ABSTRACT
The various organizations of the United Nations development system (UNDS) face a number of challenges if they are to remain fit for purpose, able to tackle the most enduring and tenacious forms of human destitution, and able to help those fortunate enough to already be advancing up the development ladder. Most of these challenges are well known, even if they are not always addressed with appropriate verve and determination. However, reform, change, and evolution in the world organization have historically been slow, incremental, and accretive. The system suffers from the kind of diffusion and atomization that has put in place more than 30 separate bureaucracies and, occasionally, incommensurate evolutionary pathologies. 1 The scale of the task required to make more than a modest contribution to bettering the lived experiences of the majority of the world’s population is daunting. And the speed with which the landscapes of global poverty and inequality 2 —not to mention the plight of the planet 3 —are changing poses problems for even the lithest of institutions.
