UN development system

• January 6, 2020

GENEVA — Like his predecessors, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has been pushing a reform program to help the organization adjust to the demands of contemporary global governance. Over nearly 75 years, the UN has innovated and adapted. At first, humanitarian assistance was not envisaged to go beyond the needs of people displaced by …

Development, WORLDVIEWS

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Reform Clouds Darken the Future of the UN Development Program

Barbara Crossette

• January 28, 2019

As the first effects of Secretary-General António Guterres’s ambitious organizational reform plans become apparent, former and current officials of the United Nations Development Program see the future of the internationally influential agency as uncertain if not in peril. Fears center on aspects of the reform plan for development that would allow more political interference …

Development, Health and Population, Sustainable Development Goals

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WORLDVIEWS

Can the UN Finally Get Serious About Inefficiencies in Its Development System?

Max-Otto Baumann and Mona-Lisa Limbach

• April 25, 2018

BONN, Germany — Member states of the United Nations are now negotiating reform proposals for the world body’s development system. In the latest draft resolution, they welcome the secretary-general’s proposal for “advancing common business operations” and “request” for their “implementation,” in line with earlier decisions by the General Assembly (a previous draft requested “full implementation”). …

Development, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

Guterres’s UN Reform Agenda? It Couldn’t Be Vaguer

Bertrand G. Ramcharan

• September 26, 2017

Secretary-General António Guterres, encouraged by the United States, has embarked on new reforms, so it is appropriate to scrutinize their policy content. Are they meaningful or are they hollow? With all due respect to the secretary-general of the United Nations, these are for the most part hollow reforms. They have the scent of snake …

Secretary-General, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

Has Anyone Seen the UN Secretary-General’s Human Rights Agenda?

Bertrand G. Ramcharan

• August 22, 2017

Secretary-General António Guterres has set about modernizing some sectors of the United Nations and made impassioned statements about the need to protect human rights. But beyond rhetoric, so far there has been no indication of his modernizing the human-rights sector. We have seen this before. Dag Hammarskjold, a previous secretary-general, undoubtedly believed in human …

Human Rights, Secretary-General, WORLDVIEWS

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

US Pressures UN Chief to Take the Executive Reins

Dulcie Leimbach

• July 17, 2017

António Guterres just laid out his first major reform plan for the United Nations through a report presenting concrete suggestions embedded in wonky language and hyperbole. One recommendation that stands out is the emphasis by Guterres, the secretary-general, to reassert his role as the chief executive of the UN. It is that emphasis on …

Nikki Haley Watch, Secretary-General, US-UN Relations

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BOOKS

New Development Goals: Can the UN Machinery Cope?

Helmut Volger

• April 19, 2015

The United Nations is now discussing in a broad consultation process the sustainable development goals: a new universal set of ambitions for economic and social development, made up of targets and indicators that all countries are expected to use to frame their agendas and policies from 2015 to 2030, to be adopted by the …

BOOKS

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How Is the UN’s Development Machinery Perceived? Does Anyone Care?

Stephen Browne and Thomas G. Weiss

• August 22, 2014

One year ago, the report of a high-level panel of world leaders and renowned development specialists proposed 12 goals and 50 indicators for the United Nation’s post-2015 agenda. These were already unwieldy numbers, but after a year and a half of juggling and negotiations, member states in New York on the Open Working Group …

Development

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WORLDVIEWS

The UN Development Program: A New Crisis or a New Opportunity?

Stephen Browne and Thomas G. Weiss

• June 10, 2014

GENEVA — For those with longer memories, the latest dip in resources for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the staff cutbacks and restructuring announced by its administrator, Helen Clark, in May are merely the onset of another cycle, just in time for the agency’s 50th anniversary but part of its history since …

WORLDVIEWS

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Is a Better UN System Possible? Global Experts Respond to an Independent Survey

Barbara Crossette

• May 26, 2014

An unusual survey of 3,400 people worldwide who know the United Nations has found strong support for some basic rethinking over the next decade on the organization’s work in development. Among the recommendations, over two-thirds of respondents suggested adding more nongovernmental representatives to governing bodies and better consolidating both organizational representation and programs in …

Development

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The UN Development System, Taking It Local

Leelananda De Silva

• November 14, 2013

The United Nations development system is part of the new global order emerging in the 21st century. But interdependence has brought changes. Earlier international relations addressed issues in intergovernmental relations. National political, economic, social and environmental issues were largely left to national governments. Now national policies and issues — on economic management, poverty reduction, …

Development

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New Development Goals, Plus Ça Change?

Stephen Browne and Thomas G. Weiss

• September 2, 2013

“If we want things to change, some things will have to stay as they are.” This inversion of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa‘s aphorism summarizes a key finding of a recent global survey on the future development goals. A select group of development commentators favors maintaining most of the familiar Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) after …

Development

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America and the West Should Invest More in the UN, Not Less

Kishore Mahbubani

• July 27, 2013

Institutions of global governance are weak by design not default. As Singapore’s permanent representative in New York, I encountered senior members of the American establishment who lamented the United Nations’ poor condition. The explanation was the domination by the poor and weak states of Africa and Asia and the poor quality of its bureaucrats. …

Development, UN Agencies, US-UN Relations

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The G20 vs. the UN Development System: Two Rivals Heat Up

Ramesh Thakur

• June 11, 2013

The Group of 20 nations is more capable of replicating development success models than the United Nations manages to do within its own development ranks, representing a major challenge to the UN system and its second-most important agenda item after the maintenance of peace and security. The G20 also represents other challenges to the …

Development

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Increased Private Financing to the UN Poses Benefits and Risks

Asmita Naik

• May 20, 2013

As the United Nations relies more heavily on private sources of financing from foundations and corporations, it is important to look at how these changes affect the world body’s development aid channel. A new report examining how private donations to activities of the UN Development Program reveals both advantages — better management, for example …