UN Staff Research Articles

Inspections and evaluations as part of United Nations internal oversight

The article deals with the issue of inspections and evaluations as part of the internal oversight of the United Nations. It is described the powers and activities of the Inspection and Evaluation Division (IED), which operates within the structure of the Office of Internal Oversight Services. In particular, it is indicated that the Inspection and Evaluation Division conducts programme evaluations to conduct analytical and critical assessments of programme implementation and legal frameworks, checking whether changes in them require a review of implementation methods and the relevance of administrative procedures. The main functions of the Division include: preparing a report on programme implementation at the end of each biennium containing qualitative and quantitative information; assessing, on a systematic and objective basis, the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and efficiency of the Organisation’s activities in achieving its objectives; submitting a report to the UN General Assembly on strengthening the evaluation function and related oversight activities within the UN; conducting special inspections of programmes and organisational units to identify problems affecting the efficiency and effectiveness of the implementation of programmed activities and recommending corrective measures to improve programme delivery; providing internal management advisory services to programme managers, upon request etc. It is stated that the Division carries out several types of evaluation activities, including: programme evaluations; thematic evaluations; inspections; biennial studies on evaluation; evaluation dashboard etc. Themes covered by evaluations include: peace and security; sustainable development; human rights and humanitarian assistance; and organisational management and support. The main target audiences and users of the IED evaluation materials are: the Secretary-General, UN programme managers and staff, member states, primarily the Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC) and the Administrative and Budgetary Committee (Fifth Committee) of the General Assembly and Security Council, UN stakeholders and partners.

‘At the end of their relationship, that man offered her a house’: Qualitatively exploring Congolese women’s agency in navigating sexual relations with UN peacekeepers within the context of a patriarchal setting in eastern DRC

ABSTRACT The UN’s Zero Tolerance Policy, which bans all relationships between UN staff and locals, portrays all relationships as exploitative, fails to account for nuances in these relationships and does not acknowledge the agency of local women or communities. This study uses community-based qualitative data from eastern DRC that shares narratives on a wide variety of consensual relationships between peacekeepers and local women. Our paper uses a data-driven approach, including a post-colonial feminist lens, and ideas of structural agency to provide an expanded definition of agency that invites readers to re-examine their views of women in conflict settings. Finally, we provide clear recommendations for the UN and other international non-governmental agencies on policies related to sexual exploitation and abuse.

Gendered Socio-Economic Integration: Lessons From the Syria Response

Despite increasing awareness, there are gaps in implementers' policy initiatives and ability to effectively deploy programs that incorporate gender mainstreaming in refugee contexts. Challenges impacting the design and implementation of gender sensitive livelihoods programming are identified based on forty-eight interviews with UN and (I)NGO staff in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). Problems include a lack of gender expertise, internalized gender stereotypes, lack of donor commitment to gender goals, not being able to measure outcomes, and/or time constraints. We highlight best practices that make programs that help women refugees obtain work more successful. At the same time, interviewees raised important questions concerning the appropriate metrics for measuring the success of ‘livelihoods' initiatives, arguing that social integration, increasing women’s soft skills and self-confidence were just as or more important than economic objectives of many initiatives being rolled out.

Action on the social determinants for advancing health equity in the time of COVID-19: perspectives of actors engaged in a WHO Special Initiative

Since the 2008 publication of the reports of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health and its nine knowledge networks, substantial research has been undertaken to document and describe health inequities. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need for a deeper understanding of, and broader action on, the social determinants of health. Building on this unique and critical opportunity, the World Health Organization is steering a multi-country Initiative to reduce health inequities through an action-learning process in ‘Pathfinder’ countries. The Initiative aims to develop replicable and reliable models and practices that can be adopted by WHO offices and UN staff to address the social determinants of health to advance health equity. This paper provides an overview of the Initiative by describing its broad theory of change and work undertaken in three regions and six Pathfinder countries in its first year-and-a-half. Participants engaged in the Initiative describe results of early country dialogues and promising entry points for implementation that involve model, network and capacity building. The insights communicated through this note from the field will be of interest for others aiming to advance health equity through taking action on the social determinants of health, in particular as regards structural determinants.

