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UNIDOScope 2005 CONTENTS:
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UNIDO Annual Report 2004 |
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UNIDO Annual Report 2004 now available
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The UNIDO Annual Report 2004 is now online. It is available for viewing or downloading from the UNIDO Annual Reports page http:www.unido.org/annualreport. The multilingual list of UNIDO Technical Cooperation Activities for 2004 is, as usual, presented as an addendum to the Annual Report and is available separately.
The message from the Director-General introducing the report is reproduced here in full.
I take great pleasure in being able to inform Member States that the favourable trends of recent years were sustained into 2004. Reflecting the increasingly beneficial impacts of the programmatic, administrative and financial reforms undertaken during the previous six years, which have resulted in a comprehensive transformation of UNIDO, the Organization recorded significant improvements in all relevant performance indicators.
Thus, in 2004 the value of our technical cooperation delivery reached .8 million, significantly exceeding the corresponding figure of .7 million in 2003 and for the first time surpassing the “pre-crisis” figure of .3 million recorded in 1997, when our regular budget was some 20 per cent higher than in 2004. This growth in our technical cooperation delivery was made possible by a corresponding increase in voluntary contributions received by UNIDO from its development partners. Funding through the Industrial Development Fund and through trust funds (almost all from governmental donors) reached .8 million, including .9 million in trust funds from “recipient” countries. This represents a 32 per cent increase from the .4 million of 2003, and is the second highest level in the history of UNIDO, just below the level reached in 1992.
This sharp increase in voluntary contributions reflects a continued strengthening of the international development community’s confidence in UNIDO, which was underlined by the very positive comments about the Organization made in a parliamentary debate in the United Kingdom in November 2004. An empirical foundation for this increased confidence was given by an assessment of 23 multilateral development organizations undertaken in 2004 by the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom under its programme for assessing and monitoring multilateral effectiveness. UNIDO was ranked sixth in overall terms in this assessment, and first among the United Nations standard-setting agencies.
The growth in technical cooperation delivery is all the more impressive when viewed against the background of changes in the Organization’s staffing levels. The data for per capita levels of technical cooperation delivery (i.e. the total value of technical cooperation divided by the total number of staff) shows an increase from 8,600 in 2003 to 8,100 in 2004. Viewed over a longer time horizon, the figure for 2004 represents an increase of 28 per cent over the corresponding figure for 1997. This impressive growth may be seen as an outcome of the extensive efforts made during the past several years to sharpen the focus and deepen the substance of UNIDO’s technical cooperation programmes on the one hand, and to enhance the specialization and professionalism of UNIDO’s staff on the other.
These favourable developments notwithstanding, UNIDO continued to sustain its reform programme in 2004. One of the major highlights of the year in this context was the signing of an agreement with UNDP in September to enhance the level of cooperation at field level between the two organizations through the establishment of UNIDO Desks at UNDP field offices. This is intended to enhance the effectiveness of UNIDO’s services by increasing the Organization’s field presence and enabling it to participate more actively in the inter-agency coordination mechanisms at the national level. To provide a substantive basis to this cooperation with UNDP, moreover, the agreement calls for the joint formulation and implementation of projects in private sector development in accordance with the recommendations of the Commission on the Private Sector and Development presented to the Secretary-General in March 2004. This effort to increase the synergies between the activities of the two organizations in this field represents a further attempt by UNIDO to link its developmental activities more closely with those of other agencies, following earlier collaboration agreements with UNCTAD and WTO.
These efforts at increased collaboration with other agencies arise from a growing appreciation of the fact that the scope for additional efficiency gains from internal reforms within UNIDO has now been largely exhausted, and that further gains of a meaningful nature can only be achieved through an increased coordination of the services provided by the various development agencies. For this reason I have personally spent much of 2004 promoting the concept of such coordination in my meetings with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the heads of other agencies, representatives of the Member States and other development analysts and practitioners. This proposal has been well received, and I am confident that this issue will, in time, gain the recognition it deserves.
Meanwhile, within UNIDO, a number of other reform measures have been introduced to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the Organization, and to enable the impact of its services to be properly measured. Two particularly important, and related, steps taken in this connection were the adoption of various measures to operationalize the UNIDO corporate strategy, and the streamlining of the programme and project approval process through the establishment of four new Programme Approval Committees (PACs). Another was the adoption of a fully thematic and results-based approach for the formulation of the programme and budget proposals for 2006-2007.
Considerable effort has also been expended to generate an increased understanding and awareness of UNIDO’s contribution to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and in particular the critical underlying goal of poverty reduction, through its promotion of industrial and economic development. On the one hand, the Organization has significantly enhanced its global forum activities, and especially its research programme, both to provide empirical inputs derived from its technical cooperation activities to the research community and to strengthen the conceptual and analytical basis of its technical cooperation programmes. On the other hand, the Organization has appointed a number of eminent and influential personalities as Goodwill Ambassadors, who are actively promoting awareness and understanding of UNIDO’s role as a catalyst for development and poverty reduction.
It is with great satisfaction that I am therefore able to report the conclusion of another very successful year. In doing so, I would like to express my appreciation to staff, who have helped to make these achievements possible through their great commitment and devotion to their work. While I am thus satisfied that the transformation of UNIDO, over which I have had the privilege to preside during the past seven years, has led to such outstanding results, I wish to stress that I am by no means complacent. The fact that millions of people remain mired in poverty, and that many countries continue to be unable to take full advantage of the promise of globalization because of their inability to participate effectively in world trade, remains a serious challenge to all of us in the development community. It is my intention to ensure that UNIDO will continue to make a meaningful contribution towards meeting this challenge, and through further improvements in its performance will be increasingly recognized as an important provider of the global public goods which will enable developing countries and countries with economies in transition to reap the benefits of the increasingly open global trading and financial regime.
Carlos Magariños
Annual Report UNIDO 2004
Arabic
Chinese
English
Español
Française
Russian
Annual Report 2004 - Addendum - List of Technical Cooperation Activities (all languages)
COVER (English only)
Jeannine Orlowski, Tel +43-1-26026 / 3599, Email: J.Orlowski@unido.org
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