The present document is an advance and shortened version of the report of the Secretary-General on the work of the Organization, which will be issued in final form as Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-first Session, Supplement No. 1 (A/51/1).

October 1996

The fiftieth session of the General Assembly was marked by the largest ever gathering of world leaders during a three-day special commemorative meeting, at which Member States and observers adopted the Declaration on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations. Some 200 speakers -- 91 Heads of State, 8 vice-presidents, 1 crown prince, 37 prime ministers, 10 deputy prime ministers, 21 foreign ministers, 9 chairman of delegations and 23 observers -- reaffirmed their commitment to the Charter of the United Nations, expressed gratitude to those who have served the Organization, determined that the United Nations of the future would work with renewed vigour and effectiveness, and pledged to give the twenty-first century a United Nations equipped, financed and structured to serve its peoples.

The General Assembly, its General Committee and Main Committees held 393 meetings during the fiftieth session, compared with 384 during the forty-ninth; informal meetings and consultations totalled 296, versus 266 during the forty-ninth session; and the working groups of the Assembly held 292 meetings, compared with 163 during the previous session. As at 25 July 1996, the Assembly had adopted 321 resolutions during the fiftieth session, compared with 328 during the forty-ninth.

The open-ended working groups of the General Assembly -- on an Agenda for Peace, an Agenda for Development, Security Council reform, the financial situation of the United Nations and the strengthening of the United Nations system -- worked intensively to improve the effectiveness of the Organization and are scheduled to submit their reports to the Assembly before the end of its fiftieth session.

The number of formal meetings of the Security Council, compared with a similar period last year, decreased from 131 to 106. Consultations of the whole numbered 189, down from 226, resolutions decreased from 63 to 51 and presidential statements from 64 to 49.

This year, the Security Council focused its attention on African affairs, as well as on the former Yugoslavia. The Council also continued its consideration of agenda items dealing with the Americas, the question of sanctions and the various sanctions regimes.

The Economic and Social Council held its substantive session from 24 June to 26 July 1996 in New York. Its high-level segment dealt with an issue of priority on the international agenda, namely, international cooperation against the illicit production, sale, demand, traffic and distribution of narcotics and related activities. The coordination segment focused on coordination of activities of the United Nations system for poverty eradication. The operational activities segment focused on strengthening cooperation between the United Nations development system and the Bretton Woods institutions. The Economic and Social Council also adopted a resolution on the consultative relationship between the United Nations and non-governmental organizations.

A report containing Member States' comments on the review of the role of the Trusteeship Council was submitted by the Secretary-General to the General Assembly, at its request.

The International Court of Justice had 14 contentious cases on its docket and two requests for an advisory opinion.

In the Secretariat, considerable progress was made in the implementation of the Secretary-General's comprehensive management reform plan, set out in last year's annual report. Improvement in the management of the Organization's cost structure was a major focus of the past year, during which the Secretary-General proposed and the General Assembly approved the Organization's first zero nominal growth budget.

The $2,608 million in approved appropriations for the biennium 1996-1997 included $154 million in cost reductions mandated by the General Assembly beyond the $98 million already indicated in the Secretary-General's proposed budget. The Secretary-General was asked to propose reductions while ensuring the full implementation of all mandated activities; he has met these cost reductions through a combination of staff cuts and efficiency measures. He was also asked to absorb some $35 million for new unbudgeted mandates; the means of absorption will be reported in the performance report.

Efficiency measures implemented during the past year have led to substantial savings: printing of documents and publications has been cut by 27 per cent since January 1996; by late autumn, more than 270,000 United Nations documents in all official languages will be available electronically in at least 157 countries and the majority of the New York missions; travel has been reduced by 26 per cent in the first six months of 1996; and the consolidation of purchases of foreign currencies, beginning in July, will mean savings of more than $1 million during the biennium.

