UN Development System

This chapter presents an overview of the UN coordination machinery in the economic and social development field together with an analysis of its evolution and recurring operational problems of fragmentation, effectiveness, and duplication. Changing conceptions of security, a growing concern for the sustainability of peace and prevention, and a corresponding need for greater coherence and integration and collaborative and strategic partnerships, offer cautious grounds for optimism. But the capacity for internal leadership in improving coordination at headquarters and field levels is likely to be sharply constrained by the world organization’s decentralized structure, donor incentives, limited resources, and the absence of a political consensus about its desirable role in the promotion of development.