International Organizations: U.S. Participation in the United Nations
Development Program (Chapter Report, 04/17/97, GAO/NSIAD-97-8).
The core mission of the United Nations Development Program is to help
countries achieve sustainable human development. The program, which is
the central financing and coordinating mechanism for development
assistance within the U.N. system, provides advisory services, training,
and equipment across various sectors, including agriculture and
international trade, to developing nations. In 1990, GAO reported on
several program weaknesses. (See GAO/NSIAD-90-64.) This report analyzes
(1) actions taken in response to recommendations made in the 1990 report
to improve coordination, project evaluation, and the allocation of
resources; (2) the amounts and the sources of program budget support;
(3) the cost of administering the program's headquarters and overseas
operations and the extent to which the program has reduced these
expenses; (4) the system of audit and internal controls that the program
uses to oversee its operations; (5) the criteria that the program uses
to graduate recipient countries from assistance; and (6) the extent to
which program projects coincide with U.S. national security and foreign
policy objectives.
--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------
REPORTNUM: NSIAD-97-8
TITLE: International Organizations: U.S. Participation in the
United Nations Development Program
DATE: 04/17/97
SUBJECT: Foreign economic assistance
International organizations
International cooperation
Developing countries
Gifts or gratuities
Administrative costs
Internal audits
Foreign policies
Internal controls
Audit oversight
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Cover
================================================================ COVER
Report to the Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate
April 1997
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS - U.S.
PARTICIPATION IN THE UNITED
NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
GAO/NSIAD-97-8
International Organizations
(711168)
Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV
DAMR - Division for Audit and Management Review
FS - foreign service
FSN - foreign service national
FTE - full-time equivalent
GNP - gross national product
GS - general schedule
LDC - least developed countries
UNDP - United Nations Development Program
USAID - U.S. Agency for International Development
Letter
=============================================================== LETTER
B-270949
April 17, 1997
The Honorable Jesse A. Helms
Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations
United States Senate
Dear Mr. Chairman:
This report responds to your request that we conduct a follow-up to
our 1990 review of U.S. participation in the United Nations
Development Program (UNDP). As agreed with your office, this report
provides an assessment of the progress that UNDP has made in reducing
its administrative costs and improving its ability to coordinate and
assess the impact of U.N. development assistance activities.
We are sending copies of this report to the Administrator of UNDP,
the Secretary of State, the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for
International Development, and appropriate congressional committees.
We will also send copies to other interested parties upon request.
This report was prepared under the direction of Benjamin F. Nelson,
Director, International Relations and Trade Issues. He can be
reached at (202) 512-4128 if you or your staff have any questions
concerning this report. Other major contributors to this report are
listed in
appendix VI.
Sincerely yours,
Henry L. Hinton, Jr.
Assistant Comptroller General
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
============================================================ Chapter 0
PURPOSE
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 0:1
The United Nations Development Program's (UNDP) core mission is to
help countries achieve sustainable human development. It is the
central financing and coordinating mechanism for development
assistance within the U.N. system. UNDP works to achieve its
mission by providing advisory services, training, and equipment
across a variety of sectors, including agriculture and international
trade, to developing countries.
In 1990, GAO reported on (1) weaknesses in UNDP's coordination of
U.N. development assistance at the country level, (2) problems with
UNDP's evaluation of project results, and (3) deficiencies in the
level of resources UNDP focused on the priority needs of the least
developed countries.\1 In addition, the U.N. Board of Auditors and
donor nations have raised concerns over these issues and others such
as the cost of UNDP administrative operations and the adequacy of
UNDP's internal audit organization. GAO's specific objectives in
this report were to provide information and analysis of (1) actions
taken in response to recommendations in our 1990 report to improve
coordination, project evaluation, and the allocation of resources;
(2) the amounts and sources of UNDP budget support; (3) the cost of
administering UNDP's headquarters and overseas operations and the
extent to which UNDP has reduced these costs, including a comparison
of UNDP and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
compensation expenditures; (4) the system of audit and internal
control UNDP employs to oversee its operations; (5) the criteria UNDP
employs to graduate recipient countries from assistance; and (6) the
extent to which UNDP projects coincide with U.S. national security
and foreign policy objectives.
--------------------
\1 See United Nations: U.S. Participation in the U.N. Development
Program (GAO/NSIAD-90-64, Feb. 22, 1990).
*** End of document. ***