UN Initiative 80 – What has changed? What’s the next step? What does that mean for people?

Over the past year, reform efforts have gained significant momentum across the three workstreams, from enhancing efficiency and making improvements, to implementing the mandates and tasks assigned to the Organization, and making broader structural and programmatic changes.

As the process moves from diagnosis to implementation, UN News spoke to Guy Ryder, Under-Secretary-General for Policy and Chair of the UN Initiative 80 Task Force, to talk about what has changed, the results that are already being seen, and what success means for the UN and the people it serves.

UN News: What has changed since the launch of the UN 80 initiative?

Guy Ryder: We have come a long way in one year, and the reform process has clear momentum.

What is truly remarkable is the amount of interaction shown by member states with the initiative. When the Secretary-General launched it, it was not certain whether Member States would take it seriously and work with us to address difficult and complex problems, but the answer was positive.

Regarding the first work stream, on efficiency and improvements, we have approved the program budget of the Secretariat for this year. Although the size of the budget decreased by 9.2 per cent in financial terms, it reflects new measures to enhance efficiency and new working methods.

As we have adopted An important decision Regarding the management of the mandates and tasks assigned to us. If we continue on this path, it will radically change and improve the daily workings of the United Nations system, from how we formulate mandates, distribute responsibilities, and provide resources for them, to evaluating results, holding ourselves accountable, and ultimately deciding whether there are mandates that should be terminated.

The third work stream, related to programmatic and structural issues, includes strengthening each pillar of the Charter: sustainable development, peace and security, human rights, and humanitarian action, all of which are based on new enabling factors, such as technology, data, and others.

I hope that, by the end of the year, these efforts will produce results that strengthen the United Nations and, more importantly, its impact for the people it serves.

What tangible results are already starting to appear?

The different work packages vary in their completion stages, but tangible results are beginning to appear on the ground.

At the humanitarian level, we seek, among other things, to unify humanitarian supply chains, as 70 percent of our humanitarian expenditures go to supply chains, from procurement and global logistics to delivery within the countries concerned. This approach is currently being applied experimentally in five important locations, in preparation for expanding the scope of the initiative and generalizing its application on a comprehensive scale.

As for the mandates and tasks assigned, the measures taken have already begun to bear fruit in the process of preparing future budgets, including addressing duplications between different parts of the United Nations system.

We are also launching the joint data platform next September. Previously, accessing United Nations information required browsing data and statistics distributed on 26 separate websites, but as of September, all of this information will be able to be accessed through one website.

So, we are achieving tangible results, and there is more to come.

The Secretary-General’s latest report indicates that the initiative is at a critical stage. So what does that mean?

We devoted a lot of time to the diagnosis phase, and although it was arduous, it was necessary to identify the problems and crystallize the nature of the appropriate solutions. This stage has brought us to the current situation, that is, the readiness to make practical decisions.

Some aspects of the UN 80 initiative require intergovernmental resolutions to enter into force. In these cases, draft resolutions must be prepared to be presented to the General Assembly, the Security Council or the relevant intergovernmental bodies, and in the coming months 19 draft resolutions must be prepared for decision by those bodies.

On the other hand, there are measures that fall within the direct powers of the Secretary-General, and they will actually be taken. We will move forward with decisive steps, keeping Member States informed of developments.

I believe that we have an opportunity, if we exploit it well, to achieve very important results during this year.

In practical terms, how does the UN 80 initiative strengthen the three pillars of the United Nations?

In the area of ​​sustainable development, we are building on the reforms adopted at the beginning of the Secretary-General’s term, when the resident coordinator system was introduced.

This means reconsidering the composition of the United Nations country teams, and trying to adapt our field presence to different contexts, rather than adopting a uniform approach that applies to everyone. It also means ensuring that we benefit from the expertise available in various organs of the United Nations system to support country teams when needed.

In the field of peace and security, a review of peace processes will allow an assessment of the changing landscape, which is a deplorable and deteriorating landscape. However, we must acknowledge that the nature of conflicts and wars is changing, and that our tools and mechanisms for peace and security must evolve to keep pace with these changes.

There is also a new humanitarian charter. At a time when humanitarian needs are increasing dramatically and the resources available for humanitarian assistance are declining sharply, we must make the most of the means available.

The price of success or failure in this regard is not in bureaucracy or budgets, but in human lives. People’s lives will be at stake if we do not perform our tasks to the best of our ability.

The Secretary-General stresses the need to move forward on this path in a balanced manner, as no pillar is more important than another. So we need to work across all these pillars, and improve the way we use technology, data and shared services across the UN system.

Civil society organizations and other stakeholders have expressed concern about the budgetary pressures and changes associated with UN 80, and what this might mean for the missions of the United Nations. How are you responding to this?

It is very important to emphasize that the goal of the United Nations Initiative 80 is to build a more effective, stronger and more influential international system, and not to reduce its size, as there is no benefit to be expected from having a smaller system.

Of course, we are facing financial pressures, as it is estimated that total revenues will decline by about 25 percent within 24 months, which is a very sharp decline.

Many bodies within the system have been severely affected by this situation, not because of the decisions of the UN Initiative 80, but because of decisions taken by member states outside the framework of the initiative.

The fundamental question is: Will we lead the inevitable course of change in a way that strengthens the United Nations, or will we let change be imposed on us from the outside? The second option may lead to chaos, damage, and weakening of the United Nations system.

Therefore, the UN 80 initiative must anticipate these challenges and work to build a stronger organization.

I do not deny that the process of change, no matter how carefully it was designed and how extensive the consultations that preceded it, remains a difficult process, as it generates a state of uncertainty, a state that naturally arouses a feeling of unease. There will be areas that require difficult decisions to be made.

But we are doing our best to ensure that the change takes place in an organized and proper manner, and to mitigate its effects on those working in the system as much as possible.

Above all, we must ensure that all our actions remain consistent with the Charter and committed to the tasks entrusted to us without any deviation from them. The way forward lies in strict adherence to principles, while being bold and creative in the path of reform.

What does the rest of the year hold for us?

The next stage is to prepare a series of resolutions for intergovernmental decision-making.

We have until the end of the year under the UN Initiative 80, although the Secretary-General urges early acceleration to ensure that as much preparation as possible is completed before the high-level week scheduled for September.

Some tasks will remain incomplete, as I do not expect all 31 work packages to be fully completed by the end of the year, and it will be up to others to decide how to move forward.

For example, the Working Group on Mandates will continue its work until May 2027, and the Secretariat’s program budget for 2027 is already under consideration, processes that will by their nature continue beyond the end of Mr. Guterres’ term.

What will success look like by the end of this year?

Success will be about making decisions that put the United Nations in a better position to meet the challenges ahead, whether they are political, resource-related or related to winning support for multilateral action at a time when questions about our effectiveness are increasing.

If we end the year with the impression that we are working in a way that makes the United Nations better able to respond to these momentous challenges, that will be a success.

Even if the process is not fully completed, UN Initiative 80 can chart a course for the future of the United Nations.

What will this mean for the people served by the United Nations?

The people we serve will remain the primary criterion for measuring success.

If we can achieve a greater impact in supporting sustainable development, make our peace and security operations more appropriate to the nature of the conflicts plaguing our world today, deliver more humanitarian aid to those in need, and enhance the effectiveness of human rights in protecting the basic rights of individuals, then we will have accomplished work that reflects on the daily lives of the people whom we are responsible for serving, and whom we actually serve.