A Multilateral Donation that Boomerangs Home: Analysing the Donor State Advantage in UN Procurement

Bilateral aid procurement is politicised and strongly favours suppliers from donor countries. Does multilateral development assistance eliminate the procurement bias favouring donor countries because international bureaucrats make procurement decisions? Existing evidence from the World Bank, which delegates procurement responsibilities to aid recipient countries, cannot answer our theoretical question. Using official data from 20 UN organisations during the 2013–2018 period and applying regression and mediation analysis, we find that the procurement of international organisations still favours donor countries when international bureaucrats make procurement decisions. We identify donor state representation within the UN staff as a key stepping stone linking donation to procurement bias. In contrast, member states whose nationals are heads of a UN bureaucracy do not enjoy procurement advantage, suggesting that UN procurement bias operates through an informal bottom-up channel. Our paper contributes to the debates on the independence of international organisations in the context of multilateral development assistance and procurement.

The Local Supporting Approaches Scaling up the Capacity of Reconstruction in Nepal

Disaster reflects a multi-fold impact on vulnerable communities such as children, women, and people living with disabilities. The study identifies the multiplier impact of hazard induce disasters, Covid019 pandemic, and regular strikes into poor and marginalized communities. Tried to be unmasking the effectiveness of local support initiatives as social recovery support from the neighbor, communities, non-state actors, and the state. The paper brings out how the social support, and protection practices can scale up its cost in disaster recovery initiates in disaster-affected communities in Gandaki province, Nepal.
 An online (google) based survey form was developed, and distributed to potential frontline workers, NGO staff, INGO staff, and UN staff based on their project area. Respondents were randomly divided into two groups (local support, and external support) and asked for their supporting practices while the disaster has occurred at the local level, and responses were analyzed at the explanatory level through the regression.
 While testing the hypothesis that local social support leads to higher resilience capacity in the disaster-affected household with compare to external support, which results showed that local level support was better with comparing of external support during disaster response and recovery. Study results suggested that household, neighbor, and local community support was quick, applicable, and easier to adopt than a comparison of external supporters. Based on the study, further development intervention should be centered on the capacity to strengthen local households, neighborhoods, community-based organizations, and local states rather than expecting external support. The study paper explores the local supporting practices on reconstruction and recovery, which is the novelty approaches in local supporting engagement on speedy recovery initiatives in Nepal.

Persistence Against the Odds: How Entrepreneurial Agents Helped the UN Joint Inspection Unit to Prevail

AbstractSince its inception in 1966, the United Nations Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) has prevailed in the face of significant existential challenges. Against this backdrop, we investigate how and why the JIU persisted over time. Combining delegation and historical institutionalist approaches, we posit that entrepreneurial agents and layering processes together help us better understand persistence of international organizations. Based on semi‐structured interviews with UN staff and JIU inspectors, we examine three critical junctures in the history of the JIU. Our results show that entrepreneurial agents and stakeholders in the JIU managed to avoid the closure or demotion of the JIU by engaging in a strategy of institutional layering. Our analysis, however, also demonstrates that the JIU survived at the price of losing its privilege as the central UN oversight body. These findings have implications for the study of international organizations and for the reform of the UN system at large.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Peacekeepers on African Soil during COVID-19 : Procedures, Challenges, Lessons

