VIII. Results, follow-up and implementation of the recommendations of the joint inspection unit
B. Comments on the report of the secretary-general on implementation of the JIU recommendations
C. Overall analysis of the results and follow-up of the JIU recommendations
72. Follow-up is an active concept and a continuous process that starts immediately after a JIU report is sent out for action (the so-called "blue cover report"). Indeed, this constitutes the most important phase and starting-point for testing the quality and the potential impact of the JIU recommendations.
73. The General Assembly has always been aware of this fact and very keen in stressing the need for the various secretariats of participating organizations and the JIU to develop practical procedures to ascertain compliance with the reporting and follow-up procedures.
74. In its resolution 32/199 of 21 December 1977, the General Assembly decided that the reports of the Secretary-General on implementation of the recommendations of the JIU should provide concise information only with regard to those reports that have been indicated by the Unit to be of interest to the Assembly, one of its Main Committees or its other subsidiary organs. Since then, the Unit has been providing the Secretary-General with such indications.
75. In its decision 46/446 of 20 December 1991, the General Assembly requested the heads of participating organizations and the ACC to observe strictly the time-limit for commenting on JIU reports. In its resolution 44/184 of 19 December 1989, the Assembly invited the JIU to continue to make every possible effort to issue its reports well in advance of meetings of the legislative bodies of its participating organizations to ensure that the comments of the Secretary-General and those of the ACC, where pertinent, are issued in accordance with existing regulations for the timely receipt of documentation.
76. In its resolution 48/221, the General Assembly called upon the JIU to follow up on the implementation of its recommendations and to include the relevant information regularly in its annual reports.
77. Thus it can be seen that the timely presentation of JIU reports and the required comments by the Secretary-General and by individual heads of other participating organizations and/or the ACC, as appropriate, is a common endeavour between the JIU and those bodies.
78. The JIU is committed to meeting this target but sometimes it is difficult for the Unit to abide by the internal timetables for the completion of its reports. One major difficulty faced by the Unit in speeding up the preparation of its reports is obtaining from the various secretariats timely and required information.
79. At its twenty-fourth session, the CPC requested that it be authorized to examine the pertinent reports of the JIU even without the written comments of the Secretary-General if they were not available and added that those comments could be made orally. 5/ In its resolution 39/238 of 18 December 1984, the General Assembly approved the conclusions and other recommendations of the CPC. The General Assembly and other legislative bodies of the participating organizations may wish to decide to proceed in the same way.
80. In a new attempt to respond positively and efficiently to the invitation of the General Assembly, the Unit is taking concrete steps to achieve a punctual and systematic follow-up of its reports and recommendations from an early stage until the full implementation of its recommendations as approved by the legislative organs of participating organizations. Among other measures, the Unit intends to request the concerned heads to provide it with a timetable for the implementation of approved JIU recommendations after they are approved by the concerned legislative bodies. The General Assembly and other legislative bodies of participating organizations may wish to support JIU in this effort.
81. In conformity with the current practice described in paragraph 94 below, the Secretary-General issued a report on 4 November 1994 (A/49/632) on implementation of the recommendations contained in four JIU reports: African Institute for Economic Development and Planning; Assessment of the environmental focus of projects financed by the United Nations Development Programme and other United Nations agencies; Concluding report on the implementation of General Assembly resolution 32/197 on the restructuring of the economic and social sectors of the United Nations system; and Grade overlap.
82. In its 1994 report, the Unit stated that it intended to provide its comments on the Secretary-General reports in an addendum, but taking into account that that report will be considered together with the present one, the Unit has decided to include its comments in the present report.
83. Since the comments of the Secretary-General on the four reports provide a detailed account of what is being done by the United Nations and by other participating organizations concerned, especially the United Nations Development Programme, in implementing the JIU recommendations as approved by the General Assembly and the Unit is satisfied with those accounts, it decided not to make a detailed analysis of each of them this time as has been the past practice.
84. For the past four years, the JIU has been particularly engaged in a process and dialogue designed to improve the substance and results of its work. The objective is to ensure that its limited resources are used to produce reports that make the maximum possible contribution to improving the programmes and performance of the United Nations system. This evolving process has been reflected in each of the most recent JIU annual reports.
