Panel calls for radical overhaul of UN bodies

UN: A high-level panel has called for a radical overhaul of a jumble of United Nations development, relief and environmental…

UN: A high-level panel has called for a radical overhaul of a jumble of United Nations development, relief and environmental agencies and programmes that waste money in turf battles and duplication.

The appeal came on Thursday from a group of prime ministers and officials who recommended greater cohesion between bodies such as the UN Children's Fund or the UN refugee agency by appointing one official to oversee operations in a specific country.

The official would have more authority than at present and report to a new "Sustainable Development Board" that would monitor co-ordination in New York.

The panel, appointed by UN secretary general Kofi Annan, includes the prime ministers of Pakistan, Norway and Mozambique, the former presidents of Chile and Tanzania and the British chancellor of the exchequer. They were asked for recommendations to streamline programmes on development, humanitarian aid and the environment. "Any organisation in time needs to reinvent itself and do things better and differently," Pakistan's prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, a co-chair of the panel, told a news conference.

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"The United Nations needs cohesion and coherence, particularly at the country level." Mr Aziz also said funding reforms were needed. He said the huge earthquake in his country a year ago showed UN relief operations needed to have at least $500,000 (€643,000) in a reserve fund rather than "go for fundraising when people are dying". Immediate reaction came to a proposal on women's rights, with the panel proposing several existing bodies be combined and a top-level executive be appointed to provide leadership in regions and countries.

Stephen Lewis, the UN envoy for Aids in Africa, said a "destructive pattern" had emerged on women's issues, which tended to peter out for "lack of expertise" and "operational capacity at the country level".

Noeleen Heyzer, executive director of the UN Development Fund for Women, one of the agencies on the list for consolidation, welcomed the proposal for elevating women's issues, saying a top-level official was long overdue.

Since the UN was formed after the second World War, specialised agencies have multiplied for children, refugees, food, development and others. Many thrive on voluntary funding and take orders from donors and their own board.

The UN system now includes 17 specialised agencies and related organisations, 14 funds and programmes, in addition to the 17 departments and offices of the UN secretariat, the report noted.

More than one-third of the UN teams in a country include people from 10 or more agencies, the report said. In some poor nations 20 different UN groups are doing their own projects.

Five countries, including Vietnam, are expected to be chosen soon to test ways to improve co-ordination in the field.

Citing examples of diffused operations, Adnan Amin, executive director for the panel, said in Pakistan UN agencies had devised some 75 programme goals without consulting the government. In some African states, there were advisers on Aids from five different agencies.

On the environment, the report said so many conferences and meetings were being held throughout the world that many countries could not even find staff to attend them.

Since the 1993 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro the United Nations has had nearly 400 meeting days a year on biodiversity, climate change, desertification and related subjects. More than 30 agencies and programmes are involved in environmental projects.