UNITED NATIONS, March 8 (UPI) -- U.N. staff members have greeted with hostility U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's plans to overhaul the world organization's secretariat to reflect strategic changes it has gone through over the years.
Late Tuesday morning he presented his far-reaching 36-page report, "Investing in the United Nations: For a Stronger Organization Worldwide," focusing on ensuring efficiency and accountability in a way that reflects that more than 70 percent of the $10 billion annual budget now relates to peacekeeping and other field operations, up from a $4.5 billion budget 10 years ago.
Late Tuesday afternoon, he held a town hall-type meeting in a downstairs conference room with a large cross-section of staff, from a long-term basement-based printer to a six-month contract field officer.
Although hostile to the report and skeptical of the secretary-general's plan, they were polite but tough in questioning Annan, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette and other senior management representatives who tried to ensure the staff more studies were needed where changes would come and there would be no mass layoffs.
"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" in New York, the secretary-general told the 191-member General Assembly in the morning.
"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 world organization has taken on more than twice as many new peacekeeping missions as in the previous 44 years while 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.
Annan's plans were mandated by the outcome document adopted by world leaders at September's World Summit. It builds on a package of reforms he launched last year to enhance ethics and accountability and address weaknesses exposed by the Independent Inquiry on the Iraq Oil-for-Food Program as well as evidence of sexual exploitation in certain peacekeeping operations.
In his report, the secretary-general urged 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 21st century," he said. "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 United Nations can reach the level of effectiveness expected by member states.
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 U.N. 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.
The report also proposes significant investment to overhaul the world 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 U.N. World Headquarters in New York to lower cost duty stations and possible outsourcing of less central functions such as printing.
One area where investment could yield substantial savings is the recently scandal-plagued procurement process, 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, Annan also proposed creating a Change Management Office that would seek to work closely with member states to drive the implementation of the reforms.
In the report, Annan cautioned against complacency, stressing the proposals must mark the beginning of a process that will be carried out over the coming years.
"One of the weaknesses of the old culture is precisely the view that a report or a vote in itself represents change," he said. "In practice, reports and votes enable and authorize change, but change itself is the long march that follows."
