Monday, July 17
U.S., Japan
and Australia
Make Reform Suggestions
by WFUNA
on Mon 17 Jul 2006 04:14 PM EDT
Written by: Teel Lidow
On the 23rd of June, the US, Japan and Australia
presented a suggested list of reforms meant as a compromise proposal to the
G77's hard-line position. The G77 insisted upon lifting the budget cap without
condition (a position from which the three previously mentioned states
disassociated). However, on July 7th, the 5th Committee released a draft
resolution that supported many of the points touched upon by the compromise
proposal, including a major concession to budgetary discretion of the
Secretary-General that allows him control of around $20m per biennium on an experimental
basis. Further, the committee decided to "approve the adoption by the
United Nations of International Public Sector Accounting Standards," which
was a key point in the US/Japan/Australia compromise proposal. These are two
considerable steps forward for reform and further show the willingness of the
developing nations to cooperate with the reform process; the unwillingness that
we saw at the end of June was most likely a specific reaction to the
negotiation tactics of the US.
Nonetheless, the current power struggle and its relevance to the reform issue
should not be downplayed: the developing nations are still weary of loosening
their grip on UN funds and are willing to risk loss of US funding in order to
assert their steadfastness in this matter. All of the first secretaries of G77
states that I spoke to before the budget cap decision seemed to be under the
impression that the G77 would have to compromise on its position for fear of
financial withholding; this is clearly not what happened, so we should all be
aware that this marks a dramatic statement on the ambassador level: the G77
will not tolerate movement away from what they perceive as multilateral
controls of the purse-strings.
Teel Lidow is a senior
in Princeton University’s Department of Philosophy.
He has been covering UN Management Reform issues for the World Federation and
contributing to related publications and posts.
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Thursday, July 6
All Eyes
on U.S.
Congress
by WFUNA
on Thu 06 Jul 2006 03:17 PM EDT
Although the budget cap was successfully
lifted by the UN General Assembly on Friday, there is growing concern that the
lack of reform movement preceding this lifting of the cap may generate a
negative reaction on Capitol Hill. These concerns may indeed be well
founded. Late last week, the House of Representatives passed a series of
amendments that would withhold US
support from Human Rights related activities at the UN unless state sponsors of
terrorism (including Cuba)
are removed from the newly created Human Rights Council. And while this
is not specifically connected to Secretariat funding and management reform, it
does show a continued willingness on Capitol Hill to financially withdraw from
UN activities that the United
States feels to be unilaterally
undesirable. This new legislation is further created in the shadow of the
Hyde Bill, which was approved by the House of Representatives Foreign Relations
Committee last year and threatens to substantially decrease US funding of the
UN in the case that adequate reforms are not achieved.
However, there have also been voices of
support for the UN coming from both the US Department of State and the US
Senate. A State Department representative called for continued financial
support of the United Nations Human Rights Council and expressed hope that the United States
could potentially run for a spot on the council in 2007. Once again,
while this does not refer directly to management reform and Secretariat funding,
it should be indicative of a wider attitude of support for the institution and
a continued willingness to financially support its endeavors. Joseph R.
Biden, Jr. (D-DE), a ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee,
also reinforced an attitude of US commitment to the United Nations, suggesting
that, "as we are pushing the UN to get its financial house in order, we
should certainly not fall deeper into arrears on our obligations.”
Senator Biden has further successfully introduced legislation that allows the United States
to increase its Peacekeeping dues to the UN from 25% of the UN Peacekeeping
budget to 27% for the year 2007.
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Thursday, June 29
Budget
Cap Lifted
by WFUNA
on Thu 29 Jun 2006 10:05 AM EDT
The Fifth Committee resumed their session
last night in order to lift the budget cap. As foreshadowed by the meeting's
two suspensions, the United States
and the G77 + China
failed to overcome their substantial divisions in order to achieve a true
consensus. Instead, the budget cap was lifted by a consensus by disassociation,
in which the United States, Japan, and Australia voiced their lack of
support for the decision. While this is not considered a split vote, it surely
cannot be considered a true consensus either.
Major concerns have recently been voiced
regarding the potential for alienating the United States in the case of a
failure to reach consensus on this matter. While consensus was clearly not
reached, many aspects of the discussion within the Fifth Committee suggest that
the United States is still committed to both the reform process and the United
Nations as a whole, with Ambassador Bolton making sure to express this
continuing commitment in his statement of disassociation from consensus.
Futher, the mere fact that the United
States chose to disassociate instead of
forcing a vote is a hopeful sign that further cooperation on this matter is
expected.
However, in a statement made shortly after
the closing of the session, Bolton assured reporters that the present state of
reforms has been unacceptable and that no potential was left for substantive
reforms before the end of this session (on this friday). Despite this firm US
position, Ambassadors from Japan
and Australia
(the two other disassociated states) stated that they may be able to join the
consensus in the case that further reforms are achieved before the friday
session. The G77 + China
promised to work "through the nights" in order to show movement on
the reform issue before this upcoming session.
In a break from precedent, the European Union
and the UK vocally split
from the United States
position on this matter, with the Austrian delegate emphasizing, on behalf of
the EU, the need for consensus in a multilateral organization. The UK reaffirmed
its association with the consensus in a separate statement made after that of
the EU.
