Vietnam to test plan to streamline UN agencies

Vietnam, a developing country with one of the world’s fastest growing economies, will be first to test a United Nations plan to better coordinate the world body’s myriad aid agencies, officials said Friday. The announcement follows renewed efforts globally by the UN to cut duplication and turf battles that waste money and resources for the poor, refugees, victims of natural disasters, food, health and environmental programs. United Nations Development Group chair Kemal Dervis “We have to make it work in a country to show people that there are real benefits and take some cuts and hits ourselves,” United Nations Development Group chair Kemal Dervis said in an interview in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. In Vietnam, there are 11 UN agencies housed in 10 separate buildings in Hanoi. Officials said the UN was working with the Vietnamese government to create “One UN House” premises. “Next year we will have a harmonized management under the ‘One UN Initiative’ and there will be lessons drawn for application in other countries,” Vietnam’s vice minister of Planning and Investment Cao Viet Sinh said at a press conference. Agencies such as the UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, UNIFEM, UNV and UNAIDS plan to have the first joint program running by the end of January in Vietnam. Later this month, six other countries will be named to join Vietnam in piloting the UN plan. Vietnam’s economy, still small by global standards with a $61 billion GDP, is growing at about 8 percent a year. The annual per capita income…