Third Daily Journal

Thursday, 29 October 2020, marked the third and last day of the second session of the Executive Board of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) for the year 2020

Agenda Item 9: Normative and operational activities of UN-Habitat, including reporting on the programmatic activities of UN-Habitat in 2020 and the implementation of subprogrammes, flagship programmes and technical cooperation activities.

Issues/comments by Member States

• The Deputy Permanent Representative of Korea highlighted that Korea has been working successfully with UN-Habitat on the National Urban Policy Programme. He further indicated that Following the completion of the initial phase (2017-2021), the Korean Government will embark on the second phase focusing on Smart Cities and intends to support with USD 3-4 million in 2021. Between Oct 22nd and 23rd the Seoul Metropolitan Government hosted ‘Seoul Urban Regeneration International Conference 2020’ as part of Urban October, referring to one of the Korean government’s flagship projects.
• Senegal congratulated the Executive Director for her efforts to the close gap in Foundation non-earmarked Funds and for UN-Habitat’s work on the ground. The delegate from Senegal reaffirmed the importance of UN-Habitat’s work and wishes to see it to more visible, emphasizing that this visibility will play a crucial role in the Resource Mobilization Strategy.

On behalf of the African Group, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) appreciated the work of GWOPA and GLTN on the ground. The representative form DRC added that there was a need for across the flagship programmes to focus on capacity development to scale up impact, to ensure that no one and no country is left behind. DRC felt that the focus on the impact of the flagship programmes in the region was missing in the presentation and he further posed the question on how the gap could be filled to ensure implementation of the flagship programmes in the region.

• The representative from Egypt appreciated the normative and operational work of UN-Habitat, as well as UN-Habitat’s COVID-19 response and also emphasized that the unpredictability of funds for UN-Habitat was also due to COVID-19 global situation as Member States prioritize the allocation of their funds.
• The representative from France appreciated the presentation on the work of UN-Habitat and one the Flagship programmes and requested to have such a presentation at every Executive Board session. France further highlighted that the flagship Programmes are a very good opportunity to better integrate normative and operational work and acknowledges disruptive impact of COVID-19. They expressed regrets on the de-prioritization of flagship 2 and noted they wish to hear more about Nairobi River Regeneration Initiative. They also enquired if UNESCO was a partner of UN-Habitat in Mosul
• United States of America underlined the usefulness of the presentations by the Secretariat , and took note of reports. They appreciated the human right approach in reports but cited lack of clarity.

In light of these comments ,the Executive Director responded as follows :

• UN-Habitat is currently developing a Programme Dashboard to be more transparent;
• UN-Habitat will look into innovative financing, e.g. Adaptation Fund, Cities Investment Fund launched at WUF to link cities and flagships, private sector and banks on the ground;
• The Flagships programme were launched in February 2020, and their implementation was slowed by COVID-19 and will be spanning until 2030; UN-Habitat will intensify its efforts to mobilize earmarked resources to enhance impact on the ground, especially in Africa, where impacts were already demonstrated impacts.
• On Nairobi Regeneration Iniative , the Executive Director highlighted that UN-Habitat internally developed design and different components with local input, including environmental and economical impact and friendly design of the riverside; series of meetings with Nairobi Metropolitan Services/ She emphasized there was now a process of integrating an overall plan and identifying partners (EU, UNEP, other donors)
• On the partnerships in Mosul: Un-Habitat applies Urban Recovery Framework Approach; based on the City Urban Profile followed joint work with other UN agencies under the framework of UNCT. Un-Habitat also worked with UNESCO on revitalizing the old town, supported by EU and similar work was carried out for Yemen (9 city profiles) also together with UNESCO.

Summary paragraph.

Executive Board members showed appreciation of the operational and normative work of UN-Habitat and it was suggested to have such a report as standing Agenda item for every Executive Board Meeting. Concerns were raised about the impact of the Flagship Programmes, especially in the Africa Region and on the instability of funding due to COVID-19 situations as well as on the unclear focus of human rights approach. UN-Habitat agreed on the need for a resource mobilization and is currently looking into innovative financing. Executive Board Members took note of the briefing by UN-Habitat.

Agenda item 10: Action by UN-Habitat to strengthen protection against sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment in the workplace

The Executive Director reaffirmed her commitment as an International Gender Champion to lead by example.

UN-Habitat recalled that the United Nations has a Zero Tolerance policy for any act of harassment, including sexual harassment, discrimination, or abuse of authority, and that the Organization is working to ensure that adequate safeguards are in place and actions taken to prevent and respond to allegations of SEA and sexual harassment in the workplace.

