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In addition, several reform topics will be covered. UN80's proposed merger of UNWomen and UNFPA is a key topic with the Strategic Assessment under consideration along with inputs from previous informal consultations of the Commission on the Status of Women and Civil Society Organizations, during which significant concerns were raised. The Board will also provide feedback on the draft recommendations from the Joint Working Group considering implementation of the JIU governance review of the NY-based Boards. The Working Group is proposing that the Boards accept and implement 19 (59%) of the JIU's recommendations, partially accept 6 JIU recommendations and not accept the remaining 7 JIU recommendations. Finally, like the other Board sessions, there will also be an update on the repositioning of the UN development system.

Two reform topics are on the agenda: the repositioning of the UN development system and WFP's role in the collective humanitarian response including its engagement with current humanitarian reforms. UN80 is not on the agenda.

Like the other annual sessions, the Executive Director will present her annual report. There will be a discussion of various reform initiatives including UNICEF's implementation of UN80, the repositioning of the UN Development System, UNICEF's efforts to strengthen its organizational culture and diversity, and the JIU's review of the NY-based Boards' governance and oversight functions. To learn more about the best practices being used in UNICEF"s organizational culture change initiative, check out our previous spotlight: https://www.reformworks.org/post/organizational-culture-change-at-the-un-what-actually-works

In addition to the presentation of the annual reports of all Executive Directors and the heads of UNV and the UNCDF, the session will include discussion of engagement with UN80 and the UNFPA UNWomen merger. The proposed UNDP-UNOPS merger is not on the agenda. Additional discussions are planned on implementation of previous reforms, including the repositioning of the UN Development System, and the JIU's assessment of the NY-based Boards exercise of their governance functions. For an overview of the JIU's review and its implications check out our 2024 spotlight: https://www.reformworks.org/post/why-corporate-governance-reforms-dont-translate-to-un-boards

The half day meeting is designed as an interactive dialogue with two sessions focused on "Governance, mandates and system-wide coherence" and "Operational efficiency, delivery models and partnerships", respectively. Participants have been provided with guiding questions for these discussions, some of which should perhaps have been asked earlier in the process, such as what evidence, analysis and consultation processes member states should be provided to move ahead with UN80 changes.

Previous efforts in 2006 by member states to review and rationalize UNGA mandates failed to yield results after more than a year's worth of meetings.

The briefing included a summary of the joint meeting held between members of the Board with the Commission of the Status of Women, (CSW) which considered the impact of the UNWomen and UNFPA on the CSW. Many of the concerns raised mirrored those highlighted in a formal letter to the SG by several member states, including risks of weakening normative mandates and costs. In addition, several member states raised questions about when and how alternative options - as requested in the letter to the SG - could be considered with appropriate consultation and inputs from member states. Further regional consultations on the merger are being organized by UNWomen for the first week of June. Separately, the UNFPA legal advisor has reportedly highlighted significant risks to UNFPA arising from the merger.

This session will engage in dialogue on the evaluation of WFP's corporate emergency response to the Sudan region crisis from 2023-2025.

The evaluation roundtable provides an opportunity for dialogue on the strategic evaluation of WFP's contribution to social protection and the evaluation synthesis of WFP's engagement in UN humanitarian coordination. WFP's Management Plan provides unique insights into how the organization navigates changes in income, earmarking, strategic funding instruments for anticipatory action, needs assessments and planning assumptions to deliver. Although complex, it provides member states with a realistic understanding of the complexities of managing different funding streams, which can help facilitate effective decision-making. Check out our previous analysis for more info: https://www.reformworks.org/post/wfp-management-plan

While Guy Ryder provided a general summary of the state of implementation of UN80, the focus of this briefing was on the Shared Platform Initiative (Work Package 13), the Regional Reset (Work Package 6), and the Joint Knowledge Hubs (Work Package 7).

Under the UN80 New Humanitarian Compact, the United Nations recognizes the importance of the Rome-based agencies’ robust alignment to maximizing their collective impact on food security in fragile settings, particularly given that food insecurity is reaching record levels. The joint informal meeting with be briefed on efforts to realize operational efficiencies and strengthen strategic collaboration globally and at country level, including through data sharing and joint analysis anchored within existing data systems and United Nations sustainable development cooperation frameworks (UNSDCFs) and by advancing the Humanitarian Reset and locally led, context-specific approaches.

The assessment concludes that a merger of UNWomen and UNFPA is feasible and that the real challenge lies in "how risks are managed and how the process is designed, sequenced and governed to strengthen delivery while preserving mandate integrity, operational continuity, donor confidence and political legitimacy". Responses by civil society appear generally to be negative with the International Planned Parenthood Federation indicating on their website that it is 'alarmed' that the proposal will have detrimental impacts on the UN's work on gender equality and sexual and reproductive health. The Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation has also circulated a formal letter indicating their concerns about the merger, including that "preliminary findings indicate that, while the merger would cost $56 million to $110 million, savings are estimated at $32 million to $38 million annually once it is completed" (A/80/710).