United Nations — Is It Doing Its Job?

United Nations, is it doing its job?

The United Nations was set up with high ideals about ensuring peace throughout the world. Most younger people now only hear of the UN because of “celebrity” envoys for this or that campaign. So now is the time to question the structure, aims and capability of this colossal bureaucracy. What it costs, as for who pays? It is always the taxpayers in contributing nations. What does it do and how successful is it? Why are there charities seeking funds to do things, such as relieve child poverty, that the UN also claims to be doing? Is it time to modernise and restructure the UN administration?

The United Nations now has 193 members and was founded in 1945, all of the 193 member states are members of the General Assembly. It is stated in many places, that many countries fail to pay their full dues. So why are they still members? If I fail to pay membership of anything, I do not expect to remain a member

The main organisational parts of of the UN are the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Secretariat. These all date back to 1945 so the basic organisation is 73 years old, the world has changed so much in that time.

The administration, the bureaucracy, is called the secretariat, the boss of this is the Secretary General. It is a huge organisation with offices and well paid people all round the world. To quote directly from their official web site: "The UN system, is made up of the UN itself and many affiliated programmes, funds, and specialized agencies, all with their own membership, leadership, and budget. The programmes and funds are financed through voluntary rather than assessed contributions. The Specialized Agencies are independent international organizations funded by both voluntary and assessed contributions.” Which sound like a flawed design structure and very open to corruption. I wonder if anyone knows, or cares, exactly what is being done with all that tax payers money. It is tax payers money even if via a government or via charitable giving. No wonder Mr Gates prefers to administer his own charity and control what is done with his, and his wife's, charitable funds.

In addition to the the UN proper, there are a number of agencies, who are part of the UN , including UNICEF, the United Nations Children Fund. The UK branch of this has offices in central London, not the cheapest place to have it and its web site states that it gets no money from the UN budget and relies of donations from people. It advertises jobs available with United Nations children fund.

UNDP, United Nations Development Program. Their UK web site claims it is funded entirely by voluntary contributions from UN Member States, multilateral organizations, private sector and other sources.

UNHCR United Nations High Commissionaire for Refugees. Which is governed by the UN General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

WFP, World Food Program

FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization

ILO, International Labor Organization

UNESCO, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization

WHO, World Health Organization

International Monetary Fund is funded and governed outside the UN system but seems still part of it

World Bank, which is funded and governed outside of the UN System but still is listed as part of it

Is it any wonder that this vast organization is a bureaucrats idea of heaven, no one in real control of finances, no one understanding what is being done with all they money, everyone able to fudge and confuse any questions. It does seem this is a larger version of the European Union, an organisation that acts as if it exists for the people employed or managing it, rather than the people of the member nations. Trying to determine what is the total money used by UN or UN connected officials, is very difficult, I suspect deliberately so. As far as I can find definite figures in 2006 the total was $1,924,840,250. but this probably does not include all the Voluntary funds all the UN connected offshoots handle. America pays 22% of the total funding. The Global Policy Forum has figures for 2010-2011 showing the final appropriation to be $5,416.433,700 This does not include “voluntary” funding so it is reasonable to guess at a total amount absorbed by the UN and its many agencies to be at least $7,000,000,000. It is unclear whether this includes “peace keeping missions” or it may be such costs are additional. All of this money has to be generated by the work people do. What do we get for it?

I understand that since the end of the second world war there has been some form of armed conflict in some part of the world, on every single day. This may be wrong but it is what I am led to believe. In Britain the high streets have been taken over by charity shops, the television is filled with commercials from charities asking for funds. There are still appeals for famine relief, there is still wide spread child abuse, modern slavery exists and there is still extreme poverty in many parts of the world. So what the hell is the UN doing with all this money? What have they been doing for the last 70 years, except provide grand salaries and wonderful expense accounts, to bureaucrats?