General Assembly President notes progress in debate on UN management reform

United Nations Member States are heading towards a common understanding of what path to take on management reform of the world body, General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim said today after the Assembly wrapped up its first-ever thematic debate of the issue.

In his closing remarks to the debate, Mr. Kerim said the dialogue over the past two days showed that both individual Member States and the UN Secretariat were willing to engage constructively to produce management reform.

“There were several interesting discussions on specific issues and a number of proposals were made by both Member States and representatives from the Secretariat,” he said. “In particular, I would like to highlight the emphasis during the debate on the need for greater transparency and enhanced accountability as a means to promote trust and greater credibility.”

Mr. Kerim, who convened the debate, noted that it was “only through further open and transparent dialogue [that] we will be able to improve our understanding of the different concerns held by delegations and move ahead in our collective responsibility to improve the capacity of the Organization to implement our decisions.”

He added that he was “encouraged by the expressions of renewed commitment to achieving concrete progress in the near future on the priority areas of management reform.”

During the debate yesterday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the UN’s 192 Member States to support proposals to further strengthen the world body, especially in the areas of procurement, accountability and human resources.

Mr. Ban said the UN was being called on, as never before, to do much more with fewer and fewer resources.

“The only way we can embrace that future and do our good works in the world is to make ourselves more modern, more flexible and more efficient. In a word, to be better managed,” he said.