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External sources (not reviewed)

The President also recalled that the States Parties have expressed satisfaction with the performance, efficiency, professional competence, responsiveness and dedication of the ISU and that there was general agreement among the Task Force members on the need to review the financing model of the ISU, in order to make it sustainable and predictable, and to achieve more equitable burden sharing.

The Executive Secretary informed the Commission about the steps the secretariat had initiated to strengthen the resultsoriented focus of its technical cooperation work, which included: (a) larger, longerterm and better aligned capacity development projects, with emphasis on improved performance through strengthened results-based management; (b) a resource mobilization strategy that provides a framework for a more proactive approach to partnerships and donor relations, and the establishment of a Partnerships and Resource Mobilization Section; (c) continued efforts to strengthen relations with partners through meetings with a number of member States and donor agencies; and (d) enhanced engagement with some private sector counterparts as partners in promoting and delivering capacity development.

It understood that the creation of appropriate and effective implementation mechanisms was at the top of the Government’s agenda and wished the country further success in promoting and protecting human rights.

The expected outcomes of the study are the formulation of recommendations on the development of a national strategy to prevent dropping out from school, on the one hand, and, on the other, greater effectiveness in implementing new curricula in order to raise the levels of learning achievements.

Agencies indicated several possible reasons for the low ratings largely due to changes in NOUs, misunderstandings about the evaluation timeframe as issues raised related to previous years, delays assigned to the agency but which were a result of data inconsistencies by the country, comments on the lead agency when the agency concerned was not the lead agency, dissatisfaction expressed on the agency’s performance that related to the funding received from the Executive Committee for the HPMP, ratings were withdrawn, comments on the hiring of national consultants when no consultants were hired or were to be hired, and delays assigned to the agency but which were the result of changes in the Government.

The Office continued to help the Organization to align its human resources capacity with emerging challenges and to support the establishment of new entities; to develop and maintain the human resources management infrastructure through policy development and information technology; to build capacity to help managers to manage and staff to function to the best of their ability, and to monitor performance; to introduce and share new ideas and good practices in human resources management; to advocate in matters relating to conditions of service and security, including in such areas as work-life issues, staff development and career opportunities; and to provide advice and administrative services to departments and offices, managers and the staff at large.

An amount of $68,800 is proposed for travel in connection with the following seminars/conferences/workshops: partnership work with the UNEP post-conflict branch to be extended to field operations; annual conference to address existing issues of contract management, performance and resolution agreement with contractors on overcoming shortfalls with respect to rations; eleventh annual plenary meeting of the United Nations Geographic Information Working Group, which focuses on GIS data sharing and technology exchange as well as development of the United Nations spatial data infrastructure; annual NATO Partnership for Peace geospatial conference for the exchange of GIS data and applications; and coordination meetings with NATO, the European Union Satellite Centre and the European Commission Joint Research Centre.

The Committee would have to consider (i) whether a country continued to be eligible for any remaining funds once a project had achieved its targets, recalling that the funding of MYAs was performance-based; (ii) if a country could continue to receive funds, what would be the required level of monitoring and reporting; and (iii) whether the implementing agency should continue to exercise financial oversight and performance verification and, if so, what would be the consequences if an agency could not do so because of administrative or legal hurdles.

Accountability includes achieving objectives and high-quality results in a timely and cost-effective manner, in fully implementing and delivering on all mandates to the Secretariat approved by the United Nations intergovernmental bodies and other subsidiary organs established by them in compliance with all resolutions, regulations, rules and ethical standards; truthful, objective, accurate and timely reporting on performance results; responsible stewardship of funds and resources; all aspects of performance, including a clearly defined system of rewards and sanctions; and with due recognition to the important role of the oversight bodies and in full compliance with accepted recommendations.

The Office of Internal Audit will focus its outputs on evaluating and improving governance, risk management and control processes by ensuring that (a) it has a clear mandate linked to organizational objectives and is supported by an independent, objective and well-functioning management structure with approved annual work plans; (b) it secures and retains the right quantity and quality of human resources in a timely manner to execute its annual work plans and fulfil its mandate; and (c) it is effective and efficient in applying (i) audit and investigation methodologies, including the use of supporting tools, technology and knowledge management approaches; (ii) operational management practices, including divisional and engagement management and performance monitoring; and (iii) quality assurance and continuous improvement.

Further efficiency gains in the travel services are expected by reducing processing time, automating statistical reports, implementing user-friendly IT tools that also ensure better data consistency, and by closely monitoring the performance of the WIPO travel agency.

These subjects included, but were not limited to: combating IUU fishing; managing fishing capacity; ecolabelling and aquaculture certification; supporting small-scale fisheries; adopting an ecosystem approach to capture fisheries and aquaculture; identification of vulnerable marine ecosystems; rebuilding of stocks; low levels of financial and human resources; pollution control; climate change; bycatch; and, where a performance review had taken place, the ongoing need to address its recommendations.

