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Objectives

The project aims to ensure earlier, more coherent, effective and sustainable UN System engagement in crisis-affected countries that better leverages comparative advantages, capitalizing on recent structural reforms of the UN¡¯s development system, peace and security architecture, and management pillar; and to realign outdated system-wide policies, capacities and decision-making for more integrated, cross-pillar and ¡®whole-of-UN¡¯ analysis, planning and monitoring in crisis-affected countries, in line with the goals of the UN Program Budget and the Secretary-General¡¯s agenda.

Components

The project supports the design, implementation and mainstreaming of a strategic realignment through the conduct of:

• Independent external reviews of UN analysis and planning policies, incl. lessons learned from integrated peace operations.

• Independent external analysis of behavioural impediments and incentives for collaborative 'whole-of-UN' cross-pillar approaches to country-level programming, particularly in integrated peace operations settings.

• Participatory redesign of cross-pillar UN analysis and planning policies, including with senior and technical focal points from the field.

• Planning directives aligning the UN system on clear parameters, deliverables, timelines, roles and responsibilities in crisis-affected and fragile settings.

• Red-team exercises to ensure relevance and robustness of review findings and policy revisions.

• Quantitative analysis in support of policy reviews, ongoing operational reviews and regular risk assessments, using a broad range of internal and external data sources.

• Risk modelling and predictive analytics to support preventive action in high-risk settings.

• Qualitative analysis in support of policy reviews, ongoing operational reviews and regular risk assessments, based on structured surveys of senior leadership.

• Construction of a composite index to ensure ongoing assessment of the effectiveness of 'UN integration' in key country operations.

Main achievements

The project has successfully supported substantial progress towards improved whole-of-UN strategic planning for fragile and crisis settings between April 2021 and June 2022.

The completion of the Integration Review was a critical milestone that set the foundation for numerous implementation workstreams, including the independent review of the the Integrated Assessment and Planning, to actively improve the UN family¡¯s approach to integration. Utilizing new analytical tools, such as the integration scorecard and the composite risk indicator for risk reviews, the project has been able to systematically facilitate the incorporation of cross-pillar quantitative insights into senior discussions. This has resulted in more efficient, confident, and standardized decision-making. The project has further supported capacity-building within implementing partners, including the development of institutional memory documentation and upskilling of UN colleagues, to ensure continued impact beyond the project period.

The project also organized and delivered 24 tailored briefings to over 500 senior staff members, leadership and representatives from donor Member States to share the Integration Review findings.

The project developed and implemented 3 SG Planning Directives on Afghanistan (2 directives) and G5 Sahel to align the UN system on clear parameters, deliverables, timelines, roles, and responsibilities. Following COVID-19 protocols, hands-on virtual support, in place of physical missions, was provided to country-level transition processes in Guinea-Bissau and DR Congo and to the transition lessons-learned study in Haiti.

The project also supported 5 independent reviews on country-level UN integration and whole-of-UN effectiveness of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), UN-AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) and IEDs in Peacekeeping Operations.

Furthermore, the project supported the mapping, cataloguing, automating, and documenting of more than 100 data flows to facilitate the production of cross-pillar analytics products. During 46 assessments with project support (13 regional scans and reviews and 33 country-specific and thematic risk reviews), 3 multi-factor / composite models were leveraged to systematically identify countries with high and increasing risks over long (3-year) and short-term (6-month) periods. Separate models on COVID-19 preparedness were also incorporated in the analyses. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinators reported an average score of 8 (out of 10) for the helpfulness of these risk assessments.

Impact

The project helps build the United Nations system ability to deliver on more coherent, preventive, efficient and effective whole-of-UN engagement in conflict-affected and fragile states. Through the review, revision and monitoring of UN integration/cross-pillar assessment and planning policies, this project influences and changes how the UN re-configures itself in conflict settings to deliver on conflict response and on sustaining prevention. Additionally, this project contributes to critical debates on effective peace operations, including commitments in the Action for Peacekeeping agenda.