The United Nations (UN) is currently undergoing a reorganisation that will see its Nairobi offices entrusted with more programmes than it currently has.
Speaking on Wednesday, March 12, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated that moving programmes from expensive locations like Vienna, Geneva, and New York to Nairobi was among the ways the UN was looking into cutting costs and improving efficiency.
According to Guterres, this step will be an especially efficient one, as the UN has already put in the work to improve its Nairobi hub. The transfer will include two major UN divisions: the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
“We have been investing in Nairobi, creating the conditions for Nairobi to receive services that are now in more expensive locations,” he said.
“And UNICEF will be transferring soon some of the functions to Nairobi, and UNFPA will be essentially moving to Nairobi.”
According to a report by the VOA, this drastic change is part of a comprehensive initiative dubbed UN80, necessitated by the "shrinking of resources across the board."
UN80, named in commemoration of the organisation's 80th anniversary, will also involve job cuts over redundancy.
Although estimated to clear up a huge amount of operation costs, the UN boss did not clearly state how much money would be saved by this.
However, he noted that he has already kicked off efforts outlined in the UN80 that he has sole control over and notified all 193 member states of the decisions that are up to them.
The efforts will be led by a 14-member internal task force. Although job cuts will be involved, he denied claims that it is the UN's version of the United States' DOGE led by tech billionaire Elon Musk that has left several federal workers jobless.
“We are talking about completely different processes, methodologies, and objectives. This is a continuation and an intensification of a work that we have always been doing," he stated.
"Budgets at the United Nations are not just numbers on a balance sheet—they are a matter of life and death for millions around the world.”
