. The last such conference was held in Tirana, Albania in June 2012.

Following a request from the Albanian Government to the United Nations, Albania was selected as one of eight countries around the world to pilot UN efforts to Deliver as One UN in January 2007. In June 2009, the Government and UN in Montenegro chose to become a “self-starter” following the Delivering as One methodology.  Other countries in the region and around the world are also considering utilizing this innovative methodology and tailoring it to the needs of their specific circumstances.

The goal of the Integrated UN Programme and Budgetary Framework for Montenegro is to enhance development by combining the relative expertise and resources of various UN organizations operating in the country into one cohesive framework. It builds upon existing national strategies for development and was developed in consultation with the Government and civil society partners.

The Integrated UN Programme has 3 strategic programme pillars: Social Inclusion, Democratic Governance and Sustainable Economic Development & Environmental Protection (SEDEP). In all three areas, the core principles of human rights, gender equality and national capacity development are upheld and incorporated.

The first phase of the Integrated UN Programme ran from 2009-2011; a second phase of the Integrated UN Programme is ongoing from 2012-2013.

To complement the work of the UN in Montenegro, a UN Country Fund was established, designed to maximize the effectiveness of the UN system in Montenegro by pooling un-earmarked non-core resources into a common fund. This ensures support for top national strategic priorities, as defined by the Integrated UN Programme and Budgetary Framework.