UN Briefing: Is the UN Worth the Effort?

“By now I suspect that many of you have read the article in the March 20th  New York Times Sunday Review entitled I Love the UN, but It Is Failing, by Anthony Banbury, a former assistant secretary general for field support. He poignantly begins by saying “I care deeply for the principles the United Nations is designed to uphold. And that is why I have decided to leave.” He goes on to cite a number of significant deficits in the UN system, including the dysfunctional and inefficient personnel system, which is unable to attract and deploy the best talent to those parts of the world where it is needed the most – the Ebola crisis in Western Africa being a case in point; the incompetency of a number of international field staff members; the overall lack of accountability; and the fact that too many decisions are driven by political expediency, rather than by the principles upon which the UN was established and the facts on the ground.”

Read article by Sister Margaret Mayce, OP