Development and Cooperation


	Contributions from the Column Monitor Afghanistan: Drug economy increasingly mafia-like Vietnam, a UN test case UNDP focuses on Arab women BMZ budget 2007 Financial markets: Sitting on a powder keg Somalia: Experts fear escalation Female genital multilation: Scarring body and soul Informal institutions: sometimes good, sometimes bad 01/2007		Vietnam, a UN test case The United Nations have picked Vietnam as the first country in which it will restructure operations, in an attempt of making them more efficient. As part of a reform programme called “One UN”, six UN bodies active in Vietnam will cooperate under a single leadership as a “development team”. This reform is meant to increase the coherence of UN programmes by avoiding fragmentation and task duplication. It affects the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Development Programme (UNDP), the Population Fund (UNFPA), the Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Volunteers programme (UNV) and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The “One UN” approach was included in the recommendations that the UN High-Level Panel on Systemwide Coherence made in November. This 15-member committee was appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and included Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, his Mozambican counterpart Luisa Diogo and Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown. According to the panel, the UNDP should primarily coordinate development efforts and leave all sector-related work to the UN’s specialist organisations. “One UN” will be tried out in a further six other countries apart from Vietnam. (ell)