The U.N. system is hopelessly complex, not enabling streamlined decision-making, and must be reformed, especially in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance, and the environment, a senior U.N. official said Thursday before the presentation of a report on U.N. performance. The 52-page report, to be presented Thursday by the Prime Ministers of Norway and Pakistan, is the culmination of meetings and an investigation made by a high-level panel-which also included the Prime Minister of Mozambique-to understand how the United Nations can better serve the international community without overlapping mandates and wasting time and money. “The U.N. contains a plethora of mandates which are not eliminated when they are not needed any more,” the U.N. official told reporters. The overlap in mandates became very clear after the Pakistani earthquake, when 78 different overlapping objectives were made by a number of different U.N. agencies, creating competition within the system. The report advocates a sweeping reform of the whole organization in a plan called “One U.N.”, to be administered by the top official of the U.N. Development Program. The plan calls for a few countries to try out the new system, and if it is successful, to fully implement it around the world by 2010. In addition, the senior U.N. official stressed the importance of involving the country that would be the recipient for humanitarian aid, creating supply-driven aid instead of demand driven aid.
