Address to UN staff at the Vienna International Centre

SG: Thank you very much, Steinar, for that introduction. My dear friends and colleagues, let me start by thanking you for the very warm welcome you have given me this morning and to see that you have turned out in your numbers to listen to me this morning. I believe the Vienna-based organizations are crucial and a unique part of the United Nations family. I am one of those lucky ones. I travel around the world but wherever I go I have a family. Sometimes its small sometimes its large and the family here, as I can see this morning, is very large indeed. But your work has deep and personal significance for every individual on our planet, whether they are aware of it or not.

As you know, I have just come from Afghanistan, where I visited not only Afghanistan but went to Tokyo for the donor conference and then on to Islamabad, Kabul, and then to Teheran. All the major challenges that the United Nations is facing, that we have on our agenda, is evident in that country. The international community must help ensure that this proves to be a turning point in the history of the people of Afghanistan. On that visit I realized there was hope and there is reason for hope. Chairman [Hamid] Karzai and the Interim Authority have made an impressive start. My own representative, Lakhdar Brahimi, and his team are working very hard in following up on the implementation of the Bonn Agreement with the Afghan Interim Authority. Whilst I was there, he completed the selection of the 21-person commission that will organize a Loya Jirga and that had also been announced. As I said during my visit to Kabul, this is an opportunity that the Afghan people must seize. The United Nations will be on their side to help them translate this support into step-by-step action on their path to stability and progress.

In that process, many of you here in Vienna have a crucial contribution to make. The need to replace opium cultivation in Afghanistan with substitute crops and other economic activities is even more pressing today than ever. Indeed, that subject was high on the agenda in the talks I had with Chairman Karzai and the other cabinet members as well as in Iran and in Pakistan. The ODCCP [Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention] will have a key role to play in helping Afghanistan act on this intention to wipe out opium poppies forever. Though your work to combat transnational crime, money laundering, you also have an essential part to play in UN efforts to fight terrorism world wide and I've discussed this with some of the Ambassadors here this morning.

All the staff in Vienna, whether you work in arms control, nuclear energy, development or other areas, will have a crucial role to play in the months and years ahead as we pursue our overriding mission world wide to meet the millennium goals and work for freedom from fear, freedom from want and protection of the resources of this planet. In pursuing those goals, our guiding motto must be to put people at the center of everything that we do.

We start this year greatly encouraged by the award of the Nobel Peace Prize, as you heard. I think it's a recognition both for the achievements and the potential of our organization. As you know the Nobel Committee in its citation wished to proclaim that the only negotiable route to global peace and cooperation goes by the way of the United Nations. In a world that is growing ever closer and more interconnected and yet still driven by poverty, brutal conflict and cruel injustice, it is more important than ever that humanity travel that route and that all of us work hard to pave the road ahead of it. There can, therefore, be no let up in our ongoing task of creating a new United Nations for a new century.

We must build on what works and discard bad habits that do not. We must be prepared to work with others in partnership. The UN cannot tackle the issues we are confronted with alone. I have stressed that as an organization we should know what we can do, what are our limitations, what we need to do with others, what we have to leave others to do and reach out and work in partnership with civil society, the private sector, foundations, universities and really move ahead. By doing that and working in partnership we are able to expand our capacity and, through pooling of resources and efforts, have greater impact on the challenges confronting us.

We must put modern management practices in place. We must enhance our enormous in-house talents and provide more and better opportunities for career development while bringing in fresh young people and skills that are the keys to the success of any enterprise. I know that here at UNOV [United Nations Office at Vienna] the period of transition has been rather unsettling for some of you, but each organization goes through transitions and you are going through one now. But I can assure you it will not be for long. And let me thank each and everyone of you for your professionalism, for you dedication and loyalty that you have displayed throughout this difficult period. I assure you we are doing everything possible to ensure that you have the right leadership and you can carry on your work smoothly and settle down as quickly as possible.

Perhaps I should pause here and see if any of you have questions that you may want to put to me or advice you may want to give me or comment. Let's open the floor and see who wants to give me some advice. [applause]

I think I see the hand of your fearless leader, the President of the Staff Council. [laughter]

Q: [President UNOV Staff Council] It's only one fearless leader. Mr. Secretary-General it is indeed an honor to have you here and on behalf of the UNOV and the ODCCP staff I suppose on behalf of the others I welcome you. In your opening remarks, you have mentioned that this is a rather large gathering of staff and I think that the last large gathering of staff we had was for a moment of silence that the Staff Council organized outside at our Peace Bell on the 13th September, just after the terrorist attacks in New York. That was a sad occasion and this is a more joyous occasion having you here with us today.

I have just one question. You had mentioned that this duty station would play a role in the post September 11th agenda of the United Nations. You talked about the drug and crime programmes in particular, the terrorism programme. What do you see is the role of some of the other programmes here in Vienna and what is your feeling about the level of confidence that the governments have in our duty station across the board: drugs, crime, terrorism the Atomic Energy Agency, CTBTO, UNIDO? What is your general impression of how this duty station is perceived and is there something that staff councils can do, and staff at large can do, to advance that perception?

SG: I think that as far as the staff is concerned I would encourage you to do your work and focus on what you are assigned to do and also be cooperative with each other. And where you have suggestions and advice for your bosses, don't be bashful, give them the suggestions. They may accept it, they may discard it but you should not be discouraged if the advice is not taken. Try again tomorrow; you may have an idea that your bosses would want to take.

I think that the role and the work of each agency in this duty station is important. In fact, in my meetings with the Ambassadors this morning this issue came up when we discussed the Conference on Sustainable Development in South Africa pointing out that several units here are also working for sustainable development. Whether it is in the area of corruption or energy, it's all inter-linked. The work that the [International] Atomic [Energy] Agency does here is extremely important and I think they now have a team in Iraq, which is in the interest of all of us. So each agency's work and each individual's work is important, whatever your assignment, whether you're a secretary, clerk or a director or an Under-Secretary-General, if we all focused and did what we were supposed to do and do it effectively, I think collectively we will make a major contribution. [applause]

Q: Good morning. You just mentioned the Tokyo Conference and we have seen that countries were very generous with reconstruction in Afghanistan but I think that one of your concerns was that focusing on Afghanistan should not neglect other priorities within the UN. And we are seeing countries that are cutting overall development assistance but being very generous in the case of Afghanistan. So is your concern getting through to governments and donors?

SG: I think we are trying very hard and we are going to persevere. And it's not only Afghanistan but we also need to be careful that as we press ahead with the fight against terrorism we don't focus on that to the detriment of everything else. None of the issues that existed or the problems that existed on 10th September have gone away. In fact, we have more urgent reasons now to tackle the issue of poverty, conflict, disease, environment and this is a message that I am giving to the governments. We will have a chance to discuss this also in Monterrey, where we are going to have the conference on Financing for Development. And one of the key issues will be the question of overseas development assistance, where there is a proposal that the donor governments should try and double the assistance given to the poorer nations, which will mean 50 billion dollars additional per year. That will bring their contribution to 0.4 %, still short of the 0.7 % of GDP that they willingly agreed to offer as assistance to developing countries. So there is lots of discussion going on and it will come to a head in Monterrey in March and we will see what progress we will make there.

If there are no more questions, let me thank you very, very much and I am really very happy to be able to meet with you this morning. I am sorry I am not able to come to Vienna as often as I would like to but time has become my biggest enemy. But I hope that it will not be long before we see each other. Thank you very much. [applause]*****