Exclusive: UNDP Aim to Cut 10%, Off-Shore 20%, Accenture Plan Here, Grumbling of Helen Clark Cutting to Run for UNSG

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, November 18 -- There is a drive to be seen as saving money, throughout the UN system. Today Inner City Press profiles how it is happening within the UN Development Program, and why.

UNDP under Helen Clark hired Accenture to study ways to cut costs, calling it the "Structural and Cost Effectiveness Review." Accenture sent a team, which most staff never saw if heard of, working "on-site at UNDP Headquarters from July to October." Inner City Press has obtained and is publishing the executive summary of the UNDP Accenture Report, here.

The report urges "moving remaining staff to the field... High-demand countries such as Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo require dedicated teams; for program countries below $50MM it is important to ensure that each desk officer, moved to the region for relevance, is not responsible for more than 3-4 countries."

The overall plan they have arrived at involves a straight cut of 10%, and sending another 20% out to the field -- or, in the phrasing of the UNDP "Structural Review FAQs" Inner City Press obtained and is publishing today, "reversing the current HQ:regional staff ratio from 60:40 to 40:60."

  UNDP has "Global Shared Service Centers" in Copenhagen and Kuala Lumpur.

  A similar off-shoring of jobs from New York including to Kuala Lumpur is underway at UNICEF, run by American Anthony Lake.

  Helen Clark was prime minister of New Zealand; her right-hand there Heather Simpson is now leading the charge for cuts at UNDP. And why?

  There's grumbling that while the next UN Secretary General is supposed to come from the Eastern European group and "probably" be a woman, there's a move by New Zealand and allies to push Helen Clark for the job. There's talk of offers directed at Eastern Europe to back down.

  A high profile campaign of "reform" and cost-cutting at UNDP, in this context Inner City Press is exclusively informed, would be part of a Helen Clark campaign for UNSG. UNDP staff grumble that at the most recent Executive Board meeting, it was not said that 30% had to be cut (or 10% cut, 20% off-shoring). So what changed? 

   Helen Clark has held even fewer media question and answer sessions in New York than her predecessors Ad Melkert and Kemal Dervis, as documented and protested by the Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info. On these extensive cuts, she should answer questions. Watch this site.

   

As IMF Position on Maldives Linked to Gitmo Prisoners, Silence on Climate Strongarm

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 16 -- Leaked cables link Maldives' push for International Monetary Fund assistance with the country accepting prisoners released from Guantanamo Bay. The IMF has had nothing to say about this, and Thursday's end of year press briefing by IMF spokesperson Carolyn Atkinson was so abbreviated that the even the question could not be asked.

The US also linked $50 million in aid to Maldives supporting the Copenhagen deal on climate change. Inner City Press asked UN official Robert Orr, who was extolling the more recent Cancun conference, about this, but he refused to comment on leaked cables, and called this just the “push and pull” of member states.

But both revelations bring into question how members of the IMF's Executive Board use their voting and other powers with the IMF to accomplish other, unrelated political and economic goals. This will be a topic in 2011. Watch this site.

Inner City Press submitted, during Ms. Atkinson's briefing, the following question which has yet to be answered:

“On Cote d'Ivoire, please describe the IMF's engagement in the past days and weeks: if with the Ouattara government, with whom and how? Any contacts with Gbagbo officials?”

When an answer is received, it will be reported on this site.

At UN, Bolivia's Morales Hits Obama "Blackmail" and Lack of Change, "Sign Kyoto"

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/evo1obama050810.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 8 -- "Maybe the color of the skin of the U.S. President has changed," Bolivian President Evo Morales told the Press on Friday, "but nothing else has changed." Video here, from Minute 47:45.

Inner City Press asked Morales about reports in the Latin American press that the U.S. had "blackmailed" Bolivia and Ecuador by cutting off aid for not signing the Copenhagen Accord on climate change. Video here, from Minute 26:24.

