Restructuring the UN

Attending many UN meetings and conferences for the past 15 years has given me the skill of how to sift through the wealth of information that can be gained on such opportunities. I am also a member of an advisory group since last year, as well as a regular participant of new initiatives in faith-based discussions.

UNFPA identified the need to have faith-based groups and created a department for cross-cultural activities. Is it enough? To UNFPA’s credit, it is a new initiative for the UN family; however we need more for social change.

The role of faith and value based organisations highlights other needs and gaps which need to be covered by UN agencies. In my opinion, we need fully-fledged UN Under-Secretaries-General for:

1. Faith/ value based organisations
2. Youth
3. Civil Society 
4. Internal Communications (Interdepartmental and Intradepartmental)
5. Social Media

These new positions will enable UN agencies to act faster and have a more efficient role during crisis or peace.

If we believe in change, we have to use change-makers to make it. In my view, if we need to drive fast, we need cars with derestricted speed-limits. If we want to upgrade our knowledge, we have to change our capacity from Giga to Terra and beyond.