UN in crisis. Guterres announces plan to say goodbye people

UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced on Tuesday that the organization is going through a moment of crisis, and is therefore preparing to cut in budget and jobs.

Antonium Guteres warned of the need to make “difficult and uncomfortable decisions” to face financing crisis that the UN crosses.

At a United Nations Plenary Meeting (UN) to explain the contours of the “UN80 Initiative” -a project that aims to structural changes in the multilateral organization itself -Guterres defended the urgency of fusing units, eliminating functional and structural duplications, and cut into functions that are performed on other parts of the system.

These cuts will allow, for example, eliminate “20% of posts” of the Departments of Political Affairs and Peace Consolidation (DPPA) and peacekeeping operations (DPO) From the United Nations, he explained.

The project foresees a similar exercise of rationalization of the Civil part of the DPO and that all anti -terrorist activities are centralized exclusively in the United Nations Terrorism Office.

In another front, all UN secretariat entities in New York and Geneva has been asked to review their duties to determine if any of them “can be performed at existing lower costs or if it can be reduced or abolished.”

“By moving posts from high -cost places, we can reduce our commercial presence” in certain cities “and reduce our costs,” he said.

Guterres indicated that “considerable savings” have already been made in New York – where the UN headquarters – terminate the lease agreement from a building and transferring employees to other existing facilities.

“We hope close two more buildings When your lease agreements expire em 2027with considerable savings, ”he said.

Although the UN regular budget is the immediate focus of the former Portuguese Prime Minister, efficiency efforts will include “the whole secretariat in all financing flows.”

“We expect significant reductions at the general budgetary level,” he admitted.

UN suffers from Trump cuts

Although the UN workload increases from year to year, resources are decreasing in all sectors, contributing to this that not all Member States pay the annual obligations in full and many do not pay on time either.

Moreover (and perhaps the most sensitive point), the UN was severely affected by Greater donor financing cutsthe United States, after the inauguration of Donald Trump as president, in January.

António Guterres’s initiative comes at the moment the United Nations celebrate their 80th anniversary – and at a time of serious doubts about organization’s ability to work in conflict resolutionin food aid to the most vulnerable or in combating disease, among other aspects.

“The liquidity crisis we face now is not new. But the current financial and political situation adds more urgency to our efforts. We face real threats to the structure, values, principles and sustainability of multilateralism. (…) We have to be up to this moment, ”utiliated the UN leader before the diplomatic corps.