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28 August 2006 Thank You for Your Kind Letter of 15 August 2006

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28 August 2006 Thank You for Your Kind Letter of 15 August 2006 At> THE DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL 28 August 2006 Thank you for your kind letter of 15 August 2006, asking me to convene a meeting with United Nations officials, on 4 October, to present "The Four Nations Initiative on Governance and Management of the United Nations Secretariat", undertaken by Chile, South Africa, Sweden and Thailand. I would have been delighted to host the meeting but, unfortunately, the new proposed date also coincides with official engagements overseas. I have forwarded copies of your letter, concept paper and introduction of the initiative to Mr. Christopher Burnham, Under-Secretary-General for Management; and Mr. Robert Orr, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Planning. As they are actively involved in this issue and are working closely with the Secretary-General and myself-on the reform, I would like to suggest that you invite one of them to host the meeting on 4 October. I am sure that they would be happy to hear the perspectives of The Four Nations and share with them the Secretariat's own efforts on this important issue. I take this opportunity to commend Chile, South Africa, Sweden and Thailand for their valuable recommendations and proposals on the United Nations reform. Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration. Mark Malloch Brown His Excellency Mr. Anders Liden Permanent Representative of Sweden to the United Nations New York PERMANENT MISSION OF SWEDEN TO THE UNITED NATIONS New York, 15 August 2006 Office of the Permanent Representative Ambassador Anders Liden /A fOl Deputy Secretary-General Mr. Mark Malloch Brown United Nations New York is G 1 5 2006 Presentation of The Four Nations Initiative on Governance and Management of the United Nations Dear Deputy^Secretary-General, I am writing to you as a follpw_-up to my letter dated_26^A.pril in which I asked you to consider convening a meeting with some key officials of the Secretariat to present "The Four Nations initiative". Unfortunately you were out of New York at that time, and thejefore_I would appreciate it if you instead would host such a meeting in the morning on October 4. As you will see in the attached concept paper and brief introduction, "The Four Nations Initiative" is an initiative taken by Chile, South Africa, Sweden and Thailand. Its Eurgose is to complement and assist the work of the Secretary-General and yourself in your endeavours to reform the United Nations Secretariat. It will provide a Member States perspective on the reform process; it takes a longer-term perspective and will hopefully deepen the understanding of some specific issues. "The Four Nations Initiative" will initially focus on three particular studies of governance of the Secretariat, i.e. (1) mandate and roles (2) governance, accountability and transparency and (3)- budget and finance. A broad process of consultations and dialogue between Member States and the Secretariat is to follow based on independent studies covering each one of the three areas. Thereafter the project will focus on recommendations and proposals as you will se in the attached concept paper. Posfa/ Address Telephone Email: One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (212) 583-2500 [email protected] 885 Second Avenue, 46 th floor New York, NY 10017 Telegram Fax www swedeleg (212)832-0389 http://www.un.int/sweden A Steering Committee consisting of four members and their alternates, one from each Member State of the Initiative, will lead the Initiative. The Steering Committee is supported by a secretariat placed in Stockholm headed by a Secretary-General. Yours sincerely, The Four Nations Initiative on Governance and Management of the UN CHILE • SOUTH AFRICA • SWEDEN • THAILAND The Four Nations Initiative on Governance and Management of the United Nations Secretariat An initiative on governance and management for organisational change by four Member States: Chile South Africa Sweden Thailand Objectives, content and work programme May 2006 "Let me state this clearly: strong management can only -work if it responds to strong governance. These reforms are in danger of failing unless there is a trusting relationship, a strategic partnership, between this institution's governance •—• the Member States' intergovernmental mechanisms - and its management, namely myself and my colleagues. " (excerpt from " Investing in the United Nations ". Report by the Secretary-General March 7, 2006) Table of Content 1. INTRODUCTION 3 1.1. BACKGROUND 3 1.2. PURPOSE AND CONTEXT 4 2. CONTENT OF THE REFORM PROPOSAL 6 2.1. ORGANISING THE WORK 6 2.2. GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT 6 2.3. FOCUS ON THREE KEY AREAS 7 Mandate and roles 7 Governance, accountability and transparency 8 Budget and finance 8 2.4. