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Ban Ki-moon to continue consultations on plans to restructure UN departments

Ban Ki-moon to continue consultations on plans to restructure UN departments

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will hold further talks next week with Member States about his plans to restructure the political and security departments of the United Nations Secretariat to ensure they are as effective as possible at delivering their mandated programmes and handling any other challenges.

Mr. Ban wants to continue his consultations with countries, both individually and in groups, before he makes any formal proposals to the General Assembly, his spokesperson Michele Montas told journalists today.

She said the meetings would be the Secretary-General’s first priority when he returns from his current international trip, and that he would decide how to proceed with the restructuring based on the reaction he receives from Member States.

Stressing that Mr. Ban intends to work through the established Assembly procedures, Ms. Montas added that he has already spoken with the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) of countries, many individual States and with Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa.

“The Secretary-General is concerned about the need to strengthen the capacities of the Organization to cope with the increased scope of activities in the area of peace and security, as well as to advance the disarmament agenda,” she said.

Sheikha Haya’s spokesman Ashraf Kamal said the Assembly President has also met representatives of blocs of countries and individual nations over the past week to discuss the Secretary-General’s proposals.

At Mr. Ban’s request, Sheikha Haya has held talks with NAM, the Group of 77 developing countries and China, the European Union, the African Group and CANZ, a grouping that comprises Canada, Australia and New Zealand. She has also met the United States, Russia, China, Japan, Norway, Mexico and Switzerland individually.

Mr. Kamal said that so far Member States have indicated that although they welcomed the Secretary-General’s intentions to improve the management of the UN and make it more effective, “there is a general view that the ideas need further elaboration through a process of wide consultations with Member States within a reasonable time frame.”