A United Nations report that seeks ways to improve efficiency and reduce costs has revealed: UN reports are not widely read.
The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres on Friday to the countries on Friday about the report, produced by his reform work group of the UN80 that focused on how UN staff implemented thousands of mandates that gave them agencies such as the General Assembly or the Security Council.
Last year, he said that the UN system supported 27,000 meetings that involved 240 bodies, and the UN Secretariat produced 1,100 reports, a 20% increase since 1990.
“The large number of meetings and reports is pushing the system, and all of us, to the point of rupture,” said Guterres.
“Many of these reports are not widely read,” he said. “The upper 5% of the reports are downloaded more than 5,500 times, while one in five reports receives less than 1,000 downloads. And the download does not necessarily mean reading.”
Guterres launched the Un80 working group 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 quotas in total time or time.
The report issued by the task force on Thursday night covers only one of the various reform angles that are being carried out.
Among the suggestions presented Guterres on Friday: “Less meetings. Less reports, but that can fully meet the requirements of all mandates.”
