A/RES/74/251 GA

United Nations A/RES/74/251 General Assembly Distr.: General 13 January 2020 19-22679 (E) 160120 *1922679* Seventy-fourth session Agenda item 136 Programme planning Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 27 December 2019 [on the report of the Fifth Committee (A/74/612)] 74/251. Programme planning The General Assembly, Recalling its resolutions 37/234 of 21 December 1982, 38/227 A of 20 December 1983, 41/213 of 19 December 1986, 55/234 of 23 December 2000, 56/253 of 24 December 2001, 57/282 of 20 December 2002, 58/268 and 58/269 of 23 December 2003, 59/275 of 23 December 2004, 60/257 of 8 May 2006, 61/235 of 22 December 2006, 62/224 of 22 December 2007, 63/247 of 24 December 2008, 64/229 of 22 December 2009, 65/244 of 24 December 2010, 66/8 of 11 November 2011, 67/236 of 24 December 2012, 68/20 of 4 December 2013, 69/17 of 18 November 2014, 70/8 of 13 November 2015, 71/6 of 27 October 2016, 72/9 of 17 November 2017, 72/266 A of 24 December 2017, 72/266 B of 5 July 2018, section III of its resolution 72/262 C of 5 July 2018 and its resolution 73/269 of 22 December 2018, Recalling also the terms of reference of the Committee for Programme and Coordination, as outlined in the annex to Economic and Social Council resolution 2008 (LX) of 14 May 1976, Recalling further the Regulations and Rules Governing Programme Planning, the Programme Aspects of the Budget, the Monitoring of Implementation and the Methods of Evaluation,1 by which the relevant programmes and subprogrammes of the proposed strategic framework shall be reviewed by the relevant sectoral, functional and regional intergovernmental bodies, if possible during the regular cycle of their meetings, Having considered the report of the Committee for Programme and Coordination on the work of its fifty-ninth session2 and the reports of the Secretary- General on the proposed programme budget for 2020: part I, plan outline, 3 and part II, __________________ 1 ST/SGB/2018/3. 2 Official Records of the General Assembly, Seventy-fourth Session, Supplement No. 16 (A/74/16). 3 A/74/6 (Plan outline). A/RES/74/251 Programme planning 19-22679 2/5 programme plan for programmes and subprogrammes and programme performance information,4 Having also considered the report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services on strengthening the role of evaluation and the application of evaluation findings on programme design, delivery and policy directives, 5 1. Reaffirms the role of the Committee for Programme and Coordination as the main subsidiary organ of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council for planning, programming and coordination; 2. Also reaffirms the role of the Committee for Programme and Coordination in verifying that the programmes of activities of the Organization are implemented in line with the legislative mandates and that the full implementation of regulations and rules is ensured; 3. Re-emphasizes the role of the plenary and the Main Committees of the General Assembly in reviewing and taking action on the appropriate recommendations of the Committee for Programme and Coordination relevant to their work, in accordance with regulation 4.10 of the Regulations and Rules Governing Programme Planning, the Programme Aspects of the Budget, the Monitoring of Implementation and the Methods of Evaluation;1 4. Stresses that setting the priorities of the United Nations is the prerogative of the Member States, as reflected in legislative mandates; 5. Reiterates the need for Member States to participate fully in the budget preparation process, from its early stages and throughout the process; 6. Recalls its resolution 72/266 A, in which it approved the change from a biennial to an annual budget period on a trial basis, beginning with the programme budget for 2020; 7. Requests the Secretary-General to present a report as early as practicable, for the consideration of the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session, on the impact of the changes to the budgetary cycle on the established budgetary procedures and practices as they pertain to the agreed sequential nature of the review processes of the proposed programme budget, and in this regard to present possible options to ensure the preservation of this sequence, including the possibility of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions preparing its conclusions and recommendations on the basis of a programme plan approved by the General Assembly in 2021; 8. Recalls paragraph 13 of its resolution 72/266 A, and reaffirms that no changes to the budget methodology, established budgetary procedures and practices or the financial regulations may be implemented without prior review and approval by the General Assembly in accordance with established budgetary procedures; 9. Requests the Secretary-General to clearly identify those provisions and rules that are proposed to be formally suspended or no longer applied during the trial period; __________________ 4 A/74/6 (Sect. 2), A/74/6 (Sect. 3), A/74/6 (Sect. 4), A/74/6 (Sect. 5), A/74/6 (Sect. 5)/Corr.1, A/74/6 (Sect. 6), A/74/6 (Sect. 8), A/74/6 (Sect. 8)/Corr.1, A/74/6 (Sect. 9), A/74/6 (Sect. 10), A/74/6 (Sect. 11), A/74/6 (Sect. 12), A/74/6 (Sect. 13), A/74/6 (Sect. 14), A/74/6 (Sect. 15), A/74/6 (Sect. 16), A/74/6 (Sect. 17), A/74/6 (Sect. 18), A/74/6 (Sect. 19), A/74/6 (Sect. 20), A/74/6 (Sect. 21), A/74/6 (Sect. 22), A/74/6 (Sect. 24), A/74/6 (Sect. 25), A/74/6 (Sect. 26), A/74/6 (Sect. 27), A/74/6 (Sect. 28), A/74/6 (Sect. 29), A/74/6 (Sect. 30), A/74/6 (Sect. 31) and A/74/6 (Sect. 34). 5 A/74/67 and A/74/67/Corr.1. Programme planning A/RES/74/251 3/5 19-22679 10. Expresses its support for the efforts of the Secretariat to better engage and support programme managers with the aim of making the Organization more effective, and welcomes the commitment and ongoing efforts of the Secretariat to improve the programmatic aspects of the programme budget; 11. Calls upon the Secretary-General to ensure that objectives, results and performance measures that are put forward for consideration are strategic, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound; 12. Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the Regulations and Rules Governing Programme Planning, the Programme Aspects of the Budget, the Monitoring of Implementation and the Methods of Evaluation approved by the General Assembly in its resolutions 70/8 and 72/9 are fully respected, with the exception of regulations and rules that have been directly impacted by the decisions taken by the Assembly in its resolution 72/266 A; 13. Notes the repeated reference “in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the purposes stipulated in Article 1 of the Charter are embodied by the Sustainable Development Goals” across the programmes, underscores the primacy of the Charter of the United Nations, and reaffirms that the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 6 are guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter; 14. Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that results and, where possible, performance measures actually reflect achievements in the implementation of the programmes of the Organization and not those of individual Member States; 15. Also requests the Secretary-General, while still considering further areas of improvement, to apply the following guidelines when preparing the next proposed programme plan and programme performance documents for the remainder of the approved trial period, namely, for 2021 and 2022: (a) Adhering to a programme plan that contains the required level of detail and information, in particular keeping the objectives, results and corresponding performance measures at the subprogramme level, in line with the results-based budgeting framework; (b) Including a detailed list of deliverables in the proposed programme budget and ensuring that resources are justified in terms of the requirements to implement deliverables as contributions to the planned results; (c) Including clear, comprehensive explanations of the approved methodologies to be applied in the context of the programme budget proposals to be submitted in respect of the 2021 and 2022 budget periods, with reference to the applicable provisions of relevant General Assembly resolutions, including resolutions 47/212 A of 23 December 1992 and 72/266 A; (d) Enhancing the link between the preceding programme plans and the proposed future plans, with a view to ensuring consistency and continuity; (e) Incorporating more general information on programmes and subprogrammes by showing not only examples of actual and planned results, but also an overview of activities and general strategy that encompasses a comprehensive overall account of the actual and planned results; (f) Presenting performance information on a comprehensive set of results, which would allow for enhanced oversight, transparency and accountability in the __________________ 6 Resolution 70/1. A/RES/74/251 Programme planning 19-22679 4/5 implementation of all activities in the programme plan as approved by the General Assembly; (g) Providing, in the context of performance measures, at least three prior years of actual performance information to facilitate a better understanding and assessment of progress made at the programme and subprogramme levels; (h) Including a strategy at both the programme and subprogramme levels; (i) Incorporating the list of legislative mandates into the published official document and not into the supplementary document provided informally; (j) Replacing the proposed section on alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals with concrete information regarding contributions to the implementation of the Goals by relevant programmes and subprogrammes in accordance with their specific related intergovernmental mandates; (k) Using simplified and identifiable numbering to improve the readability and referencing of the proposed programme plan; (l) Reducing the use of accompanying photographs in the foreword to each proposed programme plan; (m) Ensuring that the use of anecdotal narratives in subprogrammes is only to provide examples of actual and planned results as referenced in (e) above; (n) Ensuring that the terms and expressions referenced in the proposed programme plan have been intergovernmentally agreed; 16. Approves, on an exceptional basis and without creating a precedent, for programmes 5, 8, 10, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 22, 27 and 28 of the proposed programme budget for 2020, the programme narrative that is composed solely of the “Mandates and background”, “Recent developments”, “Strategy and external factors for 2020” and “Evaluation activities” sections at the programme level and by objective at the subprogramme level; 17. Also approves, on an exceptional basis and without creating a precedent, for programmes 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 11, 14, 15, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25 and 26 of the proposed programme budget for 2020, a programme narrative that is composed solely of the list of mandates at the programme level and the objectives approved by the General Assembly in its resolution 71/6 and the deliverables for 2020 at the subprogramme level; 18. Further approves the programme plan for programme 6, Legal affairs, of the proposed programme budget for 2020, as contained in the report of the Secretary- General;7 19. Approves, on an exceptional basis and without creating a precedent, in the case of the programmes mentioned in paragraph 17 above, where new mandates imply changes to the objectives at the subprogramme level as approved in their agreed formulation under its resolution 71/6, the relevant objectives as updated in the proposed programme budget for 2020; 20. Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the programme plan covers all activities, both substantive and servicing, including those to be financed partially or fully from extrabudgetary and other assessed resources; __________________ 7 A/74/6 (Sect. 8) and A/74/6 (Sect. 8)/Corr.1. Programme planning A/RES/74/251 5/5 19-22679 21. Endorses the conclusions and recommendations of the Committee for Programme and Coordination on evaluation8 contained in its report on the work of its fifty-ninth session, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure the timely implementation of the recommendations; 22. Also endorses the conclusions and recommendations of the Committee for Programme and Coordination on the annual overview report of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination for 2018, 9 contained in its report on the work of its fifty-ninth session, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure the timely implementation of the recommendations. 52nd (resumed) plenary meeting 27 December 2019 __________________ 8 Official Records of the General Assembly, Seventy-fourth Session, Supplement No. 16 (A/74/16), chap. II, sect. B. 9 Ibid., chap. III, sect. A.

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