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Problems
with Coordination and Work Efficiency
The tour of the history of the UNO in Basic
Course 2
shows that the world organisation has been
continually forced to adapt to new determining factors and challenges. The
East-West Conflict, which paralysed the Security
Council,
as the most important principal
organ,
is the first to come to mind here, in addition to
the decolonisation process during the course of which the number of members
increased considerably. The developing countries secured a majority in the
General Assembly
in the period following, and the North-South
Conflict has characterised the work of the United Nations since.
An ever-increasing range of tasks ...
The organisation was founded with the objective of
preventing intergovernmental wars through a collective security system. This
task could not be fulfilled however, due to the blockade of the Security Council
and the failings of the system. Emphasis was placed on a new range of tasks
because of this. "New global issues such as the increasing scarcity of
natural resources, the destruction of the environment and the increasing climate
change, the rapid growth in the world population, and new forms of threat to
freedom and the whole of humanity due to weapons of mass destruction and
internal state conflicts came into the picture, in addition to the risks and
problems recognised and anticipated at the time when the United Nations was
founded in 1945."
[taken from: Sven Gareis/Johannes Varwick, Die Vereinten Nationen. Aufgaben, Instrumente und Reformen;
Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung Schriftenreihe Band 403, Bonn 2003, P.
258-259]
The United Nations has proven itself in the face of
all of these challenges. One example should suffice at this stage to illustrate
this: in order to surmount the failings in the system put into effect by the
UN Charter,
a new instrument was created in the form of the
"Blue Helmets", which has proven to be successful as a whole, even if
difficult crises have been recorded [refer
to the section on "Problems with Securing Peace"].
However, the need for adaptability and flexibility,
and the continuous learning process produced negative consequences:
...
an ever-increasing number of organs
This is because the United Nations mostly limited
itself "in its learning and reform process to the expansion of existing
committees and the continuous creation of new special
organs, programmes and specialist
institutions, which were added to the United
Nations System.
This gradually led however, to a mechanism which
once had been quite consciously planned by the founders of the world
organisation as a principle for order careering our of control. The United
Nations was to be set up as a 'system of planets', with its core organisation
functioning as a loose network of relational institutions ... with the aim of
effectively coordinating cooperation. The plan
was for the core organisation to fall back on the collective knowledge of
the whole system, formulate comprehensive strategies and be capable of
implementing them in a reconciled manner."
[taken from: Sven Gareis/Johannes
Varwick, Die Vereinten Nationen. Aufgaben, Instrumente und Reformen;
Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung Schriftenreihe Band 403, Bonn 2003, P.
259]
This principle of order has not worked. It was and
still is poor working efficiency for which the United Nations has continuously
earned criticism. It is hardly possible to oversee the uncontrolled growth of
the network of committees in the environment around the world organisation let
alone coordinate it. In the sphere of socio-economics and development policy,
the work of the United Nations "suffers particularly from overlapping
responsibility and poor coordination. The Economic
and Social Council,
including its almost impenetrable number of
subsidiary and auxiliary organs in particular, has received the butt of
criticism here.
The need to place the whole system under complete
scrutiny has been expressed. In its present form, the Economic and Social
Council is in no the position to perform its coordinating work, and functions
overly bureaucratically and ineffectively (...). A particularly serious problems
is ... reflected in the coordination between the UN committees and the Bretton-Woods
organisations, which have been increasing in influence over the past years,
which are the complete opposite of problem-solving."
[taken from: Sven Gareis/Johannes
Varwick, Die Vereinten Nationen. Aufgaben, Instrumente und Reformen;
Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung Schriftenreihe Band 403, Bonn 2003, P.
288-289]
It should not be overseen here that the states
themselves have always been the cornerstone of the United Nations, and
responsible for the continual creation of new organs: "In its diversity,
the large number of its special organisations and specialist institutions, its
funds and programmes, and its highly complex structure, the United Nations
System reflects the trends and group-interest oriented delineation of the will
of its member states. Triggers for a fundamental administrative reform are
surely motivated by the intention of reducing overlapping responsibilities,
double work and wasted resources. This is reflected in the countless
subdivisions dealing with environmental questions, and the plethora of aid
organisations carrying out humanitarian activities in crises regions all at the
same time."
[taken from: Sven Gareis/Johannes
Varwick, Die Vereinten Nationen. Aufgaben, Instrumente und Reformen;
Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung Schriftenreihe Band 403, Bonn 2003, P.
263]
Reforms by Kofi Annan
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Fundamental reforms have created a series of almost
insurmountable hurdles for the UN Charter [see
the section on "Reforms"].
Any existing room for manoeuvre beyond
amending the Charter has been used by UN Secretary-Generals Boutros
Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan
to make the organisation harder hitting. The number of top positions in
the UN administration has been reduced in this manner by 30 percent since
1992. In the terms of the Secretariat,
2,500 staff have been laid off and the budget
stabilised.
Modern methods of management have been introduced,
which represents a considerable performance in the face of a multinational
and multicultural bureaucracy with public servants from 190 states. To
facilitate this an "innovative integrated
management information system to network computer-supported personnel,
functional and budget administration has been introduced. A new Performance
Appraisal System (PAS) to improve the individual appraisal of public
servants' performance gave important impetus to the organisation's long
neglected human resources management system, which is dependent on the
quality and motivation of the staff in particular. The nebulous UN
administration's procurement system has been newly organised and designed
in a cost-conscious manner."
[taken from: Sven Gareis/Johannes
Varwick, Die Vereinten Nationen. Aufgaben, Instrumente und Reformen;
Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung Schriftenreihe Band 403, Bonn 2003, P.
265] |
Systematisation
of Contextual Work
Following his appointment as Secretary-General, Kofi
Annan also immediately began with providing a new environment for and
streamlining the work of the Secretariat by defining five new core tasks for the
United Nations. He assigned the various departments in the Secretariat, and some
of the specialist organs and programme to these five sections.
"What are referred to as Executive Committees were
formed in the fields of Peace and Security, Economic and Social, Humanitarian
Issues and Development, whereby Human Rights was defined as a cross-sectional
task, which effects the remaining four areas. In his reform programme for the
renewal of the United Nations put forward in July 1997, the Secretary-General
set accents in a variety of ways which equated to a 'silent revolution' (...).
The only reform not to take place in this programme was the Security Council
(...).
A dominant pattern can be seen in the reforms, and
in particular the non-reforms which took place at the end of the 90s. The
Secretariat and its subordinate sections proved ready and able as well to make
decisive changes in order to orient their competences and capacities to the
transitionary challenges. The member states, in contrast, failed as before in
their ability to reach a consensus concerning the reform areas for which a
transition is dependent on their agreement."
[taken from: Sven Gareis/Johannes
Varwick, Die Vereinten Nationen. Aufgaben, Instrumente und Reformen;
Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung Schriftenreihe Band 403, Bonn 2003, P.
266, 268]
More pages on problems facing the United
Nations
 | FINANCES:
The United Nations' Financial Crisis
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| PEACE: The
Crisis of Securing Peace through the United Nations |
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| EFFICIENCY: The
Problems with Coordination and Work Efficiency
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REFORMS: Fundamental Reform Plans and the
Difficulties Associated with their Implementation |
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[Author: Ragnar Müller]
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