Page 281 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

Bringing the Concept to Life

regular budget by the year 2002, with the corresponding savings turned into a
“dividend for development”. On the personnel front, approximately 1,000
posts system-wide were gradually left vacant or frozen during the 1996-1997
biennium. A similar number is now proposed for abolition in the context of the
1998-1999 biennium. Documentation will be reduced by yet another 25 per
cent, a move made possible by a greater reliance on new technologies.

The reform effort is now well under way at the United Nations, but its
successful outcome is being threatened by the severe financial crisis which
plagues the Organization. Although Member States are expected to pay their
contribution to the UN budhget in full, in time and without conditions, major
contributing nations have allowed substantial arrears to accumulate, thus
jeopardizing the ability of the Organization to deliver its mandates. Reform
proposals addressed this problem and included provisions to restore the
solvency of the United Nations through the creation of a “Revolving Credit
Fund” to be sustained by voluntary contributions of Member States. The
matter is now under consideration in a high-level working group of the General
Assembly.

Having set the global picture as presently stands, I would now like to focus
on the specificity of UNOG and the impact of the reform here in Geneva.

The United Nations Office at Geneva is the largest and most active centre
for conference diplomacy in the world and the site of many historic
negotiations. Some 25,000 delegates attend meetings at the Palais every year.
Last year UNOG serviced more than 7,600 meetings, translated more than
146,000 pages of documentation into the six official languages, reproduced 290
million pages and distributed 17 million documents. UNOG has a solid and
well developed infrastructure which enables it to properly handle any meeting
or conference regardless of its scale or time constraints. For example, the recent
meeting of the Permanent Five in the Palais which started at 2 a.m. was
prepared within 10 hours notice.

The process of reform at UNOG, which had already begun in 1994-1995,
reached its full momentum in response to a General Assembly resolution on
the 1996-1997 budget which required overall savings of 8154 million, of which
some US$ 36 million was expected from all entities administratively supported
by UNOG. The amount of savings for UNOG itself was US$ 20 million, of
which the Division of Administration accounted for US$ 7.3 million and the
Conference Services Division US$ 11.6 million. Clearly, the brunt of this

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