POLITICS: UN’s Plans for Massive Lay-Offs Trigger Protests

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 26 1998 (IPS) - The cash-strapped United Nations is threatening to lay-off more than 450 members of its staff as part of its ongoing restructuring programme, triggering a strong protest from the staff union at the world body.

Staff members have accused Secretary-General Kofi Annan of reneging on a promise that he would only eliminate jobs by attrition. “We are not talking of attrition now,” one staffer told IPS, “We are talking of throwing people out on the streets.”

The intended target is the U.N.’s Department of Public Information (DPI) which has a staff of 628 worldwide and an annual budget of about 69 million dollars. Rosemarie Waters, President of the U.N. Staff Union, says the report is “extremely disturbing” because the proposal is to downsize DPI “by as much as 75 percent.”

In a letter to Annan, DPI staff members say they are “dismayed” that although the Secretary-General pledged there would be “no blood on the floor”, steps are now being taken to abolish posts contrary to his assurances. The DPI has been singled out for sharp cuts because it is not considered a “programme activity” of the United Nations.

The Department is being perceived as providing only information services compared with other U.N. departments that provide more tangible services such as technical or humanitarian assistance.

In the strongly-worded letter to Annan, Waters says that the Secretary General repeatedly had given assurances staff would not lose jobs as a result of restructuring. “You also have written department heads encouraging them to actively discuss all aspects of the reform process with staff to elicit their views,” theletter adds. But, Waters points out, contrary to these assurances, the U.N.’s Department of Management and Administration is trying to eliminate staff without consulting either the Staff Union or the department coming under its ax.

Waters says that issues concerning downsizing, re-shaping and re-deployment have always been the subject of intense staff- management consultations and agreed-upon principles for implementation. But none of these guidelines has been followed in the proposed 75 percent lay-off, she adds.

Surprisingly, the proposed lay-offs also come at time when the DPI is to be upgraded and headed by an Under-Secretary-General, the third senior ranking official in the U.N. system. Currently the DPI is headed only by an Assistant-Secretary-General.

Last year a Task Force appointed by the Secretary-General urged him to place communications functions “at the heart of the strategic management of the Organisation and consolidating all communications activities under a strong senior official.”

The Task Force said the image of the United Nations – “indeed its long-term survival – depends upon effectively communicating its message and its activities to an increasingly cost-resistant world.”

“The United Nations is respected by the public worldwide. In recent years, however, it has frequently had difficulties in translating that respect into support for its mission,” the report of the Task Force said.

The DPI should therefore be adequately manned and provided with enough resources to help project the right image for the world body. “Many of the sections and services within DPI are truly lean, and some are now beginning to find their operations inhibited by lack of resources,” the Task Force warned.

Currently, the DPI also oversees a network of some 68 U.N. Information Centres (UNICS) which disseminates U.N. material to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), schools, the media and government offices in 68 countries, mostly in the developing world.

Last year there was an unsuccessful move to restructure and downgrade some of the UNICs which are usually the only source of information on the United Nations in most developing nations. But as part of a much wider proposal to reform the world body, the United Nations has been trying to integrate UNICs with the field offices of the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP). The Task Force recommended that UNIC staff should become part of a proposed Communications Services Group under the Resident Corodinator.

“The Task Force had stepped into a lion’s den when it had proposed changes to UNICs,” said Mark Malloch Brown, chairman of the Task Force, and Vice President of External Affairs/United Nations Affairs at the World Bank.

“However, throwing more money and personnel at the Centres was not a plausible approach. Instead, U.N. communications activities should be married to powerful national partners,” he argued.

Brown said that in developing nations, the Resident Coordinator should be the U.N. spokesman at the country level, served by a UNIC. “They could be supported by strong regional hubs which would contribute to a more effective focus on resources. The use of national staff should be carefully examined,” he said.

“A revitalized United Nations communications function was needed to make the United Nations more relevant to people’s lives,” Brown said.

Last year the 132 developing countries of the Group of 77 strongly objected to any attempts to downsize or eliminate UNICs. In a resolution before the Committee on Information, Western nations sought either to cut funding, reduce staff or even to permanently close down some of the information centres.

The resolution, which was later dropped, sought to transfer some of the functions of the information centers to local non- governmental organisations (NGOs) or to university libraries in the respective countries.