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UNITED NATIONS, Feb 16 (IPS) – The United Nations is heading in direction of a extreme money disaster forcing the world physique “to implement aggressive money conservation measures to avert a default in assembly the authorized obligations of the Group”.
Secretary-Basic Antonio Guterres has drawn consideration to “the unlucky deteriorating monetary state of affairs of our common funds operations”.
UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq advised IPS that with the intention to guarantee liquidity for paying workers salaries, sure tough steps will probably be essential. Hiring restrictions will must be maintained throughout 2024, he mentioned.
Restrictions in non-post spending will even be vital to bridge the liquidity hole. In consequence, till the state of affairs improves, official journey will must be restricted to essentially the most important actions, he mentioned.
“Purchases of products and providers will probably be postponed, except completely vital. Hiring of consultants and consultants will probably be minimized to the extent possible”.
And most development and upkeep tasks will probably be suspended, besides the place the slowing down of main development tasks would end in important future extra bills.
“We’ll implement energy-saving and different measures to cut back utility payments and curtail bills on managing services. Non-essential safety bills will even be curtailed, so long as they don’t affect the security of our premises, property and of our personnel and delegates,” mentioned Haq.
The disaster is blamed on most member states who’ve both delayed or absconded on their annual dues – known as assessed contributions— to the world physique.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric advised reporters, as of February 15, solely 58 out of 193 Member States have paid in full.
The principle reason behind the liquidity disaster: not all Member States pay their assessments in full. In 2023, the UN collected 82.3 per cent of the yr’s evaluation, the bottom within the final 5 years. Solely 142 Member States paid their dues in full – once more, the bottom within the final 5 years. In consequence, year-end arrears climbed to $859 million, up from $330 million in 2022.
A secondary reason behind the liquidity disaster pertains to a shift within the cost patterns of Member States, together with the unpredictability of each the timing and the quantities of anticipated collections. In 2023, collections trailed estimates all through many of the yr. The UN ended the yr $529 million in need of anticipated collections.
The money crunch can be having a unfavourable affect on Geneva, dwelling to a number of UN companies.
In line with the UN, Geneva homes round 40 worldwide organizations, 180 everlasting missions and greater than 400 NGOs. Along with the UN entities headquartered there, most UN funds, programmes and companies keep regional places of work or liaison places of work there.
Ian Richards, an economist on the Geneva-based UN Convention on Commerce and Improvement (UNCTAD) and former President of the Coordinating Committee of Worldwide Workers Unions and Associations, advised IPS the UN needed to shut its Geneva campus for 3 weeks over Christmas and “we’re advised that additional closures are doubtless”.
“In the meantime some translation workers have been advised they’ll’t take any depart in any respect till August, which we consider is extra a symptom of poor administration. Of nice concern is that workers, primarily younger, with momentary contracts, are being let go,” mentioned Richards.
In his letter to staffers, Guterres mentioned: “We anticipate the common funds liquidity state of affairs to be far tougher in 2024, as we’re beginning with little or no money. To be able to keep away from a cost default all year long, whereas coping with the unpredictability of intra-year collections, our preliminary estimates are that we might want to preserve round $350 million in money by slowing down and lowering spending till we now have certainty that we now have sufficient money to satisfy our obligations every month.”
This implies, “ we must introduce spending restrictions immediately or danger operating out of money by August, together with the liquidity reserves and the excess money of closed tribunals.”
“Defending workers from the liquidity disaster to the utmost extent is a precedence for me. I’ve repeatedly made each effort to take action over time and I can’t relent in doing all the pieces attainable to mitigate any stress on you”.
Nevertheless, the truth is that personnel prices account for greater than 70 per cent of the common funds. To be able to guarantee liquidity for paying workers salaries, sure tough steps will probably be essential. Hiring restrictions will must be maintained throughout 2024.
“I’m keenly conscious that it will have a knock-on impact. Excessive vacancies put an added burden on workers – particularly those that work in entities with excessive emptiness charges. This step is crucial if we’re to have any hope of making certain enough money inflows,” declared Guterres.
In the meantime, in a joint assertion launched early this week, Louis Charbonneau, United Nations Director, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Widad Franco, UN Advocacy Officer, HRW, warned {that a} money crunch and hiring freeze on the United Nations threaten to hinder UN human rights investigations in locations like Sudan, Ukraine, and Syria.
Delegations from China, Russia, Cuba, and others have been attempting for years to defund UN human rights work within the Basic Meeting’s Fifth Committee, which oversees the funds.
Their makes an attempt in December to dam funding for investigations into grave human rights abuses in Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Russia, Nicaragua and elsewhere failed.
The UN management and member international locations, HRW mentioned, ought to make sure that the UN’s human rights groups have funding and workers to meet their mandates. And governments that haven’t paid their assessed contributions ought to pay up.
Guterres has additionally written to Member States to tell them of the state of affairs and to alert them that the UN will probably be pressured to implement aggressive money conservation measures to avert a default in assembly the authorized obligations of the Group.
He additionally reminded them that the last word accountability for our monetary well being rests with Member States, and he inspired them to pay in full and on time.
“I’ve requested related senior managers to interact with Member States and description the potential affect on our capability ship on our mandates, together with help to intergovernmental conferences throughout obligation stations. The Division of Administration Technique, Coverage and Compliance will work with senior managers to assist take care of the affect of those measures. We’ll monitor the money flows rigorously and adapt to the evolving liquidity state of affairs”.
“Member States have been very supportive of my proposals relating to the funds for 2024 and have made optimistic choices on initiatives, comparable to establishing two new places of work for Anti-Racism and for Information Safety, growing funding for core actions of UNRWA, growing sources for improvement and human rights actions and strengthening the Peacebuilding Fund with assessed contributions from 2025”.
Nevertheless, budgets accredited with out sufficient money to execute them undermine the essence of the method, declared Guterres.
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