(a) The 1991 report 1/ summarized actions being taken to enhance JIU work-programming, particularly through more active consultation with participating organizations and development of a more systematic and long-range programming strategy. It also responded to the General Assembly's request that JIU provide more detailed commentary in its annual reports on the implementation of its recommendations by the United Nations and other participating organizations.
(b) The 1992 report 6/ analysed the significantly different types of impact of JIU reports:
(i) the impact of JIU reports over a decade or longer in such major areas as programme planning and budgeting, development cooperation, conference services, evaluation and personnel matters;
(ii) significant implementation actions taken by organizations in relatively rapid response to some JIU recommendations, particularly in the evaluation, management, budgetary and administrative areas to which the General Assembly had requested that the Unit give greater attention;
(iii) deferred impact, where major JIU recommendations had eventually proven valid, but only after the organizations had moved very slowly to take the necessary corrective actions;
(iv) cost-savings resulting from JIU recommendations, and a review which the Unit had launched to make a quantitative analysis of recent results.
(c) The 1993 report 2/ discussed the establishment of a new longer-range JIU work programme structure divided into the four priority areas: administration and management; operational activities for development; peacekeeping operations and related issues; and humanitarian assistance. It also discussed the analysis of cost-savings contained in JIU reports for the 19851992 period; and, as requested by the General Assembly, the Unit's views and proposals for enhancing its productivity and performance.
(d) The 1994 report 4/ discussed the Unit's ongoing efforts to sharpen the focus of its current and future work programmes on priority issues identified by legislative bodies and secretariats, and the status of measures taken within the JIU to improve its working procedures and methods and enhance the quality of its reports.
85. Several years ago a practice was established that every year the JIU would indicate four of its reports issued three or four years earlier to the Secretary-General for follow-up, obtain summary comments from him concerning follow-up actions taken on its reports and recommendations, and provide brief comments thereon in its annual report.
86. The follow-up of those actions, however, remains unsatisfactory. The lack of objective criteria for selection has proved this practice to be non-operational and restrictive. It ignores the whole interplan of impacts from (a) recommendations which are quickly acted on, (b) those where major action is finally taken, but only after a decade or more, and (c) JIU reports which progressively follow up on needed corrective actions in a major management or programme area with a series of successive studies. Under these circumstances, the Unit has decided to discontinue it because all the recommendations of the JIU, as approved by the General Assembly, must be subjected to a follow-up.
87. The Unit intends to draw on the experience of the past concerning follow-up of reports. Each future JIU annual report will provide the General Assembly and all the participating organizations with a clearer, more comprehensive, coherent and up-to-date follow-up analysis of results that the Unit's reports have achieved and are achieving. The JIU will also relate action on these recent and ongoing reports to the priority directions and topics being developed for future JIU work programmes. In this way, the organizations will be in a better position to understand JIU's activities and contribute their ideas and guidance in order to keep JIU work focused on the priority concerns of Member States.
88. The Unit will seek other measures to improve the process of consideration and implementation of its individual reports by the participating organizations throughout the United Nations system. One such step is to include in the JIU annual reports specific information on delays for submitting comments on individual JIU reports. A table on delays in preparing agency comments was most recently included in the 1991 annual report. In the future, this data will be updated in each annual report until the situation becomes satisfactory.
89. The new results and follow-up chapter being introduced in the present report will be included each year according to the major categories of JIU work. Currently, there are three such categories, as presented below.
90. During its first two decades, the work of the JIU in this area concentrated primarily on programming, budgeting and, subsequently, evaluation issues. The Unit also reviewed areas such as personnel, conference services, control of documentation, and other administrative systems and processes which Member States and the organizations identified as priority concerns.
91. The JIU concentration on programme plans, budgets and evaluation was most intense during the 1970s and early 1980s. Then, as those systems were largely established throughout the United Nations system, this work diminished. In part two of its 1991 annual report, 1/ the Unit reported in some detail on the essential completion and results of its series of more than 20 reports on evaluation methodology, establishment of internal evaluation systems, and specific evaluation of programmes undertaken during the 1976-1991 period. The Inspectors stated that while they would continue evaluation work as requested, they would in future respond more to General Assembly resolutions calling for increased in-depth reviews of management system problems. The result has been a concentration on the three following areas, with continued work in some other requested areas as well:
(a) Accountability, management improvement and oversight;
(b) Information technology;
(c) Human resources management.
