GPPi comments on German UN policy in Tagesspiegel

On October 10, Der Tagesspiegel published an op-ed by GPPi Associate Director Thorsten Benner on Germany’s UN policy in the era of the incoming Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon. The piece argues that instead of focusing on its bid to win a permanent seat on the Security Council, Germany should contribute to reforming the UN’s ailing bureaucracy. Germany should continue its highly successful policy of supporting the UN’s cooperation with the business community and civil society. It is also in Germany’s interest to contribute to enhancing the learning capacity of the UN’s overextended peacebuilding apparatus. Currently, the UN Secretariat does not have sufficient capacity to identify, collect and mainstream lessons learned from peacebuilding missions. Here Germany’s support could make a difference very much in line with Germany’s ​“enlarged concept of security.” The article also calls on Germany to support efforts to make the UN’s notoriously fragmented development work more coherent and effective. One step would be to push for adopting the ​“Four Ones”: a single program, a single budget, a single evaluation and monitoring framework, and a single, fully empowered resident coordinator for each country.