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U.N. chief urges streamlined bureaucracy

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 22 minutes ago

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon formally endorsed a radical streamlining of United Nations operations Monday, delivering a report to the General Assembly that urges the elimination of unnecessary bureaucracy.

The sprawling U.N. system contains 16 specialized agencies, 14 funds and programs, and 17 departments and offices, leading to costly duplication and competition for resources.

A high-level panel recommended a series of reforms in November including the consolidation of different programs — as many two dozen separate operations in some countries — into one U.N. operation per country, with one budget, one leader and one common office if possible.

Ban said the United Nations is moving to establish eight such pilot programs, more than initially planned because of high demand.

He also endorsed the report's call for the three U.N. bodies promoting equality for women "in an uncoordinated and ineffective way" to be merged into a single well-funded organization with higher status.

Ban urged member nations to move quickly on debating and approving the recommendations.

"How we improve the ability of the U.N. to deliver in development, humanitarian assistance and the environment is something in which we all have a wider stake," he said. "It is a matter of life and death to millions of men, women and children around the world who depend on us to meet their basic human needs."

Many nations have declared their support of the proposed reforms, and a series of U.N. representatives who spoke after Ban echoed his endorsement.

The two main groups representing mainly developing countries — the Nonaligned Movement and the Group of 77 — expressed concern in a joint statement about a focus in the reform plan on promoting human rights, equality for women and environmental protection.

The groups said they were concerned that under the guise of reform, the United Nations could start making aid contingent on progress in those areas, which they said was "not acceptable to developing countries."

"Economic and social development should remain the centerpiece of deliberations at the U.N.," the groups said.

They said the world body's "overarching framework" should be meeting development targets, such as the Millennium Development Goals, which call for cutting extreme poverty by half, ensuring universal primary education, providing clean water to all families and halting the AIDS pandemic by 2015.

U.N. chief urges streamlined bureaucracy (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070417/ap_on_re_us/streamlining_the_un;_ylt=AgRY6CfVX7OQsKznvcWdfKlbbBAF)