UN report finds United Nations reports are not widely read
FILE PHOTO: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres attends a press briefing during the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) at the Centre des Expositions conference centre in Nice, France, June 10, 2025. REUTERS/Manon Cruz/File Photo
UNITED NATIONS - A United Nations report seeking ways to improve efficiency and cut costs has revealed: U.N. reports are not widely read.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres briefed countries on Friday on the report, produced by his UN80 reform taskforce that focused on how U.N. staff implement thousands of mandates given to them by bodies like the General Assembly or Security Council.
He said last year that the U.N. system supported 27,000 meetings involving 240 bodies, and the U.N. secretariat produced 1,100 reports, a 20% increase since 1990.
"The sheer number of meetings and reports is pushing the system – and all of us – to the breaking point," Guterres said.
"Many of these reports are not widely read," he said. "The top 5% of reports are downloaded over 5,500 times, while one in five reports receives fewer than 1,000 downloads. And downloading doesn't necessarily mean reading."
Guterres launched the UN80 taskforce in March as the U.N. - which turns 80 this year - faces a liquidity crisis for at least the seventh year in a row because not all 193 U.N. member states pay their mandatory regular dues in full or on time.
The report issued by the taskforce late on Thursday covers just one of several reform angles being pursued.
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Tech Reporting suspected advanced cyber attacks will provide a defence framework: Shanmugam
Business Singapore's US tariff rate stays at 10%, but the Republic is not out of the woods yet
Asia Asia-Pacific economies welcome new US tariff rates, but concerns over extent of full impact remain
Business ST explains: How Trump tariffs could affect Singapore SMEs, jobs and markets
Asia Indonesia's Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki erupts
Singapore Thundery showers expected on most days in first half of August
Singapore Synapxe chief executive, MND deputy secretary to become new perm secs on Sept 1
Singapore 5 women face capital charges after they were allegedly found with nearly 27kg of cocaine in S'pore
Among the suggestions Guterres put forward on Friday: "Fewer meetings. Fewer reports, but ones that are able to fully meet the requirements of all mandates." REUTERS
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
28 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Russian missile attack injures seven in Mykolaiv, Ukraine says
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox A Russian missile strike on the city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine injured at least seven people and destroyed or damaged dozens of homes and civilian infrastructure buildings, the regional governor said on Sunday. Two of the injured were hospitalised as a result of the late Saturday attack, Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim said on the Telegram messaging app. Kim posted photos showing single residential buildings almost destroyed, with building debris spread around. He said 23 private homes, 12 apartment buildings and a post office were damaged. Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate comment from Russia about the attack. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Moscow launched with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022. Ukraine's air force said on Telegram that Russia had launched 76 attack drones and seven missiles targeting Ukraine overnight, striking eight locations throughout Ukraine. Ukraine's air defence units destroyed 60 of the drones and one missile, it said. In the early days of the war, the Mykolaiv region stood on the front lines, facing frequent artillery strikes and aerial attacks. Even after Russian forces were pushed back in late 2022, drones and missiles have remained a constant danger to communities. In the front-line regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, at least three people were killed and more than 12 injured as a result of Russia's attacks over the 24 hours into Sunday morning, regional governors said. Russia also launched a short-lived missile attack on Kyiv overnight, but there were no reports of injuries or damage. REUTERS
CNA
28 minutes ago
- CNA
Ex-Malaysian minister Khairy Jamaluddin says PAP 'needs to grow up'
Scroll up for the next video X Ex-Malaysian minister Khairy Jamaluddin says PAP 'needs to grow up'
AsiaOne
4 hours ago
- AsiaOne
How Pakistan shot down India's cutting-edge fighter using Chinese gear, Asia News
ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI — Just after midnight on May 7, the screen in the Pakistan Air Force's operations room lit up in red with the positions of dozens of active enemy planes across the border in India. Air Chief Mshl. Zaheer Sidhu had been sleeping on a mattress just off that room for days in anticipation of an Indian assault. New Delhi had blamed Islamabad for backing militants who carried out an attack the previous month in Indian Kashmir, which killed 26 civilians. Despite Islamabad denying any involvement, India had vowed a response, which came in the early hours of May 7 with air strikes on Pakistan. Sidhu ordered Pakistan's prized Chinese-made J-10C jets to scramble. A senior Pakistani Air Force (PAF) official, who was present in the operations room, said Sidhu instructed his staff to target Rafales, a French-made fighter that is the jewel of India's fleet and had never been downed in battle. "He wanted Rafales," said the official. The hour-long fight, which took place in darkness, involved some 110 aircraft, experts estimate, making it the world's largest air battle in decades. The J-10s shot down at least one Rafale, Reuters reported in May, citing US officials. Its downing surprised many in the military community and raised questions about the effectiveness of Western military hardware against untested Chinese alternatives. Shares of Dassault, which makes the Rafale, dipped after reports the fighter had been shot down. Indonesia, which has outstanding Rafale orders, has said it is now considering purchasing J-10s — a major boost to China's efforts to sell the aircraft overseas. But Reuters interviews with two Indian officials and three of their Pakistani counterparts found that the performance of the Rafale wasn't the key problem: Central to its downing was an Indian intelligence failure concerning the range of the China-made PL-15 missile fired by the J-10 fighter. China and Pakistan are the only countries to operate both