United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
1. Since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, has the governing body of your organization taken (or will it take) any decisions or new strategies to guide the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs? If any, please provide a brief summary below, including the overarching vision of your organization.
The Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) have included the subject of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs as a standing item on their respective agendas "Contributions by the Commission to the work of the Economic and Social Council, in line with General Assembly resolution 68/1, including follow-up to and review and implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development", in line with General Assembly resolution 68/1.
The Commissions have been contributing to the work of the Council relating to the common themes of the annual framework of the Council and have annually submitted written contributions to the High-level Political Forum, which have been presented by the Chairs. The contributions, as well as other information related to the work of the Commissions on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, is reflected on a dedicated website (http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/commissions/commissions-2030.html).
In the outcome document of the special session of the General Assembly held in 2016, which was prepared by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, Member States welcomed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and noted that efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and to effectively address the world drug problem were complementary and mutually reinforcing. Also in the outcome document, Member States encouraged the Commission on Narcotic Drugs to contribute to the global follow-up and support the thematic review of progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, within its mandates, bearing in mind the integrated nature of the SDGs, as well as the interlinkages between them, and make that information available to the high-level political forum on sustainable development through the appropriate institutional framework, taking into account General Assembly resolution 70/1.
2.1 SDG-specific strategies, plans or work programmes
Ever since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, UNODC has undertaken a number of initiatives to mainstream the SDGs into UNODC's programming efforts and technical assistance delivery. Through its Strategic Planning and Inter-Agency Affairs Unit (SPIA), the Office continues to review and advise on new and already existing results frameworks of UNODC global, regional, and national projects to ensure alignment with the 2030 Agenda. In this regard, in the course of 2017, SPIA conducted five (5) training workshops on results-based management and the SDGs in UNODC Field offices in Central Asia, Pakistan, Eastern Africa, Colombia, Peru, and Thailand and mapped programme and project outcomes and indicators to the SDGs. Additional workshops in UNODC's Field Office network will be organized in 2018. At Headquarters level, a similar workshop was carried out for selected staff in 2018. Further workshops for UNODC's RBM quality assurance focal points are planned for 2018. Moreover, during 2017, SPIA is has developed an RBM /SDG Manual, which will be published in 2018 and is meant as a guide for UNODC staff to incorporate inter alia the SDGs into UNODC's project planning, monitoring, and evaluation processes. All UNODC project document and annual report templates have been aligned with the transformative features of the 2030 Agenda. The Office is currently undergoing a peer review on UNODC's RBM approach. It is expected that the findings of the peer review will help to strengthen the alignment of the Office's work with the SDGs.
UNODC is part of the Steering Committee of the Global Alliance for Reporting Progress on Promoting Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies. The Alliance was established to build new forms of partnership to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It aims to support "effective and meaningful reporting" on the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 and its interlinkages with the rest of the 2030 Agenda, taking into account different national realities, capacities and levels of development, and respecting national policies and priorities.
2.4 Action to enhance support to the principle of "leaving no one behind" and to integrated policy approaches:
Broadly speaking, UNODC's mandates reflect the concerns of sections of society that are especially at risk of being marginalised from the broader development mainstream agenda and that often lack access to justice, health and security. As part of its strategic effort to help ensure their inclusion, UNODC will strengthen and expand its technical cooperation and normative assistance programmes that aim at working with women, children, prisoners and agrarian workers cultivating illicit drug crops.
UNODC has intensified its efforts to ensure access to justice by scaling up its programmes on legal aid, violence against children in the criminal justice system and prison reform. In addition, has extended its programmes on access to drug dependence treatment and its joint programme with WHO to ensure the availability of pain medication. Extra efforts will also be made to expand drug treatment services for women and, through expansion of family based interventions, provisions of prevention services to children at risk.
By launching a new global programme on prison reform, the Office has amplified its efforts to implement the Nelson Mandela Rules on treatment of Prisoners and the Bangkok Rules on Treatment of Women prisoners and non-custodial measures. UNODC also launched a new global programme on alternative development that focuses on assisting marginalised agrarian communities by addressing their specific needs and integrating these efforts with the broader development effort at the national level.
3.1 Mainstreaming the SDGs in development plans and policies or through national sustainable development plans/strategies:
With the adoption of the SDG and its global monitoring framework, UNODC has re-shaped its statistical work to fulfill its obligations as custodian agency of 15 SDG global indicators (alone or jointly with other agencies) in three directions: global monitoring, development of guidelines and capacity development.
