INVESTING IN THE UNITED NATIONS
For a Stronger Organization Worldwide
Report of the
Secretary-General
VII. The way forward: investing
in change
A. Overall resource requirements
86. Processes of change such as those outlined
in the present report, involving farreaching
reform of a large organization, can be
successfully implemented only by deploying
substantial resources. As I noted at the beginning
of the present report, the United Nations has
suffered from underinvestment. The bill for that
is now inevitably due. The precise cost of all
these reforms will obviously depend on the details
still to be worked out. Nevertheless, I have
itemized several major and vital cost
increases:
(a) Improving field benefits and conditions
to create a single global staff.
(b) Increasing investments in training,
recruitment and human resource development.
(c) Strengthening key functions, such as
procurement and overall management.
(d) Introducing a new information technology
platform.
(e) Approving a staff buyout programme.
87. The sums required may seem large, but:
(a) They would, over time, pay for themselves
through the substantial savings in running costs
that the reforms will bring;
(b) They will be offset by very large savings
in procurement reform, relocation of work and
administration simplification;
(c) When combined with the current General
Assembly exercise of mandate review, they offer
the prospect of a much more focused,
professional Secretariat that can deliver on the
tasks Member States set it;
(d) Without these comprehensive reforms, we
would almost certainly end up spending
considerable sums on further piecemeal efforts
that would not address fundamental issues;
(e) Most importantly, these reforms will give
us a much more productive Organization, with
much more highly motivated staff. In fact, this
would be a very modest investment compared to
the cost of not reforming the United Nations.
The return on investment, in terms of the
benefit that all Member States and their peoples
can expect from a truly effective United
Nations, attuned to the needs of the
twenty-first century, will be of immeasurable
importance to the world.
B. Early and visible change
88. Experience within the United Nations system
and elsewhere tells us that reform or change
initiatives often fall apart or are not sustained
over time unless there is strong leadership from
the top, supported by a group of managers and
responsible officials assigned full-time to making
change happen. It would therefore be naive to
expect the comprehensive transformation described
in the present report to happen by itself. The
Secretariat and Member States, working closely
together, will have to refine the blueprint and
convert it into detailed proposals, with a
disciplined implementation strategy - which must
itself be the product of consultation, both among
Member States and with the staff at all levels.
For the change I propose, which is above all a
change of culture, cannot be achieved overnight.
It is urgent, and I am determined to implement as
much of it as I can in the nine months left to me
as Secretary-General. But it needs to continue
steadily over a period of years. And this will not
happen without an appropriate structure to manage
it and drive it forward.
1. Change management office
89. Managing change of this magnitude is not a
part-time responsibility. It will be necessary to
set up a dedicated capacity within the Secretariat
- a change management office, with clear terms of
reference and a time limit - which I propose
should work closely with a small but
representative group of Member States to provide
support and guidance.
90. This office, which would report to the
Deputy Secretary-General, would work with heads of
department and other key leaders within the
Secretariat to plan and coordinate the
implementation of the reforms. It would monitor
performance and hold heads of department
accountable for their delivery. It would establish
task forces to identify and resolve specific
challenges and would supervise their work. It
should be led by a highly respected, senior-level
manager with deep organizational knowledge and a
full understanding of the context as well as the
content of the reform agenda, who would be
respected by, and have access to, the key decision
makers in the Secretariat.
2. A staff buyout
91. In the 2005 World Summit Outcome, Heads of
State and Government called on the
Secretary-General to submit "a detailed proposal
on the framework for a onetime staff buyout to
improve personnel structure and quality, including
an indication of costs involved and mechanisms to
ensure that it achieves its intended purpose" (see
General Assembly resolution 60/1, para. 163 (c)).
I expect to place such a proposal before the
General Assembly soon. It will be an essential
tool for implementing the reforms proposed in the
present report and the conclusions of the review
of mandates on which the Assembly is about to
embark. Full consultation with staff
representatives will be required before my
proposals are finalized and they will be based on
four principles:
(a) The Secretary-General must be able to
realign the staff in accordance with the
Organization's priorities. The staff to whom the
targeted buyout is offered must therefore be
selected on the basis of an analysis of the
skills needed in the light of both the
management reforms - including business process
simplification, changing skills needs,
relocation of work and outsourcing - and the
mandate review. The decisions that Member States
may wish to make on my proposals in this area
will also determine the scale of the programme;
(b) The Organization's interests must be
protected by ensuring that the buyout does not
result in the loss of staff whose skills,
experience or knowledge are aligned with
operational needs;
(c) The anticipated attrition of staff,
particularly at the senior levels through
retirement, may affect the scale of the proposed
buyout;
(d) The mechanisms for implementing the
buyout must be transparent and equitable, with
safeguards to prevent arbitrary decisions and
preserve the Organization's strategic goals.
92. My proposal will offer options for the
buyout; the precise cost will depend on which
option Member States prefer. A buyout cost of
approximately $100,000 per staff member would be
anticipated. Therefore, a buyout of 500 staff
would cost approximately $50 million; a buyout of
1,000 staff would cost approximately $100 million.
I believe this is fully justified as an investment
in the United Nations of the future, which must be
staffed by people whose skills and aptitudes
respond to its priorities.
Proposals
Proposal 22
I therefore propose that dedicated resources
be appropriated in order to ensure complete
implementation of the detailed proposals
resulting from this process. In particular,
resources will be needed at an early stage for a
change management office and a staff buyout.
Proposal 23
I urge Member States to lose no time in
providing dedicated resources for the change
management office and setting up an appropriate
intergovernmental mechanism to work with it.
Such prompt decisions would make it clear, to
both our staff and the outside world, that the
overall programme of reform is serious and
credible.
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