92. During the 1985-1990 period, several JIU reports began the transition to a much stronger emphasis on oversight and improvement of management and accountability in the United Nations system. In a 1985 report on the status of internal evaluation in organizations of the United Nations system (see A/41/201), the JIU recommended above all that the organizations develop an integrated and continuous system of performance information and management development to provide managers and legislative bodies with streamlined and up-to-date information on programme results. A 1989 report entitled "Budgeting in organizations of the United Nations system: some comparisons"' (see A/45/130) provided analysis and comprehensive tables on budgeting practices. A 1990 report entitled "Extrabudgetary resources of the United Nations: towards transparency of presentation, management and reporting" (see A/45/797) examined the need for transparency in management and reporting in this area. The Secretariat never provided comments to the General Assembly on this report, but significant reforms have nevertheless been made, as the JIU report had recommended, in the presentation of extrabudgetary resources in Programme Budget Implications (PBIs) and the creation of independent audit functions.
93. Most directly, however, the General Assembly's Fifth Committee expressed very strong dissatisfaction in 1985 with the almost total lack of information provided to it on past Secretariat performance. A 1988 JIU report entitled "Reporting on the performance and results of United Nations programmes: monitoring, evaluation and management review components" (see A/43/124) recommended decisive action to correct the very serious inadequacies of the existing Secretariat monitoring and evaluation reports and to begin to provide regular and analytical reporting on programme results and quality to governing bodies.
94. The General Assembly agreed with the JIU, emphasizing the importance of measuring results against objectives. However, the Secretary-General reported in 1989, in essence, that existing monitoring and evaluation systems were too weak to provide adequate reporting of programme results. In 1991 the General Assembly requested the ACABQ and the CPC to reconsider the JIU report. They joined the JIU in criticizing the lack of improvement in analytical reporting and urged a "change of culture" within the Secretariat. However, a 1991 report of the Secretary-General proposed no major changes. In fact, it emphasized that reporting on programme quality would "remain outside the scope" of Secretariat monitoring of programme performance.
95. In 1992 the Secretariat finally acknowledged that evaluation was "a somewhat sickly child". The CPC also called for more analysis of implementation instead of "output-counting" monitoring reports, and for strengthened individual accountability through United Nations programmes. Those matters have subsequently been pursued with demands by the CPC and then the General Assembly in December 1993 that the Secretariat install a new system of "accountability and responsibility" by 1 January 1995, and further pursued by JIU, as discussed below.
96. A two-part JIU report on United Nations system cooperation with multilateral financial institutions 7/ concentrated on the performance and innovation challenges involved in closer operational work with those institutions. The Inspectors concluded that organizations will indeed find partners, even in the highly competitive international development area, if they have high-quality programmes and can deliver them promptly and efficiently. JIU identified ten key success factors, such as a strategic approach, identifying a "niche'' of comparative advantage, and quality control. The Inspectors urged organizations to develop much more creative, responsive and performance-oriented programmes and to have much better performance reporting to their legislative bodies. The organizations' response acknowledged those points, but argued that JIU had not fully reflected their recent actions (omitting the fact that their joint comments were not issued until 16 months after the JIU report was published). In May 1993, the CPC commended the JIU report and its strong emphasis on high-quality performance to the organizations of the system.
97. Also in 1993, to respond to all the above concerns the JIU began a broad-scale review of accountability, management improvement and oversight processes throughout the United Nations system. As part of this process, the Inspectors issued an interim report on accountability and oversight in the United Nations Secretariat (see A/48/420), which identified serious weaknesses in the small internal oversight units and in other Secretariat accountability and oversight processes as well. The Inspectors recommended that a single, consolidated oversight unit be established, which the Secretary-General did in August 1993. (In 1994, this transitional unit was established by the General Assembly as a new Office of Internal Oversight Services, following most of the modalities proposed by the JIU for this new office.) In addition, the General Assembly, in resolution 48/218, of 23 December 1993, on management improvement regretted the lack of responsiveness of the Secretary-General's report on accountability and responsibility, noted with appreciation the above JIU report, and called for the establishment of a "transparent and effective system of accountability and responsibility" in the United Nations by 1 January 1995, as recommended by the CPC.