Morales confirmed that "Ecuador lost $2 million, and Bolivia lost $3 million," but said these were more than made up for by money from Venezuela and Brazil. "They took away the Millennium Account," he said. "We don't have any trade preferences any more. But we're better off than before."

Last month Morales convened an alternative Copenhagen meeting in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Morales contrasts the non-binding Copenhagen Accord with the previous binding Kyoto protocol. On Friday he said the U.S. is "making a mistake" by cutting aid, that they could cooperate if the U.S. just "signed the Kyoto Protocol."

To Cochabamba, the UN sent its Under Secretary General for Latin America, Alicia Barcena, to attend. She was reportedly booed as she read a statement from Ban Ki-moon, then offered "if you don't want us here, then we will withdraw ... we also represent peoples."

Inner City Press asked Morales if, as requested in connection with the Cochabamba "cumbre," he had raised the issue of the U.S. blackmail to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and if so what Ban had said. Morales did not answer this part of the question.

Since Ban is focused on obtaining a second term, which could be blocked by the U.S., France, UK, Russia or China, it is unlikely he would issue any criticism of the U.S., even about cutting off aid to countries like Bolivia and Ecuador. Millennium Development Goals, indeed.

One issue that was raised in the Morales group's meeting with Ban was the upcoming naming of a new head of the UNFCCC, to lead the UN climate change talks into Cancun. Last week Inner City Press reported, based on tips from well placed Ambassadors, that the UN's short list of four consists of the candidates from Costa Rica, India, South Africa and Hungary. The last is an inside candidate who already works for Ban Ki-moon, Janos Pasztor, who has recused himself from much of his work while seeking the UNFCCC post. We'll see.

Footnote: given Evo Morales' direct attack on Barack Obama, in a televised and well attended UN press conference, one might have expected the US Mission to the UN to have issued some response. (Recent questions posed to the US Mission, about Ambassador Susan Rice not going on this week's Security Council trip to the Congo for example, have done unanswered.) But so far, there's been no statement from the US. We'll see.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/evo1obama050810.html

As UN's Ban "Divides and Rules" G-77, Pachauri's Bank Links Unexamined

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/ipcc1pachauri122109.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 21 -- While most observers and even participants describe the Copenhagen global warming talks as a disappointment, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday told the Press that they "sealed the deal" and were a success.

Inner City Press asked Mr. Ban about the scandal erupting around the undisclosed business interests of the chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Rajendra Pachauri, from the Tata Group through Deutsche Bank to Credit Suisse, and about the criticism by the chairman of the Group of 77 and its now 130 member states.

Mr. Ban entirely dodged the first question, paradoxically using it as an opportunity to praise business. On the second, he asserted that the chairman of the Group of 77 was not, in fact, speaking for the Group, since others' of its members spoke more positively.

Moments later, Inner City Press asked Sudan's Ambassador to the UN about Mr. Ban's comments. "Divide and rule," he answered, calling the Copenhagen process "climate apartheid." This phrase steps back from his counterpart in Copenhagen who analogized it to the Holocaust.

Pachauri's conflicts of interest are extensive and emblematic of the UN's lack of transparency and safeguards.

As detailed in the Telegraph

In 2008 he was made an adviser on renewable and sustainable energy to the Credit Suisse bank and the Rockefeller Foundation. He joined the board of the Nordic Glitnir Bank... This year Dr Pachauri joined the New York investment fund Pegasus as a ‘strategic adviser’... He is on the climate change advisory board of Deutsche Bank... One subject the talkative Dr Pachauri remains silent on, however, is how much money he is paid for all these important posts, which must run into millions of dollars.

So, notwithstanding the non-responsive answer Monday morning, does Mr. Ban believe that Pachauri should make public financial disclosure of these interests? Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ipcc1pachauri122109.html

As UN Flies 700 Staff to Copenhagen, Coup Leader Set to Speak, Major Emitter Excluded

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/uncope8offmessage121009.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 10 -- In the run up to the Copenhagen climate change conference, Inner City Press on December 4 asked UN climateer Janos Pasztor how many UN system staff, officials and consultants would be traveling to Denmark, with what carbon footprint. Pasztor said it wouldn't be known until the conference began.

