Questions Relating to the Proposed Programme Budget for 2023

A/RES/77/262No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 138Proposed programme budget for 2023, published in 2023.

What other versions does this mandate have?

7 versions · 2020–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/242

2025A/RES/80/242Questions relating to the proposed programme budget for 2026LatestCompare with previous version
2024A/RES/79/257Questions relating to the proposed programme budget for 2025Compare with previous version
2023A/RES/78/252Questions relating to the proposed programme budget for 2024Compare with previous version
2023A/RES/77/262Questions relating to the proposed programme budget for 2023Compare with previous version
2022A/RES/76/245Questions relating to the proposed programme budget for 2022Compare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

4 topics

Financial Implications Programme Budgeting Resources Allocation Staffing

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2023.

2023A/78/391Improving service delivery in the United Nations : development of the Secretariat's global operational support architecture report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

63 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms that the Fifth Committee is the appropriate Main Committee of the General Assembly entrusted with responsibilities for administrative and budgetary matters, and also reaffirms the role of the Fifth Committee in carrying out a thorough analysis and approving human and financial resources and policies, with a view to ensuring full, effective and efficient implementation of all mandated programmes and activities and the implementation of policies in this regard;

Also reaffirms rule 153 of its rules of procedure;

Further reaffirms the Regulations and Rules Governing Programme Planning, the Programme Aspects of the Budget, the Monitoring of Implementation and the Methods of Evaluation;

Reaffirms the established budgetary procedures and methodologies, based on its resolutions 41/213 and 42/211;

Also reaffirms the Financial Regulations and Rules of the United Nations;

Further reaffirms its resolution 77/254 of 30 December 2022;

Reaffirms its resolution 77/267 of 30 December 2022;

Endorses the conclusions and recommendations contained in the report of the Advisory Committee of Administrative and Budgetary Questions, subject to the provisions of the present resolution;

Stresses that finance serves as a foundation of and an important element underpinning United Nations governance;

Emphasizes the importance of full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and notes with appreciation the efforts of the Secretary-General to ensure adequate, sustainable and predictable resources for development, with the aim of leaving no one behind;

Urges all Member States to fulfil their financial obligations as set out in the Charter of the United Nations on time, in full and without conditions;

Requests the Secretary-General to make every effort to facilitate Member States’ payments of their assessed contributions;

Notes that organizational reforms should contribute to greater efficiency and effectiveness in delivering the Organization’s mandated programmes and activities without negatively affecting their full implementation, and requests the Secretary-General to provide results and examples in this regard in the context of his next budget submission;

Also notes the increased size and volume of documentation that forms the proposed programme budget, and notes with appreciation that the Secretary-General continues his efforts to enhance the quality, clarity and usability of the proposed programme budget in consultation with Member States, while maintaining the level of information provided to Member States;

Stresses that results-based budgeting and results-based management are mutually supportive management tools and that improved implementation of results-based budgeting enhances both management and accountability in the Secretariat, and encourages the Secretary-General to continue his efforts in this regard;

Emphasizes the importance of comprehensive budgetary performance in the management of the programme plan and programme budget, and requests the Secretary-General to clearly link the budget inputs to tangible results;

Requests the Secretary-General to include in future proposed programme budgets the indicative cost estimates of major construction projects in the top-line budget figure in the introductory section of the budget, for information purposes only;

Also requests the Secretary-General to continue to strengthen internal controls in programme planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting;

Invites the Secretary-General to continue to pursue cost-effective and efficient practices in future budget submissions;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that each programme of the regular budget undergoes a spending review at least once every five years, to be implemented from the proposed programme budget for 2024 onward;

Also requests the Secretary-General to provide calculations of both gross and net requirements for the proposed programme budget in future budget submissions;

Notes the provision of information to Member States online, and encourages the Secretary-General to continue his efforts in this regard;

Requests the Secretary-General to undertake pre-posting of job openings irrespective of the liquidity situation of the Organization and to proactively approach pre-posting of vacancies in order to be in the position to expeditiously launch and complete recruitment actions;

Takes note of paragraph 35 of the report of the Advisory Committee;

Reiterates its concern about the high number of vacancies, and requests the Secretary-General to fill vacant positions expeditiously, to review all positions that have been vacant for 24 months or longer, to propose either their retention, with clear justification of need, or abolishment, and to provide a list of all long-vacant positions and actions taken in the annex to his future reports;

