UNICEF hails United Nations reform plan

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UNICEF hails United Nations reform plan

Wednesday, 16 July 1997: The bold recommendations for reform announced today by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan grew out of a vision of a UN family dedicated to the most effective possible service to humanity, especially the world's children, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said.

"The Secretary-General has presented the General Assembly with an historic document that will help guide the course of the United Nations and all its parts into the next millennium," she said. "We applaud him for his courageous and transforming proposals and look forward to the General Assembly's upcoming discussions and action."

"Last February," she recalled, "the Secretary-General described how he had jokingly apologized to the Security Council for having failed to complete the UN reform process by the end of his first five weeks in office. That he has guided UN reform to its present advanced stage in just six months is an achievement that is little short of remarkable."

"UNICEF remains as committed to the reform of the entire UN as we are to our own two-year-old reform process and we and our colleagues in the United Nations and in its Funds and Programmes will work vigorously with the Secretary-General to help implement these measures."

Ms. Bellamy said she was gratified at the report's emphatic references to the importance of preserving the identity and distinctiveness of the United Nations Funds and Programmes.

"The Secretary-General has listened to our concerns and responded to them," she said. "We will continue to cooperate closely with him in the same spirit of constructive dialogue for the most effective and efficient United Nations possible."