The United Nations (U.N.) Office for Project Services (UNOPS) provides numerous services for its clients, including procurement and project management. Recent audits and investigations of UNOPS have revealed alleged violations of law, weak internal controls, and financial mismanagement. UNOPS officials misused some of the more than $400 million awarded to UNOPS by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2004 through 2008. This report: (1) assessed the extent to which UNOPS has addressed key concerns about its internal controls; and (2) evaluated USAID's oversight of UNOPS-implemented projects. To address these objectives, the report reviewed UNOPS and USAID policies and grant documentation. Illus.
"Everything you always wanted to know about the United Nations in one book! This primer to the United Nations is designed for all global citizens. It covers the history of the UN, what it does and how it does it. As the world's only truly global organization, the United Nations is where countries meet to address universal issues that cannot be resolved by any one of them acting alone. From international peace and security to sustainable development, climate change, human rights, and humanitarian action, the United Nations acts on our behalf around the world." --
U.S. exports of financial, entertainment, architectural, accounting, computer, and other services have more than doubled in the last seven years. Specifically addressing the needs of service exporters, this book covers issues such as marketing services vs. merchandise, market research, export financing, international payments, breaking trade barriers, and more. Also included is a series of 20 industry-specific articles that give the how-to and where-to for exporting specific services.
From the beginnings of the Cold War to efforts to control Saddam Hussein's weapons program, this indispensable guide to the history and workings of the UN system shows how this widely misunderstood organization has helped to make the world a safer place and what its future prospects are likely to be. Rising from the ashes of World War II, the UN's birth was announced on October 24, 1945. Its military arm began in 1948 with the deployment of just 36 soldiers, tasked with supervising a fragile cease-fire in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Since then it has undertaken more than 50 peacekeeping missions and concluded 500 multilateral conventions on human rights, arms control, environment, terrorism, and many other subjects. The United Nations System examines the continuing controversy that surrounds this organization. Whereas conservatives accuse the UN of wavering in the face of gross violations of its own resolutions by Saddam Hussein, many liberals have lambasted it for failing to take decisive action against genocide in the Balkans and in Rwanda. Highly readable and packed with useful facts and illustrations, this book is essential reading for those who wish to make up their own minds.
Many governments have effectively organized public project implementation systems in their jurisdictions. At the same time, many other countries remain at a less advanced level of public project management. Globally, there is a need for project management knowledge to be transferred between governments. However, no systematic review of these practices has been developed to date. Projects, Government, and Public Policy was written to fulfill this need and presents a review of project management practices in countries with developed project-based capabilities. This book uses its own rigorous model to present this review systematically. This book’s practical purpose is to give a structured overview of government-level project management practices. This knowledge can be used in the work of governments to improve the management of public projects and the implementation of public policies. Many professionals working in public institutions understand project management concepts differently than project management professionals. Therefore, this book begins with a chapter that describes the differences between the conceptual basis of public administration and project management. The body of this book has five parts. Part I is mainly intended for those involved in government and public administration who want to acquire or increase knowledge about project management. Part II provides an overview of the basic concepts from the theory of public administration, public policies, and development management. Part III describes what makes public projects unique and the success factors specific to projects of this sector. Knowledge about effective government project management practices is covered in Part IV. The concluding Part V begins with a general overview of the maturity model concept. Its main part covers the description of a maturity model showing ways to systematically improve the implementation of public projects. This book is written for governments and government administrators, including the most influential decision-makers, who craft policies to guide a country’s development as well as how to implement projects. This book is also intended for supporters and enthusiasts of project management in government and public administration by providing them with a description of the solutions used by project management in public administration. This book is intended, too, for all project management practitioners working for public projects: project managers, team members, sponsors, and middle-level executives of project-delivering private companies. By knowing public administration concepts, they can manage their projects better and use a common language with their clients.
In contemporary international relations the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is a central actor, promoting human rights laws and institutions within countries, speaking out against gross violations of human rights, integrating human rights into efforts for conflict prevention, peacemaking, peacekeeping, peacebuilding, development and humanitarian affairs. The author exercised the functions of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in a turbulent period involving the conflict in Iraq, the conflict in Cote d'Ivoire, and the crisis in Darfur, Sudan. In this unique work he tells the story of the role of the High Commissioner in leadership and advocacy, crisis response, diplomatic initiatives, mainstreaming human rights, and strengthening the Office of High Commissioner. The texts of the principal reports referred to the essays contained in Part One are reproduced in Part Two, offering the reader important insights into the reasoning, the methods and the techniques used in the work of the High Commissioner. This is the first book ever written by a serving High Commissioner in the history of the institution. It is obligatory reading for all students and practitioners of human rights.
The 1996 edition of the Yearbook of the United Nations is the single most comprehensive and authoritative reference book about the work of the United Nations and related international organizations and bodies. Fully indexed and reproducing all major General Assembly, Security Council and Economic and Social Council resolutions, the volume is not only useful for diplomats, government officials and scholars, but also for researchers, writers, journalists, teachers, students and others with a serious interest in international and UN affairs. This volume of the Yearbook details the many activities of the Organization and its organs, programmes and bodies, as they are carried out in all corners of the globe. It gives an account of their endeavours to create better and more peaceful conditions for all mankind and records their efforts to deal with matters of pressing concern in a variety of areas, including peacekeeping and peacemaking, disarmament, human rights, trade and development, control of drug abuse and illicit trafficking, crime prevention, assistance to refugees and other vulnerable populations. Building on the experience of its first 50 years, the United Nations continued in 1996 to confront major global challenges. The observance of the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty can be seen as a benchmark for action to address a plethora of global ills that beset the majority of Earth's nearly 6 billion inhabitants - hunger, inadequate housing, disease, the deterioration of the environment, unemployment. During the year, the United Nations convened two major conferences - the `City Summit' in Istanbul, centering on the two themes of adequate shelter for all, and sustainable human settlement development in an urbanizing world, and the World Food Summit in Rome, whose main goal was food security for all. The Yearbook chronicles these events and many other milestones reached, making it an invaluable tool for anyone seeking in-depth information about the United Nations family. Also available from the UN, Sales No. E.97.I.1 As of volume 51 (1997) the Yearbook of the United Nations will no longer be published by Kluwer Law International. Please contact the United Nations Bookshops in New York or Geneva for future volumes at: UN Bookshop; Room GA-32; United Nations; New York; NY 10017; USA Tel. 1-212-963-7680; Fax 1-212-963-4910 or UN Bookshop; Door 40; Palais des Nations; 1211 Geneva 10; Switzerland Tel. 41-22-917-2606; Fax 41-22-917-0027
This exciting new text illustrates and advances the argument that International Organizations (IOs) need to be taken seriously as actors in world affairs. Bringing together an international line-up of distinguished contributors, the text examines recent theories that suggest how IOs are able to set their own policies and implement them in meaningful ways. The chapters review these theoretical positions and then present a series of case studies which focus on how these theories play out when IOs are charged with solving global problems: including development, peacekeeping and environmental policy coordination. Examining and analysing both positive and negative examples of this independence, this text is a valuable resource on the topic of the internal workings of IOs, providing the richest and most focused textbook so far dealing with the capacity of IOs for independent action in international politics. It is essential reading for all students of international organizations.