UN-Habitat indicated that a Model Code of Conduct has been developed to combat harassment including sexual harassment at UN events, and that the Organization is committed to ensuring the Code of Conduct is adhered to at all UN-Habitat events.

UN-Habitat further indicated that a PSEA Action Plan had been developed but that its implementation required dedicated resources which were limited due to funding challenges.

Remarks by Member States

• Sweden, Argentina, and Canada commended the efforts by UN-Habitat and the Executive Director to combat sexual harassment and SEA. Sweden requested UN-Habitat to report periodically to the Board on any allegations of sexual harassment and SEA as well as investigations and actions taken.
• The USA stressed the importance of accountability and thanked UN-Habitat and the Executive Director for their commitment to a Zero Tolerance policy.
• Egypt asked for UN-Habitat’s views on the value of periodic reporting.

UN-Habitat indicated that:

• All allegations are tracked carefully and monitored. The Executive Director reports to the Secretary-General yearly to certify actions taken to combat SEA and to confirm that any/all allegations have been duly reported and monitored.
• There were no cases of SEA during the reporting period. The report has been shared with the Executive Board, and UN-Habitat will continue to provide the Board with relevant information as requested.

Conclusion

The Executive Board took note of the Report on UN-Habitat action to strengthen protection against sexual exploitation and abuse and against workplace sexual harassment.

Agenda Item 11: Implementation by UN-Habitat of the reform of the development system and management of the United Nations and alignment of the planning cycles of UN-Habitat with the QCPR.

Implementation by UN-Habitat of the reform of the development system and management of the United Nations

The Executive Director highlighted the following salient points :

• UN-Habitat is engaged substantially with UN coordination mechanisms; Chiefs Executive Board for Coordination (CEB), HLPM, HLCP, UNSDG.
• UN-Habitat is fully aligned to UNDS Reform and used these platforms to introduce the System Wide Strategy of Sustainable Urbanization, with a specific focus on climate, economic transformation using sustainable urbanization, and resilience. The Strategy was endorsed by CEB in 2018 giving recognition of UN-Habitat as the lead agency on urban issues opening the possibilities of many collaboration with UN agencies.
• UN-Habitat Strategic plan aligned fully with Agenda 2030
• New UN-Habitat organizational structure fits in the RC system and new architecture of UNDS
• UN-Habitat regional offices work closely with regional commission and other UN regionals offices
• Country level are the major focus of DCO; RC are the direct representative of SG and all agencies work together under RC system in Country Offices
• UN-Habitat presence at regional level and the coordination with the new regional UN structure is crucial to assure impact of UN-Habitat mandate at the local level.

Comments from Member States :

• Serbia pointed out that the presence and participation of UN-Habitat at country (UNCT) and regional level (CDO regional offices) is not yet perceived as strong as it should be;
• Canada and United States of America noted that funding remained a challenge as the proposed regional reform of UN-Habitat would require an investment of USD 34 million while only USD 5 million is available at the moment);

Alignment of the planning cycles of UN-Habitat with the QCPR.

• As part of reform the General Aassembly called upon Governing Bodies to align to the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR) to ensure more coherence; by next year 80% of UN will be aligned
• QCPR an instrument that enables the General Assembly to provide the United Nations system with policy guidance and strategic direction and ensure adequate oversight and accountability
• UN-Habitat prepared 4 scenarios to submit to Executive Board. The alignment of UN-Habitat Strategic Plano QCPR would allow UN-Habitat EB to work with EB of other UN agencies and thinking strategically together to achieve 2030 agenda.
• The Executive Board decided to defer the discussion on the scenario on alignment of cycles of the UN-Habitat Assembly with the QCPR process to the Ad-Hoc working group on programmatic, budgetary and administrative matters which will meet on the matter. Scenario 3 as reflected in document HSP/EB,2020/16/Add.1 is favourable to a number of delegations especially to allow the time to do fund raising, and to ensure UN-Habitat keeps the role of the first and foremost authority to take decisions .

The Executive Director highlighted that :

• UN-Habitat has contributed soundly to the UN Reform and it has been working determinedly on the UN-Habitat Reform to ensure that UN-Habitat could implement its mandate fully. UN-Habitat is still working to align to the resident framework in a catalytic fashion to make strategic use of its resources. To do so however would need a substantial increase of financial resources.
• UN-Habitat keen to keep growing its leadership role in Urban Sustainability, and to do so would be beneficial to have Strategic Plan aligned to QCPR and to the Strategic Plan of other UN agencies, so to create opportunities for Executive Boards to come together and take decisions based on holistic approach of Agenda 2030.

