Questions Relating to the Proposed Programme Budget for the Biennium 2008-2009

A/RES/62/236View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 128 Proposed programme budget for the biennium 2008-2009, published in 2008.

What else is in this group?

22 documents · 1982–2018

Newer documents in this group exist (latest: 2018).

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2018	A/RES/72/261	Questions relating to the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2018-2019	5,126	–
2016	A/RES/70/247	Questions relating to the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2016-2017	4,910	–
2014	A/RES/68/246	Questions relating to the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015	2,150	–
2012	A/RES/66/246	Questions relating to the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2012-2013	5,787	–
2010	A/RES/64/243	Questions relating to the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2010-2011	6,861	–

This group bundles related documents that are not individually ordered.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report · 2008

Year	Symbol	Title		Mandate resolution
2008	A/63/204	Measures to improve the balance in the geographical distribution of the staff in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights report of the Secretary-General		A/RES/62/236

What’s in this document?

132 operative paragraphs

Endorses the conclusions and recommendations contained in the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions,⁷ subject to the provisions of the present resolution;

⁷Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-second Session, Supplement No. 7 and corrigendum (A/62/7 and Corr.1).

Policy issues

Decides that the staffing table for the biennium 2008–2009 shall be as set out in the annex to the present resolution;

Reaffirms that the Fifth Committee is the appropriate Main Committee of the General Assembly entrusted with responsibility for administrative and budgetary matters;

Also reaffirms rule 153 of its rules of procedure;

Further reaffirms that no changes to the budget methodology, to established budgetary procedures and practices or to the financial regulations may be implemented without prior review and approval by the General Assembly, in accordance with established budgetary procedures;

Reaffirms the established budgetary procedures and methodology, based on its resolutions 41/213 and 42/211;

Requests the Secretary-General to strictly abide by the above-mentioned established budgetary procedures and methodology in future budget submissions;

Stresses that all Member States should fulfil their financial obligations as set out in the Charter of the United Nations on time, in full and without conditions;

Notes with concern the piecemeal approach to the budget process, and requests the Secretary-General, for all future proposed programme budgets, to take the necessary steps to avoid such a piecemeal approach to the budget process and ensure the fullest possible picture of the Organization’s requirements for future bienniums;

Requests the Secretary-General, in preparing the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2010–2011, to ensure full compliance with the provisions of General Assembly resolutions 55/231 and 58/269 and with the relevant recommendations made by the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions and the Committee for Programme and Coordination, bearing in mind the intergovernmental, multilateral and international character of the United Nations;

Emphasizes the importance of providing the information necessary to enable Member States to make well-informed decisions;

Reiterates the priorities of the Organization for the period 2008–2009 as outlined in its resolution 61/235 of 22 December 2006;

Also reiterates that the allocation of resources should reflect fully the priorities established in the biennial programme plan;⁸

⁸Ibid., Sixty-first Session, Supplement No. 6 (A/61/6/Rev.1).

Emphasizes that the resources proposed by the Secretary-General should be commensurate with all mandated programmes and activities in order to ensure their full, efficient and effective implementation;

Endorses the conclusions and recommendations of the Committee for Programme and Coordination as contained in chapter III.B of its report;4

Approves the changes to programme 4, Peacekeeping operations, of the biennial programme plan for the period 2008–2009, as reflected in the report of the Secretary-General;5

Also approves the changes to the programme narratives of section 6, Peaceful uses of outer space; section 9, Economic and social affairs; section 11, United Nations support for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development; and section 23, Human rights, of the proposed programme budget, as reflected in the reports and statements of programme budget implications submitted by the Secretary-General;⁹

⁹A/C.5/62/12, A/C.5/62/14, A/C.5/62/15, A/C.5/62/19, A/C.5/62/20, A/62/125 and A/62/515.

