POLITICS: U.N. Renovation Threatens Disruption in World Body

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 2008 (IPS) - When the United Nations begins a major 1.8 billion dollar renovation of its 39- storey headquarters early next year, there are fears that the relocation of nearly 4,000 staffers from the 60-year-old building will disrupt the organisational work of the world body.

"Apart from being a logistical nightmare, the main concern among many is how all these planned major overhauls of the building would impact on the substantive work of the world body, particularly its reform agenda and the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs]," says Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations.

The renovation is part of an ambitious project called the Capital Master Plan (CMP) aimed at modernising a building constructed from 1948 to 1950 – which has failed to conform to safety and fire code regulations of New York City.

The entire Secretariat building will be emptied and gutted, beginning early next year, and staffers will be relocated to rented offices in the U.N. neighbourhood. A new refurbished building – "contemporary, safe, efficient and environmentally sound" – is scheduled to open in 2013.

The General Assembly, the Security Council and the Secretary-General’s office will, however, be housed in temporary buildings on the North Lawn within U.N. precincts.

The press corps is to be re-located to an adjacent building, now home to the U.N. library.

"With the anticipated considerable disruption of even the normal work of the staff, who would be housed in various swing spaces, the much-needed headquarters leadership would be seriously constrained as the MDGs target year of 2015 gets close," Chowdhury told IPS.

"Can you imagine how an organisation with more than 4,000 staffers… spread all over the city, would be able to handle effectively, even partially, its high-profile responsibility to achieve these Goals?" he asked.

In addition, another victim of the "renovation mess", he said, would be the organisation’s reform agenda that has already slowed down.

James Paul, executive director of the New York-based Global Policy Forum, one of the most active non-governmental organisations (NGOs) monitoring the United Nations, told IPS: "I don’t know the details of the renovation and how it will be phased, but I have the impression that it will be a big headache for everyone, including, of course, NGOs."

"This is primarily not because of bad planning by the United Nations, as I understand it, but because there is a huge amount of construction work to be done – work that has been put off for a very long time."

Paul said that delays and barriers thrown up by the U.S. federal government, the State of New York and the City of New York have greatly complicated this process and made it much more expensive, but there was no getting around a big inconvenience.

Michael Adlerstein, executive director of the project, told reporters last year that the CMP would ensure that the renovation would be "a model of environmentally sustainable construction."

He said that greening measures were still in progress, but the general concept was to cut energy consumption by at least 40 percent, both by creating a better envelope around the building and by creating better systems to generate the heat and lighting.

Adlerstein also pointed out that the removal of asbestos – considered deadly for staffers – would be totally safe, as staff would not be in the same building. The building would be vacant during the work.

The new complex would have a variety of energy sources and there would be back-up generators for emergencies and security installations. Currently, the basic energy bill for the complex is about 13 million dollars annually, he added.

Adlerstein said that security played a large role in considering renovations of the buildings.

"The project met a level of consideration for blasts that would make the building very safe," he added. Adlerstein is working closely with the City of New York and the U.S. government on many aspects of security.

Chowdhury told IPS that as the U.N. building was said to be violating almost all the current building codes of the host city, a renovation was long overdue. "It is good that the actual work for that has commenced now. I hope the so- called Capital Master Plan can keep its time-frame for completion of the work within the next five years."

The completion year was advanced from 2015 to 2013, so as not to coincide with MDGs deadline, Chowdhury said. "That I believe is impractical and unrealistic," he added.

Asked why the New York State government in Albany (and the city of New York) rejected the request for land in an adjoining park, Chowdhury said that all these problems would have been minimised if the host city and host state would have allowed construction of a building planned on the adjoining park as a swing space, and subsequently for permanent additional space for the United Nations.

"But unfortunately that rejection happened when the United Nations was reeling from the oil-for-food scandal [in Iraq] and while the U.N.’s relations with the New York state legislators were at the lowest," he added.

As a result, both New York State and the city of New York were not receptive to the idea of a new building in the adjacent park.

Another concern, Chowdhury mentioned, are the disrupted working conditions – particularly access problems – for NGOs and the media, who are essential partners in the day-to-day work of the United Nations.

With no support system facilitating their work during renovation, these entities would be adversely affected – having negative implications for the organisation’s work.

"Well, may be the critics would say that the disruption of the U.N.’s work would not be noticed at all given the minimalist agenda it is now pursuing," Chowdhury added.

While agreeing with Chowdhury on NGO access, Paul said that NGOs who like to be entertained by weekly briefings and hang out with their friends in U.N. corridors will be most disrupted.

On the other hand, he added, the NGOs that are most active, most professional, and do the most advocacy, will grin and bear it.

"They will make their way in the confusion. They will find the U.N. missions still open for business in the same place, the receptions will not be any less, the Secretariat staff will be found for interaction in some new and temporary niche in the neighbourhood – and life will go on!" Paul added.

Still, with all the "construction mess", he said, "let’s hope there will be a slightly new tilt in Washington that will mean a bit more space for international cooperation and multilateral discourse."

"Any change that way, however minor, will make the renovation much more tolerable," he added.