Questions Relating to the Proposed Programme Budget for 2021

A/RES/75/252View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 141 Proposed programme budget for 2021, published in 2021.

What other versions does this mandate have?

7 versions · 2020–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/242

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/RES/80/242	Questions relating to the proposed programme budget for 2026	5,163	19%Compare
2024	A/RES/79/257	Questions relating to the proposed programme budget for 2025	4,745	27%Compare
2023	A/RES/78/252	Questions relating to the proposed programme budget for 2024	3,428	35%Compare
2023	A/RES/77/262	Questions relating to the proposed programme budget for 2023	2,892	39%Compare
2022	A/RES/76/245	Questions relating to the proposed programme budget for 2022	2,802	33%Compare

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

10 reports · 2020–2025

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2025	A/80/112	Strengthening the effectiveness and impact of the Development Account report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/79/257
2025	A/80/153	Strengthening the effectiveness of the regular programme of technical cooperation report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/79/257
2024	A/79/628	Standards of accommodation for air travel report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/74/262A/RES/78/252
2024	A/79/510	Capital investment planning report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/76/245
2023	A/78/536	Capital investment planning report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/76/245

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 subjects

Budgetary Policy Financial Implications Programme Budgeting Resources Allocation Staffing

What’s in this document?

58 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms that the Fifth Committee is the appropriate Main Committee of the General Assembly entrusted with responsibilities for administrative and budgetary matters, and also reaffirms the role of the Fifth Committee in carrying out a thorough analysis and approving human and financial resources and policies, with a view to ensuring the full, effective and efficient implementation of all mandated programmes and activities and the implementation of policies in this regard;

Also reaffirms rule 153 of its rules of procedure;

Further reaffirms the Regulations and Rules Governing Programme Planning, the Programme Aspects of the Budget, the Monitoring of Implementation and the Methods of Evaluation;⁴

⁴ST/SGB/2018/3.

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

Also reaffirms the Financial Regulations and Rules of the United Nations;⁵

⁵ST/SGB/2013/4 and ST/SGB/2013/4/Amend.1.

Further reaffirms its resolution 75/243 of 31 December 2020;

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

Welcomes the increased throughput productivity of the translation services at all duty stations, underlines that these productivity gains, enabled over the years by new working methods and technologies, justify revising the current notional workload standards approved in the pre-computer era by the General Assembly, and decides to increase the workload standards for the translation services to 5.8 pages per day;

Notes with serious concern that the exceptional measures put in place to address the liquidity crisis have led to important disparities with regard to available staff in the language services in the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management of the Secretariat, recalls its resolution 73/346 of 16 September 2019, in which it emphasized the paramount importance of the equality of the six official languages of the United Nations, and requests the Secretary-General to take expeditiously all action necessary to reduce those disparities and ensure equal and adequate treatment of all six official languages in this context, including by making exceptions to the aforementioned measures as needed;

Recalls paragraph XI.6 of the report of the Advisory Committee, and requests the Secretary-General to include indicative estimates for the major construction projects in the programme budget under section 33 for information purposes only;

Stresses the importance of aligning information and communications technology investment with the Secretary-General’s vision of a digital United Nations and addressing the need for business continuity during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, and requests the Secretary-General to provide consolidated information regarding information and communications technology spending;

Takes note of paragraphs 30 and 31 of the report of the Advisory Committee;

Stresses that all extrabudgetary posts must be administered and managed with the same rigour as regular budget posts;

Also stresses that extrabudgetary resources shall be used in consistency with the policies, aims and activities of the Organization, and requests the Secretary-General to provide information on the financial and human resource implications of the use of extrabudgetary resources in the Organization in his next proposed programme budget;

Bears in mind the rules governing the duration and extension of special post allowances and that the granting of such benefits should be restricted to exceptional cases only, and requests the Secretary-General to comply with those rules and review the existence of posts that have been vacant or encumbered through special post allowances for more than one year and to report thereon in his next budget proposal;