Active United Nation missions on African soil are: MINURSO in Western Sahara, UNMISS in South Sudan, MINUSMA in Mali, MONUSCO in Democratic Republic of the Congo, MINUSCA in Central African Republic and UNISFA in Abyei. Peacekeeping has always been highly dynamic and has evolved in the face of new issues. But, in addition to the challenges they face while assisting host countries on the difficult path from conflict to peace, peacekeepers have recently had to deal with procedures and obstacles caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the article is to investigate the performance of everyday tasks in the COVID-19 era with an emphasis on issues related to the availability of basic supplies for UN peacekeepers, personal protective equipment, medical services, welfare, travel restrictions, and connections with the resident population in Africa. In this paper, we will present the results of qualitative research (in-depth interviews) on the experiences of UN staff from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) who served in the mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), in the period 2020-2022. In anticipation of malaria, typhoid, hepatitis, salmonella, etc., the peacekeepers faced a new unknown disease, a shortage of medicines, they had no access to hospitals, and personal protective masks were made from their underwear. In some areas the local population believed that COVID19 was a “mysterious disease” brought and spread by peacekeepers and this fact shed new light on (non)cooperation with UN staff. Apart from the UN, the mission staff were (not) provided with support and assistance in various ways by the countries which they came from.

To be for fighting & To fight for being (How identity and the sense of belonging can influence the performance of the Syrian Kurds’ military groups)

The purpose of this article is to examine how the concept of identity and the sense of belonging can shape the performance and increase the capacity of a military group. At first the text outlines the theoretical framework of what is the sense of belonging and how this is strictly connected with the notion of identity by looking at previous literature. Afterward the paper defines how these factors can cause and bring to a different military capacity, when it is formed by representatives of a single ethnic group. The relevance of this work is the possibility of having a clearer understanding of military efficiency by combining theories of two sciences: political science and anthropology. Previous works didn’t give a complete vision and understanding of it because they were not combining the theories of these two disciplines, leaving a not clear result in their research. Furthermore, for proving the theoretical framework developed in the text, a case study is chosen: the Syrian Kurds, specifically two groups, Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat (YPD) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Using a qualitative research method, the groups are exposed, and it is outlined how the theoretical idea of the paper functions when looking at physical examples. The combination of primary sources and interviews with UN staff operating in Syria during 2012-2016, allowed a more complete and objective vision of the groups’ capacity and the reality that the Syrian Kurds were living. The choice fell on these exponents because they manifest each of the theoretical points touched in the research (culture, sense of belonging and identity).

THE ASSOCIATION OF BODY MASS INDEX, BLOOD PRESSURE AND FASTING BLOOD SUGAR WITH GENDER IN THE UNITED NATIONS STAFF OF LIBERIA

Objective: To determine the association of body mass index, blood pressure and fasting blood sugar with the gender in the UN staff of Liberia.
 Study Design: Cross sectional study.
 Place and Duration of Study: Level-II Hospital Monrovia, Liberia, from May to Aug 2017.
 Methodology: This study was conducted in the United Nation staff of Liberia, at level-II Hospital, where, routine medical check was conducted and anthropometric measurements as well as blood pressure and fasting blood sugar values were noted. Body mass index, fasting blood sugar and blood pressure values were recorded and fasting blood sugar and blood pressure values were compared for its relationship with varying body mass index values.
 Result: Total 300 individuals were monitored, out of them 226 (75.3%) were males and 74 (24.7%) were females. Mean weight of males was found to be 81 ± 14.6 Kg and for females 72.5 ± 11.6 kg there was found statistically significant (p<0.001) in both male and female and There was no significant difference of gender with Fasting blood glucose (p=0.395), systolic blood pressure (p=0.281) and diastolic blood pressure (p=0.425).
 Conclusion: Significant association was seen between body mass index and blood pressure in both males and female as well as for fasting blood sugar in males. Hence, simple measurement of body mass index can be used as important health prognostic marker and thus can be used in regular routine medical assessment for maintaining and following healthy living.

