The Twenty-fourth Meeting of the Executive Committee decided to approve the business plans of UNDP, UNIDO and the World Bank without approving the amounts of funding contained therein, subject to the following conditions:
(a) the shortfall in phase-out from the 1997 business plans should be added to the Implementing Agencies’ phase-out targets for 1998 from projects approved up to the end of 1997;
(b) the disbursement target for each Implementing Agency for 1998 should be 70 per cent of the funds approved up to the end of 1997 for all funded projects;
(c) countries that had experienced significant implementation delays should be informed that they could be eliminated from the business plans if they did not address the causes of delay;
(d) the agencies should be given flexibility to reallocate their business plan activities within 15 per cent of the value of the plan;
(e) the Implementing Agencies should include in their business plans the information they had been requested to provide in a standardized manner.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/24/47, Decision 24/4, para. 22).
The Committee further decided:
(a) to request the Secretariat to review the experience of agencies in meeting the disbursement target (a target of 70 per cent for disbursement by the agencies for projects approved and funded up to the end of 1997) and, in the light of this review, to propose alternative targets that would better assess the agencies’ performances; and
(b) to reconsider the Implementing Agencies’ funding shares of the investment project allocation at its next meeting in light of the review of performance.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/24/47, Decisions 24/3 and 24/5 (paras. 21(b) and 23).
The Committee also decided:
(a) to approve the business plan of UNEP, in the light of the recommendations of the Sub-Committee on Project Review on UNEP’s work programme amendments; and
(b) to urge UNEP to achieve the same performance level as the other Implementing Agencies and include in its reports a better description of performance against performance indicators.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/24/47, Decision 24/6, para. 24).
The Twenty-fifth Meeting of the Executive Committee decided that, in order to allow a period of grace in view of the changes made to the business planning process, for 1998 agencies be allowed to submit projects up to the first meeting in 1999. The Sub-Committee would then reconsider whether to discontinue the practice of allowing agencies to complete their business plans during the following year.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/25/68, Decision 25/7, para. 29).