UN reform proceeding on many fronts, Fréchette tells General Assembly

Technical cooperation among United Nations members will be streamlined to avoid duplication and better joint agency programming will take place in developing countries, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette told the General Assembly today as it began consideration of UN reform.

A new report on providing technical cooperation identifies UN system agencies active on certain issues and clarifies roles and responsibilities to eliminate duplication, she told the Assembly. "It is hoped that this compendium will be a useful source of information for programme countries and the donor community."

The UN's work in developing countries "is being made more effective through simplification and harmonization of procedures, joint programming, the pooling of resources, better knowledge management and improvements in the (development) Resident Coordinator system," she said.

This year's UN budget proposals represent "a major effort to realign activities with priorities and to increase attention to development issues, in particular the Millennium Development Goals," she said.

The goals, approved in 2000 by a summit of world leaders, aim to eliminate extreme poverty by 2015.

Alongside the efforts to reform the international civil service, General Assembly President Julian Hunte of St. Lucia has been campaigning to improve the working of the 191-member body.

Speaking at the opening session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union hearing today, he said, "We seek to foster the building of a 'global parliament,' more efficient in its decision-making process and more capable of taking effective decisions. Above all, we need a United Nations General Assembly whose decisions are respected and have a decisive influence on the actions of member states."

In the General Assembly later, he appointed "facilitators" to move the process of gathering reform proposals along and he asked delegates "to demonstrate a combination of imagination in proposing solutions and of willingness to be flexible during the process of negotiation."