Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, President Museveni has supported President Donald Trump’s political declaration on UN reforms. The reforms aim at creating a more lean and efficient institution.
“Trump is pushing for the United Nations to be efficient in its peace keeping processes, be more focused and have more achievable targets, not spend time on procedures but on substance and manpower,” he said shortly after a closed door meeting for world leaders in ECOSOC Hall at the United Nations headquarters.
President Museveni said they support the reforms because there are situations violence and destruction reign despite strong UN presence, citing Eastern DR Congo.
“We support the reforms because this is what we have been talking about all along,” the President explained.
President Museveni has been one of the key leaders pushing for reforms at the world body.
In 2015, Uganda used its Presidency at the United Nations to push for reforms at the most important committee of the United Nations – the Security Council.
“Uganda is pushing for Africa’s case for the reform of the membership of the security council which is currently monopolized. Africa has no permanent members on the five-member council. Our argument was for Africa to have at least two members,” he said.
President Trump is seeking global support for reforming the world body as he hosts’ leaders at the United Nations headquarters, just a day before he makes his inaugural address to the 193-member organisation.
According to reports, President Trump criticized the United Nations for bloated bureaucracy and mismanagement in his meeting today, calling for “truly bold reforms” so it could be a greater force for world peace.
“In recent years, the United Nations has not reached its full potential because of bureaucracy and mismanagement, while the United Nations on a regular budget has increased by 140 percent and its staff has more than doubled since 2000. The United Nations must hold every level of management accountable, protect whistleblowers and focus on results rather than on process,” Trump said.
In his first remarks at NewYork since his inauguration as US President in January , Trump also said he was confident that if they work together and champion truly bold reforms, the UN will emerge as a stronger, more effective, more just and greater force for peace and harmony in the world
Over 120 countries were invited to the reform meeting during which Trump spoke for just four minutes.
Today’s closed meeting was strictly a 1 + 1 affair with leaders signing on to a U.S. drafted 10-point political declaration backing efforts by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “to initiate effective, meaningful reform.”
According to reports, the reform package championed by Antonio Guterres and vigorously supported by the US Permanent Representative to the UN Nikki Haley would make the United Nations a more streamlined bureaucracy better able to deliver tangible results to the people it serves.
The reforms are a suite of bureaucratic shifts and changes in the UN’s organizational chart .The net effect of these reforms is to increase the power of the Office of the Secretary General–that is, give him more ability to hire and fire personnel and more broadly shape the UN bureaucracy.