98. The JIU issued its first comprehensive survey in 1995 in a two-part report entitled "Accountability, management improvement and oversight in the United Nations system: Part I, Overview and analysis; Part II, Comparative tables (see A/50/503 and Add.1). Part II of this report includes detailed tables summarizing the recent actions and reforms of 39 different organizations in 13 major subject areas. Part I analyses patterns, problems and developments in the following major management areas of the system:
- internal oversight units;
- management systems (internal controls and information technology);
- human resources management (management development and training, management improvement programmes);
- strategic planning and performance management: the integrated management of change;
- inter-agency activities;
- external system-wide oversight bodies; and
- oversight governing bodies: oversight activities, reporting and external review.
99. The Unit regards the report not only as a comprehensive "baseline survey" of present activities and plans of organizations throughout the system for use by secretariats and governing bodies, but also as an important input for future JIU work, as in the key areas of information technology and human resources management discussed below.
100. Finally, JIU is completing for the General Assembly's fiftieth session a report on progress in installing the new management systems in the United Nations. At the Assembly's forty-ninth session, the Secretariat provided two reports outlining planned new systems and reforms: the 1995 report will follow up on accomplishments and gaps in installing those new system components, as well as the challenges posed in determining exactly who the "United Nations managers" are, by the "downsizing" of system organizations, and by the continuing need to establish much stronger reporting to the General Assembly on programme performance and results, which JIU raised in its 1988 report and which is still very much lacking.
101. Recent related JIU reports and notes, namely, the note on transport operations of the United Nations Children's Fund (programming and management issues); 8/ the report on management of buildings in the United Nations system (see A/49/560); and the report entitled "Analysis of cost-savings from JIU reports, 1985-1992" (see A/48/606); already discussed above (pare. 40) could also be regarded as important managerial tools for the secretariats concerned.
102. The JIU is currently carrying out investigations on common services of the United Nations in New York and on the management-staff union relationship in the United Nations system and has included in its work programme for 1995-1996 inspection of common services in Geneva and investigation of the efforts to streamline United Nations activities and of contracting out in the United Nations system. All these reviews should be regarded as an effort aimed at providing an integrated and coordinated follow-up in the area of administration and management.
103. The JIU included in its 1995 work programme inspection of the United Nations Access Control System (Card Access System). However, aware that the OIOS was conducting an investigation on the same subject, the Unit decided to wait for the pertinent information. The OIOS promised the Unit to put at its disposal the outcome of its investigation, but it has not yet been received.
104. A 1985 JIU report entitled "The changing use of computers in organizations of the United Nations system in Geneva: management issues" (see A/40/410) called especially on the urgent need to develop and exploit the potentials of computer systems. The JIU 1995 system-wide survey report identified information technology as a key recent development, together with human resources management, of great significance for the United Nations system. In its 19951996 work programme, the Unit has envisaged an investigation of the use of information technology in the United Nations system. This new broad-scale study will not only review the key elements of information technology use throughout the United Nations system but also will identify many important substantive and management aspects of the effective use of these powerful new tools and systems, discuss their potential advantages and disadvantages and propose alternatives for potential common use at system level.
105. The JIU reports entitled "Problems of storage and its costs in organizations of the United Nations system" (see A/41/806 and Corr.1 and A/42/724 and Corr.1) and, especially, "From the optical disc pilot project at the United Nations Office at Geneva to an optical disc system for the United Nations'' (see A/44/684) discussed large applications and cost-savings now emerging in the system despite slow implementation. The Unit considers that the United Nations Secretariat should speed up the application of this new technological information system, thus systematically replacing other more costly services like facsimile.
106. In 1992 the JIU issued a report entitled ''Towards an integrated library network of the United Nations system" (see A/47/669).
107. A 1995 report entitled ''A review of telecommunications and related information technologies in the United Nations system" 9/ followed the reports of 1972 and 1982 and has been an important contribution to the current debate on this important matter. Several user agencies have praised the JIU for this report. The comments of the ACC on this report have not yet been issued.
108. JIU work on personnel matters goes back to a 1971 report entitled "Summary of the report on personnel problems in the United Nations (professional category and above)" (A/8454). The 1995 system-wide report identifies the area of human resources management as a second key development in improving management in the United Nations system (see A/50/503 and Add.1).
