There is another United Nations reform on the table — the UN80 Initiative. Following the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, the U.N.’s reform agenda has shifted its focus toward appeasing American demands for cost cuts.
The reform has three main components: internal savings, a mandate review that will use artificial intelligence to eliminate redundant tasks, and wider structural reforms. But with a controversial call to eliminate 6,000 jobs — roughly 20% of the U.N. Secretariat — many staff and experts are unconvinced, and they’re worried for their future. They see the initiative as a haphazard effort to achieve savings at the expense of relevance.
With the 80th United Nations General Assembly well and truly underway, two critical questions linger: will the U.N.’s 193 member states endorse these reforms, and if so, will they lead to a more efficient U.N. — or just a smaller one?
About the author
Thomas Cserep
Thomas Cserép is an Associate Editor who manages and oversees Devex's social media presence, coordinates Devex’s audience outreach, and produces the This Week in Global Development podcast. Prior to Devex, he worked as a freelance journalist, with his writings appearing in a variety of publications, including Get Spanish Football News and the magazine of the Hungarian Geographic Society.
