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27 March 2006
GPPi publishes paper on the reform of the UN Secretariat
A new GPPi research paper analyzes the current efforts to reform the UN Secretariat. The paper puts the March 2006 report of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan ("Investing in the United Nations: for a stronger organization worldwide") in the context of the crisis of the UN Secretariat following the investigations on the oil-for-food program.
The paper argues that a new "grand bargain" is needed to transform the UN Secretariat into an effective and accountable bureaucracy able to support an increasingly complex set of UN activities. Kofi Annan's reform suggestions are a step in the right direction but are blocked by the G77 countries in the UN General Assembly. The paper argues that Germany and the EU should push to end this blockade. Willingness and ability to promote the reform of the UN Secretariat should also be a key criterion for choosing the new UN Secretary-General later this year. It further argues that the new Secretary-General should be selected on the basis of a "joint ticket" with a Deputy Secretary-General, who, as a chief operating officer, would be in charge of managing the Secretariat's bureaucracy.
The German version of the paper by GPPi Associate Director Thorsten Benner is available as part of GPPi's Research Paper Series here. An English version of the paper will be available in late spring 2006.