Guy Ryder, who is leading UN chief Ant\u00f3nio Guterres\u2019s reform push, says controversial merger proposals were to assess the merits of fusing organisations, not to force decisions on member states.<\/p>\n
With just two months left to come up with the United Nations’ biggest structural shakeup, Guy Ryder, chairman of the UN80 reform task force, announced that no further budget cuts will be made while difficult discussions on agency mergers proceed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been a reform effort to respond to the entirety of the circumstances operating on the UN system, be they financial, be they political,\u201d Ryder said at a press briefing, referring to the major cuts in aid funding, particularly by the UN\u2019s biggest contributor, the United States. The former head of the International Labour Organization said that after the secretariat\u2019s 9.2 per cent budget cut this year \u2013 coming on top of a seven per cent reduction in 2025 \u2013 no further cuts are foreseen.<\/p>\n
Ryder was in Geneva on Tuesday to update member states on the process that had been launched in 2025 by UN secretary general Ant\u00f3nio Guterres.<\/p>\n
The UN80 initiative focuses on three main areas: reducing spending at the UN\u2019s secretariat, rationalising mandates given to the organisation by its member states, and slimming down agencies, either by shrinking them or by fusing some of them.<\/p>\n
Match-making strains<\/p>\n
Among the proposals on the table is combining the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), which Guterres has said would \u201ccreate a stronger engine for sustainable development, with greater reach and scale\u201d.<\/p>\n
Devex<\/a>, however, recently reported that the heads of the two agencies were not having it and clashed at a meeting in April over their respective visions for a future merger. UNDP chief Alexander De Croo proposed a scheme to absorb the smaller agency while streamlining operations. This was viewed as a hostile takeover by his UNOPS counterpart, Jorge Moreira da Silva, who countered that a new agency should be created in which UNOPS could help raise more funding for the UN.<\/p>\n Ryder insisted that both organisations had spoken in favour of a merger.. \u201cIt\u2019s just the conditions upon which the geometry of going from two to one takes place, which still divides the two entities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Another coupling proposed by Guterres \u2013 between the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and UN Women \u2013 has faced opposition from civil society groups, which fear it may dilute the UN\u2019s mandate to protect women\u2019s rights. Meanwhile, a group of countries, including Brazil, Canada and Belgium, has requested alternatives to the merger.<\/p>\n Under his UN80 initiative, Guterres has also proposed \u201csunsetting\u201d the Geneva-based organisation, which US cuts have hit hard, and folding it into other organisations such as the World Health Organisation. But UNAids\u2019s board has rejected the proposal, saying that it would do serious damage to the fight against HIV\/Aids at a time the disease is facing a comeback.<\/p>\n