UNODC

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

1. Facts and figures

Type of organisation: Office under the UN Secretariat

Established in: 1997

Headquarters: Vienna

Number of country offices: Over 50 units in the field from project to regional level

Head of organisation: UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director Yury Fedotov (Russia)

Dates of Board meetings in 2013: Commission on Narcotic Drugs 11–15 March, Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice 22–26 April, and Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption, Panama City, 25–29 November.

Norway’s representation on Board: Norway was elected as member of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice for the period 2013–2015

Number of Norwegian staff: 6

Competent ministry: Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in consultation with the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services and the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security

Website: www.unodc.org

Mandate and areas of activity

UNODC is tasked with assisting Member States in combating illicit drugs, transnational organised crime and terrorism. Its mandate and efforts are based on the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the three associated Protocols on trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants and firearms, the Convention against Corruption, three drug-control conventions, and the emerging international regulatory framework to counter terrorism.

UNODC’s work is organised in three main pillars:

■ Research and policy analysis. Increase knowledge and understanding of drug and crime issues to expand the basis for policy decisions regarding countermeasures.

■ Normative work. Support Member States in the ratification and implementation of international conventions and protocols, and the development of national legislation to combat drugs, crime and terrorism.

■ Field-based technical cooperation. Enhance the capacity of Member States to prevent and reduce narcotics abuse, HIV/AIDS, crime and terrorism.

Thematic activities are organised under the following chapters: 1) Crime and drug prevention, 2) Anti-corruption, 3) Terrorism prevention, 4) Justice, 5) Health and alternative development, 6) Research and analysis, and 7) Policy shaping. UNODC’s field activities are carried out within the framework of regional and country programmes.

Results achieved in 2012

A steadily growing share of UNODC’s activities consists of providing technical assistance and promoting capacity-building. With regard to preventing and combating crime and drugs, UNODC contributed to support for efforts to reduce the supply side of the drug economy by building up capacity in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asian countries and by better coordinating activities in Central Asia and West Africa. UNODC assists states to implement the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime, which was ratified by eight new states in 2012.

UNODC carried out a range of training activities with particular focus on human trafficking, money laundering and corruption. In anti-corruption and anti-terrorism efforts and in the justice field, a number of projects were implemented under the various regional programmes, including the provision of assistance to establish an anti-corruption programme in Iran. Anti-terrorism programmes were carried out in Afghanistan, Nigeria, the Middle East and North Africa, South-East Asia and the Sahel region.

In the field of justice, UNODC helped to promote criminal-law reforms in Central Asia, Africa and Latin America. UNODC engaged in significant efforts to prevent HIV among injecting drug users and in prisons, in part in connection with Norwegian-funded projects in Afghanistan, Nepal and Pakistan. Furthermore, UNODC published a number of research reports on drugs, crime and corruption, ranging from the World Drug Report at global level to crime threat assessments and reports on opium, coca and cannabis cultivation at country level.

In 2012, UNODC increased its activity on Twitter from 12,000 to 22,000 tweets. The number of visits per month to the
UNODC website by unique users rose to 210,000, from an average of 184,000 in 2011.

2. Assessments: Results, effectiveness and monitoring

The organisation’s results-related work

UNODC has a clear thematic results framework. While the framework contains clearly formulated targets, they are not sufficiently impact-oriented. Instead, there is a tendency to quantify activities, such as the number of ratifications and the number of evaluations, etc. Thus the results framework can potentially be improved, even if the social impacts of UNODC’s work are often hard to measure. Moreover, the results framework does not adequately reflect the regional and strategic dimension of activities. Risk analyses are carried out at project level, but remain rather abstract at a general level.

Under the current Executive Director, UNODC has not published traditional annual reports, but has issued a relatively brief report by the Executive Director that is submitted to the two commissions. This provides an insight into the various thematic areas, but focuses more on activities and objectives than on results. A reporting reform is currently being carried out, which is expected to improve the standard of reporting as from 2014, particularly at programme level. UNODC has an independent evaluation unit, its independence lying in the fact that it reports simultaneously to member states and the governing bodies. However, its financial basis is relatively weak and it is largely dependent on voluntary contributions from a small number of donors.

Planning and budgeting systems

UNODC’s budget is results-based. However, implementation of the budget is somewhat unpredictable due to the fact that the resources available essentially consist of strictly earmarked funds (80 per cent). As a consequence, the criteria for allocating available programme funding are not transparent. There seems to be a tendency for loosely earmarked funds to be used to cross-subsidise projects that are financed by tightly earmarked resources.

In 2012, UNODC published a Draft Fundraising Strategy aimed at committing donors to provide more predictable financing, but on the whole the strategy was rejected by the largest donors. On the other hand, Norway won acceptance in 2012 for a proposal designed to increase transparency of donor practices and programme planning and implementation through reporting cycles.

There is still a way to go before UNODC can be said to have achieved its goal of a more predictable, sustainable financing structure, but it must be expected that donor countries will continue to earmark their contributions and only provide support on an annual basis. There is still a need for reforms and innovative thinking to improve the organisation’s financing model.

Another main challenge related to the organisation’s effectiveness is the fact that it is governed by two separate commissions. These focus primarily on political negotiations when they convene, but are poorly suited as forums for discussing ways of increasing UNODC’s effectiveness and formulating normative, coordinated policies for the organisation. The lack of integration between the two commissions and UNODC’s difficult financial situation due to the high proportion of earmarked funding were among the challenges identified by the UN’s Joint Inspection Unit in its review of the organisation as early as 2010.

