“The United Nations needs to be nimble, efficient and effective. It must focus more on delivery and less on process; more on people and less on bureaucracy,” said Mr. Guterres after taking the oath of office at a ceremony before the 193-member UN General Assembly.
Mr. Guterres, a former Prime Minister of Portugal (1995 to 2002) and former UN High Commissioner for Refugees (2005-2015) took the oath of office following the Assembly’s tribute to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who steps down at the end of the month after leading the global organisation for the past 10 years.
At the onset of his remarks at the swearing-in-ceremony, the Secretary General-designate paid tribute to Secretary General Ban for his “principled leadership [that] helped to chart the future of the UN – through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; through [his] commitment to peace and security; through [his] initiative to put human rights at the heart of [UN’s] work.”
Guterres then highlighted three strategic priorities for the organisation: working for peace; supporting sustainable development; and reforming its internal management.
Noting that, often, the UN is tasked with peacekeeping in places where there is no peace to keep, he said that a greater conceptual clarity and a shared understanding of the scope of peacekeeping was needed so as to pave the way for urgent reforms.
On the second key element of the reform agenda, concerning the UN support to Member States in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Guterres said that development will form the centre of the UN’s work, and that he will engage in a comprehensive reform of the UN development system – both at headquarters and at country levels.
On management reforms, Guterres underlined the need to build on existing efforts and to implement recent reform initiatives.
He also underlined the need to foster a culture of accountability and effective protection for whistleblowers, as well as to better communicate the work of the UN, so that people understand it better.
“We need a substantial reform of our communications strategy, upgrading our tools and platforms to reach people around the world,” he said.
He also pledged to respect gender parity from the start in all appointments.
Concluding his remarks, Secretary General-designate Guterres said that while the world is getting better connected, fragmentations within societies are increasing, and that more and more people are living within their own bubbles, unable to appreciate their links with the whole human family.
Guterres, was appointed by the General Assembly on 13 October this year in what was the culmination of an historic process which Member States set in motion late last year - the selection of a new UN Secretary General, traditionally decided behind closed-doors by a few powerful countries, for the first time in history, involved public discussions with each candidate vying for the leadership position.