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United Nations Daily Highlights 96-09-16United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSMonday, September 16, 1996This document is prepared by the Central News Section of the Department of Public Information and is updated every week-day at approximately 6:00 PM. HEADLINES
The United Nations Efficiency Board has issued its first progress report, focusing on the way in which the UN Secretariat fulfils the mandates entrusted to it by Member States. In November of 1995, UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali launched an efficiency effort to accelerate change in the management of the Secretariat of the United Nations. The Secretary- General set up a seven-member Efficiency Board as part of his efforts. The report states that the Secretariat has identified the $154 million savings required to allow the Organization to live within its General Assembly mandated $2.608 billion budget cap. It has achieved a zero budget growth and reduced staff by nearly 10 per cent. Regarding actions taken, those under way, and challenges ahead, the Efficiency Board's report is broken into eight chapters: Better service, better value, better management, managing programmes, managing people, managing money, managing information, and still more to do. The Chairman of the Efficiency Board, Under-Secretary- General for Administration and Management, Joseph Connor, addressing UN correspondents on Monday, noted that the report was aimed at keeping the UN budget down. Meanwhile, the Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN, Ambassador Madeleine Albright said in a statement the Board's report provides workable answers to complex problems. The United States representative said the ideas contained in the report not only simplify existing procedures but provide a blueprint for re-engineering UN operations and programmes with one objective of making the UN work better for less. UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali says the position of the United Nations finances will again reach a dangerously low level before the end of the year, unless substantial additional contributions are made soon by the Member States. In a statement to the UN staff on Staff Day, Dr. Boutros- Ghali said the financial difficulties of the organisation remained serious with member States still owing some $2.8 billion US dollars in assessments. These include $700 million on the regular budget, and $2.1 billion on the peace-keeping budget. The Secretary-General said the financial crisis of the UN was due, in part, to an unprecedented expansion of the Organisation's work, and to internal difficulties of some member states. However, he added that the international community has not yet clearly determined the extent to which it was willing to engage the critical issues on the international agenda, and to do so through the United Nations. Outlining achievements since the beginning of the year, the Secretary- general told UN staff to be proud of the capacity they have shown to do more with diminishing resources. He assured staff members that safety and security and competitive conditions of service will continue to be promoted. UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali addressed the General Assembly on the mid-term review of the implementation of the UN Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s. The Secretary-General told them that there has been some progress, according to Secretary-General's Spokesman Sylvana Foa. Twelve African countries have registered a growth of six per cent in their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) last year, compared to only three in 1992, and also the number of African countries with negative growth has decreased from 19 in 1993, to 3 in 1995, she explained, adding that Official Development Assistance to Africa has declined from $25 billion in 1992 to only 23 billion in 1994. Representatives of the United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs (UNDHA) leading a team comprised of the World Food Programme (WFP), and representatives of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Non- Governmental Organizations were not able to reach Grand Cape Mount in Liberia due to fighting between the rival United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) factions. Following the discovery of the desperate humanitarian situation in Tubmanburg, it is essential that the humanitarian community be allowed both immediate and unconditional freedom of movement in Liberia to assist suffering Liberians, according to the Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Office in Liberia (UN-HACO). ULIMO-J fighters reported that General Lincoln, ULIMO-J's second in command, had instructed them not to permit the team to move to Gbah. After a four hour delay, the team was finally permitted to proceed to that location. However, ULIMO-J fighters would not permit the team to proceed across the bridge to Grand Cape Mount. Economist John Kenneth Galbraith told the final session of the forty-ninth annual Conference for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) organized by the Department of Public Information (DPI) that the day would come for a legislative oversight of the world economic system that would be the first step towards world government with a tax. This, he added, might be on international financial transactions. As the Conference continued its consideration of the challenges facing the United Nations in a changing world, Mr. Galbraith stated that the work of several United Nations agencies did not respond adequately to the present- day reality. He warned also that the United Nations risked obsolescence if it did not incorporate the great changes taking place in the national and international context. Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said civil society should be integrated in the work of the United Nations and in its decision-making process. "International relations are no longer the monopoly of the States", he emphasized, adding that new actors such as enterprises and universities should be taken into account by the multilateral organizations. Members of the Executive Board of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), at their third regular session of 1996, which began today, will be asked to approve 48 UNICEF country programme recommendations, with a total requested budget of $986.6 million. Other issues to be discussed will be the allocation of UNICEF's general resources, the work of the international Child Development Centre, and the outline of the implementation plan for UNICEF's new health strategy. A number of recommendations show the new emphasis within UNICEF on a children's rights-based approach to programming. Depending on the needs of the children, the strategy varies in emphasis from the continuing delivery and provision of services to capacity-building empowerment, and advocacy on behalf of children and women. The Executive Board will examine a discussion paper on the allocation of general resources to country programmes which receive UNICEF support. UNICEF currently has three criteria for such allocations: a country's child population, per capita gross national product (GNP), and under five mortality rate (U5MR). Although a review has concluded that the three criteria remain best suited to the UNICEF mandate and mission, some modifications will be made to improve the allocation system of general resources for country programs. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for the Elaboration of an International Convention to Combat Desertification decided at its ninth session to hold the first Convention of the Parties in Rome. The Committee also approved an additional ten decisions proposed by its two working groups, as well as by its Chairman Bo Kjellen of Sweden, who said that tremendous progress had been made during the ninth session. With regard to the Global Mechanism to promote the mobilization of financial resources, the Committee decided to submit a text on the function of the Mechanism which included three options for the paragraph on the mobilization and channeling of such resources. Representatives of Ireland, on behalf of the European Union, and Costa Rica, on behalf of the "Group of 77" and China, regretted that an agreement on the functions of the Mechanism had not been obtained, and urged the participants to make more progress on the next session. The Committee decided as well to consider at the tenth session the identification of the institution to which the Conference of the Parties would institutionally link the Convention's permanent secretariat. Regarding its location, the Committee decided to request the interim secretariat to present a document comparing the offers of Canada, Germany and Spain to host the permanent secretariat. Some 100 students from five countries will compete in the finals of UNESCO's second Peace Games, a competition centred on peace for high school students, which will be held in Lom‚, Togo, from 23 to 36 September. Peace Games are based on academic subjects and aim to encourage mutual respect for the environment among young people. The games include three events: spelling, choral singing and a relay race. This year, the Games bring together girls and boys 10 to 18 years old from Benin, Costa Rica, Morocco, Romania and Togo. For information purposes only - - not an official record From the United Nations home page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgUnited Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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