From Dame Margaret J. Anstee.
Sir, I should like to support the call in P.B.W. Rayment's letter ("UN seen as international equivalent of House of Lords on top jobs", February 3-4) for radical reform of the procedures for appointing top United Nations officials.
This issue has been raised many times by Sir Brian Urquhart, the former highly respected undersecretary-general (who, like me, was not a political appointee but rose through the ranks) and by others.
I would only add that these earlier proposals specified that such reforms should also be applied to the highest posts of all, those of the UN secretary-general and the heads of specialised agencies and other principal UN organisations.
Mr Rayment rightly points out that this aspect is barely mentioned in official reports on UN reform, perhaps because it is politically too hot to handle, given member states' predilection for the present system as a means of exercising influence within the secretariat. Yet better selection procedures, properly devised, could be applied without detriment to the overall balance of geographical representation, and the organisation's improved effectiveness would benefit all member states.
Mr Rayment suggests that Gordon Brown, the chancellor, should address this issue, given his declared intention of giving priority to the reform of UN institutions. I hope he will also do so in the light of his recent role as a member of the former secretary-general's high-level panel on UN system-wide coherence in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and the environment.
This latest report on major UN reform, published last November and entitled Delivering as One, contains important recommendations that, if implemented, would do much to correct current deficiencies. Most are not new. Indeed, the general thrust of the report echoes the themes of the seminal Report on the Capacity of the UN Development System, prepared in 1968 under the leadership of the late Sir Robert Jackson.
Why were those recommendations not implemented 40 years ago? The reason lies in the entrenched vested interests of governments and of UN organisations and agencies, which saw their national, bureaucratic and personal fiefdoms threatened by the proposed changes.
Those same forces will militate against the implementation of these latest proposals, and of any major reforms, unless there is a concerted effort by key governments of both developed and developing countries to generate the collective political will and commitment to see them through, including a radical change in the selection of the top management of the UN system. None of this will happen without effective leadership and I greatly hope that Mr Brown will take up this challenge.
Margaret J. Anstee,
Knill, Powys LD8 2PR
(Former UN Undersecretary-General)
