UN REFORM - UN Annan proposes drastic reforms and shake up in United Nations. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has unveiled a plan to shake up the UN management structure as part of a broad effort to reform the world body. The proposal calls for modernizing the 60-year-old organization, and outsourcing some work now being done at headquarters. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Yesterday presented to the General Assembly his report on management reform, “Investing in the United Nations (UN).” He told the Assembly that the United Nations (UN) is more efficient and effective than it was a decade ago, but more changes are needed to deal with a Secretariat that is engaged directly in many parts of the world. United Nations staff have strongly objected to secretary-general Kofi Annan's blueprint to radically overhaul UN operations.His plan won initial support from the US and the European Union, but staff strongly objected to his call to consider outsourcing a variety of UN services, from translations to billing.

UN Annan proposes drastic reforms and shake up in United Nations

Yesterday's report, the Secretary-General says, proposes changes in the way staff are recruited and managed and in the structure of the top management of the Secretariat. It calls for a major investment in information and communication technology; identifies new ways to deliver services; proposes a drastic simplification of the budget and ways of making the management of the budget more accessible; and urges the creation of a small, dedicated office in the Secretariat to manage the process of change.

He asserted that the proposed reforms will help to give “better value” to the hundreds of millions of people around the world who need the UN's services. Asked why the Secretary-General did not refer to the General Assembly his proposal to give more powers to the Deputy Secretary-General, the Spokesman said that the proposal was an effort by the Secretary-General to delegate authority to a senior adviser. It did not, he said, remove the Secretary-General's responsibility for the Organization. Dujarric added that the membership has just received the report, and the United Nations looks forward to an active debate on it.

Annan proposes overhaul of UN to realign operations from Headquarters to field. Aiming to keep step with the shift at the United Nations from bureaucratic tasks to life-saving work in the field, Secretary-General Kofi Annan Yesterday presented proposals for a far-reaching overhaul ranging from setting up a 2,500-strong core of mobile peacekeeping professionals to multimillion dollar investments in training and technology. His far-reaching report, “Investing in the United Nations: For a Stronger Organization Worldwide,” focuses on ensuring efficiency and accountability in a way that reflects the fact that more than 70 per cent of the $10 billion annual budget now relates to peacekeeping and other field operations, up from around 50 per cent of a $4.5 billion budget ten years ago.

“Our current rules and regulations were designed for an essentially static Secretariat, whose main function was to service conferences and meetings of Member States, and whose staff worked mainly at Headquarters,” the Secretary-General said as he presented the report in the General Assembly Hall. “Today, thanks to the mandates that Member States have given us, we are engaged directly in many parts of the world, working on the ground to improve the lives of people who need help.” In the 16 years since the cold war ended, the Organization has taken on more than twice as many new peacekeeping missions as in the previous 44 years and spending on peacekeeping has quadrupled. Over half of its 30,000 civilian staff now serve in the field - not only in peacekeeping, but also in humanitarian relief, criminal justice, human rights monitoring, supporting national elections, and in the battle against drugs and crime.

The Secretary-General's comprehensive reform blueprint was called for in the Outcome Document adopted by national leaders at last September's World Summit in New York. It builds on a package of reforms Mr. Annan launched last year to enhance ethics and accountability and address weaknesses exposed by the Independent Inquiry on the Oil-for-Food Programme as well as evidence of sexual exploitation in certain peacekeeping operations. In the report, Mr. Annan urges Member States to seize the moment for change. “This is an opportunity, which may not occur again until another generation has passed, to transform the United Nations by aligning it with, and equipping it for, the substantive challenges it faces in the twenty-first century,” he writes. “It is a chance to give Member States the tools they need to provide strategic direction and hold the Secretariat fully accountable for its performance.”

While the report identifies a number of areas of potential cost savings and efficiencies, the primary financial message is that it is time to reverse years of underinvestment in people, systems and information technology to address operational deficiencies and ensure that the UN can reach the level of effectiveness expected by Member States. Mr. Annan said that although the UN had made a number of major organizational changes in recent years to keep up with the increasing expectations of Member States, these efforts had only addressed the symptoms, not the causes, of the Organization's shortcomings. “It is now time to reach for deeper, more fundamental change” he said. Along these lines, the proposals encompass a revamped version of how to recruit, contract, train, assign and compensate staff, with an emphasis on bringing conditions for field-based personnel up to par with those at other UN agencies operating in the field. This will include proposals for converting 2,500 existing short-term peacekeeping positions into a new flexible and mobile core of dedicated specialists who can be deployed rapidly in urgent peacekeeping and special political missions.

“Increasingly complex mandates require staff with different skills,” the Secretary-General told the Assembly. “We need to be able to recruit and retain leaders, managers and personnel capable of handling large multidisciplinary operations, with increasingly high budgets. As things stand,” he added, “many of our staff ? especially the field staff who serve with great idealism and integrity, often in situations of hardship and danger ? are demoralized and de-motivated by lack of opportunities for promotion, and by the frustrations of dealing with a bureaucracy that can seem both excessive and remote.” The report calls for consolidating reporting to address logjams associated with the current system, where over 100 senior UN officials are directly answerable to the Secretary-General. It also proposes the formal delegation of responsibility for management policies and overall operational matters to a redefined post of Deputy Secretary-General to help free the Secretary-General to focus on political and policy issues.

