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  1. What We Do
  2. Guiding Operational Activities for Development

Guiding Operational Activities for Development

George Wilfred Talbot (right), Permanent Representative of Guyana to the UN and Chair of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) for the General Assembly’s sixty-seventh session, addresses the Committee's meeting on the quadrennial comprehensive policy review of UN system operational activities for development. At left is Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

Each year, ECOSOC’s Operational Activities for Development Segment reviews UN policies, including the implementation of the General Assembly’s quadrennial comprehensive policy review, that guides the UN family of development funds and programmes. The UN Development Programme, the UN Children’s Fund, WFP, UN Women and many similar entities work directly with countries around the world in making progress on all dimensions of sustainable development.

ECOSOC provides overall guidance for these entities, recognizing that poverty eradication and sustainable development issues are complex and interrelated, and the most effective responses are well coordinated. Governing boards of each entity manage their operations and they report to ECOSOC. The Council provides guidance on system wide issues. The process encourages the participation of national officials directly involved in national development strategies, as well as field-level UN representatives.

Recently, under ECOSOC resolution 2014/14, Member States requested an ECOSOC Dialogue on the longer-term positioning of the UN development system to feed into the preparations for the next QCPR resolution for 2016-2019, towards ensuring a UN development system that is fit to deliver on the ambitions of the post-2015 development agenda “.

Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review

ECOSOC and General Assembly policies for the UN development system are reviewed every four years in the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review, or QCPR. The process allows the General Assembly to evaluate UN effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and impact in helping developing countries meet their sustainable development needs. It issues updated guidelines based on these findings.

The UN Secretary-General leads the preparation for QCPR, including through background analysis based on consultations with governments and UN organizations. The most recent review took place in 2012, culminating in General Assembly resolution 67/226. It is considered a historic step forward, featuring an unprecedented commitment to coordination across the UN system.