About UN reform
The pace of today's globalized world means that change is a constant. This is no different for the United Nations. Member States' demands of the UN and its Secretariat, agencies, funds and programmes have grown enormously. The UN is expected to deliver more services to more people in more places than ever before.
In the past nine years alone, the number of civilian and soldiers deployed on peacekeeping missions has increased from 20,000 to 80,000. Over the same period, the overall financial resources managed by the Secretariat have doubled to $18 billion. The number of humanitarian and human rights operations have also dramatically increased.
Such a volume of highly operational activity places a greater premium on the ability of the organization to discharge the increased and more complex mandates it is given, and to manage the funds entrusted to it, in an accountable and ethical manner. In the meantime, these demands and expectations have strained the Organization's existing structures and systems.
The recommendations of the Panel on System-Wide Coherence, a panel co-chaired by the prime ministers of Mozambique, Norway and Pakistan, were presented to the Secretary-General in early November 2006.
The report aims to help the UN fulfill its potential in supporting countries reach the Millennium Development Goals, by rationalizing and simplifying the way in which the different UN institutions work with one another. It says that the UN must be radically revamped to “deliver as one”, in particular at the country level, where the UN could have a much greater impact if it were less fragmented.
The President of the General Assembly is expected to initiate a process of consultation and dialogue on the Panel's recommendations.