Oversight and anti-corruption

UNODC is placed under the oversight mechanisms of the UN Secretariat. This means that UNODC is subject to external audits by the UN Board of Auditors and internal reviews by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services. The OIOS also conducts management audits and evaluations. The OIOS is part of the UN Secretariat, but is operationally independent and can initiate evaluations of its own accord. Moreover, the UN General Assembly can request special evaluations. The OIOS reports to the Secretary-General, who is formally responsible for ensuring that OIOS recommendations are implemented.

UNODC is subject to the UN Secretariat’s guidelines for dealing with and preventing corruption, and for ensuring that whistle-blowers are protected. The OIOS has established a whistle-blowing channel that can be used to disclose all types of irregularities in the UN system, but it is not prominently featured on UNODC’s own website and may therefore be difficult to access for anyone wishing to report misconduct.

Another factor is that information on cases of misconduct is only publicised after a case-by-case assessment. For the above-mentioned reasons it appears to be necessary to formulate clearer guidelines to promote greater transparency regarding UNODC’s activities.

Institution-building and national ownership

As a member of the UN Development Group (UNDG), UNODC has an obligation to provide effective technical assistance to Member States to ensure the achievement of international development goals. Unfortunately, on account of the organisation’s funding and governance structure, ensuring an integrated approach in planning activities at country level has proved to be a challenge. Consequently, efforts have been somewhat fragmented, in the form of isolated, individual projects. However, with the development of regional programmes, a more overarching, integrated planning structure is beginning to be put in place, which will help to enhance effectiveness and promote a better-coordinated, more coherent approach at country level. In this connection, UNODC strives as far as possible to promote local ownership by aligning its efforts with partner countries’ own plans and strategies. One way in which this has been done is through management committees for regional programmes, consisting of recipient country representatives and with donor country representatives as observers.

The Finance and Governance Working Group (FinGov) was established in the autumn of 2009, to serve as a forum in which all Member States participate and where key issues relating to both the financing and governance of UNODC are discussed. In 2011–2012, FinGov again proved to be an important discussion forum for improving dialogue between Member States and UNODC, but donor countries agree that it should not have decision-making authority. Nevertheless, FinGov will be able to serve both commissions in an advisory capacity.

FinGov has succeeded in severing the close connection that previously existed between UNODC and the Major Donors Group. No meetings have been held in this group in the past two years. This has been a positive development that has laid the foundation for broader, deeper multilateralism in UNODC.

Willingness to learn and change

In 2012, UNODC’s independent evaluation unit has pursued its efforts to follow up on evaluation reports. Among other things, an internal mechanism has been established to monitor and coordinate interventions. Electronic questionnaires are also sent out to the various entities each year to ensure that they follow up on recommendations.

UNODC’s new Executive Director has actively supported the evaluation function and in the course of 2012 has clearly demonstrated a willingness to learn and change in specific cases in which Member States have taken an active interest. At the same time, it is evident that UNODC’s programme reform was not developed as quickly as might have been desired in 2012. An evaluation report pointed out that clearer strategic leadership is needed in this field to ensure that UNODC coordinates its efforts to support the programme reform more effectively.

3. Norway’s policy towards UNODC

Key Norwegian priorities:

■ Efforts to strengthen implementation of the UN drug-control conventions, the UN Convention against Corruption, the Convention against Transboundary Organized Crime and the three protocols thereto, and anti-terrorism legislation.

■ UNODC must serve as a forum for developing a multilat-eral regulatory framework in the field of drugs and crime, and as a contributor of technical assistance and a partner for Member States.

■ Efforts to prevent and combat organised crime, in particular efforts targeting piracy, terrorism, human trafficking and smuggling, corruption, computer crime, drugs and reform of UNODC.

■ Active participation at meetings of the Commission on
Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, and at Conferences of States Parties to the Convention against Corruption and the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

■ Engagement in issues relating to increasing UNODC’s financial stability and predictability and to the way in which the general strategy is pursued.

■ Continue efforts to resist pressure from certain member countries to marginalise the role of civil society in parts of UNODC’s activities.

■ Set requirements to the effect that human-rights instruments must be complied with in a concrete, verifiable manner, particularly in cases where the death penalty has been imposed for drug crimes.

■ Emphasise that efforts to combat transnational organised crime must be incorporated into the dialogue with the countries in the region and in development cooperation.

■ Support the work carried out under monitoring mechanisms related to the UN Convention against Corruption.

■ Support efforts to establish a monitoring mechanism for the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the three protocols thereto.

■ Follow up on a three-year financing plan for an Arab
League project to combat human trafficking, which is
run by UNODC in cooperation with the Arab League secretariat in Cairo.

UNODC and efforts to combat piracy

Since the start of 2009, UNODC has provided support for the countries around the Horn of Africa to combat piracy under its Counter Piracy Programme (CPP). By March 2013 the UNODC programme had contributed to:

■ 1,400 new international standard prison spaces

■ 1,200 prisoners held around the world for piracy

■ Welfare programmes for 600 prisoners

■ Training for 400 Somali prison staff

■ Training for more than 300 police officers and coastguards

■ Assistance to help 46 hostages to return home

■ 9 prisons built, refurbished or underway

■ 4 courtrooms constructed or under construction

The CPP, which has successfully helped to achieve the goal of adequate criminal prosecution of pirates, is being transformed in 2013 into a global Maritime Crime Programme (MCP) with a view to geographical and thematic expansion of activity to West Africa and other regions where there is a need to combat maritime crime.

Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Visiting address: 7. juni plassen 1 / Victoria terasse 5, Oslo, P.O.Box 8114 Dep, NO-0032 Oslo, Norway.

For more information, contact the Section for Budget and Administration by e-mail at: sbf-fn@mfa.no. The document can be found on our web site:

http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/ud/selected-topics/un.

Publication code: E-919 E

ISBN: 978-82-7177-835-4

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