The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for changes to the UN development system, for the emergence of a new generation of country teams, centred on a strategic UN Development Assistance Framework and led by an impartial, independent and empowered resident coordinator.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (formerly named United Nations Development Assistance Framework) is the most important instrument for planning and implementing UN development activities at the country level. This is in line with Member States' call for reform of the UN development system to strengthen coordination in support of countries efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Cooperation Framework guides the entire UN programme cycle, including planning, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of collective UN support for the 2030 Agenda. It identifies national development priorities and ensures that the response and presence of the UN development system are tailored to country needs.
Countries began implementing their new Cooperation Framework programme cycles between 2021 and 2023.
The Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention adopted the guidance on how individual Parties can integrate actions to address their needs under the Basel Convention into their United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks (BC-17/14). The guidance complements the existing 2017 United Nations Development Assistance Framework guidance, with the added benefit of being tailored for use by Parties to the Basel Convention to integrate the implementation of the Convention into their cooperation frameworks. The guidance aims also to assist United Nations Country Teams (UNCT) with integrating Parties’ obligations under the Basel Convention into the Cooperation Framework. It includes how best to reflect challenges related to hazardous and other wastes in the Common Country Assessments and in the Cooperation Framework, and how to assist Parties to prepare and implement coherent and balanced development policies that effectively support the objectives of the Basel Convention.