109. The 1994 report entitled "Advancement of the status of women in the United Nations Secretariat in an era of 'human resources management, and 'accountability': a new beginning?" (see A/49/176) illustrated the critical importance of good human resources management. The recommendation on human resources strategy and a new planning unit has already been endorsed by the General Assembly and is being introduced, as well as a new strategy for the advancement of women. In addition, the 1995 system-wide report entitled "The advancement of women through and in the programmes of the United Nations system: what happens after the Fourth World Conference on Women " (see A/50/509) contains an analysis of important new human resource issues which the organizations need to address, such as mobility, work/family, counselling and communication, sexual harassment and codes of conduct.
110. The 1994 JIU report entitled "Towards a new system of performance appraisal in the United Nations Secretariat: requirements for successful implementation" (see A/49/219) noted stronger new appraisal systems elsewhere in the United Nations system; investigated and confirmed the seriously defective United Nations system which exists; and identified key elements needed if the new performance appraisal system is to be successfully installed and in full formal use by 1997. The report also noted recurring cost-savings amounting to millions of dollars which could be obtained by not routinely awarding salary step increases each year to staff whom the new performance appraisal systems identify as sub-standard performers.
111. A JIU inspection led to the issuance in January 1995 of part I of a report entitled "Inspection of the application of United Nations recruitment, placement and promotion policies" (see A/49/845). All the recommendations were specifically endorsed by the General Assembly at its forty-ninth session; although it is too early to determine specific results, it is expected that their implementation by the United Nations Secretariat will improve the situation in this important area. In its 1995 work programme, the JIU included part II (placement and promotion) of this inspection.
112. Upon a request from the UNESCO secretariat, the Unit is carrying out a closely related system-wide evaluation of comparative methods of geographical distribution of posts in the various secretariats. The Unit hopes that this review will contribute to the current debate on this matter.
113. Other reports on the rotation of staff within the United Nations (see A/46/326), on grade overlap (see A/47/140) and on advantages and disadvantages of the post classification system (see A/47/168) have proved to very useful tools for staff administration and management.
114. Because operational activities for development continue to claim a substantial portion of the financial and human resources of the JIU's participating organizations, the Unit has maintained and recently expanded its inspection and evaluation coverage of the economic, social and related sectors of the United Nations development system.
115. The central objective of the Unit in this major area of its work has been to assist the organizations in devising more cost-effective strategies and institutional arrangements for building the self-reliant or sustainable development capacities of the developing countries. To that end, the JIU has, since its inception, issued numerous reports and made recommendations on specific themes of development cooperation, such as rationalization and coordination of the system's operations at country level, harmonization of programme and budget cycles and programme support procedures, common premises and services in the field, decentralization to the operational level, and government (national) execution of projects.
116. The Unit's progressive emphasis on these themes over the years has formed the core substance of legislative directives for the operational activities for development of the organizations, as illustrated more comprehensively by the General Assembly in its resolutions 44/211 of 22 December 1989 and 47/199 of 22 December 1992.
117. In the past several years the Unit has intensified its inspection and evaluation of the development cooperation activities of the organizations by issuing, between 1990 and 1994, some 20 reports containing over 100 recommendations. Twelve (60 per cent) of those reports were of system-wide scope or of direct concern to all the participating organizations of the Unit, while eight were of specific interest to individual organizations of the system. Because of the lack of systematic reporting on follow-up actions on JIU reports and recommendations, the Unit has still to develop a comprehensive picture of the aggregate results and impact of its more recent work in development cooperation.
118. None the less, most of the reports issued by the Unit since 1990 have generally received favourable reviews by legislative bodies of the system. A number of reports either contributed directly to enhance operational efficiency and cost-savings in programme operations or identified areas where improved redesign of policies and systems could sharpen the effectiveness of technical cooperation programmes.
