Introduction
The establishment of the UN organization took place in 1945, but soon after, the necessity of reforms became evident. The UN Secretaries-General have made attempts to implement the necessary reforms, but the more they tried, the more need for constant reforms was encountered. The frequency of reforms in this body represents it as more dynamic due to subjective and diverse reflection of interests. Such diversity primarily contributes to why the association faces difficulties in carrying out reforms (Azam, 2021). Few reforms such as the agenda for peace 1992, Brahimi Report, and freedom initiative by Koffi Annan were implemented, but still, the entity needs to reform the peacekeeping budget and the Peacebuilding Commission among other options.
The organization has struggled with reforms because of the following aspects. First, it is highly decentralized, complex, and multi-faceted, and therefore, the only solution for the members was to work under the concept of agreement (Azam, 2021). Unfortunately, as the Member States, the subjects have never united to support specific goals for reform because they commit to passing contradictory ideas, making any alterations complicated. Secondly, the union encompasses the Member States with deep-seated agreements on political interests. The worldwide interaction involves the poor, the rich, the powerless, and the powerful pursuing specific interests. These are the problems that shape decision-making in the UN, keeping it a divided and contradicted agency (Azam, 2021). Thus, the issues about reforms at the UN stay either unsuccessful or incomplete, and therefore, this term has been considered vague among the Member States. The achievability index is low because reforms in this association are politically capitalized, take time to be implemented, and require patience and resources, which remain unavailable. Regardless of these issues, there is a need to make reforms that when handled, can support the entire firm.
Previous Reforms
There is a record of reforms that have been worked on even if they were not successful. The first one is the agenda for peace 1992, which was elaborated as Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s initiative, which was UN’s, Secretary-General. The Brahimi Report, which was drawn up in 2000, was written by the independent experts’ high commission led by Rahim, an Algerian diplomat. The third reform was considered a freedom initiative submitted by Koffi Annan (Azam, 2021). This report’s main intention was to implement the commitments of this organization as contained in its 2000 Millennium Declaration during the World Summit and to initiate the authorization of missions. The subjects permitting the mission were supposed to use force to ensure the mandate is fulfilled.
The Necessary Reforms
Peacekeeping Budget
The first necessary reform for the UN is the organization’s need to refine the peacekeeping budget. The annual budget is formed from 1st July till 30th June, which needs to be done 12 months in advance. This principle demands every individual government to contribute concerning its salary scale and rank. The problem which has affected for long this reform is that the Member State contributions, which are done compulsorily, are late or fail to reach implementation time. Currently, it is becoming difficult to pay the troop-contributing nations as expected. The UN is presently indebted to the Member States for the sum of USD 3.5 billion (Azam, 2021). Such a scenario forces the UN to refill the annual assessments and other financial resources to settle the gap brought about by this situation. Reform is needed to affect the subjects to ensure funds are supplied to the UN appropriately and without fail to support the smooth running of events.
Peacebuilding Commission
Through the Peacebuilding Commission, the organization can achieve early warning and be empowered to comfortably execute internal monitoring. The peacebuilding center was established in 2010 and has supported the need to ensure a constant flow of information to delegates and missions’ security (Azam, 2021). Through this body, coordination of situational and political information from various sources to the UN’s premises is executed comfortably. This center needs to be active and stable because when a crisis emerges, the agency becomes a facilitator. Therefore, to activate the crisis response mechanism, the organization needs proper coordination (Azam, 2021). Such architecture will only succeed if mediation and prevention capabilities, field mission, and the Secretariat are staffed adequately. It is therefore a recommendation to reform this structure to ensure it can carry out its mandates appropriately by considering proper human resources policy.
My Opinion
The UN’s peacekeeping mission needs to cooperate with the host government, multilateral partners, and bilateral agencies to ensure gender issues are exhaustively addressed. Women’s participation in such issues as reintegration, disarmament, and demobilization is essential since it will not only form a diversified workforce in the UN but also empower women (Azam, 2021). The Suh step would make it easier for the organization to manage any slow implementation and practical which occur as challenging to handle. It is essential to ensure the necessary reforms for this organization are initiated.
In conclusion, apart from the reforms which the UN has tried to handle, such as the agenda for peace 1992, Brahimi Report, and the freedom initiative by Koffi Annan, the performance of the entity still leaves much to be desired. The UN as an agency is confronted with the dilemma of managing its mandate because the union operates in a highly decentralized, complex, and multi-faceted environment. To smoothen its workability power, the organization needs to support peace-support architecture by ensuring it is properly equipped. Besides, host governments, bilateral agencies, multilateral partners, and others need to be included in even decision-making channels.
Reference
Azam, S. (2021). Reform of the United Nations Organization. Inter Press Service News Agency. Web.