Yearbook of the United Nations, 2006. Part 5, Institutional, administrative and budgetary questions. Chapter 1, United Nations restructuring and institutional matters

Abstract

In 2006, the Secretary-General presented further reform proposals aimed at significantly re-orienting the management and operation of the Organization in the execution of its mandates. In a report entitled “Investing in the United Nations: for a stronger Organization worldwide”, the Secretary-General proposed further measures to enable future Secretaries-General to carry out their managerial responsibilities effectively and to make better use of the Organization's managerial and human resources. He also created a High-level Panel on United Nations System-wide Coherence to help find ways to effect a more coherent and effective response to the needs of Member States. In its report entitled “Delivering as one”, the Panel proposed a framework for a unified and coherent UN structure at the country level, with appropriate governance, funding and management arrangements in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and the environment, as well as a number of cross-cutting issues, such as gender equality and human rights. The Secretary-General also presented a report on the review, requested by the 2005 World Summit, of UN mandates, which addressed key challenges in the mandate generation cycle and made recommendations in relation to each of the Organization's programme priorities. The Ad Hoc Working Group on the Revitalization of the Work of the General Assembly continued to identify ways to further enhance the Assembly's role, authority, effectiveness and efficiency. The Open-ended Working Group on the Question of Equitable Representation on and Increase in the Membership of the Security Council considered ways to advance progress on Security Council reform. The Assembly also adopted a number of decisions for strengthening the Economic and Social Council. The Assembly continued its focus on administrative and institutional matters. It resumed its sixtieth session and opened its sixty-first session on 12 September; it also resumed its tenth emergency special session. Two high-level plenary meetings were convened, one on international migration and development (14-15 September) and one on the midterm review of the Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010 (18-19 September). The Assembly admitted Montenegro to membership in the United Nations, bringing the total membership to 192, and granted observer status to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Fund for International Development, the Indian Ocean Commission and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The Security Council held 272 formal meetings to deal with regional conflicts, peacekeeping operations and other issues related to the maintenance of peace and security. The Assembly again took up the issue of expanding the Council's membership. In addition to its organizational and substantive sessions, the Economic and Social Council held a special high-level meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions (the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund), the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.