UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan considers a reporter's question on Monday after unveiling plans for further reform at the United Nations. Photo: Kathy Willens/AP Interactive  • Web Sites: Report of the Secretary-General

United Nations — Acknowledging that the United Nations is bogged down in endless meetings and too many reports, Secretary-General Kofi Annan unveiled a plan on Monday to make the world body more efficient and better focused on the most pressing global problems.

Mr. Annan's second blueprint for UN reform, issued five years after his first such plan, and nine months after he began his second five-year term as Secretary-General, aims to streamline the 190-nation body so its programs better correspond to urgent needs and can show results, he said.

The revamp is not intended to eliminate staff, cut the budget or save money.

If savings result, they will be applied during the next budget cycle where they can do the most good, with a particular emphasis on new information technology and job training, Mr. Annan said in a report to the General Assembly, which controls the UN budget and much of its program activity.

With 15,484 meetings held and 5,879 reports issued — each in six languages — during the latest two-year budget cycle, UN officials say their workload has become so heavy that it has left them little time to carry out their required tasks, let alone reflect on what their organization is doing and how well it is performing.

"The work program of the organization as a whole should be better focused — with fewer but more productive meetings, and fewer but more useful documents," Mr. Annan said.

Regional hubs
He said his reform package is intended to ensure that the greatest emphasis is placed on the economic and social ills — such as extreme poverty, AIDS and educational shortcomings — that weigh most heavily on needy nations.

Other issues, which have acquired new urgency in recent years, also demanded additional attention and resources, he said. Those include fighting terrorism, taming globalization and attempting to prevent conflicts before they become international crises.

As part of the reform plan, the sprawling Department of Public Information will be reorganized over the next three years, with regional hubs replacing the 71 UN information centres now found in major world capitals.

The United Nations' many human-rights bodies also will be better co-ordinated to eliminate duplication and provide maximum support for programs at the country level, the report said.

Mr. Annan also called for personnel reforms to rejuvenate the United Nations' aging work force, improve working conditions and increase staff mobility.

He issued his first reform plan in 1997 at the start of his first term. It had similar goals and led to a number of structural changes in the UN bureaucracy as well as some budgetary and personnel shifts.

But the 190 member-nations demand more from the world body while keeping tight reins on its budget.

Despite the earlier reform plans, officials said, some parts of the organization resisted change, clinging to traditional roles.

Private aid groups continue to complain that in times of crisis, the various UN agencies often compete with one another for increasingly scarce funding, or work at cross purposes rather than agree to divide the work according to which had the most relevant skills.

The United Nations and its various agencies employ some 52,100 people worldwide, including 4,500 at its New York headquarters.

Its budget for the two-year period 2002-2003 is about $2.6-billion (U.S.) for regular operations. Peacekeeping missions are funded separately.