HLCM Far-Reaching Efficiency Initiatives

HLCM Far‑Reaching Efficiency Measures External Communications Package

I. Preserving Multilateral Action in a Changing Landscape

The United Nations in its eightieth year exists in a world in flux. Financial pressures, significant geopolitical tension, and growing domestic pressures in many capitals have converged into a challenging resource environment for international cooperation.

In this context, the humanitarian, development, peace and security, and human rights environment is the most demanding in decades: needs are rising while predictability and resources are quickly eroding.

Yet precisely in such moments, the value proposition of multilateral action should become clearest: collective problems demand collective solutions.

Across the UN system, organisations have already started responding with determination to sustain mandate delivery, to protect core functions and services, and to strengthen the credibility of multilateral action and sustain it.

The UN80 initiative has proposed a framework for action in this sense: a vision in which more streamlined mandates and structures enable more effective governance and more coherent action.

The operational efficiency roadmap proposed in the first progress report from UN80’s third workstream “Shifting Paradigms: United to Deliver”, captures the work that HLCM has already launched in February 2025 with extreme urgency at UN system-wide level: simplify where complexity has grown, further integrate operations where duplication persists, and ensure that limited means are used with maximum efficiency to sustain what matters most - results for people.

The High-level Committee on Management (HLCM), building on its long-standing role in strengthening management across the UN system, has assembled a portfolio of far-reaching efficiency measures designed to reduce fragmentation and cost, harness scale, and improve reliability, while respecting institutional diversity and mandates.

Detailed project plans, governance structures, and formal commitments have already been established, and implementation is starting for most measures, with first results expected as early as 2026.

These measures are not a proxy for across-the-board cuts. They are practical reforms that consolidate mature capabilities and enable the UN system to ‘deliver as one,’ with participation being voluntary and paced by readiness and needs.

This portfolio is driven forward in full recognition that efficiency creates space but cannot replace the scale of investment required to respond to today’s crises and to deliver on the mandates entrusted by Member States.

II. From Ideas to Action — The Process Behind the HLCM Efficiency Package

In February 2025, HLCM convened a special session to confront a troubling reality: needs were (and are) rising while resources were (and are) quickly depleting. UN System organisations decided to prioritise a coordinated effort to unlock savings and build resilience, keeping both urgency and sustainability in mind.

The Committee launched a system-wide call for efficiency proposals and received more than one hundred ideas spanning finance, human resources, procurement and supply, digital foundations, and shared services.

During the 49th HLCM session on April 3-4, 2025 these ideas were discussed, stress tested and prioritized for feasibility and impact. The portfolio has been rationalized first to twenty-two proposals and then narrowed to eighteen high priority initiatives. Leading organisations for the initiatives were identified and UN organisations came together in coalitions of the willing around either existing capabilities and expertise, or clear leadership and commitments to develop novel solutions.

Subsequently, coalitions and their lead organisations drafted comprehensive project plans that explain the purpose, goals, and implementation steps for each HLCM efficiency initiative. They outline the current challenges, describe the desired future state, and provide a clear roadmap including timelines, key milestones, resources, risks, and expected results. Advancements in implementation will be monitored by HLCM.

Through August 2025, lead entities worked with their coalitions on further concretising the initiatives into draft Terms of Reference (or equivalent agreements) where necessary, setting out scope, cost recovery, service levels, KPIs, governance, and change management arrangements. By mid-September, coalitions have reviewed and finalised these documents in preparation for the Fiftieth Session of HLCM in Vienna (30 September–1 October), which will take stock and mark the transition from planning to delivery.

From October onward, coalitions will move into implementation with phased rollouts and continued staff and external stakeholders engagement.

III. Delivering Strategic Efficiency with Integrity

1. A purpose-driven approach. The initiatives are not across-the-board cuts. All efficiency measures are instruments to strengthen the delivery of core objectives and services. Efficiencies are a means, not an end. Decisions will be judged by their contribution to more nimble operations, better reliability, and better value for money in support of outcomes on the ground.

2. One system, many pathways. The UN system’s diversity is an asset. Coalitions of the willing create scale where readiness exists, without forcing uniformity. Interoperable standards allow multiple providers to deliver common services while respecting diverse business models.

3. Common platforms and shared resources. Shared templates, data foundations and the convergence to selected shared solutions, including a shared digital identity, will lower transaction costs and enable secure movement of people, data and services across entities. ‘Build once, use many times’ will guide technology and policy design.

4. Risk‑informed governance. Efficiency cannot come at the expense of integrity. Clear risk assessments and risk mitigation plans are an integral part to every initiative, while clear and measurable objectives ensure goal-alignment and accountability.

5. A pragmatic, evidence-based approach. Initiatives will start where the evidence is strongest and prioritise proven solutions, avoiding excessive disruption and focusing on pragmatic, achievable results. We will scale through phased roll‑outs, and adapt using user feedback, benchmarking. Success will be measured and communicated consistently.

6. Coherence and alignment with broader goals and reform. The efficiency measures align with guiding frameworks and objectives such as the SDG’s, the Pact for the Future, or UN 2.0. The measures are an implementation pathway for the vision of the UN80 initiative: they bring together the management leadership of UN system organisations on pragmatic and diverse solutions that empower process improvements to reinforce policy and programmatic ambitions. Some initiatives will be supported in implementation by the UNSDG’s BIG, while others will remain under the HLCM umbrella, based on capacity, expertise and prior workplans.

IV. What Success Looks Like — What Stakeholders Should Expect

From fragmentation to scale. Procurement, supply, finance, HR and ICT services will increasingly operate through common catalogues, shared contracts and interoperable processes. This will translate into better unit prices, reduced bank and transaction fees, shorter onboarding and processing times, and fewer hand‑offs. This pathway for impact is consistent with the approach that has characterised HLCM initiatives from its inception, thus allowing us to leverage on many years of expertise and a proven track record in operational change management.

Transparent costs and informed choice. Published SLAs and KPIs will anchor service conversations. Cost‑recovery will be clearer and benchmarked. Managers will be able to choose among qualified providers within the system, confident in comparable service definitions.

A shared and coherent portfolio. The efficiency measures have been prioritised for feasibility and expected impact. Each is advanced by a coalition of the willing, with clear scopes, milestones and accountability. Where appropriate, HLCM Networks (Human Resources Network, Finance and Budget Network, Digital and Technology Network, Supply Chain Network) and other mechanisms are consulted and involved in designing and implementing the initiatives, while inter-initiative coordination ensures broad coherence in the overall package.

Sequenced delivery. Project plans are entering an adoption phase: coalitions confirm participation, validate Terms of Reference and finalise implementation arrangements, which often consist in gradual, progressive integration. Communication products will support external outreach and internal engagement as initiatives move from planning to delivery. Throughout the process organisations’ commitment to the health and welfare of its workforce remains paramount, including in high‑risk contexts.