Support SDG Global Monitoring
UNODC has, in collaboration with national experts, redesigned its global tool to collect data from Member States on crime and criminal justice system (UN Crime Trend Survey) and has started a process with national experts to redesign the tool to collect data on the drug problem to reflect the SDG global indicators. UNODC is also developing, in collaboration with national experts and relevant regional and international entities, a new global questionnaire to collect data on firearm trafficking to feed the global monitoring of SDG indicator 16.4.2 (proportion of seized small arms and light weapons that are recorded and traced, in accordance with international standards and legal instruments). The Database on wildlife seizures is also in the process of being revitalized to ensure a proper base to globally monitor indicator 15.7.1.
Development of guidelines to support countries to produce SDG indicators
UNODC remains engaged in the work of the Inter-Agency Expert Group on SDG indicators and under its guidance it is developing a new methodology to develop tier II and III SDG indicators. The Office has developed guidelines to use victimization surveys to estimate SDG indicators; it has developed an innovative methodology (Multi-System-Estimation) to estimate the total number of trafficking in persons victims (SDG indicator 16.2.2); it is finalizing with UNDP a manual to guide countries to conduct population and business surveys to estimate bribery (SDG indicators 16.5.1 and 16.5.2); and in collaboration with UNCTAD is developing a methodology to measure illicit financial flows (SDG indicator 16.4.1).
National capacity development
UNODC is implementing programmes to support Member States to produce and disseminate relevant SDG indicators through regional and national capacity building activities often in collaboration with other agencies. Moving forward the Office is looking into the possibility of developing a new global programme on SDG reporting. It is envisaged that this will be based on three main pillars: i) Building capacity of Member States to generate and analyse data to measure progress towards relevant SDG targets; ii) Strengthening the global monitoring of SDG targets; iii) Strengthening capacity of Member States to analyze SDG indicators and use them into the policy-making processes at the national, regional and global levels.
4.1 Supporting the intergovernmental body of your organization in contributing to the thematic review of the HLPF:
UNODC contributes to the review of progress made towards the Sustainable Development Goals through the support it provides to its governing bodies - the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice - as functional commissions of the Economic and Social Council.
In accordance with General Assembly resolution 67/290, the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) is the United Nations central platform for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals. The functional commissions of the Economic and Social Council, and other intergovernmental bodies and forums, provide support to the HLPF by conducting thematic reviews of the Sustainable Development Goals (A/RES/70/1). The General Assembly called on the functional commissions to "ensure that they address the implementation of the 2030 Agenda within their respective areas of expertise and mandates" in its resolution 70/299.
The Office supported the contributions made by the Commissions to the HLPF in 2016 and 2017, as well as the contributions of the Chairs of the Commissions to the preparatory work conducted by ECOSOC. UNODC will continue this support and is in the process of assisting the Chairs in preparing the 2018 contributions.
In addition, the Office organized in November 2016 a joint special event for the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, on the occasion of the visit of the President of the General Assembly, highlighting the contributions of the Vienna-based Commission to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and is looking forward to organizing similar joint CND-CCPCJ events with the President of the General Assembly and the President of ECOSOC in the future.
Moreover, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice have strengthened their cooperation with other functional commissions of the Economic and Social Council, in particular with the Commission on the Status of Women and the Statistical Commission, with a view to advance the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including through the participation in each other's meetings and through the organization of special events during the sessions of the Commissions (e.g. Joint Event CND and CSW in December 2016; Joint Event CND and Statistical Commission in December 2017), as well as in the margins of the meetings of ECOSOC and the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (e.g. joint event of CND and CCPCJ with CSW in July 2017, Statistical Commission and the Commission on Science and Technology for Development in the margins of the HLPF in July 2017).
UNODC has also created a website that reflects the work of the Commissions on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/commissions/commissions-2030.html). The Commissions' contributions to the 2016 and 2017 HLPF are posted on that website, along with background information on joint events with other functional Commissions of ECOSOC and other stakeholders.
5. How has your organization cooperated with other UN system organizations to achieve coherence and synergies in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs? In this regard, has your organization launched or intend to launch any joint programmes or projects in collaboration with other UN entities? Are there any results or lessons you would like to highlight that might help improve the design and impact of such efforts? Has your organization participated in any of the following coordination systemwide mechanisms or any other relevant platform - CEB, UNDG, EC-ESA Plus, RCMs, UN-Energy, UN-Water, UN-Ocean, IAEG, IATT? Please specify which and indicate any suggestions you may have about improving collaborations within and across these mechanisms/platforms:
UNODC, as an office of the Secretariat, participates regularly in the CEB, as well as in the HLCM and HLCP. UNODC is also part of the ECESA platform.
