Multilateral Aid Review summary - United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR)

UNISDR is a strategic framework, adopted by United Nations Member States in 2000, aiming to guide and co-ordinate the efforts of a wide range of partners to achieve substantive reduction in disaster losses and build resilient nations and communities as an essential condition for sustainable development.

	comment
Contribution to UK development objectives	Unsatisfactory
	+	UNISDR plays a unique role as a global co-ordinator of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR).
	+	The Global Platform is one of UNISDR's successes in terms of advocacy and awareness raising.
	_	however UNISDR has not performed its international co-ordination role particularly well.
	_	Over the years its work has focussed more at the national level, despite its global mandate.
	_	Its mandate remains broad and work plans and other relevant documents have not sufficiently specified UNISDR’s roles and responsibilities.
	_	UNISDR has not demonstrated sufficient leadership or ability to   co-ordinate global efforts on DRR, despite a strong mandate for   these roles
Organisational strengths	Unsatisfactory
	+	UNISDR is part of the UN Secretariat and as such is subject to UN controls and measures including risk management practices and internal and external audits.
	+	All official publications produced by the UNISDR secretariat remain in the public domain, and are available online.
	_	UNISDR has no clear line of sight from its mandate, to a strategy, to an implementation plan. The middle is missing, resulting in a lack of strategic direction for the organisation.
	_	UNISDR has no results based framework in place, making it difficult to measure results from inputs through to impact.
	_	Too little attention is given to strategic considerations. This has resulted in UNISDR not clearly choosing priorities in line with an overall strategy and allocating resources accordingly. This limits the effectiveness and sustainability of many activities and of UNISDR overall.
	_	UNISDR has been week in driving forward improvements in performance based on evaluation findings and recommendations.
Capacity for positive change	Uncertain
	_	UNISDR has been poor in addressing weaknesses within its system, and particularly in following-up on recommendations from evaluation reports.