Recalls paragraph 51 of the report of the Advisory Committee, underlines the importance of using consistent, realistic and accurate budgetary assumptions for posts and positions, and decides that all reclassifications of functions, reassignments, conversions and redeployments (including geographical), as well as establishment of new temporary positions, should apply the continuing vacancy rate as approved by the General Assembly;

Also recalls paragraph 57 of the report of the Advisory Committee, reiterates the paramount importance of the equality of the six official languages of the United Nations, and requests the Secretary-General to take additional measures to improve multilingualism and the equal and adequate treatment of all six official languages and to report thereon in the next programme budget submission;

Takes note of paragraph 62 of the report of the Advisory Committee;

Also takes note of paragraph 75 of the report of the Advisory Committee, and stresses that all extrabudgetary posts must be administered and managed with the same rigour as regular budget posts;

Decides that a vacancy rate of 12.4 per cent for Professional staff and 10.2 per cent for General Service staff shall be used as a basis for the calculation of the budget for 2023;

Also decides that the staffing table for 2023 shall be as set out in the annex to the present resolution;

Part I

Overall policymaking, direction and coordination

Section 1 Overall policymaking, direction and coordination

Recalls its resolution 72/279 of 31 May 2018, reaffirms its request to the Secretary-General to report annually to the Economic and Social Council at its operational activities for development segment on the implementation of the reinvigorated resident coordinator system, including its funding, to ensure accountability towards Member States;

Takes note of paragraph I.7 of the report of the Advisory Committee;

Also takes note of paragraph I.9 of the report of the Advisory Committee;

Section 2 General Assembly and Economic and Social Council affairs and conference management

Recalls paragraph 8 of its resolution 75/252, commends the increased throughput productivity of the translation services across all duty stations and the achievements made by language staff to meet the revised workload standards, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to ensure adequate training and technical support in order to ensure equal treatment of all official languages;

Also recalls paragraph I.59 of the report of the Advisory Committee, and commends the Secretary-General’s effort to ensure high-quality documentation while at the same time using tools such as eLUNa to capture the high volume of recycled text as well as maximizing machine translation to deliver documentation services in a more efficient and timely manner;

Further recalls paragraphs I.57 and I.59 of the report of the Advisory Committee, requests the Secretary-General to fully implement the revised individual productivity standards for translation, and reaffirms the coefficients reflected therein, used to convert all assignments to 5.8 pages per day for translation and adjusted upward accordingly for self-revision and revision;

Recalls paragraph 8 of its resolution 75/252 and paragraph 37 of its resolution 76/245, commends the increased throughput productivity of the translation services across all duty stations, made possible by new working methods and technologies, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to take measures to ensure equal treatment of all six official languages and equal quality of service for Member States, while fully respecting the specificities of each official language and different levels of benefit from information technology advances for different languages;

Part II

Political affairs

Section 3 Political affairs

Takes note of paragraph II.62 of the report of the Advisory Committee;

Part III

International justice and law

Section 8 Legal affairs

Takes note of paragraphs III. 64, 65, 66 and 67 of the report of the Advisory Committee;

Decides that regular budget resources for the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011 under section 8, Legal affairs, for 2023 amount to 17,129,200 United States dollars before recosting;

Part IV

International cooperation for development

Section 9 Economic and social affairs

Takes note of paragraph IV.18 of the report of the Advisory Committee;

Section 10 Least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States

Notes the importance of science, innovation and technology in addressing humanity’s challenges, and invites the Secretary-General to explore expanding the support to and cooperation with the Technology Bank for the Least Developed Countries to other vulnerable countries, including landlocked developing countries and small island developing States;

Section 11 United Nations system support for the African Union’s Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want

Recalls that the development of Africa is an established priority of the United Nations, and reaffirms its commitment to addressing the unique needs of Africa;

Section 12 Trade and development

Decides on the following distribution of the proposed establishment of posts: one P-4 and one P-3 Statistician post to the Statistics Service, two P-2 posts to subprogramme 1, one P-4 and one P-3 post to subprogramme 4, and one P-5, one P-3 and one P-2 post to subprogramme 5;

Section 15 Human settlements

Recalls the recommendations of the Advisory Committee in paragraph IV.140 of its report, especially its recommendation to encourage the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) to continue to cooperate closely with the resident coordinator system and to explore opportunities for increased cooperation with other entities, in order to leverage shared expertise and capacity to consolidate system-wide efforts to implement programmatic activities in support of Member States;

Also recalls paragraph IV.132 of the report of the Advisory Committee, notes the functional analysis undertaken by UN-Habitat, and decides on the following distribution of the proposed conversions: one P-3 post under Governing Bodies Secretariat, policymaking organs; two P-4 posts under Office of the Executive Director, executive direction and management; two P-4 posts under Global Solutions Division; and one D-1 post and one Local level post under Management Advisory and Compliance Service, programme support;