The financial situation of the United Nations was a major focus of attention throughout the year and remains a matter of urgent concern. As at 31 July 1996, unpaid assessments totalled $3 billion, of which $0.8 billion was due to the regular budget and $2.2 billion to the peace-keeping budget. The recurring need to borrow cash from peace-keeping accounts means that by the end of 1996 the United Nations will owe Member States some $675 million for troops and equipment. While the overall cash-flow situation has improved, the Organization continues to face a worsening regular budget situation, with a persistent negative cash flow already seen and forecast for many months of the year.

The work of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development centred around the forty-second session of the Trade and Development Board, which reviewed and made recommendations on the functioning of the intergovernmental machinery of the Conference, and the ninth session of the Conference, held at Midrand, South Africa, from 27 April to 11 May 1996.

The second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) was held at Istanbul from 3 to 14 June 1996. The Conference, which was unique in its openness to representatives of civil society, produced a detailed Habitat Agenda, as well as a commitment by Governments to the progressive realization of the right to housing as provided for in international instruments.

During the period under review, some 23.3 million people have been targeted to receive assistance through United Nations inter-agency appeals, covering Angola, Afghanistan, the Caucasus region, the Russian Federation (Chechnya), the Great Lakes region, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Sudan and the former Yugoslavia. Of the $2.5 billion requested in the 11 appeals launched since September 1995, a total of $795 million has so far been pledged or carried over.

Between 1 September 1995 and 31 March 1996, the Department of Humanitarian Affairs of the Secretariat provided assistance to 31 Member States to help them cope with the impact of 45 natural disasters and environmental emergencies. During the same period, the Department arranged for 13 relief operations from the United Nations Pisa warehouse and dispatched five field missions of its disaster assessment and coordination teams.

Protection and resettlement of refugees remained the focus of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, whose population of concern, at the end of 1995, stood at some 24 million worldwide, including 14.2 million refugees, along with returnees, internally displaced persons and others.

As part of the ongoing effort to implement the Agenda for Peace, the Organization has strengthened its capacity for preventive action and early warning by setting up an Oversight Group of the Framework for Coordination, already established among the three departments of the Secretariat primarily concerned with the prevention, control and resolution of conflicts, the Departments of Humanitarian Affairs, Political Affairs and Peace-keeping Operations.

The Departments of Political Affairs and Peace-keeping Operations are increasing their cooperation with the Department of Humanitarian Affairs on the Humanitarian Early Warning System.

While the commitment to United Nations peace-keeping declined significantly (67,269 troops were deployed in July 1995 as compared with 25,296 troops in July 1996), the complexity of the tasks entrusted to United Nations personnel did not diminish during the past year, as is revealed by the present reports detailed account of United Nations activities in preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and peace-keeping.

During the year under review, the United Nations was involved in 33 peace operations, 17 of which were peace-keeping operations. Progress was made in developing a rapidly deployable headquarters team, in enhancing preparedness for conflict prevention and peace-keeping in Africa and in further developing the system for standby arrangements.

Events over the course of the past year reaffirmed two key lessons: that every peace operation must be deployed with the strength necessary to achieve the tasks entrusted to it and to protect itself, and that no instrument for peace and security can bring about peace without the will of the parties to the conflict to achieve peace.

The past year also witnessed a determined effort by the international community to take action to end the scourge of terrorism. In its resolution 50/53, the General Assembly reaffirmed the 1994 Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism, and at the Summit of Peacemakers, on 13 March 1996, the Secretary-General stressed his commitment to work towards adopting concrete measures to end terrorism.

On disarmament, three major long-term multilateral efforts in the nuclear field have strengthened the broad consensus in favour of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime: the signing of the South-East Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (15 December 1995), the signing of the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (the Pelindaba Treaty) (11 April 1996) and work towards the finalization of the text of a comprehensive test-ban treaty. The period under review was also marked by new and ongoing initiatives in micro-disarmament, not least of which is the effort to achieve a permanent global ban on landmines and their components.

Between August 1995 and April 1996 the United Nations received 16 new requests for electoral assistance; assistance was provided in response to 10 of those requests, as well as to 17 requests received prior to August 1995.

During the period under review, the Departments of Humanitarian Affairs and Peace-keeping Operations were together responsible for mine-clearance programmes in Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Mozambique and Rwanda, with continuing input into the programmes in Cambodia and the Lao People's Democratic Republic. A one-year programme was completed in Yemen.