Emphasizes that programmes and activities mandated by the General Assembly must be respected and implemented fully in the most effective and efficient manner;

Takes note of the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions as contained in paragraph 40 of its report;6

Reaffirms section II of its resolution 61/244 of 22 December 2006;

Also reaffirms paragraph 22 of its resolution 61/266 of 16 May 2007;

Accountability

Recalls its resolutions 61/245 of 22 December 2006 and 61/279 of 29 June 2007, and reiterates its request that the Secretary-General specifically define accountability as well as clear accountability mechanisms, including to the General Assembly, and propose clear parameters for its application and the instruments for its rigorous enforcement, without exception, at all levels, during the sixty-second session;

Requests the Secretary-General to strengthen his efforts to achieve greater transparency at all levels;

Extrabudgetary funding

Requests the Secretary-General, in the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2010–2011, to submit estimates of the total amount of resources, from all sources of financing, that he should have at his disposal to be able to implement fully the mandated programmes and activities efficiently and effectively;

Encourages donors to continue, where appropriate, to increase their contributions to the core budgets of the departments of the Secretariat;

Results-based budgeting

Reaffirms paragraph 28 of its resolution 55/231, stresses the importance of results-based budgeting and the need for adequate training to ensure its full implementation, and looks forward to its review at future sessions;

Budget presentation

Requests the Secretary-General, in future budget submissions, to propose measures to offset budget increases, wherever possible, without undermining the implementation of mandated programmes and activities;

Decides that supplementary financial information being presented to the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, including, inter alia, detailed explanations of requirements by component and source of funds and by object of expenditure, should also be made available to Member States, including through the Fifth Committee website;

Vacancy rates and staffing

Expresses concern at the high vacancy rate, especially in the Professional category of posts, in certain areas of the Organization, particularly in some duty stations and regional commissions, emphasizes in this regard its negative impact on the effective delivery of mandated programmes and activities, and requests the Secretary-General to recruit staff expeditiously through proper planning and by streamlining personnel practices and procedures to undertake necessary measures to reduce the vacancy rates;

Reaffirms that the vacancy rate is a tool for budgetary calculations and should not be used to achieve budgetary savings;

Also reaffirms that deliberate management decisions to keep a certain number of posts vacant should not be taken, as this action makes the budget process less transparent and the management of human and financial resources less efficient;

Takes note of paragraph 21 of the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions;6

Notes the practice of incremental budgeting where only new requirements are justified, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure that whenever new proposals lead to requests for additional resources, sufficient effort is made to meet the new requirements using existing resources;

Recalls its resolution 35/217 of 17 December 1980, reaffirms the role of the General Assembly with regard to the structure of the Secretariat, including the creation, conversion, suppression and redeployment of posts, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to provide the Assembly with comprehensive information on all decisions involving established and temporary high-level posts, including equivalent positions financed from the regular budget and from extrabudgetary resources;

Reiterates that any transfer of resources between posts and non-post objects of expenditures would require the approval of the General Assembly;

Requests the Secretary-General to entrust the Office of Internal Oversight Services of the Secretariat to include in its report on the evaluation of human resources management, as requested in its resolution 61/235, a comprehensive review of the implementation of the recruitment, promotion and mobility policies of United Nations staff over the past five years and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its sixty-third session in the context of human resources management;

Recalls paragraph VIII.85 of the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions,6 and encourages the Secretary-General to ensure uniformity of performance targets in the Secretariat, taking into account the unique circumstances of each duty station and regional commission with regard to the filling of vacant posts, and to apply lessons learned as a means to improve performance in timely recruitment;

Notes the need for more justification to substantiate the creation of new posts or the reclassification of existing posts;

Recalls its decision to authorize the Secretary-General to have limited budgetary discretion for the bienniums 2006–2007 and 2008–2009, in accordance with section III of its resolution 60/283 of 7 July 2006;

Requests the Secretary-General to expedite recruitment for P-2 posts, in accordance with established procedures, and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its sixty-third session;

Decides that a vacancy rate of 6.5 per cent for Professional staff, 3.5 per cent for General Service staff and 27.2 per cent for field security staff shall be used as a basis for the calculation of the budget for the biennium 2008–2009;

Non-post costs

Decides to maintain the resources for travel of staff, contractual services and general operating expenses at the 2006–2007 level after recosting, and also decides that the relevant adjustments should not be applied to travel provisions of the regional commissions;

Also decides to reduce non-post resources by 2 per cent, other than for travel of staff, contractual services and general operating expenses;

Consultants

Requests the Secretary-General to select consultants and experts, as well as staff charged against general temporary assistance, on as wide a geographical basis as possible, in accordance with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the provisions of General Assembly resolution 53/221 of 7 April 1999;

Information technology and conference servicing

Affirms the importance of compatibility of all information technology resources within and across duty stations, and stresses that the resources requested for this purpose in the current budget should be fully integrated in the future enterprise resource system;

Stresses that the information and communications technology strategy should be implemented in a manner that will benefit all Headquarters departments, field missions, duty stations and regional commissions and their subregional offices, bearing in mind the different operational needs and environments within which they function;

