UN Secretariat and Secretary General

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From the course by University of Geneva

International Organizations Management

28 ratings

University of Geneva

International Organizations Management

28 ratings

This course provides an introduction to International Organizations and the United Nations, and explores how business and management tools can be applied in these settings to achieve better, more effective results. With a focus on cross-sector partnerships in a changing world, the course offers you insights into the inner workings of international organizations and the challenges they face today. It will introduce you to effective, state-of-the art management tools and principles to help you lead change in this world – taught by senior staff of international organizations themselves. This is an introductory course offered by the International Organizations MBA (IO-MBA) of the University of Geneva, an executive program for change-makers in international organizations, NGOs and social ventures.

From the lesson

Introduction to International Organizations

In the first module of our course on International Organizations Management, we provide an overview of the historical context and different ways of classifying international organizations in today's contemporary world. We will focus in particular on the United Nations – its origins, purposes, mandate, structure and activities – as the most important inter-governmental organization that coordinates global action on peace and security, humanitarian protection, human rights, and economic and social development.

The UN Security Council6:30

ECOSOC and the Sustainable Development Goals10:23

UN Secretariat and Secretary General14:40

Meet the Instructors

Gilbert Probst
Professor, Organization and Management
Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences
Sebastian Buckup
Visiting professor
International Organizations MBA
Bruce Jenks
Visiting professor
International Organizations MBA
Stephan Mergenthaler
Visiting professor
International Organizations MBA
Cassandra Quintanilla
Teaching and research assistant
International Organizations MBA
Lea Stadtler
Research Fellow
Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences
Claudia Gonzalez Romo
Visiting professor
International Organizations MBA
Julian Fleet
Visiting professor
International Organizations MBA
Tina Ambos
Academic Director of the International Organizations MBA
Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences

[MUSIC]

Welcome back as we now wrap up with our last segment

of this Introduction to International Organizations.

We've so far focused on the first three organs of the UN.

The Security Council, the General Assembly, and the Economic and

Social Council.

Time does not permit us to delve into the fourth and

fifth organs of the UN according to the charter.

The Trusteeship Council which anyways now defunct.

And the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Netherlands, but

you can read about these.

Let us now consider, very briefly, the sixth major organ of the United Nations.

One that is crucial but often overlooked as a separate organ, the UN Secretariat.

The Secretariat consists of the Secretary General and

his office, along with the Deputy Secretary General,

a Chief of Staff, and Assistant Secretary General for Strategic Coordination.

But the Secretariat also includes some 40,000

staff in UN duty stations all around the world.

From New York, to Geneva, to Vienna, to Nairobi, New Delhi, Bangkok,

Manila and back again to the Americas with Panama City.

It is important to note that this figure is for the UN Secretariat alone and

does not include staff in individual UN agencies, funds, and programs.

For example, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR,

has more than 10,000 people working in its headquarters in Geneva and

in capital cities and remote locations helping refugees all around the world.

All UN staff in and outside the Secretariat are international

civil servants and are bound by a code of conduct specific to them.

UN staff are to be recruited from a broad geographic base and are promoted or

advanced over time on the basis of performance or merit along with seniority.

The Secretariat is organized into offices and departments including, as I mentioned,

the Secretary General's own Office on the 38th floor of the UN in New York.

I mention this 38th floor not so much for trivia, but

because in the halls of the UN and all around the world in UN offices,

you hear people referring to the Secretary General and

his immediate collaborators as quote unquote, the 38th floor.

The current Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, began his first

five year term of office in January 2017.

He had previously served for ten years as UN High Commissioner for

Refugees and before that, was the prime minister of Portugal.

The structure of the Secretariat includes also, as I mentioned,

offices and departments.

The Office of Legal Affairs, OLA,

the Departments of Political Affairs DPA, of Economic and

Social Affairs known as ESA, and the important Department of Management.

It includes also the Department of Peacekeeping Operations,

the blue helmets of the United Nations DPKO, Disarmament Affairs,

and the Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs among others.

Each of these entities is headed by an undersecretary general.

The Secretariat is also responsible for gathering data, statistical studies,

issuing studies and reports, servicing meetings, preparing documentation.

And translating and interpreting speeches and

documents into the six official languages of the United Nations,

Arabic, Chinese, English, French Russian and Spanish.

Now, it's been said, and

this was said by a former general in the Peacekeeping Operations,

that you can have lots of resources but without leadership, nothing happens.

Well, I think that's true but I also think the converse is true.

If you don't have the necessary human and financial resources to carry out your

work, it's very hard to make a difference in today's world.

The United Nations budget is the subject of Article 17 of the chapter.

And this really is the one area in which

the UN General Assembly has deep substantive power.

