RIIA Discussion Paper
1 primary work
Book 57
The UN was initally conceived as an organization primarily for peace and security purposes, and thus no attempt has been made in the half-century of its existence to provide it with a clear set of economic objectives. The resultant lack of focus, and the dispersion of effort and proliferation of institutions, underlie the long-term erosion of the organization's effectiveness and credibility in the economic sphere. This paper outlines four particularly damaging organizational and systemic flaws in the UN, which over the years have compounded the underlying weaknesses arising out of the absence of a clear economic mandate. It proposes two fundamental organizational changes that might yield important benefits in terms of increased effectiveness in the economic field.