119. Examples of such reports include the 1991 JIU note on transport operations of the United Nations Children's Fund, 8/ which enabled UNICEF to achieve recurrent annual cost-savings in the order of US$ 15 million; a report entitled "A forward-looking assessment of the technical cooperation programme of the International Civil Aviation Organization, 10/ which made a significant contribution to the reorganization and strengthening of ICAO's technical cooperation programme; or the two-part report on decentralization of organizations within the United Nations system (see A/48/78) which, inter alia, has contributed to concrete actions in some specialized agencies, especially FAO, IMO, ITU, UNESCO, UNIDO and UPU; those agencies have reorganized or reinforced their field presence in accordance with the report's main recommendations.
120. Increased institutional collaboration among partners in development cooperation in their support of the developing countries has been another major theme of the Unit's reports since 1990. Foremost in this vein was the two-part report on United Nations system cooperation with multilateral financial institutions, 7/ which urged the organizations of the system to foster creativity, competitiveness, programme responsiveness and sustained performance improvement to enable them to collaborate more effectively with the multilateral financial institutions. The ILO is cited in the report for its cooperation with the multilateral financial institutions. Recent trends in the development of cooperative relationships between these two groups of development partners, especially in the field, are in line with the main recommendations of the report.
121. Similarly, the report entitled "Working with non-governmental organizations: operational activities for development of the United Nations system with non-governmental organizations and Governments at the grass-roots and national levels" (see A/49/122-E/1994/44) has contributed to heightened awareness within the United Nations system of the potential benefits for the developing countries of expanded collaboration between the organizations of the United Nations system and non-governmental organizations at the grass-roots and national levels in order to enable the organizations to reach out more directly to the millions of rural people who have been largely left behind by existing development programmes supported by the system.
122. Recent JIU reports have equally emphasized the efficiency and cost-savings benefits of more streamlined and cohesive institutional arrangements at the country level, especially through a more unitary approach to field representation of United Nations system organizations (see A/49/133-E/1994/49) or through the implementation of a world-wide programme of United Nations system common premises and services in the field (see A/49/629), the aggregate cost-savings of which could be substantial.
123. The Unit decided to undertake a three-part review to assess United Nations system-wide cooperation in science and technology for development in the developing countries. The Unit has completed its reviews regarding Asia and Africa and intends to initiate the review concerning Latin America and the Caribbean region. At its 1995 substantive session, the Economic and Social Council praised the report regarding Africa (see A/50/125-E/1995/19) and took note of it.
124. The report on the coordination of activities related to early warning of possible refugee flows (see A/45/649 and Corr.1) was the first issued by JIU in this area. One of the main conclusions of the report was the necessity of introducing early warning as a regular component of work in the United Nations in a coordinated manner, by making use of existing structures and designating a control focal point within the United Nations system for monitoring factors related to refugee flows and by establishing an inter-agency consultative mechanism. The General Assembly, in its resolution 46/127 of 17 December 1991, endorsed the relevant JIU recommendations. Within the framework of implementation, a post of emergency relief coordinator was created and an interagency working group on early warning of refugees and displaced persons was set up.
125. In the note entitled "Some proposals for improving the peace-keeping operations of the United Nations", 11/ JIU, in a selective analysis, addressed certain managerial and financial problems, as well as those related to the contribution of troops. As a result, the Unit made a number of proposals to the Secretary-General for improvement in each of those areas. Financial issues related to peace-keeping operations were further pursued in the "Note on an Agenda for Peace: some reflections on chapter XI - financing''. 12/
126. The report on staffing of the United Nations peace-keeping and related missions (civilian component) (see A/48/421) analysed the functioning of the different departments and units of the United Nations Secretariat in managing peace-keeping operations and the extent of interdepartmental coordination and cooperation and organizational structures and functions, both at Headquarters and in the field, with a view to having more coherent and consolidated management, avoiding duplication, enhancing coordination and sharpening the process of early warning, planning, deployment, and monitoring and evaluation. It also looked into measures recommended and/or adopted by the Secretariat to improve its management. The report was favourably commented upon by the Secretary-General (see A/48/421/Add.1). Some of its recommendations have already been implemented. The report was also considered in the Fifth and Special Political Committees at the forty-eighth session of the General Assembly and was referred to in resolution 48/42, adopted by the Assembly on 10 December 1993. Following an in-depth discussion of the report, the CPC expressed appreciation for its timeliness and agreement with the diagnosis of the imperfections in the civilian component of the staffing of United Nations peace-keeping and related missions. The CPC also expressed satisfaction that some of the recommendations made by the Inspectors in the report had already been implemented.
