UNITED NATIONS: General Assembly Mulls Over UN Reform Package

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 7 1997 (IPS) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s proposed reforms for the United Nations should be viewed and approved as a unified package, rather than a separate series of measures, officials of the world body insist.

The 185-nation Assembly Wednesday begins its review of Annan’s proposals, which were revealed in July. Many of the key items – including the creation of the post of Deputy Secretary-General, a new department for disarmament affairs and the imposition of ‘results-based’ management – require the Assembly’s approval.

While governments have been upbeat in general about the scope of the reforms, whether they can all be passed in one package is anything but guaranteed, some officials believe.

Many countries already are debating how much authority to give to Annan’s deputy and whether the post should be appointed by the secretary-general, as Annan wants, or elected by the Assembly – as is Annan’s postion.

Other countries argue that discrete chunks of the proposals need to be referred to appropriate committees – so that, for example, the Assembly’s committee on disarmament affairs deals first with approving any new U.N. division for arms control. That in turn, officials say, could leave some proposals adrift in the slow U.N. bureaucratic system and prevent the package from its desired target of full approval before the year’s end.

In general, U.N. officials remain confident that the more than 150 world leaders and foreign ministers who spoke at the Assemnly’s plenary session over the past two weeks endorse Annan’s proposals. “We come out of the General Assembly debate with good momentum,” said one senior official involved in the reform process. “It’s very encouraging.”

“What is very important for us is that the package continues to be approved as a package,” added another senior U.N. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “There is overwhelming support for doing it that way.”

He added that, although some portions of the package may be referred to appropriate U.N. committees for approval on specific “technical work,” the United Nations is confident that the reform package will not be broken into components that are voted on separately.

Such optimism, however, may be premature. Although the reforms have won qualified praise virtually across the board, many nations have also cautioned that they want to see more of the details.

Developing countries are particularly concerned that the world body’s economic work does not suffer and that the reforms do not simply cut U.N. staff and costs.

Eriya Kategaya, Uganda’s deputy prime minister, took issue during the plenary debate with the idea, voiced especially by the United States, that reform is necessary because the United Nations is “excessively costly, mismanaged, inefficient, bureaucratic, corrupt, and overstaffed with low-quality staff.”

Instead, Kategaya said, “must not be viewed merely as a matter of cutting costs… In elaborating and implementing the reform package, it is necessary that the programmes that benefit the least developed countries and Africa emerge stronger and better- equipped to discharge their onerous responsibilities.”

While commending Annan for producing “proposals of impressive breadth and scope,” Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral was similarly circumspect about how strongly his government would support the package.

“We support all proposals that, in our view, will carry forward or improve the (U.N.) Secretariat’s ability to respond to the mandates of the international community,” he said in his address to the Assembly. “The single most important target that the United Nations should set itself is the promotion of sustained economic growth in developing countries that will lead to the eradication of poverty.”

On the other hand, the United States, which has been the main force in urging reforms in recent years, has objected to some of Annan’s proposals. They include the arms control office and the idea of setting up a billion-dollar ‘revolving credit fund’ that nations which have not paid their U.N. dues can use to borrow money to settle their arrears.

U.S. Ambassador Bill Richardson argued that such proposals made little sense at a time when the United Nations should attempt to do more with less rather than create new functions.

Washington is likely to swallow its problems with the package, however, so that it can capitalise on what may be the best climate to push U.N. reforms since the organisation was founded. When U.S. President Bill Clinton opened the General Assembly plenary two weeks ago, he emphasised that Washington wants “not to make the United Nations smaller as an end in itself but to make it better.”

Clinton lauded Annan for pushing “the most far-reaching reform of the United Nations in its history,” and added, “We should pass the secretary-general’s reform agenda this session.”

Other countries are similarly willing to embrace the package regardless of problems with specific components of it, U.N. officials argue. But the real test will begin when the 185 member states receive more details of Annan’s plans this week.

U.N. officials say they will present their conception of exactly what the deputy secretary-general’s post is intended to achieve and what its powers will be. Similarly, the Secretariat has developed a list of those proposals specifically needing Assembly approval, those which require new budgetary authorisation the proposals Annan can implement on his own authority – although officials would like Assembly endorsement.

The deputy’s post is already shaping up as a major bone of contention, with some Southern nations wary of granting too much authority to a position which the secretary-general appoints. U.N. officials envision the post as one akin to a vice presidency, and diplomats here have pointed to U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata as a leading candidate.