28.     The Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers provide an important link among national public actions, donor support and development outcomes towards meeting the MDGs. They are prepared by governments through a participatory process engaging civil society and involving the World Bank, the IMF and other development partners. As the framework for domestic policies and programmes to reach the MDGs in a given country, the PRSP serves as the basis for concessional lending by the World Bank and the IMF. When formulated before a PRSP, Common Country Assessments provide useful analytical inputs for preparing the national poverty reduction strategy, which itself can then contribute to the UN Development Assistance Framework.

29.     The UNDAF represents the collective contribution of UN organizations to addressing identified development challenges at the country level. As a common strategic framework for UN operational activities, UNDAF provides both: an integrated response to national priorities and needs; and the legal basis for detailing the modalities and content of UN work in supporting developing countries. The UNDAF results-matrix identifies areas for joint programming and shows how the concrete results of the programmes and projects of each organization will contribute to national development goals. Led by the Resident Coordinator, the UN Country Teams assist the incorporation of the MDGs in national poverty reduction strategies, including through the PRSP process. Inter-agency reflection is now underway on how to enhance the integration of non-resident UN organizations into this process, and, more generally, on how to ensure that development outcomes at the country level benefit from all capacities available within the system, operational and analytical.

30.     To complement these efforts, “Theme Groups” provide country-level fora for sharing information on key cross-sectoral areas, such as gender equality, human rights, HIV/AIDS, food security and rural development. These groups help to advance a common vision to shape the UNDAF. They facilitate the efforts of UN Country Teams to promote complementarities, particularly when it comes to furthering the key objectives of country ownership and national capacity. In addition to representatives of UN organizations, members of these groups include governments, donors and civil society. In the specific case of HIV/AIDS, the overall coordinating work of the UN Theme Group steers support for implementation of National Aids Strategies, being provided from within fully-integrated UN Country Team Implementation Support Plans.

31.     At the regional level, the five UN regional commissions have contributed significantly to raising awareness; conducted research and policy analysis; and promoted policy dialogues and exchanges of national experiences through their intergovernmental fora. Their regional reports—prepared in cooperation with the UN Secretariat, the specialized agencies and other regional partners—have evidenced both the trends and heterogeneity within regions; analyzed the underlying causes influencing sub-regional divergences; identified good practices; and provided policy perspectives and recommendations for action.⁽¹¹⁾

32.     The regional commissions have also fostered and facilitated policy exchanges and knowledge-sharing on key issues that, while relevant to all countries, need to be addressed in ways that take into account the varying circumstances of different regions and countries, such as: relationships among poverty reduction, growth and equity; conditions for a sustained process of poverty reduction; links between economic policies and the social MDGs; the combination of broad-based human capital formation with social protection and specific antipoverty programmes; and policies for addressing inequalities.

33.     The regional coordination meetings organized by the Commissions, and called for by the Economic and Social Council, have facilitated harmonization of the UN system’s activities at the regional and sub-regional levels. The meetings provide a mechanism for coordinating the various activities of UN system organizations and strengthening the effectiveness of their technical assistance to help countries integrate the MDGs and other priority objectives into their policy frameworks.

34.     The annual reports of the Secretary-General to the General Assembly on the implementation of the Millennium Declaration stem from a broad system of monitoring and reporting to track global, regional and national progress towards the MDGs. These reports have provided an overview of progress in implementing the Declaration’s commitments and a comprehensive statistical analysis on progress towards the goals. They have been based on global and regional monitoring by an Inter-Agency and Expert Group on MDG Indicators, coordinated by UN-DESA; on country-level monitoring coordinated by UNDP; and on other inputs from many parts of the system. They have also been complemented by an array of detailed progress reports produced by individual organizations. The most wide-ranging of these is the World Bank and IMF’s annual “Global Monitoring Report,” which provides an integrated assessment of progress on policies and actions needed to achieve the MDGs and related conference outcomes.⁽¹²⁾