On December 10, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky finally answered the question, or part of it. He said that the Copenhagen conference has among its participants 477 people from the UN Secretariat and 309 from 19 specialized agencies and related organizations. That is, 786 people from the UN. But does this include consultants? And what is the carbon footprint and will it be offset?

Nesirky did however answer two questions Inner City Press asked on December 10, after an ill attended noon briefing held at the same time as a media stakeout by U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice. Inner City Press asked if Ban Ki-moon is aware of the request that the coup leader of Madagascar not be allowed to participate in the Copenhagen conference, just as he was barred from speaking before the General Assembly in September.

Nesirky answered, "As for Madagascar, it is scheduled to speak on next Wednesday 16 December, sometime after 6 p.m., so they seem to have been invited." But what about the request that, as at the UN General Debate in September, they be disinvited?

On December 8, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon

Inner City Press: Has Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, has he indicated to you – we’ve heard that you’ve spoken to him weekly by videoconference – he represents the African Union. Is the $10 billion enough? They threatened to walk out if not sufficient funds were committed. What’s you stance on how that issue’s going to play out?

SG: As you know I, together with Prime Minister [Lars Løkke] Rasmussen [of Denmark], have been engaging in weekly videoconferences with major stakeholders on climate change - particularly the representatives of the most vulnerable countries, including the African Union and small island developing countries. We are going to continue to do that, as we did in Trinidad and Tobago. Now the idea of short-term fast-track financial support is supported by developing countries. We had a very in-depth discussion on this issue during our Commonwealth summit meeting in Trinidad and Tobago. As you know the 53-Member State Commonwealth adopted a consensus declaration where this financial support – fast-track support – was agreed by all the Member States, including a provision that 10% of this $10 billion will be provided to small island developing countries.

So the Commonweath agreed -- but has the African Union? Inner City Press asked Ban's top humanitarian John Holmes on December 10, but he said he hadn't been involved in setting the $10 billion figure. So who was?

Inner City Press also asking about the block on participation by Taiwan, which is a major industrial emitter. Nesirky answered only that "Taiwan is not a party to the UNFCCC." But why not? Would the UN want a major source of emission like Taiwan to participate?

The answer, of course, in China, a senior diplomat of which told Inner City Press a good joke on Thursday. He noted that U.S.' Susan Rice had been harsh against Iran in that morning's Council meeting. She has to play to the electorate, he said, just as Iran's teetered regime tries to strengthen its power by being ever more hard-line. The Chinese diplomat said, "This is the problem with democracy." And then he laughed.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/uncope8offmessage121009.html

At UN, Downer Says Anti-Obama Op-Ed Has No Effect on Cyprus Work with U.S., Coal Role

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/uncyp3conflicts120909.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 9 -- Alexander Downer, alongside being the UN Special Adviser on Cyprus, works for the consultancy Bespoke Approach, serves as a director of Hong Kong based mining firm ResourceHouse and its China First coal, and writes op-eds, most recently saying Barrack Obama should not have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Inner City Press asked Downer on December 9 if this op-ed had any effect on his discussion for the UN with Obama's Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with whom he met about Cyprus on December 8. Downer laughed and said, "Of course not! No such thing was discussed." .

But the question isn't whether Hillary Clinton brought up the op-ed: it's whether it has any impact of Downer's effectiveness for the UN on the Cyprus issue. Another correspondent pointed out that Downer had offered the Press nearly exactly the same upbeat assessment of the talks back in May. Has any progress been made?

Previously, Inner City Press has asked Downer and the UN what safeguards are in place to avoid any conflict of interest between Downer's work for the consultancy Bespoke Approach and his UN role. Downer scoffed that Cyprus doesn't have much business. But of course, Turkey and Greece have a stake in Cyprus, and both have big business. In fact, while KKR lists Bespoke Approach as an Easter affiliate, KKR has business interests in Turkey. So where are the safeguards?

