UNDP in Tanzania

One UN system

A United Vision: Working Together as One in Tanzania

Tanzania is facing a unique opportunity as one of eight pilot countries of the United Nations (UN) reform. The aim of the reform initiative is for the UN as an organisation to achieve better results with its work in Tanzania by ‘Delivering as One’. The UN must become more effective and efficient through closer collaboration and coordination both internally, among the UN agencies, and externally with government, civil society, private sector and development partners.

The ‘Delivering as One’ concept derives from the report of the same name, which was issued in November 2006 by the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on System-wide Coherence. The Secretary-General appointed this Panel in 2005 to look into ways in which the UN can become a better partner to governments and people around the world. Among their practical recommendations was the setting up of ‘One UN’ at country level, which is what Tanzania is piloting in 2007- 2011. With One UN leader, One UN programme, One UN budgetary framework and One office, the UN in Tanzania expects to deliver better results that make a difference in the lives of the poor and most vulnerable.

The Government requested Tanzania to become a UN reform pilot country, and in January 2007, the UN Headquarters in New York endorsed the request. Since then, the Government and the UN have been working closely together to find out how the reform initiative can best be put into practice in Tanzania.

The UN in Tanzania provides development aid and humanitarian assistance to support the country’s efforts to reduce poverty and human suffering. Ensuring respect for human rights, as outlined in the Millennium Declaration, and reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is key to the UN’s agenda in Tanzania.

The UN in Tanzania is represented by 20 agencies. Their work is guided by the Charter of the UN (1945) and its core values of peace, human rights, justice, and freedom. From these common principles, UN agencies work in different areas of responsibility, such as promoting the rights and welfare of women, children and refugees and supporting democratic governance

The UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), reflects how the 20 UN agencies active in the country plan to reach their objectives. The current UNDAF for Tanzania covers the period 2007 to 2010 and is based on the national growth and poverty reduction strategies, known by their Swahili names: MKUKUTA for the mainland plan and MKUZA for the Zanzibar equivalent. The UN reform initiative in Tanzania is developed on the basis of the UNDAF and thus also aligned to national strategies.

United Nations Development Assistance Plan (UNDAP)

The Government of the United Republic of Tanzania and the United Nations country management team agreed that for the July 2011 to June 2015 period, the United Nations in Tanzania will develop a single United Nations Development Assistance Plan (UNDAP). This plan is to capture the entire range of activities supported by the United Nations in Tanzania, including Zanzibar.

It integrates the requirements of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) with the country programme documents of four individual organizations — United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and World Food Programme (WFP) — and, particularly, with the country programme actions plans signed by the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania.

The plan builds on lessons learned from the previous UNDAF, the Delivering as One pilot, including recommendations of the Delivering as One country-led evaluation (2010). The new approach reduces duplication in planning requirements for United Nations organizations and partners.

It provides a collective, coherent and strategically focused plan aligned to national priorities articulated in the poverty reduction strategies for Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar: MKUKUTA II and MKUZA 2010-15 (the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty and the Zanzibar Poverty Reduction Plan). This new approach also encompasses the national response to the Millennium Development Goals, key sector planning and policy documents, and the current humanitarian situation.

The assistance plan articulates the precise contribution of the United Nations to Tanzania’s national development priorities and international commitments, thereby enhancing transparency as well as accountability to both the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania and donors. The plan systematically applies the five programming principles of gender equality, environmental sustainability, capacity development, a human-rights based approach and results-based management, and the plan mainstreams relevant cross-cutting issues. The plan reflects the recommendations of a national-level prioritization processes involving the Tanzanian Government, development partners, civil society organizations, and all resident and non-resident United Nations organizations in Tanzania.

To further simplify the programming processes of the four organizations — UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and WFP — the Tanzanian Government proposed a common country programme document to the joint meeting of the Executive Boards of UNDP/UNFPA and to UNICEF and WFP in January 2010. This document was based on the assistance plan and in lieu of organization-specific country programme documents. The Boards of UNDP/UNFPA and UNICEF approved the request at their respective June 2010 sessions on an exceptional basis.

The Bureau of the Executive Board of the WFP agreed at its 14 September 2010 meeting to align itself with the decisions of other United Nations funds and programmes with the draft programme document submitted at the Board’s first regular session of 2011, for approval at the annual session of 2011. The programme document is in line with: the United Nations Development Group (UNDG) common framework for the country programme outline and country programme document; the June 2010 decisions of the four organizations; and United Nations General Assembly resolution 64/289.

The UNDAP will be nationally executed under the overall co-ordination of Joint Government and UN Steering Committee. UNDP will make critical contributions to the UNDAP across several programmes: Economic Growth, Environment, HIV/AIDS, Governance, Emergencies and Refugees of which UNDP will take the lead in two, Governance and Environment. UNDP are also involved in all of the five UNDAP Working Groups on operations, with a lead role on three of them: Finance and Harmonized Approach to Cash Transfers (HACT), Procurement and ICT.

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