INVESTING IN THE UNITED NATIONS
For a Stronger Organization Worldwide
Report of the
Secretary-General
I. Investing in people
Context and challenges
20. The need for a highly qualified,
independent and international civil service is
enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.
This is as important today as it was 60 years ago.
The quality of our staff determines the success of
the Organization, since it cannot succeed unless
it attracts and retains the right people to carry
out the increasingly complex mandates entrusted to
it.
21. During my term in office, I have introduced
a number of initiatives to improve the way the
Organization manages and develops its human
resources, including the definition of
organizational core values and competencies and
their integration into all human resources systems
– recruitment, development and performance
appraisal; the introduction of a web-based
recruitment system; empowerment of managers to
select their own staff; policies to encourage
staff mobility; and measures to strengthen the
security and safety of staff at all United Nations
work locations.
22. All of this is important progress. But we
have to acknowledge that our systems have not kept
pace with the operational demands being placed on
us. The existing human resources management
framework was designed for a stable, largely
Headquarters-based environment, whereas currently
more than half of our 30,000 staff members are
serving in the field (see figure 4). The
Organization's increasingly complex mandates
require a new skills profile, that will enable it
to respond in an integrated way to new needs in
areas as diverse as humanitarian assistance,
peacekeeping, electoral assistance, and drugs and
crime. It needs to be able to recruit and retain
leaders, managers and personnel capable of
handling large, complex multidisciplinary
operations with increasingly high budgets. Too
many staff turn away from the United Nations,
frustrated by the lack of a career path across the
full range of opportunities in our global
Organization.

23. A survey entitled "A Picture of United
Nations Staff" which was published in 2005 and
based on 5,320 responses, revealed that two of the
most de-motivating aspects of employment with the
United Nations are the lack of career and
promotions prospects and the frustrations caused
by excessive bureaucracy.
24. Most United Nations staff are acutely aware
of the employment and administrative problems
faced by colleagues and external applicants alike.
For example:
(a) A qualified Professional applies for a
position at the United Nations but is not
informed of the outcome for a very long time and
decides to accept a job elsewhere. Despite
maximum efforts to fill the post rapidly, the
thousands of applications received have not been
processed quickly enough;
(b) A colleague has spent many years serving
the Organization in a number of conflict zones
and decides that the next posting should allow
her to join her family, only to find that her
field experience gives her no advantage in
applying for a post at a family duty station;
(c) A General Service staff member has
diligently served the United Nations for many
years and during that period has earned the
necessary academic qualifications and
performance criteria to be employed as a
Professional, including doing well in the annual
G to P exams, but never manages to get promoted
because of the limits on the number of posts
that can be used. He is advised that resignation
from the United Nations and reapplication at the
Professional level would increase his chances,
but he cannot afford to risk his current income
for the sake of a possible future promotion.
25. The Organization's ability to respond to
changing requirements is hampered by complex,
outmoded and fragmented systems and processes. In
particular:
(a) The Secretary-General does not have the
resources and authority to manage the
Organization effectively, as its Chief
Administrative Officer, in accordance with
Article 97 of the Charter of the United Nations.
His freedom of action is handicapped by
multiple, restrictive and often contradictory
legislative mandates. Accountability is diffuse.
The rules are complicated and incoherent and
often lack transparency;
(b) Recruitment is simply too slow and
reactive for the dynamic, frequently changing
demands of a highly operational Organization.
The processes are complex and administratively
time-consuming. On average, it takes 174 days
from the time a vacancy announcement is issued
to the time a candidate is selected;
(c) Inadequate progress is being made to
improve geographical distribution and gender
balance, both of which are essential for a truly
diverse international civil service. Targets for
increasing recruitment for unrepresented and
underrepresented Member States have been met by
one fifth of Secretariat departments. The
proportion of women at the Professional levels
and above is still unacceptably low, at 38 per
cent;
(d) Vital positions in key locations remain
vacant far too long, which has an adverse impact
on the Organization's ability to carry out its
mandates. For example, at any given time one
third of all Professional posts in peacekeeping
operations are vacant - an unacceptable and
unsustainable state of affairs. By contrast at
established duty stations and headquarters there
are low vacancy rates and too little staff
movement, which inhibits career development;
(e) Different procedures from those at
Headquarters are in place for appointments in
the field. This prevents the Organization from
developing an integrated workforce and leads to
the inconsistent application of organizational
standards;
(f) Complex eligibility requirements limit
staff - in particular field staff - from being
given equal consideration for opportunities
elsewhere in the Organization. This means that
(i) managers do not have access to the broadest
pools of talent; (ii) career opportunities for
staff are limited; and (iii) divisions between
field and Headquarters are reinforced;
(g) Staff are not sufficiently mobile. Their
movement is hampered by multiple and restrictive
mandates, including those that limit the
Secretary-General's ability to move them when
this would be in the interests of the
Organization. Occupational groups have largely
become "silos" with limited opportunities for
staff to move from one occupational group to
another, even in the early stages of their
careers;
(h) The Organization uses a plethora of
different types of contractual arrangements for
hiring staff, which are cumbersome and difficult
to administer and result in staff being treated
unfairly. This creates divisions, breeds
resentment, burdens administrators and hampers
our ability to attract and retain the best
people;
(i) Staff members serve side by side with
colleagues from other parts of the United
Nations system who enjoy better conditions of
service, both financially and from the work/life
perspective. The main differences occur in the
treatment of family members and provisions for
rest and recuperation breaks in the field;
(j) Investment in developing and managing
talent at all levels of the Organization is
inadequate. The United Nations spends just 1 per
cent of its staff budget on training and
development, compared to three or four times
that amount in other international
organizations;
(k) The information and communications (ICT)
systems underpinning our management of human
resources do not meet the stringent demands
imposed by the global reach of today's United
Nations;
(l) The internal justice system is slow and
cumbersome, and fails to strike the necessary
balance between effective managerial control and
staff members' right to due process.
