Original article: https://www.futureun.org/en/Publications-Surveys/Article?newsid=80&teaserId=2
On 1 January 2017, António Guterres, former Prime Minister of Portugal and former UN High Commissioner for Refugees, became the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations.
To contribute to this important period of transition and renewal at the UN, FUNDS conducted a Global Survey in December 2016 to gather opinions on the most critical priorities and challenges which Mr. Guterres should confront during his first months and years as Secretary-General. The results contain clear and constructive messages about the future direction of the world organization.
Among the most revealing findings were the stark differences between the views of UN staff (including former employees) and non-UN respondents. For example (as shown in the graph below) UN staff place a higher priority on implementing the SDGs, and on dramatic UN reform measures that would lead to fewer entities in the UN development system. Organizationally, respondents said that the highest priority should be a review of the mandates of all UN entities. The Secretary-General’s two most important staffing priorities are to fill the highest posts on the basis of merit and to protect potential whistleblowers. For more details on these and other results, the full Results of the FUNDS Survey on Priorities for the Ninth Secretary-General are available to download here.
2,700 people from 154 countries completed the Survey: thank you to everyone who took part.