What is the UN doing to ensure its continuing effectiveness?
In the past few years, the UN has enacted major reforms to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness. These have included appointing an Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, reducing operating expenses, cutting high-level posts and eliminating some 1,000 positions. The UN regular budget has had zero nominal growth for eight years, followed by a very slight increase for the current biennium – which nevertheless represents a reduction in real terms from the prior period. The pace of reforms accelerated dramatically during the first term of Secretary-General Kofi Annan (1997-2001), who put in motion the most far-reaching set of reforms ever proposed to the General Assembly. These included: * Reallocating resources from low priority areas and administrative services to higher priority areas identified by Member States. * Reducing administrative costs and using the savings for development activities. * Organizing the UN’s work Programme into four core areas – peace and sec