127. Concerned with the increasing United Nations burden in peace-keeping operations, JIU produced a report on sharing responsibilities in peace-keeping: the United Nations and regional organizations (see A/50/571). The report put forward findings and recommendations on cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations in the maintenance of peace and security. Its objective is to contribute to the current efforts to increase the involvement of regional organizations in collective security, in the hope that this would ease the burden on the United Nations.
128. A report entitled "Investigation of the relationship between humanitarian assistance and peace-keeping operations" (see A/50/572) focuses primarily on how to improve and make effective the mechanisms for cooperation and coordination both at Headquarters and field levels among the different actors in complex emergencies. It explores the possibility and feasibility of reviewing and formulating rules of conduct (guidelines) of agencies participating in complex situations, bearing in mind their competence, priorities, the new demands on peace-keeping and humanitarian assistance, with full respect for the principles of independence, neutrality, humanity and impartiality in international and internal conflicts. Some emblematic cases of complex operations are examined to draw lessons from both past successes and negative experiences. The protection and security of United Nations personnel are also addressed.
129. The concerns and interests expressed by Member States are being followed by JIU in the following ongoing studies:
(a) A report on the involvement of the United Nations system in providing and coordinating humanitarian assistance aims (i) to look at the progress and problems of United Nations coordination mechanisms for humanitarian assistance, its overall stand-by capacity, operational and organizational mechanisms, and its planning and preparedness techniques in handling complex emergencies; and (ii) to shed light on the major areas in which humanitarian operations can be further improved. The recommendations include action to further shift from the fragmented approach to emergency response and consolidate comprehensive frameworks for operations in the field, with lateral cooperation at Headquarters, in the field and between the two.
(b) The Unit is also conducting a review on strengthening the United Nations system capacity for conflict prevention. The report aims (i) to review the past and current, activities and capacities of the United Nations system in dealing with conflicts and (ii) to highlight the importance of conflict prevention on the basis of a comprehensive approach to conflict prevention which would include addressing root causes of conflicts, upgrading the United Nations capacity in preventive diplomacy as well as active involvement of all actors. The recommendations contain concrete proposals for action to be taken by Member States and the Secretary-General and at the inter-agency level in order to strengthen the capacity of the United Nations system for conflict prevention.
(c) The report on the military component of United Nations peace-keeping operations complements and builds upon the previous JIU study on the civilian component. Through examination of a number of issues, the Inspectors hope to contribute to current efforts to improve the capability of the United Nations in planning and managing the military component of peace operations. Thus, the Inspectors examine and deal with three broad issues. The first is the managerial aspects of mandates for peace-keeping, emphasizing the importance of consultations among members of the Security Council, troop-contributing countries and the Secretariat, as well as the importance of unity of command and control. The second is the availability of troops and equipment and their readiness and timely deployment. Within this context, some of the ongoing efforts to improve the effectiveness of peace-keeping operations are discussed, namely: rapid-reaction force, stand-by arrangements, rapid-reaction capability and other related issues such as rotation of troops, safety and security of personnel, death and disability benefits and reimbursements for equipment. The third issue is the capacity of the United Nations Secretariat to manage peacekeeping operations. It deals with the functioning and recent restructuring of different departments, especially the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, concentrating on elements such as planning, legal arrangements, training, information and logistic support services. The importance of communication and coordination within Headquarters and the field and between them is also discussed. The recommendations follow up on these issues in detail.
Notes
1/ Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-sixth Session, Supplement No. 34 (A/46/34).
2/ Ibid., Forty-eighth Session. Supplement No. 34 (A/48/34).
3/ Ibid., Fiftieth Session. Supplement No. 7 (A/50/7), part IX.B.
4/ Ibid., Forty-ninth Session. Supplement No. 34 (A/49/34).
5/ Ibid., Thirty-ninth Session, Supplement No. 3 (A/39/38), pare. 387.
6/ Ibid., Forty-seventh Session. Supplement No. 34 (A/47/34).
7/ E/1993/18 and Add.1.
8/ JIU/NOTE/91/1.
9/ JIU/REP/95/3.
10/ JIU/REP/92/3.
11/ JIU/NOTE/92/1.
12/ JIU/NOTE/93/1.
