Personnel and budgetary policies and procedures can seem esoteric at best and incidental to the lofty work of the United Nations (UN), even to seasoned UN watchers.
These issues, however, are not merely technical matters within the purview of administrative officers or Fifth Committee delegates. The normative and operational functioning of the United Nations is a function of its personnel and budgets, but not only as a matter of adequate resourcing. In fact, the policies and practices of the UN around the management of its personnel and budgets also have an outsized and underappreciated effect, including on whether mandates are implemented in a coherent and effective manner.
This newest policy brief on overcoming coherence challenges within the UN from Eugene Chen, senior fellow, provides a primer for:
- Efforts to enhance UN coherence.
- Administrative obstacles to coherence.
- Observations and recommendations for UN bureaucratic leadership and member states.