New annual budget cycle and results
As part of UN management reform, the biannual regular budget process was simplified and adjusted to an annual cycle. This resulted in shorter budgeting timelines, enhanced planning, and increased responsiveness to emerging demands by member states.
The new format and shorter cycle also allow our managers to estimate resources more accurately and make more informed planning assumptions, which improves their accountability for results.
Adapting throughout the COVID-19 pandemic
In 2020, pandemic-dictated lockdowns and travel restrictions greatly reduced opportunities for in-person interaction and “business as usual” for us, as they were for many individuals and organizations.
We immediately shifted to virtual meetings and working arrangements, switching to digital platforms to deliver services to our clients. This allowed us to continue our work while demonstrating adaptability and flexibility.
Transparency and oversight
We place a premium on having a robust and independent oversight of our activities. We strictly adhere to all recommendations, resulting in an implementation rate of more than 97%.
Entities assuring UNCTAD’s independent oversight include the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), which constitutes the internal oversight body of the UN, and the Board of Auditors (BoA), through which member states’ supreme audit institutions provide external audit to the UN on a rotating basis.
We achieved 100% implementation for the recommendations made for us during the BoA audit conducted in 2019 and 2020. We also achieved 97% implementation for OIOS recommendations planned for 2020.
Umoja
We continued using the UN’s end-to-end enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, Umoja, for strategic decision-making and effective management of programmes and projects.
Umoja enables a harmonized and streamlined approach to the UN’s management of finance, human resources, procurement, assets, programme planning, and performance results, in an integrated manner across all duty stations.
First introduced at UNCTAD in 2015, Umoja has seen tremendous continuous development. Recent additions include a module comprising strategic planning, budgeting and performance management, which allows that for the first time, mandated programmes and related results are linked with their associated human and financial resources.
Another recent module introduced in 2020 comprises integrated planning, management and reporting, allowing managers to plan and monitor their substantive work and resources based on defined activities, tasks and timetables, utilizing the results-based management methodology.
Delegation of authority
UNCTAD has benefitted from implementing the UN’s revised delegation of authority framework, which entered into effect on 1 January 2019, bringing decision-making closer to the point of service delivery by decentralizing authority directly to entities.
The framework operates under the premise that accountability is strengthened when heads of UN Secretariat entities have direct authority and can subdelegate it to responsible managers, instead of it being concentrated more centrally.
Under the new framework, we now have direct authority and accountability over decisions impacting our human, financial and physical resources.
Management commitments
We hold ourselves to a high standard of ethics and integrity. This includes the proactive identification and mitigation of any potential conflicts of interest, zero tolerance of sexual harassment and abuse, and taking our environmental responsibility seriously.
Financial disclosure programme
We continued implementing the UN Financial Disclosure Programme, designed to identify, resolve and mitigate conflict of interest risks arising from staff members' personal financial assets, liabilities, investments and outside activities.
All staff members at the director level and above, and those with specific financial and procurement responsibilities, are required to complete a confidential online annual disclosure of the assets, liabilities, outside activities, and affiliations for themselves, their spouses and dependent children.
Zero tolerance of sexual harassment and abuse
We have made multiple commitments to keep our staff and conference participants safe, including by adhering to UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ initiatives to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse, and the UN’s Model Code of Conduct to prevent harassment at UN system events.
We require all our partners to affirm their zero tolerance for sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, and firmly commit to the prevention thereof. Our due diligence process also requires that the prospective partner has not been found to have any convictions, charges, investigations or allegations relating to sexual abuse and/or harassment.
Environmental responsibility
We are doing our part against climate change: In 2007, we embarked on a journey to integrate environmental sustainability in our facilities and operations.
Since then, the United Nations Environment Programme annually collects and analyses environmental impact information for each UN system entity and publishes this data, most recently in the Greening the Blue Report 2020: The UN system’s environmental footprint and efforts to reduce it.
We are collocated with the United Nations Office at Geneva, which, in 2020, fully met four out of five of the “Greening the Blue” environmental performance indicators.
With respect to the minimum necessary travel UNCTAD undertakes, we purchase carbon offsets.
Our ministerial quadrennial conference is paper smart and makes predominant use of digital technologies. All our services, including research and policy advice to clients throughout the world, are also available online.
