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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:

Proposal 2

I propose a more integrated approach to mobility, including:

Proposal 3

I propose to nurture talent and foster career development, through:

Proposal 4

I propose to modify contractual arrangements and harmonize conditions of service to meet the needs of an increasingly field-based Organization, through:


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