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1.4 UNDP subregional programme under review
UNDP has been working in the Pacific since 1971, when the first Pacific office opened in Fiji.30 Currently, UNDP has two MCOs in the Pacific: Fiji MCO and Samoa MCO, each led by a Resident Representative.31 The Fiji MCO office covers Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. The Samoa MCO oversees UNDP programming in the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa and Tokelau. The Solomon Islands has a sub-office under the Fiji MCO, with a Deputy Resident Representative since 2007 (refer to Annex 1 – figure 6 Organigram of UNDP Pacific Subregional Programme). Stemming from a recommendation of the 2019 United Nations MCO Review, in 2021, UNDP established a North Pacific sub-office led by a Deputy Resident Representative. A United Nations Resident Coordinator has taken up office in the North Pacific MCO, focusing on the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Nauru and Kiribati.
The current UNPS for 2018 to 2022 covers 14 countries and territories, has six outcome areas and 38 indicators for monitoring. The six UNPS outcomes are: (1) Climate change, Disaster resilience and environmental protection; (2) Gender equality; (3) Sustainable and inclusive economic empowerment; (4) Equitable basic services; (5) Governance and community engagement; and (6) Human rights. The UNPS has been localized in each PIC through an individual Joint Country Action Plan.
The current UNDP Pacific SRPD (2018-2022) is derived from the UNPS, based on its comparative strengths. Each country and territory also has a standalone Standard Basic Assistance Agreement, which is the localization of the SRPD. The Pacific SRPD aimed to deliver a coherent regional programme through the two MCOs, and has three primary outcomes listed below (refer to sections 2.1., 2.2. and 2.3 for the detailed outputs of each of the outcomes, and Annex 6 for details on the SRPD results framework).
1. UNDP SRPD Outcome 1 (Climate change, disaster resilience and environmental protection) has the largest share of overall expenditure at about $124 million or 59 percent of total Pacific spending. Samoa has the largest Outcome 1 expenditure at $35 million, followed by Fiji with $30 million. The remaining PICs have expenditure of between $1 million and $9 million, and all PICs have Outcome 1 expenditure of about 40 to 90 percent (as a ratio of their total country expenditure) except for the Solomon Islands.
2. UNDP SRPD Outcome 2 (Sustainable and inclusive economic empowerment) has the lowest spending, with about $14 million or 7 percent of total UNDP expenditure in the Pacific. Fiji has the most significant expenditure of $8 million, and the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu have about $1 million each. In comparison, the rest of the PICs all spent between $3,000 to $900,000, with Kiribati, Tonga and Fiji dedicating 11-23 percent of their overall expenditure to Outcome 2. All other PICs have low
Outcome 2 expenditure as a ratio of their overall country expenditure (below 10 percent) and Niue and
Tokelau had none.
3. UNDP SRPD Outcome 3 (Governance and community engagement) has the second-largest expenditure, of about $70 million or 34 percent of the total Pacific expenditure. The PICs with the most considerable Outcome 3 expenditure are Fiji ($35 million), the Solomon Islands ($16 million), Vanuatu ($5 million), Samoa ($3.2 million) and Nauru ($1.1 million). The Solomon Islands has a considerable governance programme, with 75 percent of its total spending dedicated to Outcome 3. The rest of the
PICs have Outcome 3 expenditure below $1 million.
30 There is a country office in Papua New Guinea (not covered by the Pacific SRPD). 31 There are four Deputy Resident Representatives in the Pacific, one each for Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Samoa and the
Solomon Islands. Previously, the Pacific Centre (created in 2005), was part of the UNDP regional structure in Asia and the Pacific and provided technical support to the two MCOs and the Papua New Guinea country office. The Pacific Centre closed in 2016 with some responsibilities absorbed by Fiji MCO.
Using the total budget of the two Pacific MCOs in 2018 as a baseline, the UNDP Pacific budget shows an increase of 9 percent in 2019, 12 percent in 2020 and 17 percent in 2021. Comparing expenditure against the year-on-year budget, the overall financial delivery rate has been erratic, at 78 percent in 2018, 68 percent in 2019, 75 percent in 2020 and 57 percent in 2021 (figure 1). Among the 14 PICs, Fiji has the largest expenditure with $75 million (figure 2). However, it should be noted that some regional projects are tagged to Fiji in the UNDP financial system for accounting purposes. Samoa has the second-largest expenditure at $38 million, followed by the Solomon Islands with $21 million. Tonga and Tokelau have the least expenditure with $705,000 and $411,000 respectively.
FIGURE 1. Evolution of programme budget and expenditure, 2018-2019
n U S $ o i l l i m 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
2018 2019
Source: United Nations financial system (Atlas) as of January 2022 2020 Budget Expenditure
2021 Delivery
90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
FIGURE 2. Distribution of expenditure among countries in the Pacific, 2018-2020 programme expenditure
Resilience and Sustainable Dev. Inclusive Growth E ective Governance Unlinked
Fiji Samoa Solomon Islands Vanuatu Paci c Centre (PC) Tuvalu Republic of Palau Micronesia, Federated States of Marshall Islands Kiribati Cook Islands Niue Nauru Tonga Tokelau
0 10 20 30 40
Source: United Nations financial system (Atlas) as of January 2022 50 60 70 80 million US$
