Reforming the United Nations

What are the limits of UN system reform? Recent efforts in governance and institutional reform demonstrate that the hurdles are tremendous. The never-ending Security Council reform resulted in disappointment for hopeful governments. The system-wide coherence initiatives covering environment, gender, and `Delivering as One' at country level provide a sobering picture. Inter-agency coordination on climate change, food security, and the global financial crisis did not result in joint programmes. Instead, new entities have diminished the role of the UN which operates on the OECD principles of `aid effectiveness.' Consolidation and merging of UN mandates and structures appear to be a precondition for coherent and efficient action: A conclusion which dominates this edition of the publication series on `Reforming the United Nations'.

Review:

Like previous volumes, the book can be considered an extremely useful reference tool for researchers and practitioners who want to deal in-depth with UN reform processes. This is not so much because it provides easy access to important primary sources that are all available on the Internet-if you know where to look-it is rather the combination of primary documents, helpful compilation of information on the UN System, and informed analysis that make the book valuable. Silke Weinlich, German Development Institute/Deutsches Institut fur Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), Journal of International Organizations Studies, Volume 2, Issue 1, March 2011.