Need to trim & sunset outdated UN mandates : Shared by Kul Gautam with comment by Fouad Kronfol

Very perceptive commentary: 

"A system where old resolutions are endlessly recycled, entities cite the same mandates without coordination, and new tasks are tacked on "within existing resources," even as budgets shrink.

"Since 2020, the average word count of GA and ECOSOC resolutions has surged by over 50%. More mandates, fewer resources, less flexibility. The perfect formula for dysfunction.

"Mandates that are unfunded, duplicative, or unreviewed should be publicly flagged—not quietly absorbed.

"As long as every Member State clings to its pet resolutions and every agency protects its turf, we'll keep spinning in circles—reporting more, doing less, and changing nothing."

Kul

Mandates Without Meaning: Why UN Reform Must Begin with a Mandate Cull / Stephanie Hodge — *IDN-InDepthNews*

Click here for the article

Summary
Stephanie Hodge argues that the UN’s vast accumulation of mandates—over 40,000 since 1946, with many decades old and still on the agenda—has produced a culture of “mandate inertia” that hinders reform and wastes resources. 

The UN80 Mandate Implementation Review reveals chronic duplication, outdated resolutions, and mandates issued without funding or strategic coherence, while 85% of UN funding comes from earmarked voluntary contributions that fragment the system. 

Hodge calls for bold reforms: mandatory sunset clauses, an independent audit board to retire or merge mandates, a comparative advantage test for implementation, and a political ceiling linking new mandates to secure funding. Without shedding obsolete tasks, she warns, the UN will remain bogged down in bureaucratic redundancy and unable to meet urgent global challenges.

Quotes
“This is not multilateralism. It’s procedural necromancy.”
“The mandate landscape isn’t just crowded; it’s a minefield of institutional self-interest.”
“We don’t need better tools to track bureaucratic clutter. We need the courage to clear it.”
“What are we willing to stop doing?”

Comment by Fouad Kronfol


I totally agree. We have alll lived and worked with mandate-creep and additionality of tasks without dropping out-dated ones. It is perhaps what accounts for the enormous growth in staff and funds making things less efficient and more bureaucratic.
Fouad