2. In the context of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, the past year has brought a historic recommitment by Member States to the purposes and principles of their Organization. At a three-day special commemorative meeting of the General Assembly, held in October 1995, 128 Heads of State and Government, joined by other high-level representatives of Member States and Permanent Observers, adopted the Declaration on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations, pledging themselves to give the twenty-first century a United Nations equipped, financed and structured effectively for the peoples of the world, in whose name it was established.

3. The period covered in the pages of this annual report has, however, also brought indications of a diminished willingness to engage the critical issues on the international agenda through the United Nations. Most notable among these indicators have been the ongoing financial crisis, which so dominated the first part of the year and remains a matter of urgent concern; the decline in peace-keeping activity (where 67,269 troops were deployed in July 1995 as compared with 25,296 in July 1996) without a parallel decline in the level of conflict requiring international attention; and a continuation of the dismaying downward trend in the level of resources made available for development, including through the United Nations system.

4. Yet over the course of the past year, further substantial progress has been made, as this report reveals, in strengthened administrative procedures, in adapting peace-keeping to new circumstances and in the effectiveness and coherence of development operations. As the rapidly evolving world situation demands new departures in both substance and structures, the United Nations has been undergoing comprehensive change to meet new and emerging problems and to tackle persistent problems in new contexts.

5. During the past 12 months, reform has been high on the Secretary-General's agenda, as well as on the agenda of the intergovernmental machinery, in particular the work programme of the General Assembly. Five working groups of the Assembly have been addressing major aspects of reform.

6. In my statement of 11 March 1996 to the Open-ended High-level Working Group on the Strengthening of the United Nations System, I stressed that reform -- indeed change in the Organization -- should be perceived not as an imposition, not as compromising the objectives of the Charter, but as adapting structures and methods to the new global environment that the Organization has helped to bring about.

7. During the past year, this perception has gained ground at both the Secretariat and intergovernmental levels. Further concrete reform measures have been introduced. Many objectives that had been pursued without success in the past several years were finally realized. Major challenges, however, still lie ahead.

8. There are three main levels of institutional reform: intergovernmental, organizational and managerial. Each level differs in both the changes required and in the distribution of responsibility among the Secretary-General and the Member States for the actions necessary to effect those changes. They all must be pursued in a mutually reinforcing way, however. In this respect too, progress has been significant.

9. In relation to intergovernmental reform -- the responsibility for which lies primarily with Member States -- three interrelated objectives are, explicitly or implicitly, being pursued: improvements in the effectiveness and functioning of the principal organs; a better balance in the authority of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council, as envisioned in the Charter; and a streamlining of the subsidiary machinery -- an important condition for effective overall reform, particularly in the economic and social fields.

10. As for the General Assembly, improvements in its functioning have been a major focus in the programme of the Open-ended High-level Working Group on the Strengthening of the United Nations System. At the same time, action has been taken by the Assembly, in its resolution 50/227, to reinforce significantly the coordinating role of the Economic and Social Council. Equally important, the Assembly instructed the Council to undertake further reviews of its functional and regional commissions and its expert groups. The stage has thus been set not only for greater balance in the functioning of the principal organs, but also for a further streamlining and strengthening of the intergovernmental machinery in the economic and social fields.

11. Organizational reform concerns the simplification of Secretariat structures and the rationalization of both the multiplicity of programmes and funds and their relationships with the Secretariat. As such, it is a joint responsibility of the Secretary-General and the Member States. The reorganization I introduced soon after taking office, which involved a drastic reduction in the number of high-level posts and a significant simplification in Secretariat structures, was consolidated during the programme budget biennium 1994-1995. That reorganization has, in turn, made it possible to achieve zero nominal growth for the current biennium and has made way for a further phase of reform, involving not only the central Secretariat but also all the programmes and funds comprising the Organization, which I outlined in my statement of 11 March to the High-level Working Group of the General Assembly.

