Sixth Committee (Legal) — 77th session
Programme planning (Agenda item 139)
Documentation
- A/77/16 — Report of the Committee for Programme and Coordination at its 62nd session (2022) [made available for information purposes, in accordance with General Assembly Resolution 76/236]
Summary of work
Background (source: A/77/100/Add.1)
At its seventy-second session, under the item entitled “Review of the efficiency of the administrative and financial functioning of the United Nations”, the General Assembly approved the proposed change from a biennial to an annual budget period on a trial basis, beginning with the programme budget for 2020. The Assembly also decided that the proposed programme budget document would consist of three parts: (a) part I: the plan outline, which endorses the long-term priorities and the objectives of the Organization; (b) part II: the programme plan for programmes and subprogrammes and programme performance information; and (c) part III: the post and non-post resource requirements for the programmes and subprogrammes. It further decided that parts I and II would be submitted through the Committee for Programme and Coordination and part III through the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions for the consideration of the Assembly. The Assembly reiterated that the Committee for Programme and Coordination and the Advisory Committee should examine the proposed programme budget in accordance with their respective mandates and, preserving the sequential nature of the review processes, submit their conclusions and recommendations to the Assembly for the final approval of the programme budget, and requested the Secretary-General to assess the impact of the changes to the budgetary cycle on the work of the relevant subsidiary bodies of the Assembly (resolution 72/266 A).
At its seventy-sixth session, the Assembly requested the Secretary-General to engage with Member States and other relevant stakeholders, including programme managers and the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, when preparing the report on the review of the changes to the budgetary cycle, including on the sequence of budgetary procedures and practices. In addition, the Assembly reiterated that whenever the Committee for Programme and Coordination cannot provide conclusions and recommendations on a given subprogramme or programme of the proposed programme budget, the plenary or the relevant Main Committee or Main Committees of the Assembly responsible for those mandates will consider the said subprogramme or programme at the very start of its session in order to provide any conclusions and recommendations to the Fifth Committee, at the earliest opportunity, and no later than four weeks after the start of the session, for timely consideration by the Fifth Committee. The Assembly also requested the Secretary-General to identify possible measures to enhance and support more effective work of the Committee for Programme and Coordination, including in terms of the duration of its sessions and the capacity of the secretariat of the Fifth Committee and the Committee for Programme and Coordination, for the consideration of the Assembly, and decided that the sixty-second session of the Committee for Programme and Coordination shall be extended to five weeks (resolution 76/236).
Consideration at the seventy-seventh session
Archived videos and summaries of plenary meetings
36th meeting (18 November 2022, 10:00am – 1:00pm) | Summary
Action taken by the Sixth Committee
At the 36th meeting, on 18 November, the Sixth Committee concluded its consideration of the item without taking action.
Subsequent action taken by the General Assembly
- Report of the Sixth Committee: A/77/427
- GA decision: 77/522 [for the text of the decision, see the Sixth Committee's report to the General Assembly]
This agenda item will be considered at the seventy-eighth session (2023).
