REFORM DESIGNED TO MAKE UNITED NATIONS MORE EFFECTIVE, RELEVANT, SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS UN STAFF IN BONN
Press Release
SG/SM/6211
REFORM DESIGNED TO MAKE UNITED NATIONS MORE EFFECTIVE, RELEVANT, SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS UN STAFF IN BONN
19970418 Following is the text of an address by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to staff members of United Nations agencies and programmes based at Haus Carstanjen, Bon, Germany on 18 April:You are much more numerous than I thought. So, Bonn is not doing too badly after all when it comes to United Nations agencies and United Nations staff.
Let me say that I am very happy to be able to join you here this morning. The journalists asked me, what do you think, are you going to discuss with Chancellor Kohl the possible location of additional United Nations entities in Bonn? And when I looked around the environment in which you work, I very quickly told them that, I wish I were younger, a bit more junior and then I could apply to come and join you here. We can dream and plan, but nature has its own way.
First of all let me tell you that if you hear a lot about reform and the changes going on in New York and in other centres, and I am sure, if it has not hit you here, it would also come here. But, the objective of the reform is really to make the Organization much more effective and much more relevant and better adapted for the challenges ahead. And really the whole effort is to reposition the Organization as we move into the next millennium. The objective is not to save money. The objective is not cuts.
Obviously, as we move ahead and review our activities and procedures we will come across opportunities for savings. And we will realize those savings. But it may also be necessary for us to invest, to invest in the future, to invest in training our staff, to invest in further computerization, to invest in bringing into the Organization the talents and the skills we may not have. And that is the way I am looking at reform. And at the end of the day, I would want to see a United Nations system, a United Nations and its agencies, that works more as a system than anything else, a group of agencies that pool their efforts, that coordinate their activities, eliminate duplication and aim at having a greater impact on society and for the Member States.
With that definition of reform, I can assure you that all the Member States are with us. Member States want reform, the staff want reform. And I
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think if we do not reform, we will cease to be relevant. I think it is also important that all of us, agency heads, department heads, individual staff members reach out to the public, to civil society, bring the United Nations closer to them and demystify this Organization that sometimes appears so bureaucratic and so remote and so distant from them. After all we are an Organization of "We, the Peoples of the World". I am very happy when I come to the field to meet people like you when I am outside New York, because you are the United Nations, you give us life and you give us a face. If you did not do what you are doing, particularly either here or around the world in distant places, the resolutions and mandates we get will remain pieces of paper on some shelf. But you give it life, you give it meaning, and I am really very happy to have the opportunity to salute you on behalf of the Organization and your colleagues in New York.
Since I came here, I have had the opportunity to talk to the German authorities at the highest levels, and they are very happy to have you here. They would want to see more of you here and more United Nations entities. They consider you good citizens and, from what I have gathered, you also consider them as good hosts. And I hope that that relationship and that mutual acceptance and respect will continue. But a lot will depend on us and how we conduct ourselves and I have no doubt that we will do the best we can and will always remain professional and good citizens of this community.
Let me conclude by telling you that as I look forward to the future, my dream would be to see at the end of this century, as we move into the next millennium, a United Nations that is: revitalized; that is energized; a United Nations that has found its moral voice; a United Nations that has again gained the trust and confidence of the membership and the public at large; a United Nations that has the moral voice and can appeal, when necessary to those countries and institutions with greatest capacity to assist the needy; a United Nations that will be establishing international norms and international law to regulate relations between States in an interdependent world and in a global village; a United Nations that will be rich in heart across countries and working with others to alleviate poverty and to promote democracy and human rights for all; a United Nations that will be working with all the Member States to contain what I call the uncivil society. We work, of course, for civil society, but we have uncivil elements -- terrorists, criminal elements, drug pushers -- who undermine all that legitimate governments are working on, and no one government can tackle those alone.
This is a daunting agenda. But, I think if the international community is determined and we come together, we will be able to make a dent in this area. So I wish you well. I am very happy to have seen you and I think I am also fortunate because there are not many people who can travel around the world and wherever they go they have a family. And my family here in Bonn is very large.
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