The Future of UN Budgeting: Complexity and Prospect for Reform

Abstract

Chapter 10 is an outlook to the ongoing reform of United Nations budgeting introduced by the new Secretary General António Guterres, in light of the theoretical and conceptual discussions as well as the empirical findings presented throughout the book. It shows how the theoretical dynamics and main topics identified throughout this book, and in particular in Chapter 5, affect reform discussions and reform dynamics. Whereas some reform is taking place, principal and agency complexity prevent a major overhaul of the system as the fragmentation of the UN system is hard to overcome, and because key member states or groups of member states are bound to lose influence, even if only over a few elements of micromanagement that have become part of the pathological budgeting dynamics in New York—a pathology that is much less driven by IO bureaucracy and much more by states and their complex, historically shaped interests.