Downer is also on the board of directors of ResourceHouse, which is raising funds for a China director coal mine in Australia. Inner City Press asked Downer, in this light, to comment on the UN climate change negotiations in Copenhagen.

Downer against laughed, saying that his Cyprus role does not involve climate change. How about his China First Coal role?

Ironically, in a press conference the same day the head of UN peacekeeping argued that all UN peacekeeping mission are impacted by climate change. But Downer, without responding to the question about China First Coal, said that his personal hope is that the negotiations succeed. And that an $2.25 will get you on the subway in New York: appointments with Bespoke Approach cost more. Watch this site.

Footnote: the UN's force commander in Cyprus is slated to be changed in the Spring of 2010. A question at the stakeout about Slovakia's public claim to be lobbying for the position yielded no answer, except that the process takes place in New York. We will follow this.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/uncyp3conflicts120909.html

UN's Corporate Abuse at Copenhagen, Goodyear Tires, Telsa Test Drives, Petrochemicals

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/uncope7offmessage120809.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 8 -- As 15,000 climate change conference participants fly into Copenhagen, corporations stand to profit whether or not the deal is sealed, sometimes by outright lying.

In a final pre-conference press conference in New York on December 4, the UN's Janos Pasztor painted a relentlessly upbeat picture of "Hopenhagen." Inner City Press asked, based off an article in a trade publication, if Goodyear would in fact be displaying tires inside the convention hall.

Yes, Pasztor said, there will be exhibitions. What about a claim by Bahrain's Gulf Petrochemical Industries that it is an "official sponsor" of the Copenhagen conference? Pasztor said he hadn't heard of the claim, that that the UN conference has no corporate sponsors.

After the press conference, Inner City Press showed Pasztor the press release. We'll see. Since the question, while the Gulf Petrochemical Industries' press release has not been withdrawn, Telsa Motors has announced it will provide test drives of cars at the Belsa Center.

Inner City Press also asked Pasztor how many UN system officials, staff and consultants will be attending the Copenhagen meetings. Pasztor wouldn't provide a number, instead saying that it wouldn't be clear until the conference started.

But when UN spokesman Martin Nesirky was asked the same question on December 7, the first day of the conference, he did not provide an answer, at the briefing or in the 12 hours after.

To the spokesman for General Assembly President Ali Treki Inner City Press asked:

Inner City Press: is the President, is Ali Treki going to go to Copenhagen at any point?

Spokesperson Nkolo: No. Unless this changes in the next few days, no he is not going.

Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/uncope7offmessage120809.html

At UN, Yvo de Boer and Africa's Secret Climate Number, of Indian Black Carbon and Shell Games in the Niger Delta

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/uncope5offmessage112009.html

UNITED NATIONS, November 20 -- With the UN simultaneous shrinking hopes for the Copenhagen climate change meeting and telling the Press not to cover the diminshed expectations, its top negotiator Yvo de Boer on November 19 effectively set $10 billion as the ceiling for transfers to the developing world.

There is only one problem: the African Union alone is said to be looking for $67 billion annually, with a threat to walk out of Copenhagen is less is offered. Inner City Press asked de Boer is he knew of the African Union number, and if even a feigned successful conference would be possible in the Africans walked out.

De Boer said that as a UN official, he believes in bringing people together, and that any walk out would be bad. He then argued that $10 billion was only a start, not a ceiling at all. But by stating the number as an indicia of success, he effectively did that.

Inner City Press asked de Boer to comment on India's environment minister Ramesh's comment that not only will India not make binding commitments in Copenhagen on greenhouse gas emissions, it will not discuss black coal emissions at all: "Copenhagen meeting is for negotiations for cuts in GHG emission and not for black carbon emission. We would resist any move for bringing in black carbon emission for discussions. Scientific link between black carbon emission and global warming and melting of glaciers is still being studied."

