Savings of some $120 million had been identified by the Office of Internal Oversight Services in the past five years, and more than $70 million in savings had been realized, Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, Karl Paschke told journalists at a Headquarters press briefing today.
While the United Nations would continue to work for peace in Afghanistan, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, would cease to be actively involved until the situation there changed, correspondents were told at today's noon briefing.
The President of the International Peace Academy (IPA), David Mallone, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon that the biggest problem in the political culture of Haiti was a reluctance to compromise. Constructing good governance in Haiti was a difficult task, he said.
Cheikh Tidiane Sy, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations office in Burundi, told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing today that United Nations operations there had entered phase four, which meant that its activities in the field had been drastically reduced.
There was an urgent need to include environmental action as part of humanitarian assistance to the Balkans in the wake of the Kosovo conflict, Pekka Haavisto, Chairman of the Joint United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) Balkans Task Force (BTF), said at a Headquarters press briefing this morning.
The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Climate Change Convention, Michael Zammit Cutajar, briefed correspondents this morning at Headquarters on the Fifth Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-5), to be held from 25 October to 5 November in Bonn, Germany.
At a Headquarters press briefing this morning, Mary Banotti, Irish Representative to the European Parliament, was introduced as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Goodwill Ambassador and Face to Face Campaign Spokesman for Ireland by UNFPA Executive Director, Dr. Nafis Sadik.
The Under-Secretary-General for Management, Joseph E. Connor, briefed correspondents on the United Nations financial situation at Headquarters yesterday afternoon.