Emphasizes the importance of ensuring that there is no discriminatory treatment among the principal organs of the United Nations and the Main Committees and subsidiary bodies and that they are provided with adequate and quality conference servicing and support;

Training

Requests the Secretary-General to allocate the approved resources for training on the basis of need and in an equitable manner, throughout the Secretariat, including for duty stations and regional commissions, and in this context stresses that equal training opportunities should be available for all staff, in accordance with their functions and categories;

Stresses that workshops, seminars and training courses should take advantage of the diverse sources of training opportunities available throughout the regions of the world;

Part I.Overall policymaking, direction and coordination

Section 1.Overall policymaking, direction and coordination

Reaffirms Article 101 of the Charter of the United Nations;

Stresses the importance of strengthened accountability in the Organization and of ensuring greater accountability of the Secretary-General to Member States, inter alia, for the effective and efficient implementation of legislative mandates and the use of human and financial resources;

Also stresses the importance of accountability and responsiveness of the Executive Office of the Secretary-General to the General Assembly;

Emphasizes that the Executive Office of the Secretary-General should lead the entire Organization in the context of reflection of geographical distribution and gender balance, in accordance with relevant General Assembly resolutions and the efficient utilization of non-post resources;

Stresses that members of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions shall discharge their duties in full independence and in the sole interest of the Organization and its entire membership;

Recognizes the increase in the workload of, as well as the increased diversity and complexity of the questions examined by, the Advisory Committee without a commensurate increase in the staffing of the Committee secretariat;

Decides to approve one P-4 post to strengthen the staffing of the secretariat of the Advisory Committee, and requests the Secretary-General to review the functions of the post in the context of his next budget submission;

Section 2.General Assembly and Economic and Social Council affairs and conference management

Requests the Secretary-General ensure that all duty stations are given equal treatment in respect of the application of modern technologies;

Also requests the Secretary-General to ensure that all language services are given equal treatment and are provided with equally favourable working conditions and resources, with a view to achieving maximum quality of those services, with full respect for the specificities of the six official languages and taking into account their respective workloads;

Notes the critical importance of the services provided by the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management of the Secretariat, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to make every effort to expedite the filling of all vacant posts in the Department in accordance with established procedures;

Takes note of paragraph I.25 of the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions;6

Decides to approve seven P-5 positions for Senior Revisers at United Nations Headquarters in New York;

Requests the Secretary-General to improve the on-time submission of documents and to institute measures for the accountability of the author departments for the late submission of the documents in the context of the report requested in its resolution 62/225 of 22 December 2007;

Decides not to approve a D-2 post proposed for the Director of the Central Planning and Coordination Division in New York;

Also decides to defer the establishment of a P-4 post proposed for the position of Deputy Chief of the Information Management and Technology Unit of the Central Planning and Coordination Division in New York until the start of the implementation of the information and communications technology reform plan;

Welcomes the efforts made in workload-sharing among the duty stations, and requests the Secretary-General actively to pursue efficiencies to be gained through possible workload-sharing in conference services among United Nations Headquarters and other duty stations;

Part II.Political affairs

Section 3.Political affairs

Regrets the high vacancy rate in authorized posts for the United Nations Register of Damage caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and urges the Secretary-General to expedite the filling of these posts as a matter of priority;

Emphasizes the need for collaboration between the Department of Political Affairs, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Field Support, of the Secretariat, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure systemic cooperation so as to prevent duplication among the three departments;

Takes note of paragraph II.18 of the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions,6 and decides to approve the positions referred to under general temporary assistance;

Decides that the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support shall be appointed by the Secretary-General following consultations with Member States, that for this purpose the Secretary-General shall appoint the Assistant Secretary-General with due regard for geographical rotation and that in so doing he shall be guided by the provisions of paragraph 3 (e) of General Assembly resolution 46/232 of 2 March 1992, in which the Assembly decided, in particular, that, as a general rule, no national of a Member State should succeed a national of that State in a senior post and that there should be no monopoly on senior posts by nationals of any State or group of States;

Also decides that the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support shall serve for one fixed term of five years without possibility of renewal;

Section 5.Peacekeeping operations

Regrets the slow progress in recruitment for the posts approved by the General Assembly in its resolution 61/279 on strengthening the capacity of the United Nations to manage and sustain peacekeeping operations, and urges the Secretary-General to fill the vacant posts as a matter of priority;

