The first round of consultations came to an end in May as the 4NI Secretariat and Steering Committee prepared and agreed on the first draft report presenting recommendations and ideas for improved governance and management of the UN Secretariat.

Since February 2007, the 4NI has consulted with a large number of Member States and with representatives of the UN Secretariat. The input from these consultations has been highly valuable in the process of drafting the proposals report.

The three study reports are now ready and made available to the public. The 4NI reminds the readers that the conclusions in these reports are those of the authors and not necessarily views shared by members of the 4NI Steering Committee or their governments.

• Göransson and Mattsson: In Search of Common Ground: Mandate and Roles of the UN
• Heinbecker: Governance, Accountability and Transparency in the United Nations
• Sagasti, Casabonne and Prada: Power Purse and Numbers: A Diagnostic Study of the UN Budget and Finance Process and Structure

 Your comments on the topics or contents of the reports are most welcome by This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

On 5 February 2007, the 4NI opened the consultation phase with a week of presentations and meetings in New York. All parties interested in the improvement of governance and management within the UN Secretariat were invited to share their views with us.

The 4NI Steering Committee has selected five clusters of issues on which the Initiative will focus its consultations. These are described and summarised in the paper In Search of a Compact: Building Trust for improved Governance and Management, available for all to read and comment upon - for example in the website discussion forum. This document will be highly important for the 4NI consultations, and we invite you all to participate in dialogue about it.

The 4NI has commissioned a researcher to write an accessible summary of UN reform efforts within the areas of Governance and Management, covering the past decade. This report is now published and available through this web-site. We hope that the report will be useful for anyone interested in the topic.

Summary of UN Secretariat Reforms: Reports, Initiatives and Decisions since 1997, by Ursula Casabonne

The three researchers commissioned by the 4NI to conduct studies on the three focus aspects have now finalised their work. Professor Sagasti, Ambassador Göransson and Ambassador Heinbecker have, together with their teams, written one report each. The reports map problems and difficulties with governance/management in the UN Secretariat, as seen by the Member States. After formal approval by the 4NI Steering Committee the reports will be made available on this website.