E-mailed to blackinformant.com by author and former U.N. employee Eric Waha.
About the Book
The United Nations has seen more scrutiny and faced more pressure for reform under Secretary-General Kofi Annan than under any of his predecessors. Its agenda for transformation, according to Mark Malloch Brown, his Chief of Staff, is planned to take it from a conference-organizing, report-writing Organization, to one equipped to undertake large, complex, global missions- from peacekeeping and peacebuilding in post-conflict societies to humanitarian relief, recovery and rehabilitation following disasters.
Former U.N. employee Eric C. Waha underlines the constraints that make it a daunting task, considering staff-management relations deadlocked in distrust in the senior management, entrenched employment rights blocking staff turnover, weak staff oversight and accountability, unethical conduct, lack of transparency, including financial disclosures by senior officials, recruitment and promotions disregarding merit; in the context of a U.N. Secretary-General mired in a web of Governmental committees and outdated rules impending his freedom to manage.
The book finally exposes the troubling revelations on the Iraq oil-for food program and related findings of the Paul Volcker panel, as well as reports of sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping operations, and concludes that they did not show the U.N. recently in a favorable light, and more than ever, the legitimacy of its leadership in conducting even reformed U.N. business, without further damaging the credibility of the world body, appeared increasingly questionable.
Eric C. Waha draws on the brilliant contributions and arguments of U.N. correspondents and international relations specialists, as well as the insights of policy makers and other individuals in the United States that have led the pressure to effectively reform the United Nations. (more and how you can order…)
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