Deeply regrets that the post of Under-Secretary-General for Field Support has not yet been filled, and requests the Secretary-General to expedite recruitment for this post, taking fully into account paragraph 2 of section IX of its resolution 61/244;

Part IV.International cooperation for development

Section 9.Economic and social affairs

Recalls its resolution 60/1 of 16 September 2005, recognizes the need for strengthening of the development pillar of the United Nations Secretariat and the importance of strategic planning, and requests the Secretary-General to provide a comprehensive proposal at the first part of its resumed sixty-second session for its consideration with a view to improving the effective and efficient delivery of the mandates of the development-related activities of the Secretariat, including the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the regional commissions and the Development Account;

Requests the Secretary-General to fill one P-3 post for the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues expeditiously;

Section 10.Least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States

Urges the Secretary-General to develop a concrete strategic action plan to achieve greater mobilization of resources to ensure that programme delivery can continue effectively;

Notes with concern the designation of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States as the focal point for the activities of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Liaison Office at United Nations Headquarters without the approval of the General Assembly, and requests the Secretary-General to restore the mandate of the New York Office of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development;

Emphasizes the crucial importance of the Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, established as the follow-up mechanism to ensure the timely and effective implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001–2010,¹⁰ the Almaty Programme of Action: Addressing the Special Needs of Landlocked Developing Countries within a New Global Framework for Transit Transport Cooperation for Landlocked and Transit Developing Countries¹¹ and the Mauritius Strategy for the Further Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States;¹²

¹⁰A/CONF.191/13, chap II.

¹¹Report of the International Ministerial Conference of Landlocked and Transit Developing Countries and Donor Countries and International Financial and Development Institutions on Transit Transport Cooperation, Almaty, Kazakhstan, 28 and 29 August 2003 (A/CONF.202/3), annex I.

¹²Report of the International Meeting to Review the Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, Port Louis, Mauritius, 10-14 January 2005 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.05.II.A.4 and corrigendum), chap. I, resolution 1, annex II.

Notes with concern a decrease of 61 per cent¹³ in estimated extrabudgetary resources for the biennium 2008–2009 as compared to the biennium 2006–2007 and its detrimental impact on the overall programme delivery of the Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, and requests the Secretary-General to mobilize adequate resources from all sources to support the mandates related to this programme during the biennium 2008–2009;

¹³See Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-second Session, Supplement No. 7 and corrigendum (A/62/7 and Corr.1), para. IV.14.

Section 11.United Nations support for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development

Recalls that the development of Africa is an established priority of the United Nations, and reaffirms the commitment to address the special needs of Africa;

Also recalls General Assembly resolution 57/300 of 20 December 2002 and other resolutions calling for the strengthening of mechanisms to support the New Partnership for Africa’s Development;¹⁴

¹⁴A/57/304, annex.

Further recalls paragraph IV.18 of the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions;6

Notes with concern that extrabudgetary resources for the biennium 2008–2009 represent a significant drop when compared to the biennium 2006–2007, and requests the Secretary-General to make greater efforts to mobilize extrabudgetary resources for this programme and to ensure that the special needs for Africa are fully addressed;

Calls upon the Secretary-General to urgently fill the position of Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser for Africa as a matter of priority;

Section 12.Trade and development

Takes note with serious concern of the decision of the Secretary-General to temporarily lend the post of Assistant Secretary-General from this programme to the United Nations Office at Geneva and its adverse implications for programme delivery, and requests the Secretary-General to restore the post to this programme and to undertake urgent measures to fill the post as a matter of priority;

Section 15.Human settlements

Recalls paragraph 114 of its resolution 54/249 of 23 December 1999, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to make every effort to ensure stability and predictability in funding the activities of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, including through the provision of sufficient human and financial resources within the regular budget of the United Nations;

Part V.Regional cooperation for development

Emphasizes the important contribution that the regional commissions are making towards the implementation of the development agenda and other mandates given to them arising from the outcome of the Millennium Summit¹⁵ and other major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields;

¹⁵See resolution 55/2.

