OCHA's move to relocate HQ staff highlights rift over reforms

BRUSSELS — The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is in the process of moving 14% of its headquarters’ staff out of Geneva and New York, citing operational efficiency and costs. The decision has angered the staff council, which says it no longer accepts management’s explanations after years of ongoing restructuring. The latest move impacts about 60 staffers, most of whom will go to The Hague and Istanbul, while the rest will move to regional offices, possibly including those in Panama City, Bangkok, Nairobi, Senegal’s Dakar, and Jordan’s Amman. “An organization that keeps chopping and changing and restructuring itself seems like an organization with a lack of leadership.” --— Ian Richards, president, U.N. Geneva Staff Coordinating Council The move, which began last year and will continue in the coming months, is “in line with the SG’s vision of a more field-focused U.N.,” an OCHA spokesperson told Devex, referring to the organization’s secretary-general. “Decentralization of HQ functions will make OCHA’s services more agile and responsive to our field operations; open up new opportunities and locations for staff to work in the medium- and long-term; and ensure a higher quality of technical support to global operations by bringing them closer to the affected people and the humanitarian partners we serve,” the spokesperson continued. In 2017, OCHA announced that it would reduce spending by at least $20 million and issued 10% budget cuts, resulting in at least 173 staff layoffs and the closure or downsizing of several offices. OCHA’s starting budget in 2019 was $250 million, an increase from the 2018 opening budget of $241 million. The humanitarian response agency receives 5% of its annual budget from the U.N. Secretariat, which faces an ongoing cash crisis. Other U.N. agencies have followed suit with recent reshufflings of staffers. The U.N. Population Fund is undergoing a “phased reduction” of information technology employees based out of its New York headquarters and is shifting 11 professional posts from New York to field locations, according to a progress update issued by UNFPA management this week. The U.N. Development Programme has also been moving some HQ staffers to field locations, which the agency says stems from a desire by management to bring employees closer to the field. Ian Richards, president of the U.N. Geneva Staff Coordinating Council, which represents staff from U.N. entities in Geneva to management, questioned how “splitting up” HQ functions at OCHA could make the agency more agile. “It means everyone who needs to work with each other is now further apart from each other, and getting a decision done becomes ever more complicated,” Richards said. “When we met with staff of OCHA, many of them were scratching their heads to understand the rationale behind this. [OCHA leaders] say they are moving staff to the field, and then they are setting up an office in The Hague. The only field you have in The Hague is fields of tulips. It’s not clear how The Hague is any closer to the field than Geneva or New York.” The OCHA spokesperson, meanwhile, declined to say whether staff members were moved on a voluntary basis or whether those who moved saw pay cuts to reflect lower costs of living in their new locations. Richards said years of restructuring had prompted some staff to quit while leaving others demoralized. “What we’ve seen often in these restructurings is it tends to be about settling scores, about managers using them as a way of getting rid of people they don’t like,” he said. “We don’t really have confidence in anything we are told about the reasons for these restructurings.” There could be more to come. “Decentralization of HQ functions will continue as required, including potentially to other locations deemed appropriate beyond 2020,” the OCHA spokesperson said. “This is not a one-time event, but rather something that OCHA will constantly revisit as they determine the most cost-efficient and operationally effective ways to carry out HQ activities.” Richards described that gradual approach as “crazy.” “If you think that you need to deploy your HQ resources elsewhere, then do a proper review and do it once and for all,” Richards said. “Don’t keep changing and cutting and chopping year after year. That’s not how a healthy organization manages itself. An organization that keeps chopping and changing and restructuring itself seems like an organization with a lack of leadership.” Amy Lieberman contributed reporting to this article.