Working Group on Cost Recovery

At its July 2019 session, the FB Network discussed cost recovery and the work being done jointly by UNDP/UNICEF/UNFPA/UN Women, and by other organizations, on cost classifications and cost recovery. It was agreed to establish a small Working Group to look at harmonized principles for cost recovery, including consideration of a common principle for UN to UN agreements to protect the cost recovery of the individual entities. 

The working group held its first meeting on 30 January 2020 via VTC. 

The meeting served to begin the discussion on what will be required for a systemwide approach. The main deliverables of the working group were derived from the Funding Compact and the group aims for readiness by 2021.

The working group plans to reflect on the work of the preceding years as well as lessons learned, and discuss how the identified areas could come even closer together going forward. One of the main goals would include a systemwide definition for different cost categories.

The working group agreed that as a next step, data on cost classification/ definition shall be collected from organizations to function as a base for further discussion. UNICEF volunteered to draft a data collection template which will be shared with the members of the group for sign/off before circulation among the system as a whole.