Speech by Gareth Thomas, Minister of State for International Development
08 December 2009
Poverty. Climate change. Conflict. Peace-building. These are the unmistakeable rhythms of today’s geopolitics.
Challenges that no one country, irrespective of wealth or power can deal with alone. They call for strong international institutions. Deeper partnerships. The right resources.The right people in place at the right time.
Now more than ever the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people need to know they can rely on an effective international response.
Let me begin by stressing that the UK sees the UN as being at the very heart of this response.
But given that the world’s poorest and most vulnerable need, indeed, deserve, the very best international support possible, as this first decade of the twenty first century draws to a close, we should question what else we need to do to make sure that the UN is able to rise to the challenges ahead.
With the world still coming to terms with the worst economic crisis in generations, the context for our discussion is particularly challenging.
It is a crisis which has led to even greater scrutiny of domestic expenditure.And particularly to greater pressure on aid budgets.
The last five years have seen real, important change in how the UN operates. Most recently:
i) the Delivering as One work,
ii) the progress on humanitarian systems reforms
are welcome steps in the right direction.
But the scale of the challenges the UN will need to respond to demands a sharp acceleration of this reform programme over the next five years; with much more focus on grassroots delivery supporting and enabling the work of national governments to get better results.
We have several early opportunities to champion these changes
The 2010 Summit, called for by the UN Secretary General last year will review progress on the MDGs. Led by the UN, our ambition is for members to emerge from the Summit with a global action plan for delivering the MDGs. The UN too needs its own particular part of that action plan; agencies, funds and programmes all working together to deliver better help to governments to meet the MDGs.
Secondly, the Copenhagen Conference on climate change that began this week. The UN has a role to play in helping to deliver the in country changes that will support developing countries as they deal with the impact of climate change. But instead of every agency trying to get its own bit of the action, there needs to be a clearer, one UN response. Thirdly, gender. We have agreement to the principle of a new UN Agency but now we need early progress to operationalise it with the swift appointment of an Under Secretary-General to reform and step up the UN's work on equality and violence against women.
If the MDGs, climate and gender are the three immediate opportunities there are three priorities for change across the UN.
First, governance.
There is no doubt that the UN has played an important part in the fight against global poverty. Its role as a forum for the world to agree and protect norms and standards is irreplaceable. But the structure and mandates of the UN’s development system remain much as they did 50 years ago and sit uncomfortably with modern needs and practices.
In particular, the sheer plethora of UN Agencies, Funds, Commissions, Programmes and the other bodies they spawn so frequently, add up to far less than the sum of their parts.
The UN is not alone in this. The UK and others around the world face the same challenges. In the UK we have had to adopt a “whole of Government” approach;recognising that our political, development, defence, trade, health, and other Government Ministries have to work together more closely in setting strategies, budgets and policy in order to get better results.
Today’s world demands a “whole of UN approach”. We have it in places, in some countries, on some issues. We need to continue to champion a joined-up “whole of UN” attitude across peace-keeping, peace-building, and development activities.
Secondly is value for money.
The impact of the recession has been felt across the world.While developing countries have been hardest hit, richer donor countries are not immune and aid budgets are coming under pressure.
The UK is holding to its aid commitments of 0.7 % of GNI.
But for the past five years we have been expected to cut 5% from our administration or staffing costs across Government.5% – year on year. This has not been easy.
But it has been an inescapable part of a “one Government” approach that seeks to achieve efficiency savings at the centre in order to release more money to front-line services. The UN needs a similar joined-up response.
My third and final priority is stronger leadership. UN leaders do a fantastic job in countries around the world.
We need to cherish and nurture their leadership if the international community is to respond successfully to many of the most difficult problems.
We must have the best people in these roles and then empower and support them to do the best job possible.
When disaster strikes it is critical that the UN is able to put the right people in place quickly to lead the response.
As UN agencies, NGOs and governments, we all have to contribute to building a diverse and excellent pool of talent, offering our best people to be trained and ready to take up these leadership roles.
And when they are in post they must be given all the support and authority they need to get the job done, with incentives to recognise and reward success. These then are the three specific changes which could better equip the UN for the challenges ahead.
First, we need to invest in the Humanitarian and Resident Coordinators – the UN's leaders – to deliver a stronger approach.
So the UK will invest more resources over the next three years to help develop better operational support for UN leaders.
Next year we will be ready to put at least £4 million into supporting UN leaders on the ground.
But the UN needs to provide us with a clear vision of what is required to strengthen leadership across the board.
A broad perspective of needs in all country contexts. Not penny-packet projects that fill gaps at a project level.
Together with other donors, we will be prepared to invest in a multi-year programme to tackle these issues.
And we will continue to support pooled funds at a country level to empower leaders to plan and deliver more effectively.
Secondly, we need a stronger peace-building effort, for a joined-up international system to nurture peace and support national efforts to rebuild countries as they emerge from war.
We must learn the lessons of humanitarian reform and bring the same urgency and drive to peace-building efforts.
The UN has a unique capacity to bring together political, security and development efforts.
But too often, it struggles to achieve its potential on the ground.
By clarifying which agency leads on which issue, the humanitarian cluster system is making assistance more predictable and accountable. Why can’t we do the same for peace-building? Why can’t we take a “whole of UN approach”?
We know that countries emerging from civil war have an urgent need for fast, predictable, and well co-ordinated international support.
We need the UN system, including the World Bank, to agree how it will deliver – together – in areas such as security and justice, re-building government and creating jobs.
Some of this work is already in hand but we need to move faster.
Finally, we will need a real push on value for money in the UN system. I believe there is scope for the UN to make major efficiencies.
Over the next 5 years the UN needs to target 25% savings, – savings that can be ploughed straight back into country programmes, 5% year on year. This is in line with what the UK and many other governments are striving to do in the current economic climate.
There are many areas where these efficiencies could be made – IT, administration, back-office functions, but let’s take procurement as an example.
Why does each agency have its own procurement arrangements? Even a 1% efficiency gain through smarter UN procurement, would release tens of millions that could be redirected to front- line services at country level, where poor people need the UN most.
And what about HR?
Do we really need separate HR systems across the Development Agencies? Surely there is scope for rationalisation here?
“A stronger UN for a better world.” The UN’s strapline is as relevant today as it was in 1945. But strength, true strength is about acknowledging the challenges that lie ahead and being prepared to tackle them. Thank you.
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