The report also proposes significant investment to overhaul the Organization's information and communications infrastructure by replacing current antiquated, fragmented technology systems with an integrated global platform that should be led by a dedicated Chief Information Technology Officer. Separately, the report identifies significant opportunities to realize cost savings and efficiency gains, recommending that the Secretariat explore options for alternative service delivery, including the potential for relocating core functions from Headquarters to lower cost duty stations and possible outsourcing of less central functions such as printing.

One area where investment could yield substantial savings is procurement, where the report outlines changes that would improve transparency and realize up to $400 million. A number of the proposals fall under the direct authority of the Secretary-General, who said he intends to immediately carry them out. But most of the fundamental changes, particularly with regard to budget and personnel issues, require approval from Member States. To help ensure momentum for this agenda through the end of his term and to help equip his successor to follow through, the Secretary-General also proposes creating a Change Management Office that would seek to work closely with Member States to drive the implementation of the reforms.

In the report, Mr. Annan cautions against complacency, stressing that the proposals must mark the beginning of a process that will be carried over the next several years. “One of the weaknesses of the old culture is precisely the view that a report or a vote in itself represents change,” he notes. “In practice, reports and votes enable and authorize change, but change itself is the long march that follows.”

General Assembly must work in partnership with UN Secretariat for reform. AnnanPresenting a set of recommendations to achieve wide-ranging management reform at the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today appealed to Member States in the General Assembly to join forces and work constructively towards the shared goal of a stronger Organization that is better equipped to meet the needs of the world's people.

“These proposed changes are all mutually interdependent, as they also depend on the achievement of the highest ethical standards throughout the Secretariat,” Mr. Annan said. “Failure to carry through reform in any one of these areas can greatly reduce, or even nullify, the value of reform in all the others. Therefore I cannot too strongly urge Member States to view this process of change as a whole, and to embark on it in full-hearted partnership with the management and staff of the Secretariat.” The report, which was written in response to a request in the Outcome Document adopted by national leaders at last year's UN World Summit, contains proposals in seven main areas: people, leadership, information and communications technology, service delivery, budget and financial management, effective control by Member States, and the creation of a small, dedicated office to manage the process of change itself.

The Secretary-General noted that successful reform depends on a strategic partnership based on mutual trust, and acknowledged that this has not always been present. “Many States feel excluded from any real say in the affairs of the Organization, and seek to correct this by asserting their authority on matters of detail. But this has the effect of breaking down what should be the division of labour between me, as Chief Administrative Officer, and this Assembly,” he said. “It is vital that we find a way to restore trust and partnership, based on a clear understanding of each other's roles,” he said. “The role of a governing body is to provide strategic direction to the management, and then hold it accountable for the results. And the role of management is to deliver those results effectively and transparently, so that it can be judged on its performance.”

To achieve change, he said, “we – the Secretariat – and you, the Member States, must work together to make it happen.” General Assembly President Jan Eliasson urged those present to begin the process of translating words into action and echoed Mr. Annan's call for partnership. “It is now time to carefully study and carefully consider the proposals of the Secretary-General,” the Assembly President said. “It is essential that we address this vital issue with trust, transparency and a sense of common responsibility.” Ambassador Eliasson said the General Assembly's Administrative and Budgetary (Fifth) Committee as well as the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) “will have crucial roles to play.” The Fifth Committee is charged with handling all in-house financial issues at the UN, while the ACABQ is widely considered to be a powerful budget watchdog, since its recommendations to the Fifth Committee often call for cuts and are frequently adopted.

Speaking on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China – with 132 members, the largest Third World coalition at the UN – Ambassador Dumisani S. Kumalo of South Africa thanked Mr. Annan for his report. “Like the Secretary-General we agree that this is a very important report,” he said. “We now expect that this entire report will be forwarded immediately to the ACABQ so that the ACABQ can expeditiously start considering the substance of the proposals before it before it is formally introduced to the Fifth Committee.”

He said the G-77 countries “remain anxiously ready as many other Member States to see this process of bringing positive changes happen very soon to strengthen our beloved Organization.” Ambassador Gerhard Pfanzelter of Austria, speaking on behalf of the European Union (EU), also thanked Mr. Annan for his report “which will have an important impact on the future of our Organization.” He welcomed the fact that the review “has not been done in a business-as-usual approach but in the form of a comprehensive package which has the potential to improve the way this Organization is working.” The EU felt the report “should be treated in the way that all other follow-up reports to the World Summit have been treated, namely in the framework of informal plenary meetings.” He added that the EU did not object to consideration of the report by the Fifth Committee and the ACABQ but added that “the plenary as the addressee of the report should have control over the process.” Ambassador Pfanzelter said the EU member countries “look forward to constructive discussion with all Member States in an atmosphere of trust and cooperation.”

Ambassador John Bolton of the United States joined others in welcoming the Secretary-General's proposals. “We believe that consideration of the Secretary-General's report in the first instance belongs in the plenary of the General Assembly which will in turn make decisions as to how to allocate it among the relevant committees of the General Assembly in the judgment of the General Assembly.” He voiced hope that the initial disagreements over how to proceed would not be a portent of the negotiations to come. “This work is too important to be caught up in procedural wrangles in this body,” he said.

Ambassador Kenzo Oshima of Japan echoed earlier speakers in welcoming the proposals. “This is a bold report containing a number of important proposals and recommendations that aim to improve the work of the Organization,” he said. “We appreciate the strong commitment and will of the Secretary-General to lead the Organization in this direction.” Specific, technical details would have to be discussed in the Fifth Committee, but “it is essential that policy discussions on key proposals and recommendations will have to take place here in the plenary,” he said. President Eliasson said he would immediately begin consultations on the course ahead.

 

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