Fifth Committee Report: 3-7 March 2008

On 4 March 2008, Member States received briefings by UN officials in two separate sessions. Human Resources Management (HRM) was on the agenda during the morning session: Alicia Barcena, Under-Secretary-General for Management, and Jane Holl Lute, Officer-in-Charge of the Department of Field Support, made presentations to the Fifth Committee on the need to streamline contracts, harmonize conditions of service, and the establishment of a core cadre of 2,500 peacekeepers. In the afternoon, Barcena briefed the membership on the proposed "Comprehensive Accountability Architecture."

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
All reports to reform Human Resourced Management (HRM) requested by Member States from the Secretary-General have been available to the Fifth Committee for quite some time now. Relevant reports from the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) and the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) are also available and one would therefore expect that some HRM decisions will be taken during this first resumed session in order to start the reform process. However, some Member States have suggested deferring any decisions on HRM to the 63rd session, because HRM is normally discussed in non-budget years. Others have pointed out that HRM is also on the agenda of the 8-9 April 2008 Thematic Debate on Management Reform organized by the President of the General Assembly.

As Barcena and Holl Lute highlighted in their presentations, the urgency of HRM reforms is compelling (See Barcena's statement and presentation, DPI report). Since 2003, 15 new field missions in the field had been approved, some of them simultaneously, often in complex and austere environments. Of the 38,295 staff members employed by the UN, more than 60% now work in the field where they do not enjoy the same conditions of service as other staff in the UN system. The nine different types of appointments in the UN are difficult to administer and often lead to inequity, low staff morale, as well as high turnover and vacancy rates. Other employers in similar lines of work typically offer better conditions of service. Moreover, too many field positions are filled by relatively inexperienced staff (59% have less than two years of UN experience).

Presentations by the Chairman of the ICSC, Kingston P. Rhodes, and the new Chair of the ACABQ, Susan McLurg, suggested that these bodies do not see major problems which would prevent agreement on streamlining contracts or harmonization of conditions of service, though the ACABQ did suggest to start with streamlining contracts. The ACABQ does not approve of the establishment of a cadre of 2,500 civilian peacekeepers. McLurg indicated that the ACABQ agrees with some Member States that action on HRM could be deferred to the 63rd session as it would be a non-budget session.

The costs related to the Human Resources Management (HRM) reform, according to Barcena, are $23.7 million per year for the streamlining of contracts (of which 3.8 million would come from the regular budget and 19.9 million from peacekeeping accounts) and $199 million per year for the harmonization of conditions of service.

The key HRM issues under discussion are:

Streamlining of contractual arrangements under one new set of staff rules
Currently, there are nine different types of employment contracts, resulting in cumbersome contractual administration and considerable inequity among staff members. Under the current proposal, only three types of contracts would be used throughout the UN system: temporary (up to one year), fixed-term (between one and five years, with a probation period of one year), and continuing. Every new staff member would enter the UN with a temporary or fixed-term contract of which the latter could become continuing (replacing permanent positions) after five years. Only in the field could temporary posts be extended beyond one year in certain circumstances.

Harmonization of conditions of service
Staff members in peacekeeping do not enjoy the same conditions of service as staff members employed by UN Funds or Programmes in the field, for instance by UNDP. By designating missions as family or non-family duty stations (replacing the current ‘special’ or ‘established’ mission designation) and revising the scheme for rest breaks, inequities would be removed.

Establishment of 2,500 career civilian peacekeepers
Hole Lute provided interesting statistics on what the average civilian staff member employed in a peacekeeping mission currently looks like:

1. 46 years old.
2. 60% are professional staff, 40% technical.
3. Only 288 of the approximately 25,000 staff in the field have career appointments.
4. 70% are men.
5. 90% have been serving in non-family duty stations though 55% do have families.
6. 80% have contracts of one year or less.
7. On average, staff in the field spend 4.8 years in peacekeeping, and it is not uncommon to do 3 stints of 12 months each.