Notes that organizational reforms should contribute to greater efficiency and effectiveness in delivering the Organization’s mandated programmes and activities without negatively affecting their full implementation, and requests the Secretary-General to provide results and examples in this regard in the context of his next budget submission;

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

Encourages the Secretary-General to make every effort to facilitate Member States’ payments of their assessed contributions;

Expresses the need to receive detailed and consolidated information on the management of the liquidity situation, requests the Secretary-General to brief the General Assembly periodically on the impact of the situation on the implementation of United Nations mandates and the functioning of United Nations services, and also requests the Secretary-General to provide monthly expenditure data by section;

Recalls paragraph 15 of the report of the Advisory Committee, and requests the Secretary-General to report in the next budget performance report on the impact of COVID-19 on the programme budget for 2020 and 2021, detailing the recorded budget variances and flexible working arrangements, and to factor lessons learned for the working methods of the Secretariat, without prejudice to the work of intergovernmental bodies, into the proposed programme budget for 2022;

Stresses that finance serves as a foundation of and an important element underpinning United Nations governance;

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;

Reiterates the need for Member States to participate fully in the budget preparation process, from its early stages and throughout the process;

Emphasizes the importance of comprehensive budgetary performance in the management of the programme budget, and requests the Secretary-General to clearly link the budget inputs to tangible results;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to strengthen internal controls in programme planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting;

Takes note of paragraph 34 of the report of the Advisory Committee, notes with concern that the current overall single vacancy rate by staff category for all sections is inflated and may have an impact on mandate delivery, and requests the Secretary-General to bring the actual vacancy rate in the budget sections to the approved vacancy rate before applying it;

Stresses that results-based budgeting and results-based management are mutually supportive management tools and that improved implementation of results-based budgeting enhances both management and accountability in the Secretariat, and encourages the Secretary-General to continue his efforts in this regard;

Requests the Secretary-General to review those posts that have been vacant for 24 months or longer and to propose either the retention with justification of need or the abolishment of those posts, as applicable, in his next budget proposal;

Decides that a vacancy rate of 9.1 per cent for Professional staff and 7.4 per cent for General Service staff shall be used as a basis for the calculation of the budget for 2021;

Also decides that the staffing table for 2021 shall be as set out in the annex to the present resolution;

Further decides to further reduce resources for experts by 2.8 million United States dollars;

Decides to further reduce resources for consultants by 2.6 million dollars;

Also decides to further reduce resources for travel of staff by 5.3 million dollars;

Further decides to further reduce resources for hospitality by 350,000 dollars;

Decides to further reduce resources for supplies and materials by 600,000 dollars;

Also decides to further reduce resources for furniture and equipment by 2.5 million dollars;

Further decides to further reduce the resources for overtime and night differential by 1 million dollars;

Decides to further reduce resources for licensing and software by 250,000 dollars;

Also decides to further reduce resources for general operating expenditures by 1.6 million dollars;

Further decides to further reduce resources for training by 300,000 dollars;

Part I

Overall policymaking, direction and coordination

Section 1 Overall policymaking, direction and coordination

Takes note of paragraphs I.10 and I.18 of the report of the Advisory Committee, and decides to retain the post of Chief of Mediation Office (D-1) until the current incumbent’s mandatory retirement;

Recalls paragraphs I.27, I.31, I.39, I.43 and I.47 of the report of the Advisory Committee, also recalls its resolution 72/279 of 31 May 2018, reaffirms its request to the Secretary-General to report annually to the Economic and Social Council at its operational activities for development segment on the implementation of the reinvigorated resident coordinator system, including its funding, to ensure accountability towards Member States, and also reaffirms its request to the Secretary-General to submit for the consideration of the General Assembly, before the end of its seventy-fifth session, a review with recommendations on the functioning of the reinvigorated resident coordinator system, including its funding arrangement;

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

Decides to establish two posts of Chinese Interpreter (P-3);

Part II

Political affairs

Section 4 Disarmament

Decides to abolish the post of Staff Assistant (General Service (Other level)) that has been vacant for more than two years;

