The meeting comes shortly after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres published an ambitious blueprint for reform of the UN development system -- the product of months of internal reviews, and one of three major reform streams proposed by Guterres upon assuming office. This week’s event resulted in 128 UN member states signing a pledge to support reform. The headlines have highlighted Trump’s role in bringing this to pass. Arguably, this more accurately reflects a deft move by Guterres in letting Trump put his imprimatur on Guterres’s own plans, increasing his leverage to achieve changes that have proved elusive for years.
The reforms would further concentrate UN decision-making in New York at the expense of Geneva and Vienna.
Efficiency of development projects could rise if donors commit funding for longer periods and with fewer strings attached.
Guterres’s other proposed reforms, on peace and security and on management, may prove more controversial.