Reiterates its requests to the Secretary-General to ensure a more balanced proportion of staff costs devoted to programme support in comparison with those devoted to the programme of work in all the regional commissions, in particular in the Economic Commission for Africa;

Section 17.Economic and social development in Africa

Welcomes the Secretary-General’s plan of action to enhance the role of the subregional offices of the Economic Commission for Africa;

Recognizes that the repositioning of the Economic Commission for Africa is a crucial element of reform shaping the work of the Commission for the biennium 2008–2009 and beyond, and notes that the repositioning will enhance the role of the Commission in strengthening coordination and collaboration among United Nations agencies and other agencies;

Emphasizes the key role of the Economic Commission for Africa in strengthening coordination and collaboration among United Nations agencies and other entities within the region;

Section 17B. Regional Commissions New York Office

Takes note of the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions contained in paragraph V.25 of its report;6

Decides to establish one P-3 post for the Regional Commissions New York Office as from 2009 and to abolish one General Service (Principal level) post;

Section 20.Economic and social development in Latin America and the Caribbean

Welcomes the efforts of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean for more productive utilization of the allocated resources and the policy of recruiting national officers;

Notes with concern the difficulties experienced by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in finalizing agreements for extrabudgetary funding of its projects with certain international financial institutions;

Section 22.Regular programme of technical cooperation

Requests the Secretary-General to streamline, in accordance with budgetary guidelines, the use of long-term advisers in the execution of projects under the regular programme of technical cooperation and to report thereon in the next budget submission;

Welcomes the introduction of results-based budgeting at the subprogramme level;

Part VI.Human rights and humanitarian affairs

Section 23.Human rights

Regrets the imbalance in the geographical distribution in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs;

Recalls its resolution 61/244, and requests the Secretary-General to implement urgent measures to improve the balance in the geographical distribution in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, including through recruitment for newly established posts, and to report on the results achieved at its sixty-third session under the relevant agenda item;

Notes the importance of having information on monitoring the utilization of extrabudgetary resources for the activities of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights;

100

Recognizes that the overall amount appropriated for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for the biennium 2006–2007 represents a 36.6 per cent increase over the revised appropriation for the biennium 2004–2005, and decides to use the revised estimates for the biennium 2004–2005 as the baseline for the agreed doubling of resources for the Office;

101

Requests the Secretary-General to entrust the Office of Internal Oversight Services to undertake a comprehensive review of human resources management in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the efficiency of the implementation of its mandate and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its sixty-third session;

102

Notes with great concern the late submission of revised estimates¹⁶ relating to Human Rights Council decision 3/104 of 8 December 2006¹⁷ and the inclusion of additional funds to be charged against the contingency fund rather than their inclusion in the original budget proposals for the biennium 2008–2009;

¹⁶A/62/125.

¹⁷See Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-second Session, Supplement No. 53 (A/62/53), chap. II.B.

103

Recalls paragraph 11 of its resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006;

104

Requests, in this regard, the Human Rights Council to exercise greater financial discipline with due regard for regulation 5.6 of the Regulations and Rules Governing Programme Planning, the Programme Aspects of the Budget, the Monitoring of Implementation and the Methods of Evaluation,¹⁸ through endeavours such as seeking the most cost-effective measures to implement its mandates;

¹⁸ST/SGB/2000/8.

105

Encourages Member States participating in the Junior Professional Officer programme to increase sponsorship of Junior Professional Officers from developing countries;

106

Requests the Secretary-General, in proposing posts for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to ensure their conformity with relevant legislative mandates, including those of the Human Rights Council;

Section 25.Palestine refugees

107

Reaffirms its resolution 3331B (XXIX) of 17 December 1974, stating that expenses for salaries of international staff in the service of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which would otherwise be a charge on voluntary contributions, should be financed by the regular budget of the United Nations for the duration of the Agency’s mandate;

108

Notes with concern the significant reduction in the total resources for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East over the past ten years while the overall workload and responsibilities of the programme have continued to increase;

109

Decides to approve the establishment of the following posts for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East: one D-2 for regional fund-raising, one P-5 for a Senior Protection and Policy Adviser, one P-4 for assessment, monitoring and evaluation, and one P-4 for a Gender Adviser, and requests the Secretary-General to present proposals for new posts in the context of his next budget submission;

Part VII.Public information

Section 27.Public information

110

Stresses the importance of the status and image of the United Nations to enable effective implementation of its mandates, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the highest priority is given, in the context of the United Nations communication strategy, to the promotion and advocacy of the image of the United Nations in the face of frequent damaging reporting on United Nations activities;

111

Also stresses the importance of the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat to address effectively and in a timely manner any allegations of misconduct against peacekeepers, as well as other allegations against the Secretariat, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon to the General Assembly at its sixty-third session;

112

Further stresses the publication of United Nations information materials and the translation of important documents in languages other than United Nations official languages, with a view to reaching the widest possible spectrum of audiences and extending the United Nations message to all the corners of the world in order to strengthen international support for the activities of the Organization;

