The UN80 Reform Plan: What Survey-Takers ‘Strongly Agree’ On

PassBlue’s informal readers’ survey on United Nations reforms offers insights into many of the choices being proposed in the official UN80 initiative. The reform effort, introduced in mid-March by Secretary-General António Guterres, aims to reshape the UN system to be more efficient and useful. Our survey, conducted from May 18 to May 24, 2025, gauged readers’ responses to seven key proposals from the UN80 management task force, using a sliding scale from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.”

The survey results, collated from 1,377 respondents, indicate major support for certain proposed UN changes, reflecting a recognized need for the 80-year-old body to adapt to current budget constraints, primarily stemming from delayed member state dues (notably the United States and China) and recent/potential US cuts to a range of UN programs.

While the poll reflects strong support for some proposed changes, it remains uncertain whether these structural changes and budget cuts – as much as 20 percent — across the system, however strategic, will genuinely enhance operations or risk undermining the institution’s core roles, as previously reported by PassBlue.

Most Popular Proposals:

• Merging peace and security departments: A significant 52 percent of respondents “strongly agree” with merging the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) and the Department of Peace Operations (DPO). This proposal received the highest level of support in the survey, with only 2.4 percent strongly disagreeing and 9.6 percent undecided.
• Creating a Unified Human Rights Department: Fifty percent of survey-takers “strongly agree” with consolidating human rights efforts into a single UN Human Rights Department, led by the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Just 3 percent “strongly disagree” with this plan.

Other Notable Proposals:

• Reducing high-level UN Posts: 44.6 percent of respondents “strongly agree” with reducing the number of high-level UN positions, while only 1.7 percent “strongly disagree.”
• Merging UN Development Program (UNDP) and the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS): In the development track, 48 percent of respondents “strongly agree” with merging UNDP and UNOPS to “integrate strategic planning with project implementation.” Additionally, 31 percent agree, 11 percent are undecided, 7 percent disagree and 3 percent strongly disagree.
• Merging UN Women and UN Population Fund (UNFPA): Within the consolidation/reduction track focusing on UN development system entities, 50 percent of respondents “strongly agree” with merging UN Women and UNFPA to “create an agency focused on promoting gender equality and reproductive health and rights.” Seven percent each strongly disagree and disagree with this proposal.

The least popular proposals appear to reflect reluctance by people to relocate or to integrate divergent roles, as shown in these findings:

• Relocating UN Jobs: Only 38.6 percent of respondents “strongly agree” with relocating some UN jobs from high-cost locations like New York City and Geneva to potentially cheaper hubs like Nairobi. Conversely, 5.5 percent strongly disagree with this idea.
• Creating a UN Humanitarian Response and Protection Organization: 42 percent of respondents “strongly agree” with integrating the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) into a single entity. However, 27 percent agree, and a notable 7.5 percent strongly disagree, indicating concerns about combining agencies with somewhat different roles.

Understanding the Comparison Scores (for accompanying charts/tables):

A table comparing the average scores for each question is located at the bottom, after the seven column charts. This table can be sorted by question number and popularity. To provide a quantifiable “popularity value” for each question, a numerical value was assigned to each vote category:

• Strongly Disagree = -2
• Disagree = -1
• Undecided = 0
• Agree = +1
• Strongly Agree = +2

The “popularity value” for each question represents the average of all votes received. For example, a popularity rating of +1 indicates that the average sentiment for that question was “Agree.”