SIXTY-SEVENTH WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY Provisional agenda item 20.1
A67/55 19 May 2014
Programme budget 2012-2013: performance assessment Report of the Programme, Budget and Administration Committee of the Executive Board to the Sixty-seventh World Health Assembly
1. The twentieth meeting of the Programme, Budget and Administration Committee was held in Geneva from 14 to 16 May 2014, under the chairmanship of Dr Dirk Cuypers (Belgium).1 The Committee adopted its agenda, with the deletion of items 2.9 and 2.10.2 2. The Committee welcomed the report contained in document A67/42 and highlighted the improvement in the level of fully achieved Organization-wide expected results, which had increased from 54% during the 2010–2011 biennium to 63% during the 2012–2013 biennium. 3. The Committee noted the improvement in the level and alignment of financing of the strategic objectives and in the major offices. However, it observed that full financial alignment has not yet been achieved. 4. The Committee appreciated the inclusion of lessons learnt in the report but encouraged the Secretariat to provide a more detailed analysis of the challenges faced and the practices used to tackle them. 5. In addition, Committee members noted that, although substantial progress in achieving public health results were included in the report, an improved analysis of the work of the Organization, which showed links between work areas and strategic objectives, should be included in the future. 6. The Committee highlighted that, although the Secretariat had undertaken additional work to improve indicator definitions and measurement criteria, some indicator targets were still either ambitious or did not sufficiently identify the specific responsibility of the Secretariat in achieving results. In that respect, the report did not provide adequate assessment of the Secretariat’s performance during the 2012–2013 biennium. The Committee suggested areas for improvement in the 2014 –2015 biennium, including provision of a more detailed analysis of each outcome in the Programme budget 2014–2015 combined with financial information, the use of graphical means to describe achievements, consideration of the current rating system to include qualitative components, a better description of the
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The list of participants is available in document EBPBAC20/DIV./1. Document EBPBAC20/1.
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work attributed to the Secretariat and further strengthening of the quality assurance processes through peer reviews and links to evaluation. 7. In response to the Committee’s concerns and suggestions, the Secret ariat emphasized that many of the issues raised are being addressed through the reform process, including the development of a clearer results structure in the Programme budget 2014 –2015 with a better delineation of the work of Member States and the Secretariat, more robust indicators for each level of the results hierarchy (impacts, outcomes and outputs), and a better alignment of financing through the financing dialogue. The Director-General highlighted that future reports on programme budget performance assessment will focus on analysis of results rather than activities and will more clearly describe the links between technical and financial implementation, in order for the report to become a managerial tool. In addition, she highlighted the importance of the use of flexible funding, such as assessed contributions, to support financial alignment.
RECOMMENDATION TO THE HEALTH ASSEMBLY 8. The Committee, on behalf of the Executive Board, recommended that the Sixty-seventh World Health Assembly note the report contained in document A67/42.
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