Fund Dates

• Start Date: 23  January 2010
• End Date: 31 December 2014

Comoros One UN Fund - Reports

• Final Certified Financial Statement
• 2014 Annual Progress Report 

Key Documents

• Comoros One UN Fund -Terms of Reference
• Comoros One UN Fund - Memorandum of Understanding
• Comoros One UN Fund - Standard Administrative Arrangement

Overview

The UN has been present in the Union of Comoros, which is a Small Island Developing State, for thirty years. Due to its low integration into the global economy, the Comoros are beginning to be seriously affected by the economic and financial crisis.

Following two years of efforts aimed at ensuring UN coherence in the country, the Comoros has been recognized as a Delivering as One (DaO) volunteer country in October 2009. Through this approach, the UN in the Comoros will bring together the strengths of all UN agencies to enhance its service delivery and help the country to accelerate its progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

In accordance with the Comoros’ commitments on aid effectiveness, the DaO initiative is being implemented in a collaborative manner under the leadership of the Government of the Union of the Comoros. In addition, through the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund, the United Nations provides significant support to the peace and national cohesion process.

The purpose of the Comoros One Fund is to support resource mobilization efforts in the priority areas described in the One UN Programme, as well as the coherent allocation and disbursement of donor resources to the UN Country Team (UNCT) under the direction of the Resident Coordinator (RC). The result includes enhanced overview and management of UN development resources and reduced transaction costs for the government and partners when supporting the UN.

The DaO initiative in the Comoros comprises of the Five Ones: One Programme, One Leader, One Budgetary Framework, One Office, and One Voice. The interdependence between the Five Ones in the Comoros is subscribed to by the UN Country Team, composed of 20 resident and non-resident Agencies that are referred to as the Participating UN Organizations.

The Comoros One Fund is administered by the Multi-Donor Trust Fund Office (MDTF Office) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in accordance with its financial regulations and rules.

Information on the Comoros Delivering as One is available by clicking here.

Assistance Strategy

The priorities of the UN in the Comoros are aligned with the government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) as described in the One UN Programme (2010-2012).

• Economic growth and fighting poverty;
• Governance;
• Provision of basic social services (health, education, sanitation);
• Environment and sustainable development.

Under the strategic leadership of the Resident Coordinator (RC), the Comoros One Fund is intended to facilitate the realization of One Programme outcomes by strengthening the planning and coordination process, uniting the funding allocation and channeling funds towards the highest priority needs.

The Comoros One Fund also aims to ensure that funds are available for the Participating UN Organizations to respond to emerging and unforeseen circumstances thereby enhancing the flexibility and responsiveness of the UN system.

In view of coordinated resource mobilization, the Comoros One Fund is the proposed vehicle for further consolidation of country level funding mechanisms. All additional resources mobilized through joint UN resource mobilization efforts are managed through the One Fund.

http://www.km.one.un.org/

Governance

The overall management of the Comoros One Fund is with the UN Country Programme Steering Committee and the UNCT, under the leadership of the Resident Coordinator (RC).

The Resident Coordinator is responsible for:

• Strategic leadership of the One Fund on the basis of the implementation of the DaO initiative in the Comoros;
• Engaging in Joint Resource Mobilization for the One Fund in collaboration with Participating UN Organizations;
• Ensuring the proper documentation of the allocation process is provided, including the rationale for decision-making;
• Ensuring consolidated One Fund level reporting, including to donors, based on reports from Participating Organizations and support from the Administrative Agent and the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office.

The One Programme Steering Committee is responsible for:

• Providing overall strategic orientation of the entire –Delivering as One (DaO) initiative in the country;
• Setting the high level priority thematic areas for fund allocation from the One Fund;
• Monitoring overall progress towards achieving results of the One UN Programme;

The Steering Committee is composed of representatives from the Government of the Comoros and the Heads of Participating UN Organizations. It is co-chaired by the UN Resident Coordinator and Government of the Comoros. The Resident Coordinator also represents all non-resident Agencies in the UN Country Programme Steering Committee.

The Administrative Agent is responsible for:

• Receipt, administration and management of contributions from donors;
• Disbursement of funds to Participating UN Organizations, in accordance with instructions from the Resident Coordinator, on behalf of the Steering Committee and in accordance with the approved Annual Work Plans;
• Provision of consolidated narrative and financial reports on the Comoros One Fund to the Resident Coordinator, Steering Committee, UN Country Team and Donors, based on progress reports received from Participating UN Organizations.

The UN Resident Coordinator’s Office (UNRCO) is responsible for:

• Supporting strategic focus by providing analysis of resource requirements, funding gaps, resource mobilization efforts, advice on resource allocations and analysis of progress and lessons to be learned for future programme implementation to the RC, UN Country Team and Steering Committee;
• Ensuring timely and efficient distribution of the finalized annual consolidated reports on the One Comoros Fund to the UN Country Team, and Steering Committee, as well as maintaining an appropriate level of fund information to promote transparency.

Decision-Making Process

Funding requests to the Steering Committee should respond to the following criteria:

• The funded activity / project should contribute to the achievement of one of the established outputs in the One UN Programme.
• The output should contribute to the achievement of at least one of the Millennium Development Goals.
• The output should be related to one of the “national priorities” as stated in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (2010 – 2014)
• The funded activity / project should incorporate at least one of the following cross-cutting issues: gender, human rights, communication for development, capacity development, fight against HIV/AIDS, and threats to human security.

In addition, allocations should be in accordance with the guiding principle of preparedness to implement and possibility to deliver results in full by requesting organizations.

The programmes that have completed detailed planning for implementation qualify for an initial allocation of funds from the Comoros One Fund. The UN Country Team will constitute a Monitoring & Evaluation Group (M&E Group) to assess the outputs / activities and apply additional allocation criteria  related e.g. to absorptive capacity, the time sensitive nature of the activities and alignment with national priorities.

The M&E Group conducts a desk review of the programmes and makes a proposal for allocation of funds. Its fund allocation proposal will then be shared with the UN Country Team, for a two-week review. It will subsequently be presented to the One Programme Steering Committee where the final decision on resource allocations is made.

Subsequent allocations are done twice a year (May and October) based on performance and following the same allocation process described above.