UN Collective Results on the COVID-19 Socioeconomic Response in 2020

Under the leadership of UNDP and DCO, an inter-agency task team developed the UN framework for the immediate socio-economic response to COVID-19 (adopted in April 2020) to govern its response over 12 to 18 months. To measure the UN’s support to the socio-economic response and recovery, UN entities developed a simple monitoring framework with 18 programmatic indicators (endorsed by the UNSDG in July 2020). Lead entities – based on their mandate and comparative advantage – were nominated to lead the development of methodological notes for each indicator and lead the collection of data at the country level. These lead entities reported through the Office of the Resident Coordinators the collective UN results on a quarterly basis through UN Info. All 2020 data was reported by March 2021. This is the UN development system’s first comprehensive attempt at measuring its collective programming contribution and results.

These programmatic indicators enabled the UN system to monitor the progress and achievements of UNCT’s collective actions in socio-economic response. In support of the Secretary-General’s call for a "… single, consolidated dashboard to provide up-to-date visibility on [COVID-19] activities and progress across all pillars” all data was published in real time on the COVID-19 data portal, hosted by DCO. The data is disaggregated by geography (rural/urban), sex, age group and at-risk populations -- to measure system-wide results on the socio-economic response to the pandemic, in order to ensure UNDS accountability and transparency for results.