More specifically, training and coaching have been guiding staff towards more results-based rather than output-based reporting, putting further emphasis on the formulation of results that reflect the change in skills, attitudes and behaviours of the beneficiary groups; and the identification of the appropriate performance indicators and associated benchmarks that allow the measurement of progress towards the achievement of the result in a more results rather than output/process oriented manner.

Increasingly, ODA and other funding are performance- or results-based; therefore, monitoring of results constitutes a key tool for decision-making.

The Concept stipulates the switch from setting the minimal salary through Presidential Decree to its setting by Government Decision, amendment of the grades system of remuneration with the application of a 8 step gradation for employees of the production sector of economy and the Single Grades Remuneration System for the employees of the budgetary institution by setting remuneration grades for each remuneration category to ensure differentiation of employees’ remuneration according to individual performance and setting remuneration to persons with public responsibilities on the basis of monthly allowances as the only form of remuneration, state regulation of remuneration through the means of social dialogue.

The Action Plan proposes: (1) affirmative action in the recruitment and selection processes; (2) an increase in the intake of women LEAD candidates; (3) that efforts to achieve gender parity be a mandatory key result area in the performance assessment of managers; (4) career development initiatives involving leadership training and mentoring; (5) promoting mobility via initiatives such as providing spousal employment and flexible assignments; (6) the implementation of gender-focused work-life policies such as flexi-time, telecommuting and job-sharing; (7) an inter-agency gender parity network; (8) the formulation of communication and advocacy tools;( 9) the preparation of the Gender Parity Report to provide periodic monitoring, in addition to progress updates to senior management.

The following issues were addressed by UNICEF management in its response to the annual report of the Office of Internal Audit to the Executive Board for 2009: (a) the request to address, as a matter of urgency, the follow-up and implementation of audit recommendations, especially in high-risk areas; (b) the request to address systemic weaknesses, particularly in the areas of financial controls, programme management, cash transfers, and procurement and asset management, where there is a significant number of unsatisfactory ratings; and (c) the request to report on progress in improvements to strengthen risk management and controls in governance, accountabilities, oversight, guidance, support and performance in response to the results from the headquarters, systems and thematic audits completed in 2008.

These impact and performance indicators, as well as the objectives and outputs of the Results Framework that they measure, will benefit from review during the current biennium.

In the area of sport, mention should be made of the plan entitled Support for Sport, Objective Paralympics (ADOP), an initiative of the Spanish Paralympic Committee, the Higher Council for Sports and the Ministry of Health and Social Policy, aimed at providing Spanish paralympic athletes with the best possible training conditions and thus ensuring the success of the Spanish team at the Paralympic Games.

Finally, he claims that the domestic courts evaluated the facts and evidence in his case arbitrarily, and that they did not address the issue of his knowledge of the forged content of his grading card, and that this amounts to a denial of justice.

This short term decrease is not expected to be representative of future performance on the long term investments.

With regard to the Secretary-General’s overview report on human resources management reform (A/63/282), the Advisory Committee’s comments and recommendations focused on the areas of human resources planning and monitoring; career development and support; strengthening of leadership and management capacity; performance management; human resources information technology; health-care services; and staff-management relations.

The Secretariat added that compared to previous biennia, and in response to Member States’ requests, a number of improvements had been introduced to the report as follows: a summary overview of main achievements by Strategic Goal; a more succinct summary of results by program; detailed reporting on the implementation of the Development Agenda (DA) based on the improved practice introduced in 2010; a more transparent reporting on the utilization of resources; a full report for the first time on the implementation of WIPO Funds-in-Trust, containing programmatic and financial information linked to the expected results, which could be found in Appendix II; and, finally, an improved overall presentation of the report, in particular, the performance data tables.

I would also like to express our appreciation to Presidents Robinson and Byron and Prosecutors Brammertz and Jallow for their detailed reports on the work of the Tribunals (S/2011/316 and S/2011/317) and the progress achieved in and the challenges facing the implementation of the completion strategy.

The Commission had before it the subprogramme overview: Issues and challenges related to inclusive and sustainable economic and social development in Asia and the Pacific (E/ESCAP/68/2, sections I to VIII), the summary of progress in the implementation of Commission resolutions (E/ESCAP/68/3), and the programme performance report for the biennium 2010-2011 (E/ESCAP/68/INF/3).

Consequently,in2010threeofourcolleagues—from South Africa, Mexico and Ireland — provided the Council with their report (S/2010/393, annex), which tries to reflect the opposing views within the United Nations regarding the performance of the Commission.

Future software development and the provision of a range of analytical views will assist the Office to better identify and monitor protection gaps, and respond to trends in impact, performance and resource allocation.

The view was also expressed that in some instances, such as in subprogramme 5, Trade, economic cooperation and regional integration, expected accomplishment (c) and indicators of achievement (c) (i) through (c) (iii) were not realistic and measurable from the ECA point of view, since the logical framework of the subprogramme should provide a sense of what ECA is expected to achieve and how it would be able to measure its contribution, as some of the increased activity in all three indicators may be the result of the activities of other institutions (i.e., the Commonwealth or the Tokyo International Conference on African Development).