At the end of the discussions under Agenda item 11, the Executive Board :

Took note of the report and briefing by the Secretariat under Agenda item 11

Decided to defer the discussion on the scenario on alignment of cycles of the UN-Habitat Assembly with the QCPR process to the Ad-Hoc working group on programmatic, budgetary and administrative matters which will meet on the matter.

Agenda Item 12: Annual report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services to the Executive Board

The Secretariat presented the Annual report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services to the Executive Board

The report is authored and submitted by OIOS to the General Assembly pursuant to resolutions 48/218 B (para. 5 (e)), 54/244 (paras. 4–5), 59/272 (paras. 1–3), 64/263 (para. 1) and 69/253 (para. 1). UN-Habitat is submitting the same pursuant to paragraph 6 of decision 2019/4 of the Executive Board (see HSP/EB.1/11).

The Secretariat recalled that OIOS was established by the General Assembly pursuant to resolution 48/218 B to enhance oversight in the United Nations Secretariat. It is operationally independent and assists the Secretary-General in fulfilling internal oversight responsibilities in respect of resources and staff of the Organization through investigations, internal audits, inspections and evaluations. OIOS work covers all entities in the UN Secretariat, including UN-Habitat. This report covers all activities of OIOS for the reporting period, including its coverage of UN-Habitat All OIOS reports (except investigation) are published in its public website https://oios.un.org The report for the reporting period from 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020.

Summary of discussions :

The Executive Board took note of the Annual report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services to the Executive Board.

Agenda Item 13: Annual report of the Ethics Office to the Executive Board

The Secretariat presented the Annual report of the Ethics Office to the Executive Board.

As part of the United Nations (UN) Secretariat, UN-Habitat implements its ethics related activities with the support of the UN Ethics Office. Currently, the Legal Unit serves as the focal point for all ethics related activities. It carries out these functions with the support of the Office of the Executive Director (OED), Human Resources Liaison Office and the Conduct and Discipline Focal Point. The 2019 Annual Report, A/75/82, was submitted by the Secretary-General to the General Assembly pursuant to General Assembly resolution 60/254, “Review of the efficiency of the administrative and financial functioning of the United Nations,” which the Assembly requested the Secretary-General to report annually on the activities of the UN Ethics Office and implementation of ethics policies. This presentation summarizes the Annual Report and highlights the activities and milestones undertaken by UN-Habitat as a UN Secretariat agency in implementing the activities and policies of the UN Ethics Office within UN-Habitat.

The Secretariat presented the Work of the Ethics Function within UN-Habitat , as follows :

• Providing timely and efficient advice to management and staff on ethics issues;
• Designating focal points for Conduct and discipline, sexual harassment and sexual exploitation cases;
• Providing support to the newly established Conduct and Discipline function to ensure the proper handling of cases;
• Promoting an internal change process through the UN-Habitat Change process aimed at transforming the organisation into an ethic compliant organization ensuring the promotion of good conduct, dignity and civility;
• Establishing an enhanced ethics framework capable of dealing expeditiously all ethics matters; and
• Complying with all mandatory ethics training and ethics leadership dialogues and training sessions.

The Secretariat further presented the milestones of the Activities of Ethics Related Activities in UN-Habitat, as follows :

• Reports of unsatisfactory conduct particularly those of retaliation are now being streamlined and handled more efficiently and expeditiously;
• Complainants are now fully protected and accorded due process fit-for-purpose in line with United Nations System–wide reforms on handling of retaliation complaints;
• Un-Habitat Worked with the Ombudsman Office in Nairobi and undertook civility trainings in UN-Habitat regional and outposted office; (Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, Somalia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Cairo)
• UN-Habitat Assisted in the compilation, review and finalization of the UN Secretariat Annual Report on matters pertaining to ethics in UN-Habitat;
• Enhancement of the Executive Director’s delegation of authority to deal with unsatisfactory conduct; and
• Enhancement of UN-Habitat’s investigations and fact-finding capacity to deal with complaints on unethical and unsatisfactory conduct.

Summary of discussions :

The Executive Board took note of the Annual report of the Ethics Office to the Executive Board

Agenda Item 14: Dates and Provisional Agenda for the next session of the Executive Board and adoption of resolutions.

