New reform push aims to enable UN to keep pace with the times, Annan says

The new push for United Nations reform aims to enable the Organization to keep pace with the constantly evolving demands of today's world, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today as he launched a new report detailing an agenda for changing the UN.

In order to make the UN more useful, "we must be prepared to change with the times - constantly adjusting to new conditions and new needs," Mr. Annan told reporters at a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York held in conjunction with the release of the report, "An Agenda for Further Change." Replete with concrete proposals for action, the document follows on efforts spearheaded by the Secretary-General when he first took office in 1997.

"This new set of changes will build on the improvements we've already achieved," he explained. "The UN has changed a lot in the last five years, but the world continues to change, and we must change with it."

He called the report's recommendations "a package of very pragmatic improvements" which might not look dramatic at first glance but collectively form a vision for "a very different way of doing business." The Secretary-General predicted that if the plan is successfully implemented, "we may really begin to feel that this Organization is up to the job that the world has given it."

Outlining some of the report's key recommendations, the Secretary-General pointed in particular to its call for a thorough review of the UN's work programme as well as detailed proposals for improving performance in the areas of human rights and public information. The report also calls for cutting the number of UN meetings and reports as well as streamlining the Organization's budget and planning system.

In the area of partnerships, the Secretary-General noted that the report calls for a review aimed at finding better ways to organize relations between the UN and civil society. "For this I shall appoint an independent panel, composed of people from different backgrounds - governments, [non-governmental organizations], research institutions, parliaments, and so on - as well as from different regions of the world," he said. Other proposals aim to make life better and more rewarding for UN staff "notably by making it easier for them to move, between locations, between functions, and indeed between organizations."

"The whole package will only work if it is enthusiastically supported - by the staff, by governments, and by the general public," he stressed.

Asked if the new measures would make it more difficult to access UN reports and conferences, the Secretary-General clarified that the aim was simply to "take full advantage of information technology to expand our capacity by having our materials on the web." At the same time, the UN was also looking to service those who lack access to the Internet.

He added that in proposing fewer UN meetings or planning them differently, "we are not saying the conferences are obsolete and should be abandoned, but there could be other ways of organizing" them. "We are not saying we should not meet; this is our business, we bring people together, we dialogue, we gain from the exchanges, and I'm sure the Organization will continue to do that, but I believe we can do it better."

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- Press Conference by Kofi Annan