Umoja: Budget Formulation Solution for Regular Budget Goes Live

The management reform proposals of the Secretary-General led to the approval of an annual Regular Budget cycle by the General Assembly.

This change is accompanied by a transition from the Budget Information System (BIS) to Umoja’s new Budget Formulation module, which is a part of Umoja’s broader solution for Strategic Planning, Budgeting and Performance Management (SPPM).

The Budget Formulation module was rolled out on 22 January 2019, to United Nations entities to facilitate preparing their budgetary requirements for the proposed programme budget for 2020.

Budget Officers and managers are now using this solution to formulate proposals for post and non-post resource requirements, which will be reviewed in consultation with the Office of Programme Planning, Finance and Budget, supporting the production of the fascicles.

The Budget Formulation module will be subsequently used throughout the legislative process to reflect the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) and the decisions of the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly.

In preparation for the deployment of the Budget Formulation solution, over 200 staff from duty stations around the globe attended instructor-led training in New York and Geneva during January.  

In addition, e-learning for UE2 Budget Formulation is available through the iLearn Umoja platform. The platform hosts training materials such as videos, job aids, forums, UE2 glossary, and expert learning webinars. Staff may visit iLearn Umoja to access courses posted on a regular basis.

To facilitate a smooth transition to the new solution, the Office of Programme Planning, Finance and Budget and the Umoja project are providing post-deployment support (hypercare) to facilitate the timely submission of budget proposals.

The SPPM solution is being built and deployed incrementally to provide an integrated and transparent end-to-end process, covering the entire cycle of a programme planning, execution and performance reporting.  It is focused on helping the Secretariat modernize and improve the way it plans, manages and reports on its programme of work.

To learn more about Umoja Extension 2, visit the Umoja website and learn What’s next on the Umoja journey? on iSeek.