The Executive Board decided on the date of the next sessions of the Executive Board in 2021:

• The first session will be held from 6 to 7 April 2021
• The second session will be held from 19 to 21 October 2021

The Executive Board agreed upon the provisional Agenda for the next session of the Executive Board:

1. Opening of the meeting;

2. Organizational matters:

• Adoption of the agenda and the workplan for the first session of 2021;
• Adoption of the report on the first session of 2020

3. Reports of the ad hoc working groups established by the Executive Board;

4. Financial, budgetary and administrative matters including the implementation of the resource mobilization strategy in accordance with the strategic plan including a proposal on geographical and gender balance;

5. Reports of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions relevant to the work and activities of UN-Habitat issued since the last session of the Executive Board;

6. Status and discussion on the annual work programme and budget of UN-Habitat for the year 2022:

7. Briefing by the Executive Director on the implementation of the normative and operational activities of UN-Habitat including reporting on the programmatic activities of UN-Habitat in 2020 and the implementation of the resolutions and decision adopted by the UN-Habitat Assembly

8. Implementation of the resolutions and decisions adopted by the UN-Habitat Assembly

9. Briefing by the Executive Director on progress made in the implementation of the United Nations development system reform;

10. An annual report on UN-Habitat actions to strengthen protection against sexual exploitation and abuse and against workplace sexual harassment, as well as any other type of exploitation or abuse;

11. Annual report on the Executive Director’s actions to update and improve the internal management, policies and procedures of UN-Habitat

12. Election of officers of the Bureau

13. Other matters

14. Closure of the meeting.

Adoption of decisions as set out in document HSP-EB-2020-CRP6. Rev.3 - Final decisions as adopted by the Executive Board at its 2020 second session during the final plenary session held on Thursday, 29 October 2020)

The Executive Board:

• Adopted Decision 2020/3: Implementation of the Strategic Plan for the period 2014-2019, the Strategic Plan for the period 2020-2023, approval of the draft annual work programme and draft budget for the year 2021, implementation by UN-Habitat of the reform of the development system and management of the United Nations and alignment of the planning cycles of UN-Habitat with the quadrennial comprehensive policy review process.
• Adopted Decision 2020/4: Financial, budgetary and administrative matters of UN-Habitat.
• Adopted Decision 2020/5: Implementation of normative and operational activities of UN-Habitat including resolutions and decisions of the UN-Habitat Assembly and reporting on the programmatic activities of UN-Habitat in 2020 and the implementation of sub-programmes, flagship programmes and technical cooperation activities.
• Adopted Decision 2020/6: Methods of work of the Executive Board and Workplan of the Executive Board for the year 2021.

Agenda Item 15: Other matters

The USA sought clarifications about selection of the next Chair of the Bureau of the Executive Board for the biennium 2021-2022.

UN-Habitat indicated that the Chair would be selected in accordance with the established procedures for selection on a regional rotational basis. UN-Habitat indicated that next Chair would thus be chosen among the European States group.

Statements by stakeholders

The Chair of the Executive Board invited representatives of intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations to make statements.

James Delaney of the Block by Block Foundation recalled that the Foundation had developed in partnership with UN-Habitat a unique methodology using the popular computer game Minecraft to engage citizens left out of decision-making processes in their neighbourhoods.

Our close partnership with UN Habitat’s Global Public Space Programme has helped us deliver 109 public space projects, impacting the lives of more than 1.7 million people to date… In this Executive Board session, we have specifically appreciated the approval of the partnership strategy and look forward to consultations in development of the implementation plan,” he said.

On behalf of women in SAGE, Magdalena García Hernández highlighted that UN-Habitat’s COVID-19 Policy and Programme Framework was in line with the resolution on Achieving gender equality through the work of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme to support inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and human settlements.

We call on Member States to provide resources for the implementation of this resolution that could position UN-Habitat as a leader in contributing to gender equality and the empowerment of women during the United Nations Decade of Action,” she said.

Closing statement by the Executive Director

The Executive Director thanked the Executive Board, the Chair, the Bureau, the President of the UN-Habitat Assembly, the United Nations Office at Nairobi, and the host country for their continuous support.

She echoed the sentiments of several Member States and renewed her appeal for consistent annual funding to enable UN-Habitat to meet the requirements of its mandate and Strategic Plan 2020-2023.

The Executive Director acknowledged the guidance provided by Member States to better fulfil the Organization’s mandate, and informed delegates that UN-Habitat will hold a pledging session early December to expand subscriptions of core contributions.

Agenda Item 16: Closure of the session

The Chair thanked participants for their commitment to the work of the Executive Board despite the unusual context of COVID-19, and particularly Chile, Egypt, France, and Serbia in their capacity as Members of the Bureau for their support the Chair of the Bureau. He also thanked France and Egypt for leading the informal consultations, as well as the Secretariat of the Governing Bodies for their support throughout the session. The Chair also thanked interpreters for their services.

The 2020 second session of the Executive Board closed at 17:16 EAT time on 29 October 2020.