12. Complementing these two levels of institutional reform, managerial reform, which is primarily under the responsibility of the Secretary-General, is well under way. Progress during the year has been significant in relation to each of the strategic areas of management: human resources, cost structure and information and technology.

13. With respect to human resources, the system of accountability and responsibility that I presented to the General Assembly at its forty-ninth session has been further consolidated. As an integral part of that system, the Code of Conduct of the International Civil Service is being strengthened and updated. A new work planning and appraisal system has been introduced at all duty stations. A comprehensive management training programme has been instituted and has already been completed by over 300 senior managers. The number of women in posts subject to geographical distribution has reached the highest point in United Nations history, and recruitment costs have been reduced by 30 per cent.

14. As for the management of costs, the current approved budget represents a 10 per cent reduction in real terms and includes cost cuts mandated by the General Assembly of $154 million, beyond the $98 million already indicated in my budget submission. This new budget reduces the total number of staff posts to 12 per cent less than that of 10 years ago. At the same time, the new Integrated Management Information System has enhanced the use of financial, human resource and procurement information, and has strengthened internal controls and accountability.

15. Progress in the management of technology has also been significant and has affected a wide range of Secretariat operations, from remote translation and text processing to high-speed electronic access to United Nations documents through the new optical disk system, which has served to reduce by thousands the number of documents to be printed and distributed.

16. Cutting across these three areas, managerial reform has been accelerated by the work of the Efficiency Board I established in November 1995. With guidance from the Board and support from a working group of experts contributed by Member States, every office in the Secretariat has carried out efficiency reviews, involving some 400 projects to enhance management efficiency in the Secretariat. The results achieved to date have contributed to the savings mandated by the General Assembly and to improvements in the services and operations of the Secretariat, and have served to identify a number of areas where further systemic efficiency changes are needed. These are currently being addressed by the Board.

17. Effective reform in a global institution such as the United Nations must be rooted in a broad consensus on the main features of the new global environment and on the role the Organization is called upon to play in such changing circumstances.

18. These principles have been the focus of another long-term effort given particular prominence during the past year: the series of global conferences from New York in 1990 to Istanbul in 1996. Undeniably, some of these conferences have been controversial. I believe that, equally undeniably, they have shown that a true international community is coming into being, perhaps for the first time in history, and that it can summon the will and the capacity to deal with issues that nations cannot take on separately nor, indeed, in any manner other than by agreed universal action.

19. The centuries-old practice of convening international conferences is being transformed into a new mechanism for international cooperation. The new conferences are revolutionary in both form and focus, and, while keeping costs to the minimum, they are producing concrete and far-reaching results.

20. These conferences have been democratic in form, bringing together, on a basis of equality, representatives of Governments from throughout the world, often at the highest political level. At the same time, they have brought world leaders together with representatives of civil society, from business people to trade unionists, academics, women's groups, professional associations, local authorities and non-governmental organizations of all types.

21. These conferences have also been democratic in focus and linked so as to foster global consensus on specific, interlocking global issues, by considering their impact on the human person and human communities. A great many of my efforts as Secretary-General have been devoted to ensuring that each conference -- on children, the environment and development, human rights, the sustainable development of small island States, natural disaster reduction, population and development, social development, the advancement of women, international trade and development, and human settlements -- would build upon its predecessors and carry forward a common human thrust. Together, they are producing cumulative results, offering all development actors -- North and South, governmental and non-governmental, public and private -- a pragmatic, cooperative and comprehensive approach to the key challenges now faced by every nation in the world and by all nations together.

22. The results are considerable, starting with hard-won consensus reached on a range of important points, such as the need for a new and equitable partnership among all States, developed and developing, and among government and civil society at all levels, to achieve sustainable development; the recognition of the right to development and of the mutually reinforcing relationship between development, democracy and respect for human rights; the necessity of linking demographic change to development policies; the need to adopt new and more comprehensive policies to address problems of poverty, unemployment and social disintegration as global problems requiring global attention; the importance of a shared approach to common urban crises; and the recognition of the advancement of women as a key to progress in the search for equality, development and peace.

