'Incremental adaptations will not suffice.' (Kofi Annan's plans for the UN)

While describing himself as "prudently optimistic" about the overall functioning and efficacy of the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has reaffirmed that the Organization must "undergo fundamental, not piecemeal, reform". Since taking office, he says, he has had "one overriding objective: to induce greater unity of purpose, coherence of efforts and responsiveness throughout the Organization so that it can more effectively help meet the challenges of our times".

In his first annual Report on the work of the Organization, Mr. Annan describes his proposals for institutional reform as intended to ensure that the United Nations remains a vital and effective instrument of international collaboration. Specifically, he defines three related steps that are needed, each requiring support of Member States.

Firstly, the Organization must work as one within and across its diverse areas of activity so that there is no overlap or competition between its constituent units. Creation of the post of a Deputy Secretary-General, establishment of the United Nations Development and Senior Management Groups, and inception of a Strategic Planning Unit and four sectoral Executive Committees are, in Mr Annan's view, the most important of his reform proposals. In a reference that recalled his earlier metaphor about the United Nations working together like a soccer team--which encouraged individual excellence to common purpose--rather than a rowing contingent where absolute synchronicity of style was essential, the Secretary-General was quick to observe that "acting as one does not mean moving in lock step. Nor does it imply denying the specific attributes of any component part."

`The second step would relax a number of the "rigidities with which the Organization is afflicted" and which are, in fact, mandated by Member States themselves. Suggesting a reconfiguration of the balance between the legislative bodies of the Organization (which comprise Member States) and the Secretary-General, he attributes the realm of these rigidities largely to reasons relating to the cold-war practice of bloc politics, which have inhibited the flexibility needed by the Secretariat to get its job done in the most cost-effective manner. Specific reform proposals include a streamlining of the agenda and deliberations of the General Assembly, a clear definition of when new mandates would end--the "sunset provision"--and, most important in the Secretary-General's view, a results-based system of budgeting.

A third step relates to "a precious resource, which in some measure has been squandered by rules and regulations that impede ... performance"--the staff of the United Nations which, he feels, must be informed by "a corporate culture that animates and unifies those who serve it". Specific ideas include a functioning career development programme, meaningful performance evaluations and "real incentive and disincentive systems".

The United Nations, Mr. Annan says, needs to "unleash its own major resource: the complementarities and synergies that exist within it". Stating that the Organization's past pattern of "incremental adaptations" will not suffice, he also squarely places his reform pitch against the reality of a redefinition of the role of Government and the means of governance now under way throughout the world which is altering "the very concept of intergovernmentalism as we know it".

Not that financial pressures are not real; he describes the "fiscal precariousness" of the United Nations as unprecedented and debilitating; the legal obligation of Member States to pay their dues in full and on time is not just to the Organization but to one another. But, he notes, even after cuts of $250 million--nearly 10 per cent of the previous budgetary base--a negative growth budget has been proposed for 1998-1999 and the United Nations has managed to stay within increasingly tight budgets, while delivering outputs that Member States have asked it to. An on-going efficiency programme has helped in this; currently, it is addressing fundamental issues of simplification of processes, delegation of authority and increased responsibility plus flexibility to programme managers.

Surveying the global scenario by etching the "Contours of the new era", Mr Annan suggests that the "diverse ramifications of the end of the cold war remain a palpable factor in the world even today, nearly a decade later". The collapse of bipolarity has generated adverse consequences illustrated notably by inter-ethnic conflicts following the breakup of several multi-ethnic States. Grievous suffering has come to some States which had hitherto been held together by a perceived strategic utility to one side or the other.

Globalization--and the liberalization that fostered it--has posed numerous policy challenges, particularly to developing countries of which relatively few will receive its benefits, and the poorest among which are simply bypassed by the currents of global capital flows. While privatization and deregulation are widespread, the critical role of the State in providing an enabling environment for sustainable development is being continuously affirmed, compelling the search for an appropriate balance which, especially in the context of weak civil societies and overpowering transnational forces, is an increasingly complex task. The Secretary-General notes that various United Nations "good governance" programmes are designed to assist individual States to define this balance.

Elaborating upon the enormous potential of the information revolution, Mr Annan makes specific mention of the benefits that it can unleash in developing countries, where a range of areas, from telemedicine to micro-credit management, can tap its applications. Another "transformative force" defined in the Report is intensified interdependencies in the global environmental arena where progress since the 1992 Rio Conference has been "disappointing, whether in meeting targets for controlling environmental degradation or providing technological and financial assistance to developing countries".

The "pronounced transnational expansion of civil society" is of great significance for the United Nations, the Secretary-General observes. In recent years the Organization has found much of its work at the country level "intimately involves the diverse and dedicated contributions of nongovernmental organizations and groups", prompting his urging of all United Nations entities to be open to and work closely with those that are active in their respective sectors.

A growing trend towards democratization and respect for human rights is reflected, the Report says, in the voluntary limiting of arbitrary powers of State agencies in countries the world over, some 120 of whom hold "generally free and fair" elections, the highest total in history. Domestic as well as regional peace and prosperity is informed by the benefits of basing systems of rule on human dignity and the will of the people.

The Secretary-General goes on to mention two equally transformative, but detrimental, global factors.

"Parasitic elements" of "uncivil society"--including organized crime, drug traffickers, money launderers and terrorists--pose security threats to even the most powerful States. Recalling his consolidation of United Nations efforts to combat these elements in a high profile office at Vienna, Mr Annan states new partnerships are also needed among national and international agencies in this endeavour.

Then, in paradoxical contrast to integrative trends, are tendencies towards fragmentation. While decentralization spurred by the desire for effectiveness and efficiency is not a ground for concern, a heightened quest to redefine and reassert collective identities can, in its positive dimension, provide social coherence and civic pride but, in its negative, result in the vilification of those who do not belong. It is this negative dimension that has been responsible for what the Secretary-General describes as "some of the most egregious violations of international humanitarian law" and "elementary standards of humanity", including genocidal violence, the targeting of civilian populations, often women and children, the deliberate choice of rape as an instrument of organized terror and attacks on emergency humanitarian teams.

"Times of transformation can be times of confusion", Mr Annan observes, noting that the United Nations is a unique instrument of concerted action among multilateral mechanisms available to the international community to "successfully harness the mutual benefits of change while managing its adverse effects". By adopting the proposals for reform which he submitted to the General Assembly in July, the Secretary-General says: "Member States will equip the United Nations to better play its part in meeting this challenge."