Resident coordinator system
The Development Coordination Office (DCO), led by an Assistant Secretary-General, was established within the United Nations Secretariat to manage and oversee the resident coordinator system. Many of its functions were inherited from the former Development Operations Coordination Office of the United Nations Development Programme.
In addition to its presence at Headquarters in New York, DCO also includes five regional offices which provide day-to-day programmatic support, policy guidance and technical support for United Nations country teams.
Structure
The resident coordinator system consists of global, regional and country-level coordination structures.[1]
- Global coordination
- Office of the Assistant Secretary-General
- RC System Business Management Branch
- RC System Leadership Branch
- Policy and Programming Branch
- Country Business Strategies Section
- Communications and Results Reporting Section
- Regional coordination
- Regional Office Africa
- Regional Office Arab States
- Regional Office Europe and Central Asia
- Regional Office Asia and Pacific
- Regional Office Latin America and Caribbean
- Country coordination
- Individual United Nations country teams
Financing
The General Assembly, in its resolution 72/279, approved the funding of the resident coordinator system on an annual basis through:
- A 1 per cent coordination levy on tightly earmarked third-party non-core contributions to United Nations development-related activities, to be paid at source;
- Doubling the current United Nations Sustainable Development Group cost-sharing arrangement among United Nations development system entities; and
- Voluntary, predictable, multi-year contributions to a dedicated trust fund to support the inception period.
The special purpose trust fund (SPTF) receives, consolidates, manages and accounts for all contributions and financial transactions of the resident coordinator system in a transparent and effective way. In 2019, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) included DCO on the Development Assistance Committee list of official development assistance (ODA)-eligible organizations as fully ODA-eligible.[2]
Proposed revised funding model
As a result of chronic funding shortfalls, the Secretary-General submitted a proposal (A/78/753) in 2024 to shift the component funded through voluntary contributions to the SPTF to assessed contributions under a new dedicated section of the programme budget.
Documents
ECOSOC reports
An annual report on the work and functioning of the Development Coordination Office is submitted by the Chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group (the Deputy Secretary-General) to ECOSOC.
| Report | Associated resolution(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| E/2024/5 | ||
| E/2023/62 | ECOSOC resolution 2023/31 | |
| E/2022/54 | ECOSOC resolution 2022/25 | |
| E/2021/55 | 3rd report on the Development Coordination Office | |
| E/2020/54 | ECOSOC resolution 2020/23 | 2nd report on the Development Coordination Office |
| E/2019/62 | ECOSOC resolution 2019/15 | 1st report on the Development Coordination Office and the resident coordinator system |
Other documents
- E/AC.51/2023/2 OIOS Evaluation of the Development Coordination Office regional support
General Assembly reports
| SG report | ACABQ report | General Assembly resolution | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A/78/753 | A/78/7/Add.46 | Proposal to shift the SPTF-funded component of the RC system to the programme budget |