Risk Management Forum

At its 35th session in April 2018, HLCM agreed on the need for a joint, cross-functional engagement towards system-wide harmonization of risk management practices, including information sharing on fraudulent behaviors of implementing partners; assessments of risk appetite and risk tolerance; incorporating acceptance of residual risk in organizational policies; implementing smarter upstream controls; examining the costs of controls as compared to the value of the potential loss they are intended to mitigate; and, development of common definitions of risk categories to enable a common approach to reporting risks. As part of this work, the Committee requested the Finance and Budget Network to take the lead in developing a common approach to reporting fraud and presumptive fraud, as well as to review how risk analysis might be incorporated into the budgeting processes of UN system organizations.

The Task Force is co-led by WIPO and UNHCR and reports to the High-Level Committee on Management.

The main deliverables of the Task Force are listed below:

• A Reference Maturity Model for Risk Management 
• Guidelines on Risk Appetite Statements
• A guidance paper on Embedding Risk Management into performance/planning processes

At its 41st Session in May 2021, HLCM endorsed the evolution of the Task Force into a Risk Management Forum, a multidisciplinary UN-system wide advisory body, to:

• Mainstream document produces by TF and produce new non-prescriptive RM guidance and methodologies
• Promote collaboration and knowledge sharing