Stephen Browne
Stephen Browne spent 33 years working in the UN development system and is a visiting lecturer at universities in the UK, Switzerland and India.
Recent assaults by the Trump administration and other United Nations member states on multilateralism in general and development assistance in particular have attracted attention, but fault lines were apparent from the start. Sir John Boyd Orr, the Nobel laureate elected …
- Categories: Development, OPINIONS, SDGs, US-UN Relations
Multilateralism is retreating and the United Nations is no longer effective in any of its major functions. The fault is with both the First UN of member states — and particularly the veto wielding P3 of Russia, China and the …
- Categories: Climate Change, Development, Governance, OPINIONS, Secretary-General
Individual member states have always exerted a heavy influence on the United Nations. The dominance of individual powers is the nature of multilateralism, but in the UN system it is particularly marked. The Security Council can only do its job …
- Categories: Development, OPINIONS, Secretary-General, Security Council
GENEVA — Like his predecessors, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has been pushing a reform program to help the organization adjust to the demands of contemporary global governance. Over nearly 75 years, the UN has innovated and adapted. At first, …
- Categories: Development, OPINIONS, SDGs
- Stephen Browne
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GENEVA — Change is in the air again on First Avenue. Among numerous reform options being bandied about, none will be more consequential than those on financing the United Nations system. There are the sledgehammer arguments: drastic slashes in funding …
- Categories: UN Agencies
- Stephen Browne
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There is an ongoing process of change in the United Nations development system, albeit a slow one given the size of the challenges. At the country level, more UN country teams (UNCTs) are endorsing the principles of Delivering as One, …
- Categories: Development, SDGs
GENEVA — Whether or not he is a fan of Chinese characters, António Guterres will have to discover the double meaning of a crisis as opportunity. United Nations corridors on First Avenue in New York are buzzing with anxiety about …
- Categories: OPINIONS, Secretary-General, US-UN Relations
- Stephen Browne
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António Guterres, the new United Nations secretary-general, was chosen on merit and takes over the UN during an especially turbulent period and after a decade of low-key leadership and low staff morale. The “first” UN of governments includes the five …
- Categories: Secretary-General
- Stephen Browne
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The results of the latest FUNDS survey of global experts, conducted during the winter of 2015-16, contains clear messages about the next United Nations secretary-general: s/he should be a world leader with integrity and political courage who will prioritize UN …
- Categories: General Assembly, Secretary-General, Security Council
GENEVA — For only the second time — the first was in 1996 — the electoral campaigns for the American president and the United Nations secretary-general are running in parallel. Both promise to be long and protracted. Each already has …
- Stephen Browne
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One year ago, the report of a high-level panel of world leaders and renowned development specialists proposed 12 goals and 50 indicators for the United Nation’s post-2015 agenda. These were already unwieldy numbers, but after a year and a half …
- Categories: Development
GENEVA — For those with longer memories, the latest dip in resources for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the staff cutbacks and restructuring announced by its administrator, Helen Clark, in May are merely the onset of another cycle, …
- Categories: OPINIONS
- Stephen Browne
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“If we want things to change, some things will have to stay as they are.” This inversion of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa‘s aphorism summarizes a key finding of a recent global survey on the future development goals. A select group …
- Categories: Development
- Stephen Browne
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Constant reform has characterized the United Nations Development Program throughout its existence, say the authors of two recent books on the agency. Change bespeaks an organization ready to adapt but also fundamentally uncertain about its proper role. It teeters between …
- Categories: Development, UN Agencies
- Stephen Browne
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At the end of 2012, Britain withdrew its membership from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, or Unido, the most recent of several major donor countries (including the United States and Canada) to do so. Although it has had strong …
- Categories: Development, UN Agencies
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