UNITED NATIONS: Annan Proposes Sweeping Reforms at U.N.

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 16 1997 (IPS) - U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, pressured by the United States and other western nations, Wednesday announced sweeping reforms for the world body which will consolidatew many of its agencies.

Annan told the U.N. General Assembly that the United Nations would immediately begin bringing it various agencies under greater joint control both in New York and throughout the world. He said this reconfiguration of U.N. organs would enhance coordination in managing humanitarian crises and a reduction of 1,000 staff jobs.

But the world body also plans to add new functions, including a Senior Management Group that could serve as Annan’s Cabinet, a Deputy Secretary-General, and an office on disarmament and arms regulation. Perhaps more controversial was a proposal to create a revolving credit fund, initially to stand at one billion dollars volunteered by member nations, to prevent the U.N. suffering recurrent financial shortfalls when key nations – like the United States, which owes the U.N. 1.3 billion dollars – failt to pay the dues.

“I am proposing bold reforms,” Annan told the Assembly. “They are the most extensive and far-reaching reforms in the 52- year history of our organisation.”

Yet Annan appeared to remain trapped between competing constituencies, such as the United States which has insisted on sweeping cutbacks before it pays it dues and others among the 184 member states, many of which want an enhanced world body rather than more streamlining, to U.N. agencies seeking to protect their organisational independence.

The ‘Group of 77’ developing nations contended that the reform plan – which will reduce administrative costs by 33 percent, eliminate 1,000 posts and cut paper by 30 percent – should not simply be a down-sizing measure but a programme to enhance the world body’s development work. But many officials in the U.S. Congress, which has conditioned any payment of arrears on 50 ‘benchmarks’ for U.N. cuts, already believe Annan’s plan may not go far enough.

Republican Senator Rod Grams of Minnesota said he would hold hearings within the next month to review Annan’s proposals to review “its compatibility with our package of reforms.” He added that the United Nations will need to pursue “meaningful reform” before the U.S. government can “rebuild public support for it, both here and abroad.”

What constitutes meaningful reform for the Republicans may have a steep cost for U.N. officials: Senate Foreign Affairs Chair Jesse Helms, of North Carolina, has said the world body must be reduced to half its current size before he would accept it.

Bill Richardson, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, was more approving, calling the reform plan “a very significant step” toward the kind of structural reform that could allow the United Nations to do more with less. But he added that the General Assembly should build upon the “good start” of Annan’s plan by supporting an ad hoc group, suggested by Assembly President Razali Ismail, to review the reform proposals.

Although Washington’s dispute over its arrears clearly provided the impetus for change at the United nations six months into Annan’s tenure, U.N. officials were quick to downplay U.S. influence in determining the content of the reforms. One official involved in the process said that Annan had not considered the U.S. benchmarks in devising his own plan. Annan argued Wednesday that “these unilateral demands (by the Congress) do not impress, do not intimidate – in fact they offend.”

The secretary-general called on the General Assembly to ensure that, after a certain time-frame, items placed on its agenda would require a new vote to be renewed for subsequent sessions.

He also said that, although nations have refused to get rid of the long-dormant Trusteeship Council – which had been responsible for ending colonial rule in most developing nations – the Assembly can at least give it a new purpose to oversee common environmental issues, from management of the oceans and atmosphere to outer space.

For the most part, as Annan told reporters, the reforms intend to limit overlapping functions and offices and consolidate the United Nations’ work into five main areas: peace and security, economic and social affairs, humanitarian work, development and human rights. The convenors of executive committees for the first four areas will join Annan’s Cabinet body, the Senior Management Group, along with other key U.N. managers.

In each group, officials working on the reform plan explained, one branch will coordinate U.N. work. The Department of Political Affairs will take the lead on security issues, and a new department on disarmament affairs and arms regulation will be created. Annan defended the creation of a new department at a time of expected cuts, calling disarmament “one of the crucial issues before us today…We will need to be able to track the movement of lethal weapons.”

A new Department of Economic and Social Affairs – combining three current economic analysis bodies performing similar work – will consolidate the network of U.N. bodies involved in trade, environment, urban affairs and related issues.

Annan asked the Assembly to create a new office for an Emergency Relief Coordinator to handle sudden crises, to replace the current Department of Humanitarian Affairs, which is being scrapped. U.N. agencies are to coordinate their emergency assistance more tightly under that consolidation.

In a move which reportedly garnered initial resistance from U.N. agencies, the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) will chair a U.N. Development Group designed to eliminate overlap among the separate development organs, including the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA).

Each country will soon boast a ‘U.N. House,’ combining the work of those agencies and other groups like the World Food Programme (WFP) and information centres; South Africa became the first nation with an operating U.N. House on Wednesday.

“We will be more effective where it really counts, at the country level, making a difference in people’s lives,” UNDP Administrator James Gustave Speth said. And Carol Bellamy, UNICEF executive director, applauded Annan’s “courageous and transforming proposals.”

Opposition is expected from differing quarters over many parts of the plan. The General Assembly will have to approve the relief coordinator post, the creation of a deputy secretary-general (where former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland is considered the front-runner) and changes in the Trusteeship Council and other bodies.

The United States, meanwhile, looks likely to oppose the idea of a revolving credit fund, under which nations behind in their payments to the United Nations could owe the pool of creditor nations contributing to the fund, who would earn interest on late payments. Annan justified the need for such a fund, noting that so far this year, only 75 of 185 nations have paid their dues. But U.N. officials acknowledge that the main hold-out, the United States, does not lack the money to pay – if it wants to do so.

UNITED NATIONS: Annan Proposes Sweeping Reforms at U.N.

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 16 1997 (IPS) - U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, pressured by the United States and other western nations, Wednesday announced sweeping reforms for the world body which will consolidatew many of its agencies.
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