1. Masterminded by former Secretary General Kofi Annan, the UN reform plan introduced a program aimed at promoting coordination within the whole UN system toward greater efficiency in different fields of activities, which is consistent with the UN goals and terms of reference and supportive of UN members and the people in the world. To date, there have been considerable positive changes in the UN systems, especially at the national level.
2. Vietnam is one of the world’s leading countries in propagating, lobbying and implementing aid efficiency enhancement programs, such as Hanoi Core Statement on Aid Efficiency, Action Plan on aid procedure harmonization in Viet Nam and other government’s relevant policies.
In Vietnam, the UN maintains a special relationship with the Government based on mutual understanding, trust and bilateral commitments in the principle of enhancement of national mastership of development policies.
Donors and UN development counterparts in Vietnam took note and supported the need to vehemently implement the UN reform initiatives in Vietnam. At the same time, the Vietnam-based UN offices have been strongly committed to implementing the principle of “one-UN” in Vietnam as shown in these offices’ master plans for assistance programs. The convergence of these factors has resulted in a special status for the UN offices in Vietnam so that they can create better linkages with each other.
3. In 2005, the Vietnamese Government’s functional bodies, the Viet Nam-based UN offices and other development donors discussed plans aimed at establishing a “one-UN” in Viet Nam. The three UN offices with biggest cooperation programs in Vietnam, namely UNDP, UNICEF and UNFPA, have all realized that it is feasible to establish an executive system and a common program and have agreed to realize this reform idea.
4. In February 2006, the Viet Nam-based UN offices constructed the common unification strategy and shared this ‘unification roadmap’ to the Vietnamese government’s concerned bodies and development donors. This recommendation was strongly supported by and received great attention from the Vietnamese government bodies. In April 2006,  the Prime Minister agreed to establish an inter-ministerial working group chaired by the Ministry of Planning and Investment which consists of Vietnamese government bodies, UN offices and a number of international aid providers to do research and make recommendations toward constructing a concrete plan for the building of a “one-UN” in Viet Nam.
5. The inter-ministerial working group has drafted a document entitled “The Principles, Goals and Common Instruments” for the establishment of a “One-UN” in Viet Nam, which underlines that “the establishment of a unified UN organization in Viet Nam should be based on the need to promote the UN’s role as a competent and efficient partner to the Vietnamese government which is ready to extend full support to Vietnam’s national development for the sake of the Vietnamese people”.
6. There are 7 main common goals put forth in the draft, among which the most important ones can be found below:
-Establishing a One-UN in Vietnam on the basis of mutual agreement on the organisation, budget, action programs and managerial instruments.
-Establishing a common management system, building a common action program and budget and soon implementing a unified set of management practices and completing this mechanism, if possible, by the end of 2007.
-Unifying all managerial instruments aimed at simplifying the tasks of planning, reporting and analyzing as well as enhancing the responsibility of elaboration.
-Reviewing and completing legal documents on the relations between the Vietnamese government and UN development organisations that have representative offices in Viet Nam, etc.
7. These above mentioned goals are shown through 5 fundamental results (or 5 pillars) as follows:
-One Plan - is the background for the cooperation between Viet Nam and the UN, which replaces the ODA cooperation framework between one single UN organisation and Vietnam in the past. To name a few, the “One Plan” document once ratified will replace the documents on “Country Program Action Plan” which implements cooperation program between Viet Nam and such other UN organisations as UNDP, UNICEF and UNFPA. 
-One Budget - consists of 2 components: Budgetary framework and sponsoring mechanisms (tentatively referred to as One-UN Development Foundation in Vietnam).
-One set of Management Practices – consists of:
a)The Harmonized Project Management Guidelines - is a system of regulations, rules, procedures which are applicable to the management of programs and projects sponsored by UNDP, UNICEF and UNFPA.  These are built in conformity with the existing Vietnamese rules and regulations and in accordance with Hanoi Core Statement on Aid Effectiveness and in the sense that ensures harmonization among the three UN organizations. The construction of the common terms of reference had been recommended by the Vietnamese aid management authorities for implementation before the One-UN initiative was officially launched.
b)Harmonized Cash Transfer Modality: this is a compulsory regulation of the UN development organization system. This regulation requires that macro assessments of national capacity in the management of public finance and micro assessments of aid recipient organizations’ capacity of financial management are necessary to group all the transfer of aids from UN organizations into one single Vietnamese functional body. Furthermore, the regulation also requires that essential assistance should be made to enhance the capacity of managing the programs and projects sponsored by the UN, with special attention being placed on financial managerial skills.
- One Leader: the establishment of a common organizational mechanism, in which there is only one sole leader for all the UN organizations (which means more empowerment for the Residential Country Coordinator, creating the position of Country Manager for each and every UN organization), has been assessed by the executives of the 3 UN organizations.
- One UN House.
8. The One-UN in Viet Nam initiative is a continuation of a reform process on management, use and enhancement of the effectiveness of the ODA resources, reflecting the Vietnamese government’s activeness and mastership in this process. This is a consistent policy of the Vietnamese government. Even at a time when some UN organizations, for certain reasons, were not interested in this initiative, the Vietnamese government still showed great resolution in pushing up the reform with the hope that the effectiveness of development activities as well as the UN missions in Viet Nam, and, to a greater extent, the ODA management operations are strongly promoted.
9. The One-UN in Viet Nam initiative is an open process, which is willing to absorb the participation of other UN organizations. At present, the 6 UN organizations leading the participation into all the above-mentioned objectives are UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNV, UNAIDS and UNIFEM. Other organizations participate in a selective manner into the 5 afore-said pillars/objectives. The Vietnamese government welcomes the involvement of all UN organizations and encourages the UN specialized ones to exchange ideas with each other and with UN funds and programs which are carrying out reforms on the content, ways and means and timing of participation in the One-UN process, if they are interested in doing so.