23. Through the world conferences, consensus reached on these and other fundamental issues is translated into new international norms, agreements and specific commitments, into concrete goals and objectives set by Member States for themselves and for the United Nations. These are then integrated by Member States into national priorities and supported by the United Nations and other organizations through practical programmes and operational activities. Steps are being taken to ensure that the commitments being produced are followed up effectively and efficiently, on a thematic, not simply a conference-by-conference, basis.

24. For all development actors, the entire conference series has provided an opportunity to forge durable and productive partnerships in the face of new challenges. For the United Nations in particular, the conferences have produced a comprehensive agenda, which gives new direction to the work of the Organization and to the reform and strengthening of its development machinery. This has been supported by new arrangements for inter-secretariat coordination, agreed to by the Administrative Committee on Coordination. It has also helped to promote the revitalization of the Economic and Social Council as the key intergovernmental body for coordination. As part of this process of reform and revitalization, the intergovernmental structure of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and its secretariat and work programme have been streamlined and given a sharper focus. Cooperation and coordination between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions has been deepened further, as reflected in the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative for Africa. A leaner, more focused, better coordinated United Nations development system is coming into being, oriented to implementing programmes that reflect a broad political consensus on the priorities of development.

25. Even as the capacity of the United Nations to support development improves, the resources available to it for this purpose are decreasing. During the year the flow of voluntary resources into the United Nations funds and programmes declined. Overall, the flow of official development assistance from countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 1995 declined in absolute terms to $59 billion and as a percentage of gross national product to 0.27 per cent, a level far below the United Nations target of 0.7 per cent. Thus, for the economic and social sector, this was a year when the capacity to act effectively improved, but the means to do so declined.

26. The current cycle of global conferences came to a close with the ninth session of UNCTAD and Habitat II. The authority to convene additional world conferences lies with the General Assembly. The work of the past six-year conference series could be enhanced further should the Assembly decide to perform, on a continuing basis, the role that the new world conferences have played so far. The Assembly could decide to oversee and promote action to follow up the conferences that have already been held. It could deal with new global issues as they arise, comprehensively and at the political levels necessary, with the participation of civil society. Finally, the General Assembly would also need to take measures to ensure that the progress already made is not reversed, nor the promise spoiled by the precarious financial situation of the United Nations, which in recent years has proved to be an obstacle to the fundamental work, reform and revitalization of the Organization.

27. Whatever the mechanism the Member States decide upon to deal with shared global problems, the will to do so will be absolutely essential if the substantial recent achievements of the United Nations are to be consolidated and if a compelling vision for its future is to be fulfilled.

1129. The process began with the abrupt end of the cold war, when the bipolar system -- a somewhat predictable, if not agreed system, according to which nations could order their relations -- suddenly collapsed. With that collapse came a new hope that the promise of the Charter of the United Nations could be renewed, that an international system based on collective security, shared values and cooperative problem-solving could finally be achieved. It is in this context that Member States called the United Nations to action unprecedented in scale or scope.

1130. The transformation has been neither smooth nor easy. The realities and assumptions of 50 years ago cannot simply be recreated, nor can the full dimensions of the changes taking place and their implications be instantly understood. Expectations for the United Nations were too high at the outset of what must inevitably be a long and difficult process, for after every major conflict in history has come to a close, it has taken years, sometimes a generation or more, to put in place a workable and enduring international system. In the aftermath of the cold war, the transformation to a new international system is still under way, but the United Nations, the world's vehicle in this process, has -- sometimes painfully, sometimes with success -- moved definitively forward. Political realities have been transformed. New forms of international cooperation have been required and continue to take shape. New rules, concepts and procedures are emerging case by case. The structures of the United Nations are being streamlined and opened, the Organization streamlined and deregulated, costs reduced, accountability strengthened and performance improved. In the past five years alone, the distance travelled has been great. The time has come to examine how what has been achieved so far relates to a vision of the United Nations for the period ahead.