Masks are for sissies: the story of LGBTQI+ asylum seekers in Brazil during COVID-19

ABSTRACT Queer migration and counter-movement literature are established subsets of social science scholarship that, together, could illuminate debates around queer rights activism in a migration context. Yet, the intersection of these two sets of scholarship is largely underexplored. Recognizing this gap, a valuable case study can be found in Brazil, which is home to both the only LGBTQI+ refugee centre in Latin America, Casa Miga, and a growing anti-gay and anti-gender counter-movement. Thus, to better understand the conceptual novelty of the intersection of queer migration and counter-movement literature, we draw on 26 interviews with Venezuelan LGBTQI+ asylum seekers, politicians, NGOs, and UN staff in Brazil conducted before and during the pandemic. Our central argument is that Casa Miga, an LGBTQI+ refugee centre, is an essential bulwark against the coordinated counter-movements that share the goal of defeating LGBTQI+ and feminist agendas in Brazil. We conclude that lacking local avenues for action, international appeals during COVID-19 for gender and LGBTQI+ sensitive responses become critical. Indeed, the gendered impacts of COVID-19 – regarding women – are becoming well-known due to vocal feminist groups worldwide. Yet, these calls for action have largely missed analysing how COVID-19 impacts LGBTQI+ populations, even in gender-sensitive reporting.

The right and role of critiquing the contemporary patchwork of protection

The right and role of critiquing the contemporary patchwork of protection

Riyadh changes priorities - “smart” cities and resorts instead of oil?

The article examines the progress of the implementation of socio-economic reforms, which began in 2016 after the promulgation of the new "Strategy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" called "Vision 2030", and aimed at diversification of the economy and modernization of the country. The focus is on two main areas of economic development - tourism and the construction of "smart" cities of the future. In accordance with the logic of the new strategy the economic geography of the Kingdom is also changing. If in the previous decades the state's efforts and investments were directed mainly to the east of the country, on the coast of the Persian/Arabian Gulf, where oil de-posits are concentrated, today, during the transition to the post-oil era, the main attention is paid to unlocking the potential of the western regions adjacent to the coast of the Red Sea. In brief, the result of 5 years of reforms is that the words "post-oil era" have ceased to be an abstract concept. As an evidence of the population's support for the reforms, the author cites the results of a survey by UN staff members of the Kingdom's residents, most of whom expressed satisfaction with the quality of life and the actions of the authorities, as well as the report of the IMF mission, which praised the activities of the KSA government on tourism and the entertainment industry development, to combat the pandemic, and to in-crease the role of the private sector in the country's economic development. At the same time, the author believes that despite the obvious successes, it would be a delusion to believe that all the risks associated with the implementation of reforms have been left behind.

Haderech lekaf-tet b'November: Parashat UNSCOP vereshit meoravuto shel ha'um basichsuch ha'Aravi-Israeli (The road to partition: UNSCOP and the beginning of United Nations involvement in the Israel-Arab conflict)

Haderech lekaf-tet b'November: Parashat UNSCOP vereshit meoravuto shel ha'um basichsuch ha'Aravi-Israeli (The road to partition: UNSCOP and the beginning of United Nations involvement in the Israel-Arab conflict)

The resiliency of the UN staff member’s oath of office

This is not the first time that I have been asked how we can succeed in advancing the values of the United Nations in the most critical situations. It is a good question. Even those who have served in peace missions for over thirty years cannot provide a single answer to this question.

UN Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding: Progress and Paradox in Local Ownership

AbstractUN peace operations have increasingly focused on the importance of “local ownership.” The logic is simple. For peace operations to succeed in helping war-torn states to create accountable, democratic institutions grounded in the rule of law, peace operations need to internalize democratic principles by making UN missions accountable to different domestic constituencies—crossing ethnic, religious, racial, social, and gender lines—within the war-torn country. As part of a special issue on “The United Nations at Seventy-Five: Looking Back to Look Forward,” this essay argues that while there is widespread consensus among UN member states and UN bureaucrats that local ownership is necessary, UN peace operations have faced significant obstacles to creating true local ownership. These obstacles include the UN's focus on host-government ownership; the challenge of creating trust with different domestic constituencies that represent diverse perspectives; the supply-driven nature of UN intervention; and the mismatch between the UN's ideal post-conflict state and the preferences of post-conflict societies. To make UN peace operations more responsive to post-conflict societies, UN staff often have to bend or break rules established only to hold them accountable to their member states.

