Silke Weinlich is a Senior Researcher at the German Development Institute (Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik - DIE). She is a member of the research programme on Inter- and Transnational Cooperation with the Global South where she leads a project on the UN development system and its reform needs. Current research interests include the reform of the UNDS and broader questions of multilateral development cooperation, South-South cooperation and the UN, as well as questions of global governance.
Bruce Jenks is a Senior Advisor at the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation. He has been an adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs since 2010. He is also a visiting Professor at the University of Geneva’s International Organisation MBA programme. Jenks has co-authored studies on ‘UN Development at a Crossroads’, on ‘Rethinking the UN for a Networked World’ and on the future of multilateralism. He has been co-lead for five successive annual reports on the ‘Financing the UN Development System’. Bruce Jenks served as Assistant Secretary-General at UNDP, responsible for UNDP’s relationship with its Executive Board, as well as its donors. He has a PhD from Oxford University. He has been a guest speaker at universities and conferences in over 50 countries and has authored numerous articles and policy papers.
The reform agenda for the UN development system (UNDS) has been dominated for some 30 years by analyses and initiatives relating to coherence. The most significant reform proposal during this period – the Delivering as One initiative – was contained in a report dubbed the Coherence Report. Reform has been clearly associated with organisational and structural reform: how can an overly complex system comprising more than thirty entities that differ in size, mandate and governance be consolidated or, at minimum, better coordinated?