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH 9 3. PROGRAMME OF WORK 10 3.1. STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION OF THE INITIATIVE 10 3.2. PROCESS AND TIME PLAN 11 1. Introduction 1.1. Background In preparation for the 2005 World Summit, governance and management issues became quite central to the whole reform agenda, and have been retained as focal areas in the follow-up to the Summit. There is a broad understanding that the agenda of different challenges to the United Nations depends largely on successful reform and modernization of governance and management systems. But it is not just a quick fix. It is about changing a culture. Experience shows that successful change cannot be achieved in a short time. It is a matter of substance as well as of process. Over the past two years, several proposals on reform of the United Nations have been presented, one of which "In Larger Freedom"1, the Secretary-General's own proposal. It was preceded by the High Level Panel's report in December 20042. The latter did not, however, significantly cover management issues, as the members of the panel did not consider themselves qualified to deal with them. The 2005 World Summit Outcome3 identifies a number of reform areas, and the process of implementation is now under way with quite a lot of time pressure. The Outcome Document calls on the Secretary-General to submit proposals for management reform in the first quarter of 2006. Consequently, the Secretary-General presented to the General Assembly on 7 March his report "Investing in the United Nations"4. The report covers six broad areas and, dealing with the management of the United Nations has a strong focus on human resources, information and communications technology and how to deliver services, but for obvious reasons is less specific on issues of governance and finance. On 30 March the Secretary-General submitted a review of all mandates older than five years originating from resolutions of the General Assembly and other organs.5 These reports will be followed by an independent external review of governance arrangements to be submitted by not later than 31 May 2006.6 The Secretary-General's report "Investing in the United Nations" should be warmly welcomed. It goes way beyond previous reports, which have mostly dealt with symptoms. It goes into some of the real problems, even those of a long-term nature. Therefore, it also represents solid evidence of how serious and how deep some of the challenges are; how deeply engrained a certain culture has 1 In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All. Report of the Secretary-General of 21 March 2005 (A/59/2005) 2 A more secure world: Our shared responsibility. Report of the Secretary-General's High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change of 2 December 2004 (A/59/565) 3 2005 World Summit Outcome of 16 September 2005 (A/RES/60/1) 4 Investing in the United Nations: for a stronger Organization worldwide. Report of the Secretary-General of 7 March 2006 (A/60/692) 5 Mandating and delivering: analysis and recommendations to facilitate the review of mandates. Report of the Secretary-General of 30 March 2006 (A/60/733) 6 2005 World Summit Outcome (A/RES/60/1) Para 164 (b) of 16 September 2005 and Implementation of decisions from the 2005 World Summit Outcome for action by the Secretary-General. Report of the Secretary-General of 28 November 2005 (A/60/568)' grown. The relations between the Secretariat, its staff and the Member States are unfortunately characterized by deep mistrust and cumbersome and time-consuming procedures, which represent serious obstacles to the United Nations dealing with its mandate. This report, in combination with the mandate review and the upcoming report on governance arrangements can become a good platform and a starting point for a serious reform process. The report "Investing in the United Nations" is short and presents a great number of proposals. But achieving results will require much more than producing a well-written report. The report also states very clearly that these reform efforts require an active and not just reactive participation by the Member States of the United Nations. It calls for active contributions from the Member States. Therefore, the reports of the Secretary-General should be complemented with ideas and proposals with a membership perspective. Governance and management perspectives have to match each other to build a reformed United Nations. This has been stressed by the Secretary-General himself: "Let me state this clearly: strong management can only work if it responds to strong governance. These reforms are in danger of failing unless there is a trusting relationship, a strategic partnership, between this institution's governance — the Member States' intergovernmental mechanisms — and its management, namely myself and my colleagues."7 The present proposal for input to the reform of the Secretariat took its start in early 2005, and has been elaborated in consultations between the Governments of Chile, South Africa, Sweden and Thailand. This initiative, the Four Nations Initiative on Governance and Management of the UN Secretariat, has also been inspired by experiences of a previous Member States initiative, the Nordic UN project, which presented its final report in 1991 and became a starting point for successful reforms of the management and governance of the UN funds and programmes in the.
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