A UN report seeking ways to improve efficiency and reduce costs has revealed: UN reports are not widely read.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres briefed the countries on Friday about the report, produced by his UN80 reform tasks, which focused on how UN staff implement thousands of mandates given them by bodies such as the general meeting or the Security Council.
He said last year that the UN system supported 27,000 meetings involving 240 bodies, and the UN Secretariat produced 1,100 reports, an increase of 20% since 1990.
“The large number of meetings and reports push the system – and all of us – to the breaking point,” Guterres said.
“Many of these reports are not widely read,” he said. “The top 5% of the reports are downloaded over 5,500 times, while one in five reports receives fewer than 1,000 downloads. And downloading does not necessarily mean reading.”
Guterres launched UN80 Taskforce in March, when the UN – which turns 80 this year – faces a liquidity crisis for at least the seventh consecutive year because not all 193 UN Member States pay their mandatory regular quota fully or on time.
The report issued by Task Force late Thursday covers only one of several reform angles being pursued.
Among the suggestions made by Guterres on Friday: “Fewer meetings. Fewer reports, but those who can fully meet the requirements of all mandates.”