At first de Boer said he hadn't seen the comment and so couldn't response. Then Inner City Press e-mailed it to him.Hours later, to his credit, de Boer responded:

Subj: Here's the Minister Ramesh / black carbon emissions quote I've asked about
From: Yvo de Boer [at] unfccc.int
To: Inner City Press
Sent: 11/19/2009 8:24:29 P.M. Eastern Standard Time

The Minister correctly states that the climate negotiations do not address black carbon as it is not a greenhouse gas. However efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can also significantly lower emissions of black carbon

We'll see. Meanwhile, given the environment, some were surprised on November 18 to find Shell's Elizabeth Cheney in a UN conference room blithely praising her company's record.

Inner City Press asked about Shell's activities for example in Nigeria, specifically in the Niger Delta where Shell was accused for playing a role in the death of activist Ken Saro Wiwa, and is currently being sued before the ECOWAS court for pollution and human rights violations.

Ms. Cheney said Shell is "suffering the activities of criminal and terrorists [who] blow things up." She said, "We are not the government of Nigeria... sometimes we shut production and move out of area."

But what about pressuring those who oppose the oil drilling or distribution of revenue? "That's more detailed than we need to get into today," Ms. Cheney said. Afterwards she promised to put Inner City Press in touch with both "communications and... the leadership part of the business, there's more transparency there." If you say so...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/uncope5offmessage112009.html

In Run-Up to Copenhagen, of UN Web Sites Lost and Posts Empty by U.S.

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/uncope2offmessage102809.html

UNITED NATIONS, October 28 -- On climate change, while even Yvo de Boer of the UN says it's unlikely the deal will be sealed in Copenhagen in December, the UN Secretariat still maintains that there is no Plan B. And apparently that is true: while they got "SealTheDeal2009.org" to advocate for an agreement, "SealTheDeal2010.org" was recently obtained by another, through GoDaddy.com.

With all the resources the UN is devoting to Copenhagen, one might have expected them to at least take the 2010 domain name off the table. But perhaps they thought it would show a lack of faith.

Meanwhile, as a response to Inner City Press' article documenting nepotism in the Office of the President of the UN General Assembly, including PGA Ali Treki bringing his daughter and a cousin into the Office, Inner City Press has been informed that Treki asked the United States to second a staff member to his office on the climate change issue. The Obama administration has yet to come through.

From the October 27 UN transcript:

Inner City Press: I’ve been told that the, the Office of President Treki asked the United States to appoint a staff member to cover the issue of climate change, I guess to second a staff member from the United States Mission or the United States State Department to serve in the Office. Is that something you’re aware of? Is that true?

Spokesperson Jean-Victor Nkolo: Well, I don’t think I would like to go into staffing matters in a specific office at the United Nations. I don’t think that would be proper. But what I can tell you is that the Office of the President of the General Assembly is definitively staffed by a wide array of personnel coming from all horizons -- Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America. It’s a very international team and I think that it will be good that the international profile of this team continues to be reinforced. What I wouldn’t like to comment on are specifics regarding staffing matters.

Inner City Press: Is there currently somebody, I mean maybe you can comment on this one, is there, on the issue of climate change, is there currently a staff member of the Office covering that issue?

Spokesperson Nkolo: What I can tell you is that we are only a few a weeks after the General Assembly started its session, and as you know, the work of any session of the General Assembly starts in mid-September. It takes some time, usually, to actually have all the positions filled and this process is still ongoing and it does not, it’s not limited to the climate change issues. There are other areas that are being filled and the cabinet of the President of the General Assembly is working hard to make sure that all areas are filled quickly, but as efficiently and professionally as possible.

So they haven't filled the climate change post, this close to the Copenhagen meeting? Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/uncope2offmessage102809.html

On Copenhagen, Un's De Boer and Sachs Dubious, Off Message on Upbeat Seal the Deal

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/uncope1offmessage102609.html

UNITED NATIONS, October 26 -- UN climate negotiator Yvo de Boer was quoted in the Financial Times last week that "a fully fledged new international treaty under the [UN framework] convention [on climate change] - I do not think that will happen. If you look at the limited amount of time remaining to Copenhagen, it's clear."

