Further strengthening existing common services structures

Section III contains an update of the progress achieved in setting up a more formal common services structure in Geneva.

It was observed that it was increasingly common to structure services contracts, including those with very significant intellectual components, as performance-based, so that they were in fact measurable by output.

The report summarized the efforts that had been made to enhance the existing common services structures initially reviewed by the Joint Inspection Unit in 2000.

United Nations Office at Vienna Division of Administrative and Common Services Organizational structure and post distribution for the biennium 2002-2003

Thanks to measures taken to reorganize these areas, there are currently 26 settlements, 5 of which are new villages, equipped with housing units and supplied with basic facilities and common service structures.

It describes, in section II, existing cooperation among specialized agencies and organizations based at Geneva and provides, in section III, an update of the progress achieved in setting up a more formal common services structure at Geneva.

In its report on United Nations common services at Geneva (see A/55/856), the Joint Inspection Unit reviewed the following five common services structures in place at Geneva and made a series of recommendations thereon: the International Computing Centre (ICC); the Joint Medical Service (JMS); the Training and Examinations Section (TES, now entitled the Staff Development and Learning Section (SDLS)); the Diplomatic Pouch Service (DPS); and the Joint Purchase Service (JPS).

The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva has reported that a three-tier structure for common services, recommended by the Secretary-General in his report on common services at Geneva (A/56/417), has been established.7 The Management Ownership Committee, comprising the heads of all Geneva-based agencies, under the Chairmanship of the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, provides strategic direction and high-level support for all common service initiatives.

A project team led by the Management Consulting Section and comprising representatives from relevant entities managed the project, taking into account the role of the United Nations Office at Nairobi in the provision of core and common services to Secretariat entities and offices of the United Nations system and the role of UNEP and UN-Habitat in a proposed United Nations Office at Nairobi management board as well as the newly established common service governance structure.