For the United Nations, does one size fit all?
Blogged by: Nina Brenjo
An Iraqi refugee waits to register at the U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Douma. REUTERS\Khaled Al Hariri
The recently launched "One U.N." scheme sounds in theory like a good idea: Various U.N. agencies that would normally operate with little coordination act as a single entity in a given country, with funding going to a single plan rather than different parts of the world body.
Is the idea as good as it sounds, asks Christian Science Monitor.
Under the scheme, the likes of UNICEF, UNHCR, the U.N.'s Population Fund and WHO will no longer jostle with each other when applying for grants for overlapping projects. Instead, the money will go to a single fund, which will then be distributed accordingly. So you won't find 20 different groups working on environmental issues, for example - a situation that inspired former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to kick off his U.N. reforms.
Albania, one of the pilot countries, usually has to deal with dozens of donors, multilateral institutions and non-governmental organisations. This means that no government official has had a complete record of all ongoing projects. From now, at least the number of U.N. agencies will be cut to one. Albana Vokshi, director for Albania's department of strategy and donor coordination, says in the Monitor article that the "One U.N." plan should mean an improvement in the efficiency of aid.
But not everyone thinks the scheme is the best thing since sliced bread. The Group of 77 and the Non-Aligned Movement, the largest political groups of developing nations, are worried about a "one-size-fits-all" approach that the new scheme may impose on countries with different needs.
U.N. agencies themselves may not be enthusiastic, since the new direction may mean sacrifices "for the good of the whole". And there is a debate about the U.N. reforms in general, which includes questions about the amount of aid poor countries should be getting.
The Christian Science Monitor quotes James Paul, executive director of the Global Policy Forum in New York: "U.N. reform is not always what it appears to be. Most of the projects for reform of the U.N. are driven by state interests. And state interests rarely coincide with peace, justice, development, and the end of poverty."
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