Monday, July 17

View Article  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

View Article  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

View Article  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

View Article  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

View Article  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

View Article  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

View Article  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??