ANNEX

Recent innovations in UN system relations with NGOs

• All major entities of the UN system have engaged in fundamental reviews of their relations with CSOs, resulting in policy statements, institutional reforms and more focused cooperation. Guidelines for working with NGOs are being developed, procedures for granting formal relations are being revised and NGO liaison offices are being strengthened and integrated more closely with their organizations' substantive programmes.

• Most UN agencies and programmes now hold periodic consultations with CSOs. Many, including the World Bank, IFAD and WFP, have created standing NGO advisory committees to facilitate dialogue.

• New forms of governance are emerging that involve the formal participation of NGOs, such as in the governing body of UNAIDS or the Inter-Agency Standing Committee on Humanitarian Affairs.

• Innovative and often informal arrangements for UN interaction with civil society actors at the international level are being developed in forms such as panels and briefing sessions. UNIDO and UNCTAD have experimented successfully with workshops bringing together NGOs and the private sector around issues of common concern.

• Proposed NGO amendments have been given official recognition alongside government texts in the preparatory meetings of Habitat II, the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests.

• The UN has established a focal point for NGOs and civil society in the Office of the Secretary-General and re-established Interdepartmental Working Groups on NGOs in New York and Geneva.

• Operational cooperation with NGOs has increased significantly (in the case of the World Bank from 6 percent of projects approved in 1988 to more than 50 percent in 1996). Programmatic and institutional mechanisms are being developed such as the UNHCR's Partners-in-Action process and the memorandums of understanding that WFP signs with major NGO partners. UNDP is finalizing procedures for project execution by NGOs. Financing or cofinancing of joint development and other activities between the UN system and CSOs is increasing, with emphasis on programmes of capacity building for civil society.

• Cooperation with local NGOs is being developed by the UN system's decentralized offices, particularly UNDP and the World Bank, more than half of whose Resident Missions now have designated staff responsible for NGO partnership. Encouraging CSOs' participation in national policy dialogue is seen as an important role for the UN system.

• UN bodies have reviewed their information disclosure policies and are increasing their capacity to deliver appropriate information through the use of new communication technologies and national channels.