On 10-11 June The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation holds a meeting to provide an opportunity for a group of 10-15 experienced individuals to engage in an open discussion about the evidence for and formulation of proposed reforms, to consider scenarios for how this reform could take effect, and – most critically – how to make change happen. A starting point for the discussion will be the report currently being produced by Bruce Jenks and Bruce Jones entitled The United Nations Development System at a Crossroads.
Bruce Jenks – on the Future of United Nations Development Work
Bruce Jenks, one of the authors behind the report the United Nations Development at a Crossroads talks about the future of the UN.
In the changed global landscape, the United Nations Development system needs to adjust to remain relevant and to address the challenges of today. Bruce Jenks especially emphasizes the need to place Global Public Goods – a class of goods on which everyone depends and without which no one can do – at the core of UN activities. These fundamentally require a collective response. He also says it is critical that the United Nations takes on a central role in addressing the current global challenges with its “unique characteristics in terms of its importance in generating norms, values and standard setting in basic principles and rights. The primacy of those issues for the UN has to be right up at the front in terms of any current reform agenda.”