Foreword (Download)
Contents
Acronyms
Annual overview report for 2004/05 - E/2005/63
Resolution - GA Res. 49/97
ITAG Updates
CEB/2002/HLCM/10
ACC/1993/23
Audit and inspection
Other accounting and financial reporting questions
Session Reports
Increasing transparency and accountability
Document Actions
159. As it promotes transparency and accountability as principles of good governance at the national and local levels, so must the UN system internalize and apply these principles as the core of what “One United Nations” should embody and project at the global level. Genuine transparency and accountability—for both actions and results—must characterize the conduct of UN organizations and international civil servants. The system and the world’s people which it aims to serve should expect nothing less than the highest standards of conduct from the UN system’s staff. Those standards should translate into concrete measures within individual organizations, responsible for their further development and enforcement. They should also reinforce the system-wide position of zero tolerance for abuses, of openness to scrutiny, and of proactively implementing the most effective and reliable systems for monitoring, evaluation, audit and oversight. One United Nations should act now to shape and reinforce common accountability instruments. Initiatives to strengthen monitoring and evaluation should converge into common, system-wide action to evaluate UN performance in terms not merely of effort, but mainly of real impact.
160. The 2005 World Summit could do much to sustain and advance the evolution of One United Nations. Governments at the Summit should reaffirm their consensus that these are indeed the directions in which they wish the UN system to continue to move and then act deliberately to advance that movement in the different governing bodies of the system.
161. To be an effective foundation for continued progress and change, the consensus produced by the Summit cannot be selective. It will have to entail a strong, renewed commitment to substantive progress in relation to each of the Declaration’s three pillars and the construction of strong bridges among them. The bridge between security and development will be key: the new consensus will have to respond to grave, growing concerns regarding arms proliferation and terrorism, while simultaneously giving real hope to those who live with poverty, illiteracy, contagious diseases and environmental degradation as daily causes of insecurity. Building a firm commitment to human rights and the rule of law will also be crucial in determining the strength of the bridges extended from this pillar to both the development and peace pillars—and hence to the strength and effectiveness of the entire multilateral foundation and framework for collective action.
Chief Executives Board Secretariat
Last modified 2006-02-08 09:13