On Friday, August 1st, UN Secretary-General António Guterres presented a report from his UN80 reform initiative, which examined how UN staff carry out the thousands of mandates assigned to them by bodies such as the General Assembly and the Security Council. He highlighted that last year the UN system supported approximately 27,000 meetings across 240 entities and produced 1,100 reports—a 20% increase since 1990.
Guterres warned, “The sheer volume of meetings and reports is pushing the system—and all of us—to the breaking point.” He added that many reports receive limited attention: the top 5% are downloaded more than 5,500 times, yet one in five reports sees fewer than 1,000 downloads. Furthermore, a download does not guarantee the report was actually read.
As part of his recommendations, Guterres called for “Fewer meetings. Fewer reports, but ones that are able to fully meet the requirements of all mandates.”