Section 17 UN-Women

Takes note of paragraph IV.168 of the report of the Advisory Committee;

Also takes note of paragraph IV.170 of the report of the Advisory Committee, and approves the reclassification from P-3 to P-4 of the post of Finance and Budget Officer;

Further takes note of paragraph IV.177 of the report of the Advisory Committee;

Takes note of paragraph IV.178 of the report of the Advisory Committee, and emphasizes that the Secretary-General shall continue to improve gender balance among all United Nations staff;

Part V

Regional cooperation for development

Section 21 Economic and social development in Latin America and the Caribbean

Acknowledges the cooperation of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean with the United Nations development system, including its collaborative work with entities of the system on country programme documents, as well as the establishment of the Caribbean Resilience Fund, and recognizes its cooperation with the Regional Collaborative Platform for Latin America and the Caribbean, which has helped to promote common regional strategies and messages to provide demand-driven support to countries in the region;

Part VI

Human rights and humanitarian affairs

Section 26 Palestine refugees

Takes note of paragraph VI.74 of the report of the Advisory Committee, and recalls its decision to consider a gradual increase in the United Nations regular budget allocation to the Agency that would, in addition to covering international staff requirements, in accordance with resolution 3331 B (XXIX) of 17 December 1974, be utilizable to support expenses for operational costs related to executive and administrative management functions of the Agency, and its invitation to the Secretary-General, accordingly, to submit proposals for consideration by the relevant committees at the seventy-eighth session;

Decides to approve resources at the Secretary-General level;

Section 27 Humanitarian assistance

Encourages the Secretary-General to explore strengthening his collaboration with regional and subregional organizations, where appropriate, to improve the capability to use new technologies in supporting humanitarian work;

Part VII

Global communications

Section 28 Global communications

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to explore liaising with Africa’s regional and subregional organizations so as to increase knowledge and awareness of the mandate and activities of the United Nations on the continent, including on the 2030 Agenda and related opportunities, and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session;

Takes note of paragraph VII.8 (a) of the report of the Advisory Committee;

Part VIII

Common support services

Section 29A

Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance

Takes note of paragraph VIII.8 of the report of the Advisory Committee;

Section 29B

Department of Operational Support

Takes note of paragraph VIII.36 of the report of the Advisory Committee, and decides to establish a post of Property Management Officer (P-3);

Section 29C

Office of Information and Communications Technology

Takes note of paragraph VIII.60 of the report of the Advisory Committee, and approves the proposed redeployments;

Part XII

Safety and security

Section 34 Safety and security

Takes note of paragraphs XII.8 and XII.13 of the report of the Advisory Committee, and approves the establishment of one post of Director (D-2), one post of Programme Management Officer (P-4) and one post of Associate Information Management Officer (P-2) under the Division of Specialized Operational Support;

Income section 2

General income

Decides to increase the income expected from bank interests under income section 2 by 7,900,600 dollars;

Income section 3

Services to the public

Decides to increase the income expected under income section 3 by 3,177,000 dollars, while maintaining garage rates at their current level and not introducing any changes in the garage operations policies.

56th (resumed) plenary meeting

30 December 2022

Staffing table for 2023

Paragraph content is machine-extracted from UN documents. For authoritative content, please refer to the official UN document.

Who created this mandate?

What other versions does this mandate have?

What subjects does this mandate have?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What does this mandate say?

Part I

Overall policymaking, direction and coordination

Section 1

Overall policymaking, direction and coordination

Section 2

General Assembly and Economic and Social Council affairs and conference management

Part II

Political affairs

Section 3

Political affairs

Part III

International justice and law

Section 8

Legal affairs

Part IV

International cooperation for development

Section 9

Economic and social affairs

Section 10

Least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States

Section 11

United Nations system support for the African Union’s Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want

Section 12

Trade and development

Section 15

Human settlements

Section 17

UN-Women

Part V

Regional cooperation for development

Section 21

Economic and social development in Latin America and the Caribbean

Part VI

Human rights and humanitarian affairs

Section 26

Palestine refugees

Section 27

Humanitarian assistance

Part VII

Global communications

Section 28

Global communications

Part VIII

Common support services

Section 29A

Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance

Section 29B

Department of Operational Support

Section 29C

Office of Information and Communications Technology

Part XII

Safety and security

Section 34

Safety and security

Income section 2

General income

Income section 3

Services to the public

Table of contents