Power, Purse and Numbers
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Power, Purse and Numbers: A Diagnostic Study of the UN Budget and Finance Process and Structure Francisco Sagasti Ursula Casabonne Fernando Prada FORO Nacional/Internacional – Agenda: PERU Final Report Lima, January 2007 Power, Purse and Numbers: A Diagnostic Study of the UN Budget and Finance Process and Structure Francisco Sagasti, Ursula Casabonne and Fernando Prada TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................i Introduction ...........................................................................................................................i Background............................................................................................................................i Areas of concern ................................................................................................................. iii An approach to change..........................................................................................................v 1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................1 2. Evolution of the UN Secretariat budget and finances........................................................2 2.1. Initial arrangements for financing the UN Secretariat ..................................................2 2.2. Major highlights of the evolution of budgetary and financial rules and practices until the mid 1990s. ......................................................................................................5 2.3. Recent attempts at reforms of the budgetary and financial rules..................................10 3. The UN Secretariat Budget-Making Landscape ..............................................................17 3.1. Stakeholders in the UN Secretariat planning and budget-making processes................17 3.2. Overview of the current UN Secretariat budget-making processes ..............................21 3.3. Current Structure of Finance......................................................................................24 4. Main areas of concern of the finance structure and budget-making process of the UN Secretariat...................................................................................................................30 4.1. The elusive search for consensus: multiplicity of actors with different objectives, attitudes and perceptions ............................................................................................30 4.2. Correspondence between the decision making process and financial resource availability .................................................................................................................34 4.3. Sources and structure of finance.................................................................................36 4.4. Problems in the budget preparation, approval and implementation process................38 4.5. Organizational learning in decision-making and resource management .....................41 5. Concluding remarks: key challenges in UN Secretariat budget and financing reform ................................................................................................................................42 6. Bibliography ......................................................................................................................45 LIST OF TABLES, BOXES, FIGURES AND ANNEXES TABLES TABLE 1: Proposed changes regarding the Governing Body and Committee Structures ..... 16 TABLE 2: Expenditures by strategic program activity, 2005 (US$ million)......................... 24 BOXES BOX 1: Secretary General proposals in the area of budget and finance in the report Investing in the United Nations: For A Stronger Organization Worldwide (A/60/692)................ 14 BOX 2: Views and Perspectives on the Problems of the Budget-Making Process of the Regular Budget............................................................................................................ 40 FIGURES FIGURE 1: The World and the United Nations: A Long-Term Perspective ...........................6 FIGURE 2: Stakeholders in the United Nations Budget Process .......................................... 17 FIGURE 3: Organizational Structure of the Secretariat as of December 2006...................... 19 FIGURE 4: Peacekeeping operations expenditures and the UN regular budget.................... 26 FIGURE 5: Peacekeeping operations expenditures vs. payment arrears of Member States: 1990-2005 (in current and constant US$ million) ............................................. 26 FIGURE 6: UN Secretariat Budget: Biennium 2004-2005 and 2006-2007........................... 27 FIGURE 7. Distribution of the UN Secretariat Regular Budget for 2004-2005 .................... 28 ANNEXES ANNEX 1. United Nations Reform Proposals ..................................................................... 50 ANNEX 2. Budget-Making Process of the Regular Budget ................................................. 52 ACRONYMS 4NI Four Nations Initiative ACABQ Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions ASG Assistant Secretary General CANZ Canada, Australia and New Zealand CPC Committee for Programme Coordination CY Calendar year DDA Department of Disarmament Affairs DESA Department of Economic and Social Affairs DPA Department of Political Affairs DPKO Department of Peacekeeping Operations EU European Union FNI Four Nations Initiative G77 Group of 77 GA General Assembly GDP Gross Domestic Product JIU Joint Inspection Unit MDGs Millennium Development Goals MTP Medium Term Plan OCHA Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs OIOS Office of Internal Oversight Services PBI Programme Budget Implications PKO Peace-keeping Operations PPBME Planning, Programming, Budgeting, Monitoring and Evaluation PSA Peacekeeping Support Account RBB Results-Based Budget SG Secretary General SMG Senior Management Group UN United Nations UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNEF United Nations Emergency Force UNEP United Nations Environment Programme UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNLB United Nations Logistics Base UNRWA United Nations Relief and Works for Palestine Refugees in the Near East US United States USG Under-Secretary General Executive Summary “Without an understanding of the political background of the fiscal difficulties of the United Nations and the political determinants of its future role in world affairs, one cannot deal intelligently with the problems and prospects of the Organization’s treasury. … the United Nations is an agency of the multi-state system, owned and operated by states which undertake, cooperatively and competitively, to use it to affect the working of the system and to influence their fortunes within the system. It does not stand above or outside the international political system, but it is clearly in and decidedly of that system. Serving as both workshop for collaboration and an arena for conflict, the Organization is inexorably involved in the political relationships of states and is affected by politics, and working undisturbed to promote global welfare is neither possible nor desirable. Political involvement is the price of relevance; only a world organization which is subject to the buffeting of political forces is in a position to contribute significantly to the solution of the critical problems of international relations.” Inis Claude, 1963.1 Introduction Who should hold power in a democratic institution? The majority of its members or those who pay for it? Is it possible to avoid the dilemma of choosing between the tyranny of numbers and the tyranny of the purse? Can a sensible middle course be found to address the legitimate concerns of poorer members, whose power lies in numbers, and of richer members, whose power within the organization is based on money? These are difficult questions that have bedevilled democratic institutions since time immemorial —and none more so than the United Nations, which has had to deal with these issues head on during its more than six decades of existence. Over time, these questions have been resolved, to a lesser or greater degree, and to the satisfaction or dismay of one or another group of UN member countries. Yet, it is highly unlikely that they will be dealt with, once and for all, in ways that will make all of its members comfortable and happy. The evolution of the UN has mirrored the state of the world during the second half of the 20th century. As the world economy has grown, as new states emerged in the international arena and as conflicts multiplied, the UN was called on to address new and more complex problems. However, its governance, management and financial capabilities remained rather inadequate, for they lagged by several years, if not decades, behind the challenges they were supposed to meet. Background Financial and budgetary difficulties emerged early in the history of the United Nations and have been a constant feature through its existence. An early attempt at achieving some degree of coherence between decision-making in the General Assembly and the capacity of the Secretariat to implement those decisions was initiated barely one year after the UN was created. In 1947 a new rule of procedure was adopted: 1 Claude (1963, p. 831). i ‘No resolution involving expenditure shall be recommended… for approval by the General Assembly unless it is accompanied by an estimate of expenditures prepared by the