Learning Chinese as the United Nations Language? Implications for Language Learning Motivation and Identity in Adult Higher Education

In this study, the researcher strives to build on earlier work in which the roles of motivation and identity in language learning in adult higher education were examined. In the present connection, the focus falls on the roles played by a seldom researched group consisting of staff members in an intergovernmental organization. This group is comprised of United Nations staff members (N=33/18 female, 15 male) involved with the United Nations Chinese language program at the UN Headquarter for the Asia region in Bangkok. The past research has shown that an adult language learner’s learning level becomes very high when s/he is sufficiently motivated. In this light, then, the researcher explores whether the language-learning process would be improved if adult staff members from an intergovernmental organization engage in language learning with a greater sense of a professional self/institutional identity than would be the case with a merely personal identity. Also considered is whether the language-learning process is enhanced by an individual/personal identity in contrast to having only a professional self/institutional identity. The findings show that UN staff members who are highly motivated to learn Chinese are more likely to harbor a mixture of both personal and professional identities. Nevertheless, prioritizing the learning of Chinese often stems from functional and practical reasons, i.e., from instrumental motivation. Finally, this study finds no clear links between Chinese heritage and success in Chinese language learning in the adult higher educational sector.

Exploring the UN and OPCW Partnership in Syrian Chemical Weapons Disarmament

Abstract After reviewing recent literature on international organizations’ autonomy and cooperation, this article explores the unprecedented partnership between the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons—implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention—and the UN Secretariat during the 2013–2014 chemical weapons disarmament in Syria. The article explores how this collaboration, embodied on the ground through the creation of a Joint Mission, evolved from hesitant, bureaucratic rivalry to an increasingly intense relationship in the aftermath of a large-scale attack near Damascus in August 2013. The research is based on wide-ranging interviews with senior OPCW and UN staff, and relevant state officials. The article shows how international shocks, high-level support from key Member States, and leadership at the Secretariat level produced requisite intra- and interorganizational consensus to mitigate turf wars. Relative autonomy of mission staff and bureaucratic flexibility further allowed skilled boundary spanners to build trust and increase the mission’s leeway, allowing it to navigate complex political challenges.

The Missing Link

As the mandate of peace support operations has evolved since the mid-1990s to embrace a protection of civilians mandate, the necessary linkages have not been made with international human rights law and associated jurisprudence in relation to the right to life. Consequently, the extent and scope of the UN’s human rights obligations and the range of duty bearers involved is not properly appreciated and integrated into relevant instruments and administrative frameworks, which has a detrimental impact on the right to life. Given the absence of an oversight human rights mechanism for the UN, this article argues that jurisprudence from regional and international human rights bodies should be applied mutatis mutandis to peace support operations to bring more pressure and accountability to UN staff regarding adherence to international human rights standards. This includes not only front-line personnel using force, but also personnel responsible for: planning and controlling operations; operating command and coordination structures; providing training, information and equipment; establishing legal and administrative frameworks; and formulating operational guidelines and strategies.

The ICC indictment against Al-Bashir and its repercussions for peacekeeping and humanitarian operations in Darfur

The impact of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on peace processes has received much scholarly attention. We argue, based on the ICC arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, that ICC indictments against government officials not only can be detrimental to the prospects for peace, but can also negatively affect everyday practices of peacekeepers and humanitarian workers. We draw on a combination of quantitative and qualitative data in order to develop our argument. We interrogate some measurable consequences of the indictment in relation to the work of the United Nations – African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) as well as humanitarian actors in Darfur. We do so using a data set compiled to support the work of UNAMID. We also draw on interviews with UN and UNAMID staff, aid workers, and representatives of the conflict parties. Our analysis shows that the indictment of President al-Bashir was perceived by the Sudanese government as the continuation of a confrontational approach pursued by the international community. We further show that the indictment accelerated patterns of obstruction and intimidation of peacekeeping actors, other third-party actors, and local staff associated with these. This complicated the everyday activities of peacekeepers and humanitarian efforts.