UNITED NATIONS, Feb 16 (IPS) – The United Nations is heading in direction of a extreme money disaster forcing the world physique “to implement aggressive money conservation measures to avert a default in assembly the authorized obligations of the Group”.
Secretary-Basic Antonio Guterres has drawn consideration to “the unlucky deteriorating monetary scenario of our common price range operations”.
UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq advised IPS that in an effort to guarantee liquidity for paying employees salaries, sure troublesome steps will likely be mandatory. Hiring restrictions will have to be maintained throughout 2024, he mentioned.
Restrictions in non-post spending may even be essential to bridge the liquidity hole. Because of this, till the scenario improves, official journey will have to be restricted to essentially the most important actions, he mentioned.
“Purchases of products and companies will likely be postponed, until completely essential. Hiring of consultants and specialists will likely be minimized to the extent possible”.
And most building and upkeep initiatives will likely be suspended, besides the place the slowing down of main building initiatives would end in important future further bills.
“We’ll implement energy-saving and different measures to cut back utility payments and curtail bills on managing services. Non-essential safety bills may even be curtailed, so long as they don’t influence the protection of our premises, property and of our personnel and delegates,” mentioned Haq.
The disaster is blamed on most member states who’ve both delayed or absconded on their annual dues – known as assessed contributions— to the world physique.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric advised reporters, as of February 15, solely 58 out of 193 Member States have paid in full.
The primary reason behind the liquidity disaster: not all Member States pay their assessments in full. In 2023, the UN collected 82.3 per cent of the 12 months’s evaluation, the bottom within the final 5 years. Solely 142 Member States paid their dues in full – once more, the bottom within the final 5 years. Because of this, year-end arrears climbed to $859 million, up from $330 million in 2022.
A secondary reason behind the liquidity disaster pertains to a shift within the cost patterns of Member States, together with the unpredictability of each the timing and the quantities of anticipated collections. In 2023, collections trailed estimates all through a lot of the 12 months. The UN ended the 12 months $529 million wanting anticipated collections.
The money crunch can also be having a unfavourable influence on Geneva, residence to a number of UN businesses.
Based on the UN, Geneva homes round 40 worldwide organizations, 180 everlasting missions and greater than 400 NGOs. Along with the UN entities headquartered there, most UN funds, programmes and businesses preserve regional places of work or liaison places of work there.
Ian Richards, an economist on the Geneva-based UN Convention on Commerce and Growth (UNCTAD) and former President of the Coordinating Committee of Worldwide Employees Unions and Associations, advised IPS the UN needed to shut its Geneva campus for 3 weeks over Christmas and “we’re advised that additional closures are doubtless”.
“In the meantime some translation employees have been advised they’ll’t take any depart in any respect till August, which we imagine is extra a symptom of poor administration. Of nice concern is that employees, primarily younger, with non permanent contracts, are being let go,” mentioned Richards.
In his letter to staffers, Guterres mentioned: “We count on the common price range liquidity scenario to be far more difficult in 2024, as we’re beginning with little or no money. In an effort to keep away from a cost default all year long, whereas coping with the unpredictability of intra-year collections, our preliminary estimates are that we might want to preserve round $350 million in money by slowing down and lowering spending till now we have certainty that now we have sufficient money to satisfy our obligations every month.”
This implies, “ we must introduce spending restrictions straight away or danger operating out of money by August, together with the liquidity reserves and the excess money of closed tribunals.”
“Defending employees from the liquidity disaster to the utmost extent is a precedence for me. I’ve repeatedly made each effort to take action over time and I can’t relent in doing every little thing attainable to mitigate any stress on you”.
Nevertheless, the fact is that personnel prices account for greater than 70 per cent of the common price range. In an effort to guarantee liquidity for paying employees salaries, sure troublesome steps will likely be mandatory. Hiring restrictions will have to be maintained throughout 2024.
“I’m keenly conscious that this may have a knock-on impact. Excessive vacancies put an added burden on employees – particularly those that work in entities with excessive emptiness charges. This step is important if we’re to have any hope of guaranteeing ample money inflows,” declared Guterres.
In the meantime, in a joint assertion launched early this week, Louis Charbonneau, United Nations Director, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Widad Franco, UN Advocacy Officer, HRW, warned {that a} money crunch and hiring freeze on the United Nations threaten to hinder UN human rights investigations in locations like Sudan, Ukraine, and Syria.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/02/13/uns-financial-troubles-jeopardize-critical-human-rights-work
Delegations from China, Russia, Cuba, and others have been attempting for years to defund UN human rights work within the Basic Meeting’s Fifth Committee, which oversees the price range.
Their makes an attempt in December to dam funding for investigations into grave human rights abuses in Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Russia, Nicaragua and elsewhere failed.
The UN management and member nations, HRW mentioned, ought to be sure that the UN’s human rights groups have funding and employees to meet their mandates. And governments that haven’t paid their assessed contributions ought to pay up.
Guterres has additionally written to Member States to tell them of the scenario and to alert them that the UN will likely be pressured to implement aggressive money conservation measures to avert a default in assembly the authorized obligations of the Group.
He additionally reminded them that the last word duty for our monetary well being rests with Member States, and he inspired them to pay in full and on time.
“I’ve requested related senior managers to have interaction with Member States and description the potential influence on our capacity ship on our mandates, together with assist to intergovernmental conferences throughout obligation stations. The Division of Administration Technique, Coverage and Compliance will work with senior managers to assist take care of the influence of those measures. We’ll monitor the money flows rigorously and adapt to the evolving liquidity scenario”.
“Member States have been very supportive of my proposals relating to the price range for 2024 and have made optimistic selections on initiatives, reminiscent of establishing two new places of work for Anti-Racism and for Information Safety, growing funding for core actions of UNRWA, growing sources for growth and human rights actions and strengthening the Peacebuilding Fund with assessed contributions from 2025”.
Nevertheless, budgets permitted with out satisfactory money to execute them undermine the essence of the method, declared Guterres.
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© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
