A New Start, New Mandate For Unido

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation has survived US and UK attempts to undermine it and is about to turn over a new leaf. Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, earlier this month endorsed Unidos specialised role and there are five strong candidates to take over as director-general later this year.

Annans support for the organisation means that the UN system has still to prove it can dismantle agencies as well as create them -although the secretary-general has pledged to merge departments, funds and programmes. Unido had become the prime candidate to be axed.

Its survival has been in doubt since US withdrawal last January and the UKs decision to follow suit this year, but the UK Labour government this month agreed to stay in and doubts in Germany about continued membership seem to have been resolved.

 

Meanwhile, Mauricio de Maria y Campos, Unidos reforming director-general since 1993, paved the way for Unido to make a fresh start by not seeking re-election for a second four-year term after criticism of his leadership.

The 53 countries which make up Unidos industrial development board - its main policy-making forum - will choose his successor in September. The candidates are Polands foreign minister; Ugandas trade and industry minister; Argentinas economic and trade representative in Washington; and two former Unido managing directors, one a former Haitian foreign minister and the other the only woman candidate, a Liberian now working for the UN Development Programme in New York. The board has prepared a new blueprint to target Unidos efforts more effectively, and will vote on an as yet undecided, but tight budget in September to demonstrate new efficiencies.

These will halve the number of senior managers immediately below the new director-general to three and cut staff by 120 to about 630.

When staff numbers were at their peak under De Maria y Camposs predecessor, and Unido was a byword for bloated bureaucracy, the organisation employed more than 1,400. Armed with a recent positive Danish government evaluation of cost-cutting reforms at Unidos Vienna headquarters, the new director-general will almostcertainly get a clear mandate from Unidos 169 member countries for at least a four-year programme.

Meanwhile, Annan has accepted that Unido has a specialised role offering technical assistance to developing countries and transitional economies that is not available from other UN bodies.

Specialities include encouraging more reliable and cleaner energy supplies, technology transfer and the privatisation of state-owned industries. Unidos blueprint groups future activities into two areas. One covers investment and technology promotion, industrial policy advice, building institutional capacity and improving quality standards. The second concerns environmentally sustainable industrial development and implementing international treaties, such as the Montreal protocol on air pollution. The strongest candidate for director-general appears to be Mr Dariusz Rosati, 51, Polands foreign minister, although Mr Carlos Magarinos, who at 34 is said to be one of Argentinas most promising politicians, has strong support among Latin American nations. They believe the job should be theirs to decide because Mr de Maria y Campos has selflessly foregone a second term. The Africans appear split between Mr Abel Rwendeire, whose Ugandan government put his name forward in a rush just before nominations closed, and

Ms Olubanke King-Akerle, 51, a career UN official, who has support in the Organisation for African Unity. The fifth candidate, Mr Gerard Latortue, is 63 and from Haiti. He is a retired Unido official and works in Florida as secretary-general of the Association of Caribbean Universities and Research Centres. If elected, Mr Rosati would be the first head of a UN agency from the former Soviet bloc. Crucially, he is believed to have support among EU countries and Japan, which now provide the bulk of Unidos funding. Copyright Financial Times Limited 1997. All Rights Reserved.