Monday at the UN, Inner City Press asked Janos Pasztor, Director of the Secretary-General's Climate Change Support Team, how what de Boer said is consistent with the more upbeat "Seal the Deal" message emanating from the 38th floor. Video here, from Minute 50:05.

"We discussed it with Mr. de Boer extensively afterwards," Pasztor replied. "Not everything he said was quoted. His message is total consistent." Pasztor added that they will go for an ambitious agreement in Copenhagen. We we cannot get a legally binding treat, he said, they we'll do it later.

When Inner City Press asked Pasztor if the UN is claiming de Boer was misquoted by the FT, he did not say yes; So apparently de Boer was read the riot act, and told to get back on message.

Some say de Boer is lucky -- Ban's deputy envoy to Afghanistan got fired for going public with his claims of electoral fraud in Afghanistan being covered up.

UN's Ban and de Boer: on the same page on deal being sealed?

On October 6, another Ban advisor Jeffrey Sachs told an audience including the Press that he doubts the deal can be sealed in Copenhagen. When Inner City Press asked Pasztor about this, he replied that Sachs represents and advises Ban only on the Millennium Development Goals. But perhaps Sachs too has now been read the riot act. If even the UN's small "global goods" team cannot stay on its polyanna message, can they be surprised as other fall away?

And see, www.innercitypress.com/uncope1offmessage102609.html

As Tamil MPs Are Rebuffed in Sri Lanka, UN's Ban in Denmark, No Answers

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/untrip2may6srilanka052509.html

COPENHAGEN, May 25 -- Even after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon left Sri Lanka after his less then 24 hour tour, controversy continued to dog the trip, seem by many as giving the UN's blessing to war crimes and domination of the Tamil minority. Sources there say that while Ban Ki-moon left the press waiting on the UN plane -- well, Inner City Press was on the tarmac -- the following occurred:

"R. Sampanthan, a parliamentary group leader of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), had made arrangements to meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon prior to his departure at the VIP Lounge of the Bandaranaike International Airport. The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry had made arrangements for this, however the Defense Ministry of Sri Lanka refused the delegation entry into the Airport, denying the Tamil representatives from meeting the UN Secretary General."

No word of this reached those in the bubble of the UN plane ostensibly covering Ban's trip to Sri Lanka. Ban's personal spokesperson first told the Press he would brief on the plane. Then this was canceled, and he spoke with only four reporters, one on one, on topics such as climate change and the demise of former South Korean president Roh.

When the UN plane landed in Copenhagen at 9:50 a.m. Sunday local time, Inner City Press headed for a variety of reasons to the city's Bella Center, where Ban slated to give a speech on climate change and business. From outside Bella Center, Inner City Press called Ban's personal spokesperson, who said there was no way she could allow access to the Center, even to cover and question Ban. Nor would the UN Global Compact, an ostensible co-sponsor of the business-heavy event, provide access when asked. Something is fishy in Denmark.

Meanwhile a UN system staffer in the Bella Center parking lot told Inner City Press his job for the day was to escort the wife of Jan Mattsson, the head of the UN Office of Project Services, to visit with Ban's wife, and to stand off to a side in the hotel while this happened. He said that it would be difficult for Inner City Press to gain access to UNOPS' new Copenhagen headquarters, where Ban was slated to deliver another speech.

There have been protests in Copenhagen by "those people from Sri Lanka," he said, referring to Tamils, who he said wanted to speak with Ban while he was in Copenhagen. Fat change, one wag said. The victory tour in over, and now climate change and even an early July visit to Myanmar are the future. Sri Lanka, even to some NGOs, is the past. This is called victor's justice, in this case obscenely blessed by the UN for its convenience and purported relevance.

Why is the UN paying for militarized IDP camps ringed with barbed wire? This is a question that must and will be raised.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/untrip2may6srilanka052509.html