-- Non-implementation of the resolution

The UN Secretariat has found, after some 60 years of experience, that coping with Member State demands for management reform is easy.  When the General Assembly periodically calls for such reforms, the Secretariat states its earnest intentions, bustles for a few years with reform "activities", and issues some vague progress reports.

However, the Secretariat then relies on the distractions created by crowded General Assembly agendas, and the interest and expertise of Member State representatives in management issues, and lapses once again into inactivity.  Eventually, Member States begin the process all over again.  This pattern has been clearly reflected in the most important attempt ever made at establishing UN management accountability, as discussed in the three subsections below.

As a wise observer of the UN system stated far back in 1973, and as still seems true three decades later:

"concern with capacity and performance [in the United Nations system] reaches its highest peak when draft programmes and budgets are discussed and seems to evaporate when reports on the execution of the approved programmes are reviewed.  …  This dichotomy [between budgetary concentration and performance neglect] is in itself one of the major causes of the shortfalls of the performance of the system." 

Mahdi Elmandjra, The United Nations System: An Analysis, Faber and Faber, London, 1973, pp. 228-229.                    

The following abbreviations of major UN organizations and entities appear throughout this archive: 

ACABQ                   Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions  

ACC                      Advisory Committee on Coordination (heads of UN system agencies,                                   recently retitled "Chief Executives Board for Coordination")

Board of Auditors     of the United Nations

CPC                       Committee for Programme & Coordination

DAM                     Department of Administration and Management (recently retitled the                               Department of Management, DM)

DPI                         Department of Public Information

DPKO                     Department of Peace-keeping Operations

ECOSOC                Economic and Social Council

Fifth Committee       (Administrative and Budgetary) of the General Assembly    

ICSC                        International Civil Service Commission  

JIU                           Joint Inspection Unit    

OIOS                       Office of Internal Oversight Services   

OHRM                     Office of Human Resources Management

UNCTAD                  United Nations Conference on Trade and Development   

            UNHCR                    Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

            UNEP                      United Nations Environment Programme

            UNFPA                    United Nations Population Fund

            UNICEF                   United Nations Children's Fund

            UNDP                      United Nations Development Programme

            UNRWA                 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in                                             the Near East

            WFP                        World Food Programme

Useful Sources

(Note: informally assembled by IO Watch, roughly ranked from "most useful" on down, and subject to change as new sources are added)


"Review of the administrative and financial functioning of the United Nations", General Assembly resolution 48/218 A, 23 December 1993, paras. I.E. 2-5.

United States, General Accounting Office, United Nations: Reforms are progressing, but overall objectives have not been achieved, GAO/NSIAD-00-169 (and -00-150), May 10, 2000.                            

United States, General Accounting Office, United Nations: Reforms progressing, but comprehensive assessments needed to measure impact, GAO-04-339, February 2004.                                      
                                                                                                                                          

Thornburgh, Dick, Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management, "Report to the Secretary-General of the United Nations", 1 March 1993.                         

Branigan, William,  "The UN empire: Polished image, tarnished reality", Washington Post, September 20, 21, 22, and 23, 1992.

Elmandjra, Mahdi, The United Nations System: An Analysis, Faber and Faber, London, 1973.

"Report of the group of high-level intergovernmental experts to review the efficiency of the administrative and financial functioning of the United Nations", General Assembly, Official Records, fourty-first session, Supplement No. 49 (A/41/49), United Nations, New York, 1986.         
                                                                          

Joint Inspection Unit, "Accountability and oversight in the United Nations Secretariat",  UN document A/48/420 of 12 October 1993 and Add. 1 of 22 November 1993.                                              

"Personnel questions", General Assembly resolution 47/226 of 30 April 1993.       

Luck, Edward C., Reforming the United Nations: Lessons from a history in progress, Occasional Papers, 2003 No. 1, Academic Council on the United Nations System, Yale, 2003.

Yves Beigbeder, The internal management of United Nations Organizations: The Long Quest for Reform,  Macmillan, London and St. Martins, New York, 1997.                                   

"Establishment of a transparent and effective system of accountability and responsibility: Report of the Secretary-General", UN document A/C.5/49/1 of 5 August 1994                             

"A strategy for the management of the human resources of the Organization: Revised estimates …: Report of the Secretary-General ", UN document A/C.5/49/5 of 21 October 1994.

