CGD in the News

U.N. group launches pilot programs to trim country-specific operations [Int. Herald Tribune]

February 02, 2007

This article from the Associated Press addresses a new U.N. pilot program to reform the multilateral organization which is being carried out by the United Nations Development Group.

From the article:

The program addresses "a real problem with coordination, of duplication and of efficiency," said Kemal Dervis, chair of the UNDG, set up by former Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1997 to improve U.N. development work at the country level.

 

"In the business of public policy and foreign aid, excessive competition is actually very inefficient by encouraging the proliferation of small projects ... and actually hurts the effectiveness of these resources," Dervis said, citing a recent analysis by the Center for Global Development, an independent think tank.