Section 5 Peacekeeping operations

Recognizes the important role of peacekeeping and special political missions at the national, subregional, regional and international levels, as appropriate, in maintaining peace and security in fulfilment of their mandates;

Re-emphasizes the importance of improving the safety and security of peacekeepers and mission personnel, and requests the Secretary-General to fulfil the responsibilities under relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council to improve the safety and security of United Nations peacekeepers and mission personnel;

Part III

International justice and law

Section 8 Legal affairs

Decides not to approve the establishment of one new general temporary assistance position of Legal Officer (P-3) in the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar;

Takes note of paragraph III.54 of the report of the Advisory Committee;

Decides that regular budget resources for the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011 under section 8, Legal affairs, for 2021 amount to 17 million dollars before recosting;

Part IV

International cooperation for development

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

Decides to establish one P-4 post and one P-3 post under subprogramme 2, Landlocked developing countries;

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 its commitment to address the unique needs of Africa;

Section 15 Human settlements

Decides to establish two posts of Programme Management Officer (P-4) in Nairobi;

Part VI

Human rights and humanitarian affairs

Section 24 Human rights

Decides to approve the establishment of one general temporary assistance position of Human Rights Officer (P-3);

Requests the Secretary-General to entrust the Office of Internal Oversight Services of the Secretariat with the conduct of a review and evaluation of the activity, performance and results of staff support provided to the human rights treaty body system of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to ensure the effectiveness of the treaty body system, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon in his next budget report;

Part VIII

Common support services

Section 29C

Office of Information and Communications Technology

Takes note of paragraph VIII.57 of the report of the Advisory Committee, and decides not to abolish the P-5 post;

Decides to abolish the long-vacant P-3 post;

Part XI

Capital expenditures

Section 33 Construction, alteration, improvement and major maintenance

Decides to further reduce resources for alteration, improvement and major maintenance projects by 1,474,400 dollars;

Part XII

Safety and security

Section 34 Safety and security

Takes note of paragraph XII.11 of the report of the Advisory Committee, and decides to establish the posts of Chief of Physical Security Section (P-5) and Compliance, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer (P-3).

48th (resumed) plenary meeting

31 December 2020

Staffing table for 2021

Category | Number of posts | Expenditure sections | Professional and higher | Deputy Secretary-General | 1 | Under-Secretary-General | 36 | Assistant Secretary-General | 33 | D-2 | 115 | D-1 | 298 | P-5 | 904 | P-4 | 1 537 | P-3 | 1 451 | P-2/1 | 524 | Subtotal | 4 899 | General Service and related | Principal level | 270 | Other level | 2 288 | Subtotal | 2 558 | Other | Security Service | 307 | Local level | 1 906 | Field Service | 107 | National Professional Officer | 87 | Trades and Crafts | 95 | Subtotal | 2 502 | Expenditure sections total | 9 959 | Income section 3 | Professional and higher | P-5 | 2 | P-4 | 4 | P-3 | 4 | P-2/1 | 3 | Subtotal | 13 | General Service and related | Principal level | 7 | Other level | 43 | Subtotal | 50 | Other | Security Service | 2 | Subtotal | 2 | Income section 3 total | 65 | Total | 10 024

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Part I

Overall policymaking, direction and coordination

Section 1

Overall policymaking, direction and coordination

Section 2

General Assembly and Economic and Social Council affairs and conference management

Part II

Political affairs

Section 4

Disarmament

Section 5

Peacekeeping operations

Part III

International justice and law

Section 8

Legal affairs

Part IV

International cooperation for development

Section 10

Least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States

Section 11

United Nations support for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development

Section 15

Human settlements

Part VI

Human rights and humanitarian affairs

Section 24

Human rights

Part VIII

Common support services

Section 29C

Office of Information and Communications Technology

Part XI

Capital expenditures

Section 33

Construction, alteration, improvement and major maintenance

Part XII

Safety and security

Section 34

Safety and security

Table of contents