113

Requests the Secretary-General to promote public awareness of and to mobilize support for the work of the United Nations at the local level through all possible means of communication, including publications, the broadcasting of news and the network of United Nations information centres, bearing in mind that information in local languages has the strongest impact on local populations;

114

Recognizes the vital role of the United Nations information centres in promoting awareness about the United Nations, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to make efforts to mobilize resources for the effective functioning of United Nations information centres in developing countries;

115

Notes the gap among the six official languages on the United Nations website;

116

Reaffirms the need to achieve full parity among the six official languages on the United Nations website;

117

Notes with concern that three out of four established posts are still vacant in the Arabic Language Unit of the United Nations Web Services Section, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to fill the three vacancies as a matter of priority and to inform the General Assembly through the Committee on Information at its 2008 session;

118

Notes the importance of the Graphic Design Unit in communicating the messages of the United Nations, and requests the Secretary-General to present proposals to enhance professional skills in this Unit in his next budget submission;

119

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to expand the scope of press releases in addition to the existing languages in order to widen the United Nations message, assuring their comprehensiveness and up-to-date nature;

120

Also requests the Secretary-General to undertake a review of the Secretariat’s public information organizational framework, including a detailed explanation and analysis of its resources in all departments of the Secretariat at Headquarters, other duty stations and in field missions with a view to achieving increased coordination and efficiencies in the allocation of resources across the Secretariat;

121

Recalls paragraph VII.6 of the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions,6 decides not to approve resources requested in paragraph 27.49 of the report of the Secretary-General,¹⁹ and requests the Secretary-General to utilize the existing staff and resources of the Department of Public Information to support the special conferences while bearing in mind that the coverage of large-scale events may entail additional personnel, without prejudice to the source of funding;

¹⁹See A/62/6 (Sect. 27).

Part VIII.Common support services

Section 28C.Office of Human Resources Management

122

Regrets that a P-5 post as requested for enhancing the outreach activities of the Office of Human Resources Management may not be sufficient to achieve the balance in recruitment as requested by the General Assembly in its resolution 61/244;

Section 28D. Office of Central Support Services

123

Decides to reduce provisions under section 28D by 18 million United States dollars, and requests the Secretary-General to report on the impact of the reduction in the context of the performance report;

Section 28G. Administration, Nairobi

124

Recalls paragraph 101 of its resolution 52/220 of 22 December 1997;

125

Reiterates its request to the Secretary-General to continue to bring the financial arrangements of the United Nations Office at Nairobi in line with those of similar United Nations administrative offices;

Part IX.Internal oversight

Section 29.Internal oversight

126

Takes note of paragraph IX.7 of the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions;6

127

Decides to redeploy a P-5 post from subprogramme 1, Internal audit, to the Office of the Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, for the function of a Special Assistant to the Under-Secretary-General at the P-5 level;

128

Reaffirms the central role of monitoring, inspection and evaluation in the programme planning process, and decides to continue the current arrangements under general temporary assistance for nine positions to strengthen subprogramme 2, Inspection and evaluation, one at the D-2 level, three at the P-3 level, four at the P-2 level and one General Service (Other level) post;

Part X.Jointly financed administrative activities and special expenses

Section 30.Jointly financed administrative activities

129

Decides to establish one P-2 and one P-3 Research Officer post for the Inspections and Evaluations Group of the Joint Inspection Unit;

130

Also decides to abolish two General Service (Other level) posts for a Registry Clerk and a Research Assistant;

Part XII.Safety and security

Section 33.Safety and security

131

Decides not to reclassify a D-2 post to the Assistant Secretary-General level for the Deputy to the Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security;

132

Also decides not to establish a P-2 post for the function of Internal Affairs Officer in the Department of Safety and Security of the Secretariat.

Staffing table for the biennium 2008–2009

Professional and above | Deputy Secretary-General | 1 | Under-Secretary-General | 29 | Assistant Secretary-General | 25 | D-2 | 97 | D-1 | 269 | P-5 | 793 | P-4/3 | 2 615 | P-2/1 | 508 | Subtotal | 4 337 | General Service | Principal level | 280 | Other level | 2 732 | Subtotal | 3 012 | Other | Security Service | 306 | Local level | 1 907 | Field Service | 139 | National Officer | 52 | Trades and Crafts | 176 | Subtotal | 2 580 | Total | 9 929