Ambassador Olara Otunnu Releases Comprehensive Measures for Reforming the United Nations

Olara Otunnu, a candidate for Secretary-General of the United Nations, today released “Reforming the United Nations: No Longer an Option; It Is an Imperative,” a comprehensive set of measures for reforming the UN. The measures are designed to make the UN more focused and more accountable, and to deliver measurable impact on the ground.

Otunnu sets out a detailed program of action across nine areas of intervention: reducing bureaucracy and reviewing senior posts; bringing the UN closer to the people it serves; consolidating administrative functions and advancing digital transformation; reforming UN peace operations; ending major wars; rebuilding consensus on human rights; engaging UN staff; putting Member States in the driving seat of reform; and ensuring the UN reflects the world it serves. It is the most complete statement yet of what he would do as Secretary-General to refocus, restructure and reorganize the UN system.

“Will the United Nations matter in the lives of ordinary people in the years to come?” Otunnu asks. “I believe that the UN can rise to the moment, but only if we are willing to change how it works.” He states, “To confront the crisis and embrace the opportunities of our times, the UN must reform. Without reforms, the organization is at great risk.” He adds, “Reform must become part of the cultural DNA of the UN: a continuous process of assessing priorities, challenging entrenched practices and delivering measurable impact.”

He writes, “From day one, I would use my prerogative as Secretary-General to laser-focus on eliminating duplication and redundancy, strengthening coherence and accountability, and aligning priorities with commensurate resources.”

Otunnu says, “Reform must begin from the top.” Senior management positions so far account for only 3 percent of agreed UN80 cuts; he would immediately review and streamline them. He would also move substantive political, humanitarian and development posts to the regional level. “We must do much more to connect the global UN to the local level, thus increasing the impact of the UN on the lives of ordinary people,” he writes.

Otunnu calls for focused, accountable peace operations and impartial mediation to end major wars. “Ending these deadly conflicts would constitute an immediate and absolute priority for me,” he writes. On human rights, he states, “As Secretary-General, I would invoke the UN Charter and its principles in a completely impartial and non-selective manner.”

“I want to see a United Nations of service and impact, not an organization of power and privilege,” Otunnu writes. Lasting reform, he argues, requires consensus-building, innovative solutions and resolve. In conclusion, Otunnu states, “I bring to the enterprise of UN reform the combination of deep institutional knowledge and an independent outside perspective on the UN.”