UN budget crisis averted — diplomats’ kids will not go hungry

As I previously blogged, the UN was facing a severe budget crisis in July because the General Assembly’s budget committee was holding up re-authorizing funding for the second quarter of 2006 until various management reforms were instituted. This despite significant progress at the UN on a range of upgrades to their management structure and processes, such as a revamped whistleblower policy and online “mandates” review tracking.

Apparently the budget cap was lifted yesterday. According to the UN press release, the United States, Japan and Australia dissociated themselves from the consensus decision to lift the cap, saying that not enough reform had been instituted.

It would be great to have a publicity stunt like “A Day without the UN,” perhaps as a fake news story. Maybe fake footage of lines of hungry people not being fed, refugees without tents to sleep in, warring factions without peacekeepers to keep them at bay, and war criminals on holiday in Nice. Keeping the UN on a starvation diet and on a short leash certainly benefits some, but certainly not the larger human or planetary interest.