United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/69/17

Sixty-ninth session

Agenda item 133

The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolutions 37/234 of 21 December 1982, 38/227 A of 20 December 1983, 41/213 of 19 December 1986, 55/234 of 23 December 2000, 56/253 of 24 December 2001, 57/282 of 20 December 2002, 58/268 and 58/269 of 23 December 2003, 59/275 of 23 December 2004, 60/257 of 8 May 2006, 61/235 of 22 December 2006, 62/224 of 22 December 2007, 63/247 of 24 December 2008, 64/229 of 22 December 2009, 65/244 of 24 December 2010, 66/8 of 11 November 2011, 67/236 of 24 December 2012 and 68/20 of 4 December 2013,

Recalling also the terms of reference of the Committee for Programme and Coordination, as outlined in the annex to Economic and Social Council resolution 2008 (LX) of 14 May 1976,

Recalling further the Regulations and Rules Governing Programme Planning, the Programme Aspects of the Budget, the Monitoring of Implementation and the Methods of Evaluation, by which the relevant programmes and subprogrammes of the proposed strategic framework shall be reviewed by the relevant sectoral, functional and regional intergovernmental bodies, if possible during the regular cycle of their meetings,

Having considered the report of the Committee for Programme and Coordination on the work of its fifty-fourth session, the proposed strategic framework for the period 2016–2017: part one: plan outline and part two: biennial programme plan and the report of the Secretary-General on the programme performance of the United Nations for the biennium 2012–2013,

1. Reaffirms the role of the Committee for Programme and Coordination as the main subsidiary organ of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council for planning, programming and coordination;

2. Re-emphasizes the role of the plenary and the Main Committees of the General Assembly in reviewing and taking action on the appropriate recommendations of the Committee for Programme and Coordination relevant to their work, in accordance with regulation 4.10 of the Regulations and Rules Governing Programme Planning, the Programme Aspects of the Budget, the Monitoring of Implementation and the Methods of Evaluation;1

3. Endorses the conclusions and recommendations of the Committee for Programme and Coordination on the programme performance of the United Nations for the biennium 2012–2013, contained in chapter II, section A, of its report on the work of its fifty-fourth session,2 and on the proposed strategic framework for the period 2016–2017, contained in chapter II, section B;

4. Decides that the priorities of the United Nations for the period 2016–2017 shall be the following:


 * (a) Promotion of sustained economic growth and sustainable development in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and recent United Nations conferences;


 * (b) Maintenance of international peace and security;


 * (c) Development of Africa;


 * (d) Promotion of human rights;


 * (e) Effective coordination of humanitarian assistance efforts;


 * (f) Promotion of justice and international law;


 * (g) Disarmament;


 * (h) Drug control, crime prevention and combating international terrorism in all its forms and manifestations;

5. Stresses that setting the priorities of the United Nations is the prerogative of the Member States, as reflected in legislative mandates;

6. Also stresses the need for Member States to participate fully in the budget preparation process, from its early stages and throughout the process;

7. Requests the Secretary-General to prepare the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2016–2017 on the basis of the above priorities and the strategic framework as adopted in the present resolution;

8. Decides not to take a decision on the content of part one: plan outline of the proposed strategic framework for the period 2016–2017;

9. Requests the Secretary-General to ensure, when preparing future plan outlines, that the proposed strategic frameworks take fully into account the guidelines provided by the General Assembly in its resolutions 59/275, 61/235, 62/224, 63/247 and subsequent relevant resolutions;

10. Emphasizes the need for the Secretary-General to strictly adhere to the concepts, terms and mandates approved in the strategic frameworks, while preparing the related programme performance reports;

11. Recognizes the importance of continuing to improve the logical framework, and in this regard encourages programme managers to further improve the qualitative aspects of indicators of achievement in order to enable better evaluation of results, bearing in mind the importance of defining the indicators in a way that ensures their clear measurability;

12. Endorses the conclusions and recommendations of the Committee for Programme and Coordination on evaluation, contained in chapter II, section C, of its report, on the annual overview report of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination for 2013, contained in chapter III, section A, and on United Nations system support for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, contained in chapter III, section B, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure the timely implementation of the above-mentioned recommendations.

55th plenary meeting 18 November 2014