1131. The United Nations has worked to bring peace and security to a world in which conflicts and confrontations within States are now more prevalent than wars between them. The first-ever Summit Meeting of the Security Council (January 1992) and the subsequent report to the Council on an Agenda for Peace launched an international debate on the role of the United Nations in maintaining international peace and security under these new circumstances and engendered an ongoing process of initiative, discovery and reflection. Preventive diplomacy has been identified as a priority, the Organization's capacity for it strengthened and a preventive deployment force has been authorized for the first time. While traditional United Nations peace-keeping has continued to prove effective in conflict situations between States that have the will to maintain peace, the United Nations has worked to adapt its peace-keeping instrument to deal with internal conflicts through more complex, multifaceted operations. These incorporate elements of traditional peace-keeping with political, social, economic, humanitarian and human rights aspects, an approach that has proved most successful where conflicts are being resolved through processes of negotiation, but has encountered setbacks where war situations continued. An important part of these efforts has been to advance United Nations cooperation with regional organizations in peace and security on an ad hoc basis and under Chapter VIII of the Charter. Another important dimension has been a new emphasis on post-conflict peace-building -- linking conflict control and resolution with action to address the roots of conflict and strengthen the basis for reconstruction and development. And disarmament remains integral to United Nations peace efforts; the historic decision reached at the United Nations to extend indefinitely the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons has reaffirmed the process of macro-disarmament as vigorous and essential, while steps are being taken to explore the new idea of micro-disarmament, with a view to its integration into the wider context of preventive diplomacy and peace-building.

1132. In human rights and humanitarian assistance, the United Nations has continued to serve as the universal forum for advancing consensus and as a coordinating mechanism among the many organizations active in the field. While the easing of ideological tensions and the acceleration of democratization has spurred progress on one level, the new conflicts have all too often been accompanied by massive human rights violations and humanitarian emergencies, posing new challenges. The United Nations in response has moved to integrate, to the extent possible, its human rights and humanitarian efforts with its peace efforts and to link both areas of effort to its work for reconstruction and development; mechanisms to those ends have been strengthened at Headquarters to enhance substantive and logistical support for forging such linkages and cooperation in the field. The Organization has pursued closer cooperation with its key operational partners, governmental and non-governmental, in the human rights and humanitarian communities. At the request of Member States, it has deployed human rights field presences in several countries. It has expanded its advisory services and technical cooperation for building national human rights and humanitarian infrastructure, and it has strengthened its capacity for and emphasis on early warning and preventive action.

1133. Development and democratization can themselves be the most effective forms of conflict prevention. The United Nations has therefore endeavoured to ensure that urgent efforts in peace-keeping and humanitarian assistance do not detract from long-term efforts for human progress.

1134. Facing a sharp decline in international development assistance, the United Nations has worked to forge international agreement on a new rationale and framework for development cooperation, through the ongoing debate on the Agenda for Development. As an integral part of this process, the continuum of global conferences has produced specific commitments and is giving shape to the comprehensive agenda and cooperative framework that are now needed. My contribution to this process, through my reports on an Agenda for Development and promotion of an integrated approach to the preparation of these conferences, has been followed by an unprecedented effort on the part of the United Nations system as a whole to bring about a coordinated follow-up to their outcomes around common priority themes -- employment, social services, the enabling environment, the advancement of women and poverty reduction.

1135. Meanwhile, the Secretariat has continued to work to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness in carrying out policy analysis and operational mandates and in utilizing the development assistance provided by Member States. Working to define better the Organization's role and to strengthen its capacity in the three key areas of information-gathering and analysis, policy coordination and technical cooperation for capacity-building has not only served to sharpen its own contribution and impact, but has also greatly advanced efforts to achieve a more effective division of labour within the United Nations system as a whole. New levels of cooperation have been reached between the United Nations and the agencies of the United Nations system, including the Bretton Woods institutions, one major coordinated effort being the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative for Africa, designed to mobilize, coherently and efficiently, international support for Africa's priority development goals.

