FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The United Nations Fifth Committee (administrative and budgetary committee) agreed on a range of issues related to the UN Peacekeeping budget, UN Reform, and oversight during this historic session.

UN Peace and Security

• Adopted a 2018/2019 peacekeeping budget totaling $6.689 billion, representing a 6% reduction inclusive of full-year budget estimates when compared with the total 2017/2018 appropriated figure
  • Promotes responsible budget discipline, streamlining operations where needed, ensured accountability for results, and the principle of value for money across the board in UN peacekeeping
  • Identified efficiencies in peacekeeping missions and reflects expected changes on the ground to the disputed region between Sudan and South Sudan and in Darfur, including mission support functions
  • Provided funding for electoral assistance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Ensured funding for protection of civilians in South Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and Mali
  • Ensured fiscal discipline in the quadrennial troop reimbursement rate discussion (approx. $1 billion annually) by approving a modest increase to the current rate (1.2%)
    • Ensured costs associated with this modest increase are absorbed within the 2018/2019 budget

• Fought back attempts to weaken the UN’s work in the areas of human rights in peacekeeping, both in the field and at Headquarters.

• Ensured that the UN is able to continue to combat sexual exploitation and abuse by resisting attempts to drastically reduce funding for conduct and discipline in the field and at Headquarters.

• Secured funding for key priorities such as special political missions that advance political solutions and address new challenges arising in Afghanistan and Iraq, while ensuring that the funding approved for these missions fit the needs on the ground in an operationally efficient manner and promotes new strategic objectives identified by the Security Council.

UN Reform

• Endorsed a wholesale restructuring of the UN Secretariat responsible for peace and security and management
  • Presents an opportunity to finally bring the UN into the 21st century
  • The first such overhaul of its kind in over 40 years, this reform breaks down silos, simplifies and streamlines the UN’s bureaucracy, and focuses on achieving results
  • Makes the UN a better return on investment not only for U.S. taxpayers, but for the millions of people around the world that rely on the UN for peace, security, and support

• On management reform:
  • Enhances accountability and transparency and fosters decentralized decision-making
  • Creates two new departments at Headquarters to replace two existing and often ineffectual ones
  • Brings the procurement function fully into the end-to-end supply chain management process

• On peace and security reform:
  • Improves the UN’s ability to focus on conflict prevention and peacebuilding in order to advance political solutions from early warning to conflict resolution
  • Improves the UN’s coordination between its political and operational work through the creation of the single political-operational structure
  • Creates two new departments at Headquarters to replace two existing and often ineffectual ones

Oversight / Modernization Initiatives

• Strengthened for the first time the Secretary-General’s investigative capacity to address sexual harassment allegations by creating six new investigators and mandating that the GA will consider the related policies in the fall

• Reaffirmed General Assembly support for the protection for whistleblowers against retaliation, as well as the Organization’s anti-fraud framework

• Revived the initiative to offshore back-office functions (i.e., the Global Service Delivery Model (GSDM)) and mandated that the General Assembly will review a new report in the fall that will refocus the Secretary-General’s proposal on greater efficiencies and effectiveness

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