Hole Lute stressed that peacekeeping should not be seen as a temporary but rather as a core activity. Detailed analysis suggests that a core cadre of 2,500 career civilian peacekeepers would make it easier for the UN to send experienced staff to new missions without having any of these 2,500 be unemployed at any given time. The high turnover rates (28%) and lack of experienced staff (new staff members in the field have less than 2 years of UN experience, 40% less than 1 year) are of great concern.¹

Q&A sessions
After the presentation of 4 March, Member States began informal Q&A sessions with the hope of formulating a draft resolution in the following week. Questions and remarks from Member States – some of them indicating opposing points of view – included, among many others:

1. Streamlining of contracts is a good idea and should be implemented without further delay. Member States remarked that they may need more time to discuss contracts under one set of staff rules. Problems will arise when it will be implemented and some flexibility or timely review may be warranted. When established, the framework might not be easy to revise so the process should move prudently. What specific entitlements come with temporary, fixed-term, and continuing contracts? Maybe the process should start with streamlining contracts and after review consider the other reform proposals?
2. Financial implications: some Member States asked for more precise details, and noted that cost implications should be taken into account.
3. Continuing contracts: some Member States asked for clarification on the conversion from a fixed-term to continuing contract – will it be automatic? Will there be caps on continuing contracts for certain kinds of positions? Conversion to continuing contracts should be subject to rigorous performance reviews and should not just be left to program managers – what will the criteria be? Can a staff member who has been subject to a disciplinary measure be promoted to a continuing post? Isn’t there a divergence between the Secretariat and ICSC proposals as to the conversion from fixed-term to continuous? Why not have fixed-term contracts longer than 5 years? Should it not be Member States who agree on the number of continuing contracts – will there be a ceiling?
4. Will the new administration of justice be able to deal with any grievances resulting from the new system?
5. 2,500 core cadre of civilian peacekeepers: this would provide more job security and is therefore a good idea. Budgetary implications should be considered. Openness, fairness, equitable geographical and gender representation should be ensured when hiring civilian peacekeepers. Being part of the core cadre would - unlike mission-specific contracts - make it easier to move within the UN system. The fear that there would be staff with contracts but no jobs is not justified as they could be appointed to other duty stations. 2,500 peacekeepers will help with sudden surges but what in case of sudden decreases? Surely the capacity for lateral moves will solve this? The ACABQ does not support a core cadre of 2,500 civilian peacekeepers – are there other ways to ensure that staff in the field can move laterally more easily?
6. The number of new staff members from less developed countries remains a concern. That there will be so many retirees in the upcoming years provides the UN with an opportunity to hire more staff from less developed countries. Too many countries remain underrepresented among UN staff.
7. The time that candidates have to wait for a position after they take the National Competitive Recruitment Examination (NCE) is very long and this should be addressed. Successful NCE candidates should maybe be eligible for continuing posts sooner than those who entered the UN in other ways – maybe after two years instead of five? The NCE allows for better geographical and gender representation. By giving successful NCE candidates a faster track to a continuing contract, are we not in fact adding another type of contract?
8. Will harmonization of conditions of service lead to more continuing posts? Does this not run counter to having a flexible workforce? Why have continuing posts, maybe the UN should just have longer fixed-term contracts which would ensure less inequality. Having only fixed-term contracts will “keep staff in shape” and will enhance performance. What if Funds and Programmes make changes to their conditions of service? Is it wise to streamline contracts before instituting a harmonization of conditions of service – can it be done separately?
9. Termination is not well-defined in the proposals. What differences with Funds and Programmes would remain after the contracts are streamlined and conditions of service harmonized?
10. Why was the granting of permanent appointments frozen in 1995 – what is the situation now in this regard? (Answer from assembled UN officials: financial crisis at the UN).²
11. Why is it now difficult to recruit staff from other peace missions? Will locally recruited staff in the field be entitled to a continuing contract and what if the mission in their country ends?
12. Is it true that presently contracts are interrupted on purpose to prevent promotion to a higher contract? What about benefits – are these accumulative or dependent on continuous service?
13. There is mention of a “fourth contract”? (answer from assembled UN officials: some special tasks would only entail a subsistence allowance. If harmonization of conditions of service would not be resolved, there still would be ‘established’ or ‘special’ posts).³

RELEVANT HRM REPORTS
Secretary General reports: A/61/255 (Investing in People), A/61/537, A/61/732, A/61/861, and A/62/274
ACABQ reports: A/61/537 and A/62/7/add14
International Civil Service Commission report: A/61/30/Add.1
Resolutions: A/61/244
DPI report on the 4 March 2008 presentation

COMPREHENSIVE ACCOUNTABILITY ARCHITECTURE
During the afternoon session, Barcena briefed Member States on the proposed "Comprehensive Accountability Architecture." The briefing not only outlined the suggested costs, but also included remarks on results based management, accountability, enterprise risk management and internal control frameworks. The ACABQ is currently considering the proposed accountability architecture.

This update is meant to be a summary of some of the main ideas discussed during the meetings and does not represent a complete and official account of all positions.