POLITICS: Agreement on U.N. Deputy D-G and Other Key Reforms

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 19 1997 (IPS) - Canada’s Deputy Defence Minister Louise Frechette is the new tip to be the first Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, according to highly-placed sources here.

The U.N. General Assembly is ready to approve Friday a resolution creating the post of first deputy secretary-general and other major reforms proposed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The deputy to Annan will assist the U.N. chief and aid in “elevating the profile of the United Nations in the economic and social spheres.”

Under the terms of the Assembly resolution, Annan is allowed to appoint his own deputy following consultations with member states – but the 15-nation Security Council, the U.N. executive body, does not need to vote in favour of that candidate, as it must do to select a secretary-general.

U.N. officials have been unwilling to speculate on likely candidates for the deputy’s post, especially after the declaration last month by one prominent U.N. politician – U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata, that – she would not seek the office.

The world body, however, is expected to select a deputy quickly and one senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “It will be a woman – that I can assure you.”

Annan is expected to announce the name of his deputy as early as Monday of next week and a highly-placed source said it likely would be Louise Frechette, a former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations.

Annan’s victory in obtaining a deputy, just five months after he presented the Assembly with a wide-ranging series of reform proposals, caps a series of accomplishments in revamping U.N. management. “Of the recommendations that (Annan) proposed, some two-thirds will be adopted outright,” said another senior official, who also spoke privately.

The Assembly resolution also creates a new account for a ‘development dividend’ that would be accrued from any savings in reducing U.N. administrative and overhead costs. The money is to go to support U.N. development activities.

The U.N. agencies will also be committed to streamlining their humanitarian work under the leadership of a U.N. humanitarian assistance coordinator (who is currently called the emergency relief coordinator).

Several other steps still await the Assembly next spring, including action on setting up a revolving credit fund which countries could tap into if they fell behind on their payments of U.N. dues; a re-examination of the role of U.N. agencies; and the establishment of ‘sunset clauses’ that could allow certain U.N. mandates to expire after Assembly review. Many of those items will be handled by March, but could not be fully discussed during the Assembly session’s first three months or required further information, one official said.

Also, some new jobs that Annan has supported still await approval by the chief U.N. budgetary bodies, including the Assembly’s fifth committee, which deals with financing. That committee is still haggling over whether a new disarmament office will be headed by an under-secretary-general, and also whether it will budget for a new under-secretary-general to supervise U.N. communications.

Still, the U.N. reform drive has accomplished most of its goals, its supporters and architects insist. Much of the credit for that, one official acknowledged, goes to Annan’s popularity in his first year as secretary-general. “Everything that (Annan) has proposed has been addressed,” he said. “Nothing was rejected or set aside,” he added – nor were any different ideas on reform tabled by other nations in the course of debating Annan’s package.

Some diplomats nevertheless are unimpressed by the results, which are not linked to stalled efforts to re-organise and expand the Security Council and to change the scale of assessments by which nations calculate their U.N. dues.

“I don’t know what all the fuss is about,” said Malaysian Ambassador Razali Ismail. Although he said he favoured the creation of a deputy secretary-general, Razali added, “For developing countries … reform means having clear implications on development.” The current package, he argued, instead only represents “a mild consensus … It’s not reform from my point of view.”

Ironically, one of the nations which had argued loudest for U.N. reform – the United States – has shown considerably less interest recently. Last month, at the same time that the General Assembly gave preliminary approval to Annan’s initial reform proposals, the U.S. Congress dropped plans to repay some 850 million dollars in arrears to the United Nations from an intricate budget agreement.

Although U.S. President Bill Clinton has hailed the early reforms as a “first step” toward preparing the world body for the post-Cold War world, Washington’s debt to the United Nations remains at some 1.5 billion dollars.

If the Assembly rejects a U.S. bid to lower its assessment to pay one-quarter of all U.N. regular expenses – as at least the fifth committee seems likely to do – the financial standoff will grow worse: Washington insists it will pay no more than 22 percent of the U.N. regular budget from 1998 onward.