'TOGETHER WE CAN ACCOMPLISH GREAT THINGS', SECRETARY-GENERAL STATES AT PRESENTATION OF 'UN21 AWARDS'
Press Release
SG/6290
ORG/1242
'TOGETHER WE CAN ACCOMPLISH GREAT THINGS', SECRETARY-GENERAL STATES AT PRESENTATION OF 'UN21 AWARDS'
19970724 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Kofi Annan Recognizes Teams of Staff Members Who Are Enhancing Effectiveness and Efficiency of OrganizationFollowing is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's remarks on the occasion of the presentation of the "UN21 Awards", at Headquarters today:
I am delighted to be here today to recognize these teams of United Nations staff members. They are helping to prepare the United Nations for the twenty-first century. They are enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of the Organization, laying to rest the canard that the United Nations cannot achieve value for money. They are delivering concrete results -- the best possible response to the ideologues and wilfully misinformed people around the world who reflexively criticize the United Nations and its staff.
The accomplishments we are recognizing today are indeed substantial:
-- Every permanent mission in New York is now connected to the Internet and to the United Nations wealth of electronic information;
-- The UN-I-QUE database is giving researchers around the world access to United Nations documents;
-- Sales of United Nations stamps here in New York have doubled;
-- Computer mainframe operations in Geneva have been consolidated;
-- The Department of Peace-keeping Operations has improved the way we select police monitors; and
-- The innovative Ombudsman's Office in Nairobi has helped the staff of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) go through significant downsizing and restructuring.
I salute each of the teams, and each team member, whose hard work and creativity made these achievements possible. You have enhanced the services we provide to Member States and research institutions. You have promoted a
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broader understanding of this Organization, which all too often can seem remote or bureaucratic. You have reduced overhead, and saved millions of dollars. You have shown that efficiency and effectiveness are compatible goals.
Across this great Organization, there are outstanding staff members who are making major improvements in how we accomplish our global mission. Hundreds of staff members have designed more than 550 efficiency projects. Nearly half have been completed already; the rest are scheduled to be completed this year. Together, you are bringing about a dramatic shift in the management culture of this Organization.
You are using technology to build an electronic United Nations.
You are using common services.
You are setting new standards of performance and excellence.
And you are working in teams that cut across the Secretariat, and across the funds and programmes as well. I am pleased that awards are being presented to teams that brought together staff members from the United Nations and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and in which personnel from the United Nations and the Geneva-based International Computing Centre pooled their efforts.
This shift, this transformation in the way we carry out our work, is at the heart of the reform package I announced last week. We have reached a critical stage in the reform process: the stage of implementation. We must now turn promises into deeds, ideas into results.
This reform report was not put forth just to gather dust on some forgotten shelf, or to be watered down beyond recognition. I am determined to carry out every action that is within my authority. But to do so, I need the help of every member of the staff of the Organization. I know that the staff members we are honouring today will not rest on their laurels. And I know that all of you believe in the importance of our work, and in its urgency. So let us all join in this quiet revolution to create a new United Nations, the United Nations of the twenty-first century.
Together, we can accomplish great things.
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