Panel wants major overhaul of UN projects for poor
Source: Reuters
(Recasts with reactions, adds women recommendation) By Evelyn Leopold UNITED NATIONS, Nov 9 (Reuters) - A high-level panel called on Thursday for a radical overhaul of a jumble of U.N. development, relief and environmental agencies and programs that waste money in turf battles and duplication. The appeal comes from a group of prime ministers and other officials who recommended greater cohesion between bodies like the U.N. Children's Fund or the U.N. refugee agency by appointing one official to oversee operations in a specific country. The official would have more authority than at present and report to a new "Sustainable Development Board" that would monitor coordination in New York. The panel, appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, includes the prime ministers of Pakistan, Norway and Mozambique, the former presidents of Chile and Tanzania and the British chancellor of the exchequer. They were asked for recommendations to streamline programs on development, humanitarian aid and the environment. "Any organization in time needs to reinvent itself and do things better and differently," Pakistan's Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, a co-chair of the panel, told a news conference. "The United Nations needs cohesion and coherence, particularly at the country level." Aziz also said funding reforms were needed. He said the huge earthquake in his country a year ago showed U.N. relief operations needed to have at least $500,000 in a reserve fund rather than "go for fund-raising when people are dying." Immediate reaction came to a proposal on women's rights, with the panel proposing several existing bodies be combined and a top-level executive be appointed to provide leadership in regions and countries. Stephen Lewis, the U.N. envoy for AIDS in Africa said a "destructive pattern" had emerged on women's issues, which tended to peter out for "lack of expertise" and "operational capacity at the country level." Noeleen Heyzer, executive director of the U.N. Development Fund for Women, one of the agencies on the list for consolidation, welcomed the proposal for elevating women's issues, saying a top-level official was long overdue. Since the United Nations was formed after World War Two, specialized agencies have multiplied for children, refugees, food, development and others. Many thrive on voluntary funding and take orders from donors and their own board. The U.N. system now includes 17 specialized agencies and related organizations, 14 funds and programs, in addition to the 17 departments and offices of the U.N. secretariat, the report noted. More than one-third of the U.N. teams in a country include people from 10 or more agencies, the report said. In some poor nations 20 different U.N. groups are doing their own projects. Five countries, including Vietnam, are expected to be chosen soon to test ways to improve coordination in the field. Citing examples of diffused operations, Adnan Amin, executive director for the panel, said in Pakistan U.N. agencies had devised some 75 program goals without consulting the government. In some African states, there were advisors on AIDS from five different agencies. On the environment, the report said so many conferences and meetings were being held throughout the world that many countries could not even find staff to attend them. Since the 1993 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro the United Nations has had nearly 400 meeting days a year on biodiversity, climate change, desertification and related subjects. Over 30 agencies and programs are involved in environmental projects.
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