United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) for India The UN System in India, following upon the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s reform agenda, volunteered to undertake the development of a United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) for India in mid 1997. Late that year, India was added to the list of 18 pilot countries that are in the process of developing UNDAFs and a UNDAF Task Force was set up to carry the work on the UNDAF forward. A work plan for the process was presented to and adopted by the Heads of Agencies by the end of 1997. Since then, the UN System in India has reexamined the development challenges in India from thematic and cross-cutting perspectives in two UNDAF Workshops (25 March and 2 June respectively) which were attended by UNDAF facilitators from UNDGO. An Inter-Agency working Group on Database has been set up to look at the data sources and indicators that follow-up on UN Conferences (and also the databases of each UN entity) and create a UN System in India Database using UNICEF ROSA’s Child Info 2.0 as the basis. In late November, the UN System, the Planning Commission and various other partners will come together to determine the appropriate development indicators for India (including for use in State Human Development Reports) and make plans to fill in the lacunae. During the UNDAF Assessment Mission from 10-14 August, there were formal meetings with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of External Affairs, the Planning Commission, Civil Society (including the private sector), and some bilateral agencies. The donor community has been kept abreast on the UNDAF process through our Multi-Bilateral Donor coordination Meetings and there continue to be informal interactions with the various UN nodal Ministries of the Government of India on the UNDAF. On 8 December , we expect to convene a half-day Inter-Ministerial Meeting with the assistance of the Finance Secretary to discuss coordination matters in relation to the UNDAF. From 1-3 February 1999, the UN system in India (and hopefully UN System representatives from Headquarters) will participate in a Future Search Workshop with our Government of India, Civil Society and Donor community partners to determine the future of the UN in India and develop action plans for further work in common areas. Meanwhile, the UN Inter-Agency Operations Group hopes to continue its work on common services and expand its scope by addressing issues affecting joint efforts and efficient collaborative programming. In 1999, the work of the 8 existing UN IAWGs and the Resident Coordinator will be planned in concert with the UNDAF process. Our UNDAF document is expected to be ready by March 1999. In 1998, there have been are many other successes that feed into the process. HIV/AIDS in India- a UN response, an integrated work plan, is set to help tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The Joint GOI -UN System Education Programme, although already in its preparatory phase, was officially endorsed by the Department of Education. The UN System in India released the first ever UN System Position Paper on Child Labour to the public on 23 October and a UN IAWG on Child Labour will work to implement the strategies outlined.
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