UNITED NATIONS, March 7: Amidst concern by developing countries and UN employees over management reforms, Secretary General Kofi Annan on Monday unveiled a ‘far-reaching overhaul’ of the world body ranging from setting up a 2,500-strong core of mobile peacekeeping professionals to multimillion dollar investments in training and technology.

Mr Annan’s report, ‘Investing in the United Nations: For a Stronger Organization Worldwide’, focuses on ensuring efficiency and accountability in a way that reflects the fact that more than 70 per cent of the $10 billion annual budget now relates to peacekeeping and other field operations, up from around 50 per cent of a $4.5 billion budget ten years ago.

“Our current rules and regulations were designed for an essentially static secretariat whose main function was to service conferences and meetings of member states, and whose staff worked mainly at headquarters,” Mr Annan said as he presented the report in the General Assembly Hall.

“Today, thanks to the mandates that member states have given us, we are engaged directly in many parts of the world, working on the ground to improve the lives of people who need help.”

In the 16 years since the cold war ended, the organisation has taken on more than twice as many new peacekeeping missions as in the previous 44 years and spending on peacekeeping has quadrupled. Over half of its 30,000 civilian staff now serve in the field - not only in peacekeeping, but also in humanitarian relief, criminal justice, human rights monitoring, supporting national elections, and in the battle against drugs and crime.

The Secretary-General’s comprehensive reform blueprint was called for in the outcome document adopted by national leaders at last September’s World Summit in New York. It builds on a package of reforms Mr Annan launched last year to enhance ethics and accountability and address weaknesses exposed by the independent inquiry on the Oil-for-Food Programme as well as evidence of sexual exploitation in certain peacekeeping operations.