According to Article 17, the General Assembly quote,

shall consider and approve the budget of the Organization.

The expenses of the Organization are to be borne by

the Member States according to the charter as apportioned by the General Assembly.

The GA is also charged with examining and

making recommendations regarding the budgets of the UN Specialized Agencies.

Member states that are in arrears on their contributions for

two years can be sanctioned.

In fact, Article 17 states this in mandatory terms, quote,

that if they don't pay for two years, they shall have no vote, end quote.

So what would you imagine is the size

of the United Nations regular biannual budget.

The budget for the two year periods are adopted

by resolutions of the General Assembly and

are in the order of more than $5.5 billion.

Now with so-called extra budgeting spending,

however, this amount can be twice that in any given year.

And we should recall too that these figures do not include

the budgets of major UN agencies and programs.

For example the United Nations Development Program, the UN Refugee Agency,

the World Food Program or take the World Health Organization.

Each of which has its own budget, amounting to billions of dollars.

According to the Scale of Assessments, and this is a formula passed by

the General Assembly, about two-thirds of the UN assessed budget

is contributed by only 9 of the 193 UN Member States.

These 9 are the United States, followed by Japan, Germany,

France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, China, and Brazil.

In closing our discussion of the United Nations, let me say a word

about my former colleagues in the International Civil Service.

Who serve, quote, we the peoples of the United Nations, end quote,

in headquarters, in capital cities, and in duty stations all around the world.

Article 100 of the Charter says that UN staff quote,

shall not seek or receive instructions from any government or

from any other authority.

In turn, each member state quote, undertakes to respect the exclusively

international character of the Secretary General and the staff and

not to seek to influence them in the discharge of their responsibilities.

Of course in reality, in the rough and tumble ways of international diplomacy,

the interaction between UN Member States and

the UN Secretariat is all about people influencing each other,

and in both directions.

But this independence of the UN Staff of the International Civil Service,

is a key tenet set out in the UN Charter.

For their part, UN staff must comport themselves in a manner that complies

with a formal, written code of conduct, which I had to sign and

they all have to sign when they join the organization.

Let me quote from this code because it brings back what we talked about earlier

in our earlier segments in the preamble of the UN Charter.

This code states quote,

the values that are enshrined in the United Nations Organizations must also

be those that guide International Civil Servants in all their actions.

Fundamental human rights, social justice, the dignity,

and worth of the human person, and respect for the equal rights of men and

women and nations large and small.

We know that there can be and there have been lapses,

but these are the standards to which the vast majority

of the colleagues live up as they conduct their work for the United Nations.

Now let me say also we know too that the United Nations, for

all its good work, can be strengthened, it can be streamlined.

When asked by a journalist what keeps him up at night, Secretary General Guterres

gave a very simple, in fact, one word answer.

Bureaucracy, he replied.

So the Secretary General and his colleagues in close collaboration with

UN Member States have embarked on an ambitious and far reaching reform agenda.

Their agenda includes a new strategy to end sexual exploitation and abused.

A plan to achieve gender parity in the UN

to protect whistleblowers and to strengthen counter-terrorism structures.

To reform the peace and security architecture.

To help the UN be stronger in preventing and mediating conflicts and

more effective in it's peace keeping operations.

A strengthened and refocused UN development systems

to be more field focused and accountable in a assisting countries to

achieve the goals of the 2030 development agenda.

And to realize what the Secretary General has called quote, fair globalization.

And finally, as all Secretaries General have done and

have aspired to do, management reform, to simplify the bureaucracy,

to simplify the procedures and decentralized decision making.

This then ends our Introduction to International Organizations.

But whether you are already working in an International Organization or

you aspire to work in one or you're simply interested in

learning more about them I would encourage you to pick one.

Chose your favorite subject pick your agency and

go on their website take a look at it's legal mandate,

it's legal constitutive document establishing it's existence.

For example the Statute of the UN Refugee Agency and the UN Refugee Law Treaties

that the High Commissioner is legally charged with monitoring and applying.

Or for example the Constitution of the World Health Organization,

both the UNHCR and the WHO documents as well as

those of other organizations are available in our readings as examples.

Take a look at these, go on their websites and

develop a deeper understanding of what they do day-to-day

trying to make a difference in people's lives all around the world.

Then draft, write up and

share a short paragraph about the organization you choose.

Why you chose it?

And what you've learned about their work.

You can then share this information using the discussion prompt

included in this segment.

This way we can help each other learn about the scope and

variety of UN Agencies and International Organizations

by exploring the topics most interesting to you and your fellow learners.

With that, I conclude by thanking you for your attention.

And I wish you all the best in your continuing exploration of the exciting,

interesting, and important world of International Organizations.

Thank you.

[MUSIC]

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