UN reform -- towards better coordinated programmes

It was the need for peace and security that led to the creation of the United Nations. Member States understood the need for an organisation to focus on state sovereignty and this was seen as a significant principle.

State sovereignty has always been considered as the UN's most glorified principle. However, over time one factor has become quite clear. The UN can take note of an emerging crisis and convene discussion among Member States, but it has no authority and no means of enforcement. This aspect makes it difficult to interfere in a conflict involving any of the big powers.

Some geo-strategic analysts use this as the reason why the veto right was created. Most unfortunately, it is this power in the hands of five Member States that has resulted in the Veto being misused for political purposes. Such a scenario is clearly not consistent with the purpose of the UN and the spirit of its Charter. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has pointed this aspect out more than once over the past two years.

Analyst Thalif Deen has correctly observed that the UN has failed to help resolve some of the world's ongoing and longstanding civil wars and military conflicts in Palestine, Afghanistan, Yemen, Western Sahara, Myanmar, Syria, and most recently in Ukraine. He has also drawn attention to the comment made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his tele-conferencing address to the Security Council last April, "Where is the peace that the United Nations was created to guarantee? Where is the security that the Security Council was supposed to guarantee?"

It may be also added here that the UN has remained helpless-with a divided Security Council in virtual paralysis - during the current crisis in Gaza which has long-running political connotations. What is currently happening in Palestine and Gaza due to indirect and clear support from the United States and its exercise of Veto is almost similar in its failure with regard to the nuclear threat from North Korea, where a Security Council resolution for additional sanctions against DPRK has been vetoed by Russia and China (even though it garnered 13 out of 15 votes).

The UN's declining role in geo-politics, however, has been compensated for by its increasingly significant performance as a massive humanitarian relief organisation. Few can deny the enormous role the United Nation plays in the global multilateral system, especially in the area of poverty eradication, sustainability and climate change.

As an enabler of the Agenda 2030, the UN system has the ability to bring around the table global leaders and key stakeholders for the most consequential decisions humanity must take. Its agencies and programmes do make a difference, uplifting millions of people out of poverty.

Yet, at the same time there is no hesitation to point out that the system is multifaceted and fragmented with more overlaps and duplications. This creates, most times, many developments that often make its implementation capability more difficult.

Such an existing scenario consequently has led to many socio-economists observing that there is need for an overhaul that may improve its governance and shut down many of its operations around the world, including the merging of many agencies and programmes. This process has been urged for reforming the system from the inside. Unfortunately, Guterres recognises the urgency for improvements but seems unable to undertake the needed shift.

Nevertheless, the focus on better cooperation and coordination among the agencies and programmes around the world --an immense and difficult job-- has been tasked to UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed. Based on Resolution 75/233, adapted on December 21, 2020, the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system, it is an attempt to create a new work culture within the UN.

Such change is desperately needed. The focus is going to be on ensuring a "new generation of United Nations country teams working more collaboratively and according to a clearer division of labour, driving greater alignment with country needs and priorities.

The Report of the Chair of the UNSDG on the Development Coordination Office and the Report of the Secretary-General on Implementation of General Assembly resolution 75/233 on the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system, are offering some perspectives on what is being achieved and what is still missing.

At the centre of this broad reform is the revitalisation of the role of the UN Resident Coordinators-- now full-time positions on their own and no more tied to the job of the UNDP Representatives. The idea is to enable and empower a "primus inter pares" figure, who has the authority to also look after and monitor the work being done by each single agency. However, evaluation has revealed that programmes and work undertaken, for example in Africa is still not as coordinated as expected.

Recognising the urgency for improvements but unable to undertake this needed drastic shift, Secretary General Antonio Guterres is doing what he can.

The focus is on better cooperation and coordination among the agencies and programmes around the world and, while not as ambitious as the situation would require, it is still a mammoth operation that has been tasked to UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed.

As a consequence, planning mechanisms like the United Nations Development Assistance Framework, UNDAF, the planning matrix listing all the contributions of each single UN entity in a given country, has been turned into a stronger tool, the Country Cooperation Framework. The name change from 'assistance' to "cooperation" is symbolically indicative of the different role the UN system aims playing: an enabler and facilitator rather than a static, top down "bossy" partner. Now, there is also a new common assessment, the UN Common Country Analysis (CCA), "an integrated, forward-looking, and evidence-based analysis of the country's context for sustainable development". In addition, now, the Resident Coordinators have a stand-alone structure supporting their tasks, including different advisors, economists, data specialists and very importantly, partnerships and communication experts. Technically, their job now also foresees "supporting governments mobilise financing for the SDGs", as they are going to be "focused on innovative SDG financing approaches with governments and key partners".

The goal is to turn the Resident UN Coordinators into connectors and to some extent, "fund raisers" for the local governments they are supporting. The new focus is on moving away from the lowest common denominator theory that prevailed in the previous architecture. It is generally believed that such a measure will assist in creating greater effectiveness.

These efforts are led by multiple UN agencies such as the World Food Programme, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the UN Children's Fund UNICEF, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) , the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), among others.

These agencies, through greater coordination, are slowly able to save millions of lives. They are also now able to provide food, medical care and shelter to those trapped in war-ravaged countries, mostly in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. In this regard they are trying to follow closely in the footsteps of other international relief organisations, including Doctors without Borders, Save the Children, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), CARE International, Action Against Hunger and World Vision and Relief Without Borders, among others.

In the Horn of Africa, the UN and its partners have become more successful. They have provided about 4.9 million people with food while more than two million livestock have been treated or vaccinated, and over 3.3 million people have received water assistance. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UN and its NGO partners have started distributing aid to thousands of people in Nyiragongo territory, including food to some 35,000 people, water, and medicine to at least 10,000 people.

One can conclude by hoping that the UN efforts in Gaza and Myanmar will meet with greater success. The United Nations have been stressing on human rights and the need is not only to refrain from killing civilians, particularly women and children but also to refrain from destroying healthcare centres. The United Nations can try but the Permanent Members of the UN Security Council should assist in their efforts by not imposing Vetoes for only safeguarding their own national interests at the cost of others.

Muhammad Zamir, a former Ambassador, is an analyst specialised in foreign affairs, right to information and good governance.
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