Funding woes force UN to weigh massive overhaul

Geneva|United Nations: The United Nations is considering a massive overhaul that would merge major departments and shift resources across the globe, according to an internal memo prepared by senior officials tasked with reforming the world body.The high-level review comes as UN agencies scramble to cope with the fallout from US foreign aid cuts under President Donald Trump that have gutted humanitarian agencies.

The six-page document, marked “strictly confidential” and reviewed by Reuters, contains a list of what it terms “suggestions” that would consolidate dozens of UN agencies into four primary departments: peace and security, humanitarian affairs, sustainable development, and human rights.

Under one option, for example, operational aspects of the World Food Programme, the UN children’s agency, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN refugee agency would be merged into a single humanitarian entity, it said.

Consolidation of agencies

The memo contains a range of suggestions, some large, some small, some speculative, which, if all adopted, would represent the most sweeping reforms in decades. It suggests merging the UN AIDS agency into the WHO, and reducing the need for up to six translators at meetings. Another suggestion proposes consolidating the World Trade Organization (WTO)-which is not a UN entity-with UN development agencies.

WTO spokesperson Ismaila Dieng said the body “was established by a separate international agreement and operates independently”.

Global food prices up

Meanwhile, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said global food commodity prices increased in April, driven by higher cereal, meat and dairy product prices that outweighed falls in sugar and vegetable oils.The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in a basket of internationally traded food commodities, averaged 128.3 points in April, up 1% versus the March estimate of 127.1 points.