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Wednesday, June 28
Fifth
Committee decision on budget cap issue suspended
by WFUNA
on Wed 28 Jun 2006 04:01 PM EDT
The Fifth Committee, which was expected to
resolve the budget cap issue in a meeting this afternoon, has suspended any
decision on the issue until later today. For the past few days, member states
have been holding consultations with the Chair of the committee in an effort to
reach a consensus on this matter. However, the US
has insisted that a connection be made between substantial movement on reforms
and the lifting of the budget cap, a position that the G77 and China have
explicitly rejected. Both sides reaffirmed their positions in this afternoon's
meeting, suggesting that no agreement has yet been reached regarding the
relationship of the reform issue to the pending lifting of the budget cap.
This suspension has reaffirmed the
possibility that the budget cap may not be lifted by consensus within the Fifth
Committee. If a vote does occur, there is a distinct risk that the United
States Congress will fail to deliver its dues to the UN, which will cause a
very real funding crisis on a much more fundamental level than would a failure
at lifting the budget cap; if the US does not pay its dues, the UN will
actually lack a full quarter of its funds (rather than merely being unable to
spend them). Further, any vote in the Fifth Committee is sure to damage the
already tennuous relationship between this US administration and the UN.
The Fifth Committee will regroup at 5:00pm
today to act upon a draft proposal put forward to lift the budget cap. However,
if no consensus has yet been reached, action may be further postponed in order
to avoid the potential downfalls of a vote.
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Tuesday, June 27
UN
Management Reform
by WFUNA
on Tue 27 Jun 2006 01:15 PM EDT
Written by: Dhama Nath Paudyal, UX-UNV
Programme Office
I am a Nepali citizen and have involved as
UNV Specialist in many countries of Africa and Asia.
I strongly support your view on management reform. In my eight plus years
of UNV service, I have found the management of UN Agencies becoming more and
more formal and running after paper works, reports etc. Implementation aspects
of plans, programs and findings & recommendations evaluation reports are
very poor. I agree on your view that this is not the time of cutting the
activities of UN around the world but should be more practical and economic.
Second thing I saw necessity of reform is the depolarization of decision making
power. The EU should play a role independently from the US. There is a
lot of duplication of work in various agencies. Agencies of similar nature
should be unified. For example, WHO can do all health related works, WFP all
food and hunger related works, UNICEF and education and cultural related works.
Adding new agencies will help to create new employment but does not solve the
world problems. There are so many thing to be done to make UN more effective.
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Friday, June 23
UN
MANAGEMENT REFORM: A call for moving forward on the reform agenda
by WFUNA
on Fri 23 Jun 2006 02:26 PM PDT
The World Federation of United Nations
Associations welcomes the agreement among member states to avert a financial
crisis at the United Nations. "This is not the time to reduce the capacity
of the UN to perform its vital functions in New York,
Geneva, and
around the world. We applaud the efforts of member states to reach a consensus
on the organization's budget for the remainder of 2006-7. We hope that all
member states will now focus on putting forward their recommendations for
reform and work together to forge agreement on the changes that are needed to
enable the UN to become a more effective and efficient organization,"
Ambassador William Luers, President and CEO of UNA-USA said today.
United Nations Associations around the world
have been working together through the World Federation to better understand
the issues underlying the debate on UN management reform and to facilitate
dialogue and greater transparency. "It is increasingly clear to us that
there is widespread acceptance within the UN system and among member states
that the management of the UN needs to be modernized and made more accountable.
There is now a sufficiently strong basis of factual information and analysis to
move forward on sound reform proposals," said Ms. Pera Wells, A/g
Secretary-General of the World Federation of United Nations Associations.
Given the essential role of the UN in
supporting the protection, development, and health of many millions of
people around the world, and in responding to the ever-growing number of
'problems without borders', there needs to be a continuing commitment to
the improvement of the UN's management practices, systems, rules and regulations.
A great deal has already been accomplished, and we must build on this momentum
to sustain far-reaching changes, to strengthen the UN's capacity to become the
world's most culturally diverse, technologically sophisticated, and
cost-effective place for people to work together toward the great goals of
global peace and security, development, and human rights.
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Saturday, June 10
WFUNA-USA Debate - Budget Crisis
by WFUNA
on Sat 10 Jun 2006 02:14 PM PDT
Written by: Gray Southon, Special
Officer for UN Reform, United Nations Association of New Zealand
I would like to address the current crisis in
the UN which is threatening to terminate the funding of the Secretariat at the
end of the month.
A common agreement in September last year to increase the efficiency and
effectiveness of the Secretariat has been transformed to a destructive conflict
between the developed and undeveloped countries. The first have turned their
determination to force rapid action into a threat to the secretariat's
survival, thus destabilising it and degrading its capabilities. The
second have reverted to a determination to maintain their detailed control on
the secretariat through the 5th committee, for fear of losing power to the
first.
Both these actions are threatening the
secretariat, and reducing the chance that a quality candidate will take on the
increasingly onerous responsibilities of SG.
This surely represents a fundamental failure
of diplomacy. How is it that our diplomats have allowed the situation to sink
this far??
