Reform of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

It has been possible to derive from the international debate on technical cooperation some important assessment criteria for the analysis of UNDP. In general, the debate reveals that technical cooperation needs to be geared far more closely to its real objective (i.e. capacity-building) and set out in a phasing-out strategy. To judge from the debate on technical cooperation, UNDP's activities are impressive (national execution, ownership, the NaTCAP process, etc.). UNDP should seek to become a think tank and form an important pillar for technical cooperation in the international debate on development. All in all, UN development cooperation is in clear need of reform. Strategies aimed at remedying the deficiencies must also be directed primarily at UNDP, which can and must play a key role in reforms. In the 1990s UNDP has begun an intensive reform process. In many areas it bears little resemblance to the UNDP of ten or so years ago, having generally managed to change into a more effective actor in the development field.