1136. Supporting democratization is becoming a new thrust in the work of the United Nations. Electoral assistance from the United Nations continues to grow, while the full range of support for societies to prepare the institutional and cultural ground in which democratization can take shape is being expanded in the increasing number of Member States that seek it. At the same time, the United Nations is working to promote democratization internationally. One way of doing this is by opening United Nations forums to the views of non-State actors, such as regional organizations, non-governmental organizations, parliamentarians, members of the academic and business communities and the media. Another integral element of the United Nations efforts to promote democratization internationally is the ongoing effort to promote respect for the rule of law in international relations and the progressive development of international law. Major steps in this direction include the increased use by Member States of the International Court of Justice in both dispute settlement and the provision of advisory opinions, the entry into force of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the establishment by the Security Council of international tribunals to judge war crimes and crimes against humanity in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the beginning of negotiations on the establishment of a permanent international criminal court.

1137. This surge in new activity and substantive change across the spectrum of United Nations efforts has both demanded and enabled major institutional reform. This report details my ongoing effort at the managerial level towards a mission-driven, result-oriented Organization, showing enhanced performance, improved productivity and increased cost-effectiveness.

1138. The simplification of Secretariat structures that I have introduced -- to reflect not the structures but the key areas of work of the intergovernmental machinery -- has paved the way for a further reorganization at the Secretariat level, which, as I indicated last March in my statement to the Open-ended High-level Working Group on the Strengthening of the United Nations System, must encompass not only the central Secretariat but also the secretariats of the many programmes and funds of the Organization. The aim would be to achieve a more integrated Organization -- one in which the central Secretariat, the regional structures and the operational entities could plan and act as one.

1139. Like my earlier initiatives on organizational reform, this initiative is designed to avoid the common flaw of restructuring exercises in years past, which was to create additional layers of coordination, superimposed on multiple and diverse entities. Instead, the guiding principle of my initiatives has been and will continue to be simplification and consolidation, achieved through a "bottom up" approach to eliminate duplication in support services and overlap in activities.

1140. This further phase of reorganization would group all entities that are part of the Organization into a small number of clusters. Each cluster would undertake a set of central Secretariat responsibilities and would comprise related programmes and funds contributing to common objectives and functions. Clusters would thus serve to advance strategic objectives of the Organization as a whole -- peace and security, human rights, humanitarian assistance, economic and social analysis, operational activities for development. At the same time, management support and services would be further consolidated and strengthened. Each cluster would include not only the programmes and funds that would be its main pillars but also a capacity, drawn from existing Secretariat departments, to provide integrated support to the intergovernmental body charged with imparting overall policy direction to the work of the entities constituting each cluster.

1141. From my experience over the past five years, I am convinced that the personal and direct involvement of the Secretary-General is essential to effective management, in particular at times of mass change. For such involvement to be sustained and in fact enhanced, some form of substantial reduction in the number of lines of reporting to the Secretary-General -- there are now some 30 United Nations entities reporting to him directly -- is seriously needed. While preserving the distinct identity of the various programmes and funds, reorganization along the lines suggested above would establish broader spheres of management responsibility and significantly reduce the number of lines of reporting to the Secretary-General. It would assist the Secretary-General in imparting common management directives to entities that contribute to common objectives and together represent a basic dimension of the Organization's work. It would also facilitate the crucial task of promoting effective linkages among the basic dimensions of the work of the United Nations, thereby sustaining the unitary character of its mission, as envisaged in the Charter.

1142. The implementation of such an initiative, or other further progress in reform at the managerial and organizational levels, will require endorsement and complementary initiatives at the intergovernmental level. One major requirement in this regard will be for Member States to strengthen the capacity of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council to provide coherent overall guidance to the basic dimensions of the work of the Organization. This is one important aspect of the major questions of intergovernmental reform now before five open-ended working groups of the General Assembly: on an Agenda for Peace, an Agenda for Development, the financial situation of the United Nations, Security Council reform, and the strengthening of the United Nations system.

1143. Reform, both political and institutional, must be ongoing. It is a process, not an event. There is no one point where the United Nations could declare reform "done". But the current critical phase of transformation can be brought to completion, and it must be, if we are to put the United Nations firmly on the road to a future in which collective security, the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and the promotion of social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom can proceed as intended by the Charter.

1144. Reform efforts in the past year have shown us the future of the Organization. It is in essence a simple vision -- a vision of a United Nations that works.