Panel wants major overhaul of UN projects for poor

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 9 (Reuters) A high-level panel today called for a radical overhaul of a jumble of UN development, relief and environmental agencies and programs that waste money in turf battles and duplication.

The 13-member panel of prime ministers and other senior officials from around the word completed a major report that recommended streamlining programs on development, humanitarian aid and the environment over the next five years -- but also adding new oversight bodies to do this.

''The United Nations is punching well below its weight,' said Adnan Amin, executive director for the report, entitled ''UN System-wide Coherence.'' For example, in Pakistan, UN agencies have devised some 75 program goals, without consulting the government. In several African nations, there are advisors on the AIDS epidemic from five UN agencies, Amin told reporters.

When the United Nations was formed after World War Two, the secretary-general was given limited power. Over the years, specialized agencies, multiplied for children, refugees, food, development and others. Many thrive on voluntary funding and take orders from no one but donors and their own board.

The UN system now encompasses 17 specialized agencies and related organizations, 14 funds and programs, in addition to the 17 departments and offices of the UN secretariat.

While the United Nations gives intellectual leadership in many areas, the report says its delivery in the field is ''fragmented and weak'' with a ''proliferation of agencies, mandates and offices'' and ''excessive administrative costs.'' More than one third of the U.N. teams in a country include 10 or more agencies, the report said. Some poor nations have 20 UN groups doing their own projects.

TOO MANY MEETINGS Most worrying for the panel were development efforts in some 17 countries country where the UN Development Program (UNDP) did not have the power to regulate other agencies and even competed with them. The panel recommends that the head of UNDP report to a new board, comprising the heads of principle agencies to monitor performance on the ground.

Five countries are expected to be chosen shortly, including Vietnam, to test coordination in the field. Amin said the databases of various agencies and headquarters often cannot share information -- or determine how many billions of dollars flow into the system.

On the environment, the report says so many conferences and meetings are being held throughout the world that many countries cannot even find staff to attend them.

Since the 1993 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro there are nearly 400 meeting days a year on biodiversity, climate change, desertification and related subjects. More than 30 UN agencies and programs are involved in environmental projects.

Instead, the report says the weak Nairobi-based UN Environment Program should get ''real authority'' and coordinate system-wide programs.

And despite strong commitments to women's rights and empowerment, there are three bodies dealing with the issue that that should be consolidated and headed by a senior executive.

Implementing the panel's recommendations will be up to South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon, who succeeds Annan as secretary-general on January 1.

The panel's report was presented to Annan and the UN General Assembly by the panel's three co-chairs: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz of Pakistan, Jens Stoltenberg of Norway and Luisa Dias Diogo of Mozambique. Others on the panel included British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and American Josette Sheeran, just named as head of the World Food Program.

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