A New Kind of Secretariat, Please

Will the UN implement necessary reforms before it's too late? As Pedro Sanjuan, an American diplomat with a decade worth of experience in the UN Secretariat, asks in his book The UN Gang, "Will we take the steps necessary to reform this once-proud institution and make it serve the ends of peace, justice, and international order?" His book gives an insider's perspective on the inner-workings of the United Nations Secretariat and helps to develop a broader understanding of this unique and unparalleled organization. It is clear that reform in the Secretariat is urgently needed, and should deal with the obstacles of overstaffing, inefficient management structure, and redundancy. If the Secretariat fails to make the changes necessary, the effectiveness of the organization will continue to spiral downward at an ever-increasing speed.

	Courtesy of Elizabeth Dickinson

Overstaffing, which is a serious problem in the Secretariat, is the result of the Secretary General adding another Undersecretary Generals to the staff whenever a new issue arises. In turn, a Undersecretary General's newly developed department needs its own staff, as well as a portion of the already excessive budget. The newly developed department rarely solves the problem for which it was originally intended and ends up being yet another drain on UN resources. This system of management is not only ineffective but also undermines the potentially positive efforts of the United Nations.

The current structure of the Secretariat is too vast and inefficient for the Secretary General to have any real control. While the Secretary General is theoretically in charge of the entire organization, in reality, his office is an island in a sea of departments that the Secretary-General himself cannot possibly oversee. General meetings of the Undersecretary Generals are non-existent. This has led to confusion as to who plays what role as well as redundancy in the tasks of individual departments.

One example of this redundancy is The Department of Political Affairs. This department can be found within the Secretariat with a separate division for each region of the world. On top of this, every other department within the Secretariat is also equipped with its own political affairs bureau, which is not affiliated with the Department of Political Affairs. In another example, within the UN Development Group Office, there is a "Regional Progressive Division," as well as an "Overall Regional Progressive Division." These are just some of the cases of redundancy, caused by a lack of coordination both between the Secretary General and the rest of the Secretariat and amongst individual departments. This has left the Secretariat virtually unable to work towards a common goal, even if that goal is laudable.

Overstaffing in the Secretariat not only makes the organization less effective by creating chaos in numbers, but it also wastes funds. The Secretariat now employs 58 Undersecretaries General and 57 Assistant Secretaries General who earn annually $176,877 and $160,574 respectively. Collectively, this adds up to almost $20 million. The Secretary General, Deputy Secretary General, and Undersecretary General of Humanitarian Affairs, for their part, earn a combined salary of just under $1 million. That's $21 million spent on just the salaries of the 118 highest paid officials out of approximately 8,000 employees in the Secretariat. This money could be better spent on the budgets of UN programmes and peacekeeping operations.

The Secretariat is not unproductive because it lacks resources. On the contrary, the Secretariat is unproductive because it has too many resources, which overlap and create a system too complex to be effective. Mr. Sanjuan told The Toronto Globalist that, "To have an organization, which brings together basic concerns of the world, we would have to figure out how to structure it." The current structure is simply not working. For the UN Secretariat to be effective it needs to be restructured-and the reforms need not just be suggested-but implemented as well. Departments which are out of date or unnecessary should be done away with. Staff members who are inefficient should have to improve their habits or face the possibility of being out of work. The Secretary-General should have more effective control over the Secretariat and should use that power to implement the reforms which are so often discussed. The Secretariat should not be given up on; it should lead the UN to become the pinnacle of cooperation in international relations rather than a repeat performance the UN's failed predecessor, the League of Nations.