The U.S. Supports a Stronger United Nations

Anthony Godfrey
U.S. Charge d'Affaires

As a founding member, the host country, and the largest contributor to the United Nations, the United States is committed to supporting this world body as an instrument for peace, security, freedom, human rights and development.

Since its establishment 60 years ago, the United Nations has played a vital role in serving the needs of nations around the globe. In the past year, the Security Council acted to mitigate the violence in Sudan, force an end to Syrian occupation of Lebanon, and rally international support for Iraq's elections and transition to democratic government. Other UN agencies are called upon to address urgent transnational needs, like HIV/AIDS, the threat of avian flu, earthquake and tsunami relief, protection for refugees, and provision of food and other humanitarian assistance to millions worldwide.

We look to the United Nations to help to fight terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, to promote democracy, to enforce peace, and to bring relief and stability to the people of war-torn regions. [We recognize the value of a strong United Nations able to take on these formidable challenges that so often no single nation can handle on its own.]

But it is clear that the United Nations today is beset with problems. Its shortcomings -- evidenced, for example, by mismanagement and corruption in the Oil-for-Food Program and sexual exploitation by UN peacekeepers causing rather than alleviating human suffering -- must be addressed if the United Nations is to survive as an institution that can continue to meet the needs of its membership.

If the UN is to achieve the great purposes for which it was founded, fundamental changes to the organization are necessary. The debate over how to fix the United Nations has now been fully joined. The United States is fully committed to this reform effort.

[As President Bush noted during his address to the UN World Summit in September, "The United Nations was created to spread the hope of liberty, and to fight poverty and disease, and to help secure human rights and human dignity for all the world's peoples. To help make these promises real, the United Nations must be strong and efficient, free of corruption, and accountable to the people it serves. The United Nations must stand for integrity, and live by the high standards it sets for others. Meaningful reforms must include measures to improve internal oversight, identify cost savings, and ensure that precious resources are used for their intended purposes."]

For the United States, reform begins with a re-engineering of the Secretariat itself, including budget, management and administrative changes. Based on his experience, the Secretary General had called for many improvements, and these were endorsed by world leaders when they signed the UN World Summit Declaration in September. Some improvements would bring greater clarity and accountability to the budget process; some would protect staff from sexual harassment or from retaliation for whistle-blowing, while requiring the staff to adhere to high ethical standards; still other improvements would grant the Secretary General more flexibility in deploying staff to areas of high priority. In other words, we want to ensure that other member states - especially those in the developing world -- get the services that we are all paying for as effectively, efficiently, and fully as possible.

Effective reform also requires efforts to ensure that the UN is using precious resources on the highest priority programs. Many UN programs are serving outdated mandates, but they remain funded and staffed. For example, the Trusteeship Council, set up in 1945 to provide supervision for territories preparing for self-government or independence, still has a staff in the Secretariat, even though Palau, the last territory, became a Member State in 1994. While practically all of the activities of the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) are duplicative or of limited utility, the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), which carries out small projects aimed at achieving concrete results, is highly effective and merits greater support from member states. U.S. funding for UNIFEM has increased in recent years. The intent of the United States is that savings from duplicative, ineffective, or obsolete programs be shifted to those of greatest value to Member States.

Management reform is needed to ensure that the United Nations achieves its intended goals efficiently and with transparency and accountability. In a world of limited resources, the contributions of UN Member States must go to the most important and effective programs, particularly those that target the intransigent health, educational, and economic problems in developing countries.

The United States remains the largest contributor to the United Nations, in terms of both assessed and voluntary contributions. Like other contributors, we favor effective, efficient, results-based management because money wasted means less funding for effective programs that can improve lives.

The United States has long combined a commitment to good management with generosity. For example, the U.S. Government in November increased its total 2005 voluntary contribution to the World Food Program's Southern Africa program to $150 million. Because the World Health Organization has put reforms in place to improve management, strategic planning and budgeting, and program oversight - actions that increase the confidence of stakeholders and donors -- the U.S. agreed to an increase in the base budget for the 2006-2007 biennium while our voluntary contributions to that organization also continue to increase. Because of these management improvements, the WHO is better able to respond to the health challenges and threats of our day, including avian influenza and other infectious diseases.

As the debate moves forward, we will continue to push for these needed changes and we look forward to working with all governments to ensure that improved management of the United Nations leads to improved effectiveness in achieving results for those who need them most. All nations have a stake in that - a UN that delivers all the better on its original vision.