UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Fifth Committee
Item: Human Resources Management Reform
Statement by H.E. Ms Rosemary Banks,
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of New Zealand,
on behalf of Canada, Australia and New Zealand
1 November 2006
Check against delivery
Mr Chairman
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the delegations of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. We thank the Secretary General Mr Kofi Annan for his reports, and the ACABQ Chairman Mr Rajat Saha for the introduction of the ACABQ report.
The Secretary-General has brought forward a wide-ranging set of reports which build on the framework report on Investing in the United Nations that he submitted last March. We are grateful for the effort made to consult with staff representatives through the established machinery before finalising these proposals.
CANZ welcomes the overall direction of the Human Resource Management (HRM) reform proposals. People are the UN’s most important resource. Improvements in the way they are recruited, managed, trained and deployed are critical to the management reform agenda. The UN’s increasing challenges, especially in the field, underscore the need to nurture and make best use of its investment in people. We will work to support decisions during this session on all the elements that are ripe for action. We encourage the Secretary-General to implement those initiatives which require no further involvement from the GA.
Mr Chairman:
Our starting point in human resources reform is the assertion of merit as the bedrock principle guiding recruitment and staff development. If not explicitly stated in the reports the Secretary General has introduced, we know he shares this commitment. Still, in the discussions ahead, we will seek clarification on specific measures to strengthen the application of the merit principle, in accordance with the provisions of Article 101 of the Charter. A regime based on merit must be supported by credible and effective systems of accountability and performance management. We acknowledge progress that has been made, but believe that the tools to ensure that performance, both good and bad, has consequences, could be strengthened.
We find appealing the vision of the whole Secretariat as a unified and mobile pool of talent in which artificial barriers to access are broken down. A number of the present barriers are self imposed, and we believe that it is within the purview of the Secretary General to remove them by amending the staff selection system. An area that does require a decision from the General Assembly is to allow General Service staff to apply for non-geographic posts. We see no reason why talented General Service staff should not have such opportunities for advancement.
Equally, we see merit in the envisaged recruitment centre. It is not always enough to post vacancies. Outreach and proactive effort are clearly required to find the highest levels of talent the UN requires, from all over the world. Significantly increased efforts are required to attain the goal of gender parity in the Secretariat. It is in the Secretary General’s managerial scope to strengthen the recruitment function and to create such a unit. We fully support the proposals for more proactive recruitment and for reducing the average recruitment period by half. As a general point, applicable to all the HRM proposals, we believe they could be strengthened by ensuring that they are accompanied wherever possible by specific and measurable benchmarks so that progress can be monitored and reviewed.
One of the most important new ideas in the Secretary General’s reports is the creation of a cadre of 2500 career civilian positions in UN peace operations. CANZ supports in principle a core, ongoing capacity of multi-skilled, versatile, competent and mobile staff to meet the baseline medium-term and rapid deployment needs of UN peace operations. Even if missions come and go, the function remains. Like any important new idea, however, this one needs to be worked through carefully, and the ACABQ has outlined some of the issues that need careful consideration before any final decisions are taken on this proposal. These include discussion on conditions of service and cost implications.
On the harmonisation of conditions of service in the field, we look forward to the report of the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC). We believe there is scope to improve the system, to ensure we have the staff required and that they are treated fairly. The proposals involve significant costs and administration. We will want to examine these carefully. We also note that the UN Funds and Programmes involved deploy far fewer international staff than do UN peace operations.
We support the idea of streamlining of contractual arrangements and we understand the intention behind moving to develop a single UN contract based on the 100 series of staff rules. We are ready to actively consider this proposal during this session. A key outcome must be to streamline the administration of these contracts. We also support the move to continuing contracts.
Mr Chairman,
CANZ believes the Secretary General is right to stress the importance of training to career and professional development. We could not agree more with the observation of the ACABQ that training “is essential both to attract and retain staff who are indeed at the highest standards of competence that the Charter requires and to foster the leadership, creativity and versatility that the work of the organisation demands”.
CANZ is committed to equipping the Secretariat with high-quality, responsive and integrated needs-based information technology. We look forward to considering the Secretary-General's proposals with a view to ensuring that any new IT system for HRM will be fully compatible with the UN’s wider IT proposals.
Finally, the reform of the system of administration of justice is a key part of human resources management reform. We look forward to considering the very interesting report of the redesign panel at the first resumed session in 2007.
Thank you Mr Chairman.