Vision
26. My vision is of an independent
international civil service which will once again
be known for its high standards of ethics,
fairness, transparency and accountability, as well
as its culture of continuous learning, high
performance and managerial excellence. The
Secretariat will be truly an integrated,
field-oriented operational Organization. Its
multi-skilled, versatile and mobile staff will be
working across disciplines to fulfil the
Organization's complex and interrelated mandates
in an efficient and cost-effective manner. The
United Nations will be an employer of choice in
the international public sector.
27. To achieve this vision, the Organization
will need to introduce a new human resources
framework which, building on reforms to date, will
give the Organization the ability to respond to
changing requirements.
28. The future United Nations workforce will
have a core of career international civil servants
performing long-term functions, supplemented by
others who will join and leave the Organization
for shorter periods of time when needed. A key
part of this core will be the staff required to
meet the needs of urgent peacekeeping and special
political missions. Experienced staff who are able
to be deployed rapidly and work effectively under
pressure in unfamiliar circumstances will be in
constant demand. Approximately 2,500
internationally recruited positions in
peacekeeping and special political missions will
be identified to form the heart of this capacity.
Additional positions within the humanitarian and
human rights sectors could form a smaller yet
critical part of this core capacity in the field.
29. The Organization will need to integrate
field and Headquarters staff into one global
Secretariat with competitive conditions of
service. Proactive, rapid and targeted recruitment
must satisfy the demands of a largely field-based
Organization and improve geographical and gender
balance. Artificial barriers created by different
contractual arrangements must be eliminated.
Measures will be introduced to minimize the amount
of time staff are required to spend away from
their families. Willingness to serve the United
Nations wherever needed will be a cornerstone of
service with the Organization. Mobility will be
facilitated and rewarded. The staff profile will
be realigned to meet the evolving needs of the
Organization, with substantially increased
investment in staff development and talent
management.
30. My package of human resources proposals
must be considered in a holistic manner since they
are all interrelated. I cannot emphasize too
strongly that the success of this vision depends
on progress in all other areas, particularly
resultsbased management and the availability of an
integrated, reliable information technology
system. The redesign panel currently looking at
the internal justice system is also critical to
the success of these changes. Without a justice
system that delivers fair resolution of
staff/management disputes in a timely way, the
other reforms will be undermined. Furthermore,
administrative benefits should be simplified and
streamlined - including through adoption of
practices such as "lump-summing" of benefits.
31. The projected recurring costs of
harmonizing benefits for staff in the field,
including the proposed new cadre of peacekeepers,
would be of the order of $280 million per annum,
to be funded largely from the peacekeeping
assessment or extrabudgetary contributions.
Further, a much needed doubling of resources
dedicated to training and developing United
Nations staff would amount to an additional $10
million per annum.
Proposals and actions
Proposal 1
I propose to develop a more proactive,
targeted and speedy recruitment system, through:
- More extensive outreach based on strategic
workforce planning.
- Use of rosters of pre-screened
candidates.
- Establishment of a dedicated recruitment
service to support managers in their selection
of staff.
- Reduction of the advertising time for
vacancy announcements to 30 days.
- Expedited recruitment processes for surge
needs.
- Expanded career opportunities for serving
staff, and the creation of a broader pool of
talent by eliminating eligibility restrictions
based on contractual status, category, location
or duration of service. This would include
eliminating the existing restrictions for
applicants to junior Professional posts that are
not subject to the examination
requirements.
- Revision of examinations and job profiles to
match current needs.
- Strictly enforced compliance with gender and
geography targets.
- Aiming to reduce average recruitment times
by one half.
Proposal 2
I propose a more integrated approach to
mobility, including:
- Authority for the Secretary-General to move
staff members wherever they are needed.
- Strict enforcement of current post-occupancy
limits, designation of a majority of
international Professional posts as rotational,
and integration of Headquarters and field
operations into an Organization-wide mobility
programme.
- Expanded training and improved work/life
conditions - the training budget should
initially be doubled - costing an additional $10
million per annum.
- Greater opportunities for General Service
mobility.
Proposal 3
I propose to nurture talent and foster career
development, through:
- A significant increase in resources for
staff development and career support.
- Systematic development of entry-level
Professionals and mandatory requirements for
advancement to successive levels of
responsibility.
- Development of career models, with potential
career paths and cross-over points.
- Mandatory induction and training
requirements for managers.
Proposal 4
I propose to modify contractual arrangements
and harmonize conditions of service to meet the
needs of an increasingly field-based
Organization, through:
- Introduction of one United Nations Staff
Contract under one set of Staff Rules. The
conditions of service would mirror the current
100 series and would vary according to the
length of continuous service. Where mandates of
particular projects or missions are clearly
finite, appointments would still be limited in
order to prevent undue expectations of long-term
employment.
- Replacing permanent contracts with
open-ended "continuing appointments" as
previously recommended to the General Assembly
(see A/59/263/Add.1).
- Harmonization of the conditions of service
of Secretariat staff in the field with those of
the United Nations funds and programmes by
designating field missions in line with security
phases, introducing the special operations
approach for non-family duty stations, where
appropriate, and revising the scheme for rest
breaks and streamlining administration,
including through lump-summing. The annual
recurrent cost would be of the order of $280
million.
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