"Accountability and responsibility of programme managers in the United Nations: Report of the Secretary-General", UN document A/48/452 of  5 October, 1993.                                 

"Human resources management", General Assembly resolution 51/226 of 25 April 1997, Part I, paras. 2-4, Part II, first preambular and paras. 2-4, and 6.                                                

"Making UN reform work: Improving member state-Secretariat relations", Report of the twenty-eighth United Nations issues conference, The Stanley Foundation, February 21-23, 1997.     

"UN personnel chief reviewing all aspects of management in bid to simplify controls, delegate authority,"  International Documents Review, 16 February 1998.                                  

"Human resources management," General Assembly resolution 53/221 of 23 April 1999.
                                                                                                                                     

"Accountability and responsibility: Report of the Secretary-General", A/55/270 of 3 August 2000.          

"Human resources management," General Assembly resolution 55/258 of 14 June 2001, "Section VII., Delegation of authority and accountability."

Wholey, Joseph S., "Goal setting, performance measurement, and regular reporting", in "Forum--Improving performance", in The Public Manager (US), Winter 1992-1993.                                        
                                                                                                                            

Joint Inspection Unit, "Reporting on the performance and results of United Nations programmes: Monitoring, evaluation, and management review components", UN document  A/43/124,1988.      

Joint Inspection Unit, "Accountability, management improvement, and oversight in the United Nations System",  Parts I and II, UN document A/50/503, 1995.     

Joint Inspection Unit, "Management in the United Nations: Work in progress", UN document A/50/507, 1995.                                                                                                                                              

Mendez, Ruben P., "Financing the United Nations and the international public sector: Problems and reform," in Diehl, Paul F., ed., The politics of global governance: International organizations in an interdependent world, 2d ed., Lynne Rienner, Boulder CO and London, 2001, pp. 138-163.          

Spiers, Ronald I., "Reforming the United Nations," in Roger A. Coate, ed., U.S. policy and the future of the United Nations, Twentieth Century Fund, New York, 1994.

"Mini-Forum: Agency performance results" ["After seven years of GPRA, federal agencies are increasingly making performance management part of their overall business culture,"], The Public Manager  (USA), Fall 2000, pp. 24-32.                                             
                                                                               

Mango, Anthony, "Finance and Administration," in A global agenda: Issues before the 57th General Assembly of the United Nations, Ayton-Shenker, Diana, ed., An annual publication of the United Nations Association of the United States of America, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, MD, Boulder CO, New York, Oxford, 2002, pp. 275-290.

Joint Inspection Unit, "Extrabudgetary resources of the United Nations: Towards transparency of presentation, management, and reporting", UN document A/45/797, 1990.                          

A global agenda: Issues before the 58th General Assembly of the United Nations: 2003-2004 edition, Angela Drakulich, ed., An annual publication of the United Nations Association of the United States of America, UNA/USA, New York, Oxford, 2003.                   

United Nations Development Programme, Building a new UNDP: A strategic planning framework, 1995.              
                                           

Jones, L. R., "IMPN Symposium on Performance Budgeting and the Politics of Reform", International Public Management Journal, 6(2), 2003, 219-235.

Paul, James, "UN reform: An analysis," UN Reform, Global Policy Forum,
www.globalpolicy.org/reform/analysis.htm                                                         

Bertrand, Maurice,  The third generation world organization, Martinus Nijhoff, Dordrecht, the Netherlands, 1989, pp. 108-123.

Gordenker, Leon, The UN tangle: policy formation, reform, and reorganization, WPF Reports number 12, The World Peace Foundation, Cambridge, Mass., 1996.                    

Mueller, Joachim, ed., Reforming the United Nations: New initiatives and past efforts, 3 vols., United Nations and Kluwer Law International, The Hague, Boston, 1997.                       
                                                                                                                          

Joint Inspection Unit, "Delegation of authority for the management of human and financial resources in the United Nations Secretariat", UN document A/55/857, 2000.
                                                                                                                                                                                                   
United Nations, Report of the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization, Supplement No. 33, various years, see inter alia UN documents A/43/33 of 1988 and A/48/33 of 1993.