UNODC is a member of UNDG and as such participates in the various coordination mechanisms set up in UNDG, including the ASG Advisory Group represented through a rotating chair for Non-Resident Agencies. It further participated in the UNDG Strategic Results Groups on Sustainable Development / Sustaining Peace and on Strategic Financing throughout 2017.
UNODC is an active partner of the Global Alliance for Reporting Progress on Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, a coordinating platform for UN Member States, private sector, civil society, and international entities to work together to promote peaceful, just, and inclusive societies (Goal 16). It is co-facilitated by UNDP, UNESCO, UNODC and UNHCR. Also, UNODC is active in the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies Initiative, a group of Member States, International Organizations, global partnerships and others to focus on SDG16+. UN entities in this initiative include UNDP, UNICEF, UN-Habitat, UNODC, UN Women.
Within its mandate, UNODC has established various joint projects and coordination groups that involve other entities of the UN System. These areas include access to justice for children (UNICEF), women (UNWOMEN), drug prevention, treatment and rehabilitation (WHO), border management (WCO), corruption (UNDP), human trafficking and migrant smuggling (IOM, UNHCR and the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT). Since all these areas and partnerships are relevant for the 2030 Agenda, UNODC and its partners have linked its work and are showing to external audiences their impact on achieving the SDGs through various publications, and in regular dialogue with Member States.
6. How has your organization engaged with stakeholder groups, both in supporting implementation at the country, regional and global levels, and within your own organization? If yes, please provide main highlights, including any lessons learned:
UNODC is an active partner of the Global Alliance for Reporting Progress on Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies and has supported engagement with Member States at country level through various Global Alliance initiatives.
Further engagement with stakeholder groups has been described in question 3 in the work on SDG indicators.
7. Has your organization organized any conferences, forums or events designed to facilitate exchange of experience, peer and mutual learning? If yes, please provide a brief summary below and include lessons learned and gaps identified based on the outcomes of these events. Please also include any events you plan to organize in the coming years.
In 2017, SPIA conducted five (5) training workshops on results-based management and the SDGs in UNODC Field offices in Central Asia, Pakistan, Eastern Africa, Colombia, Peru, and Thailand and mapped programme and project outcomes and indicators to the SDGs. The outcomes of the workshops were: a) enhanced capacity of Field Office staff of the 2030 Agenda for Development and the pertaining SDGs; b) revised results frameworks of UNODC's programmatic actions and alignment with DSG targets and indicators; c) additional ideas for SDG initiatives that may be launched. Further workshops in UNODC's Field Office network will be organized in 2018. At Headquarters level, a similar workshop was carried out for selected staff in 2018. Additional workshops for UNODC's RBM quality assurance focal points are planned for 2018. The Office is currently undergoing a peer review on UNODC's RBM approach. It is expected that the findings of the peer review will help to strengthen the alignment of the Office's work with the SDGs.
9. In your view, what should a strategic plan for the UN system in support of the 2030 Agenda and SDGs look like? What key elements should it include and major challenges address in such a road map?
It is crucial to emphasize that the SDGs are interrelated, inter-dependent and that they should be regarded as a package that cannot be achieved by compartmentalizing or choosing to focus only on single goals. In particular, Goals 16 and 17 are a pre-requisite that is required for all other Goals to be met.
A strategic plan for the UN System needs to make emphasis on this interdependence to ensure our priorities are set correctly and the UN focuses on those goals where it has a clear benefit and is the best-suited actor to help Member States in achieving the Agenda. A plan should avoid splitting the SDGs, its targets and indicators and assigning these to parts of the UN System, whithout first acknowledging that monitoring progress on the SDGs cannot mean compartmentalizing these and putting a monetary value to each organization's work to showcase results achieved by Goal.
The 'value for money' rethoric is a risky path and the UN System should not be pushed in that corner to argue its contribution towards the 2030 Agenda.
10. Please indicate one or two endeavor or initiatives you suggest that the UN system organizations could undertake together to support the implementation of the SDGs between now and 2030:
The issue of human trafficking / contemporary forms of slavery has been reflected in three different goals of the 2030 Agenda (5,8,16), thus reflecting its complexity and the need for various sectors and actors to come together to tackle it effectively. In addition to the SGs flagship initiatives proposed in his 2017 Reports on reform of the UN System, this is a critical issue that has not been addressed by the Spotlight Initiative nor other existing actions by one or more UN entities, and thus needs more coordination and coherence across the UN System. The existing Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT) has not proven effective in improving coordination among UN agencies and other relevant international organizations to facilitate a holistic and comprehensive approach to preventing and combating trafficking in persons, including protection and support for victims of trafficking and needs more resources and political support from UN Principals and Member States.