J-10s, known as Vigorous Dragons, and PL-15s. The faulty intelligence gave the Rafale pilots a false sense of confidence they were out of Pakistani firing distance, which they believed was only around 150km, the Indian officials said, referring to the widely cited range of PL-15's export variant. "We ambushed them," the PAF official said, adding that Islamabad conducted an electronic warfare assault on Delhi's systems in an attempt to confuse Indian pilots. Indian officials dispute the effectiveness of those efforts. "The Indians were not expecting to be shot at," said Justin Bronk, air warfare expert at London's Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think-tank. "And the PL-15 is clearly very capable at long range." The PL-15 that hit the Rafale was fired from around 200km away, according to Pakistani officials, and even farther according to Indian officials. That would make it among the longest-range air-to-air strikes recorded. India's defence and foreign ministries did not return requests for comment about the intelligence mistakes. Delhi hasn't acknowledged a Rafale being shot down, but France's air chief told reporters in June that he had seen evidence of the loss of that fighter and two other aircraft flown by India, including a Russian-made Sukhoi. A top Dassault executive also told French lawmakers that month that India had lost a Rafale in operations, though he didn't have specific details. Pakistan's military referred to past comments by a spokesperson who said that its professional preparedness and resolve was more important than the weaponry it had deployed. China's defence ministry did not respond to Reuters' questions. Dassault and UAC, the manufacturer of the Sukhoi, also did not return requests for comment. 'Situational awareness' Reuters spoke to eight Pakistani and two Indian officials to piece together an account of the aerial battle, which marked the start of four days of fighting between the two nuclear-armed neighbours that caused alarm in Washington. The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss national security matters. Not only did Islamabad have the element of surprise with its missiles' range, the Pakistani and Indian officials said, but it managed to more efficiently connect its military hardware to surveillance on the ground and in the air, providing it with a clearer picture of the battlefield. Such networks, known as "kill chains", have become a crucial element of modern warfare. Four Pakistani officials said they created a "kill chain", or a multi-domain operation, by linking air, land and space sensors. The network included a Pakistani-developed system, Data Link 17, which connected Chinese military hardware with other equipment, including a Swedish-made surveillance plane, two Pakistani officials said. The system allowed the J-10s flying closer to India to obtain radar feeds from the surveillance plane cruising further away, meaning the Chinese-made fighters could turn their radars off and fly undetected, according to experts. Pakistan's military did not respond to requests for comment on this point. Delhi is trying to set up a similar network, the Indian officials said, adding that their process was more complicated because the country sourced aircraft from a wide range of exporters. Retired UK Air Mshl. Greg Bagwell, now a fellow at RUSI, said the episode didn't conclusively prove the superiority of either Chinese or Western air assets but it showed the importance of having the right information and using it. "The winner in this was the side that had the best situational awareness," said Bagwell. [[nid:720388]] Change in tactics After India in the early hours of May 7 struck targets in Pakistan that it called terrorist infrastructure, Sidhu ordered his squadrons to switch from defence to attack. Five PAF officials said India had deployed some 70 planes, which was more than they had expected and provided Islamabad's PL-15s with a target-rich environment. India has not said how many planes were used. The May 7 battle marked the first big air contest of the modern era in which weaponry is used to strike targets beyond visual range, said Bagwell, noting both India and Pakistan's planes remained well within their airspaces across the duration of the fight. Five Pakistani officials said an electronic assault on Indian sensors and communications systems reduced the situational awareness of the Rafale's pilots. The two Indian officials said the Rafales were not blinded during the skirmishes and that Indian satellites were not jammed. But they acknowledged that Pakistan appeared to have disrupted the Sukhoi, whose systems Delhi is now upgrading. Other Indian security officials have deflected questions away from the Rafale, a centerpiece of India's military modernisation, to the orders given to the air force. India's defence attache in Jakarta told a university seminar that Delhi had lost some aircraft "only because of the constraint given by the political leadership to not attack [Pakistan's] military establishments and their air defences". India's chief of defence staff Gen. Anil Chauhan previously told Reuters that Delhi quickly "rectified tactics" after the initial losses. After the May 7 air battle, India began targeting Pakistani military infrastructure and asserting its strength in the skies. Its Indian-made BrahMos supersonic cruise missile repeatedly sliced through Pakistan's air defences, according to officials on both sides. On May 10, India said it struck at least nine air bases and radar sites in Pakistan. It also hit a surveillance plane parked in a hangar in southern Pakistan, according to Indian and Pakistani officials. A ceasefire was agreed later that day, after US officials held talks with both sides. 'Live inputs' In the aftermath of the episode, India's deputy army chief Lt. Gen. Rahul Singh accused Pakistan of receiving "live inputs" from China during the battles, implying radar and satellite feeds. He did not provide evidence and Islamabad denies the allegation. When asked at a July briefing about Beijing's military partnership with Pakistan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters the work was "part of the normal co-operation between the two countries and does not target any third party." Beijing's air chief Lt. Gen. Wang Gang visited Pakistan in July to discuss how Islamabad had used Chinese equipment to put together the "kill chain" for the Rafale, two PAF officials said. China did not respond when asked about that interaction. The Pakistani military said in a statement in July that Wang had expressed "keen interest in learning from PAF's battle-proven experience in Multi Domain Operations". ALSO READ: Defence minister denies India bowed to pressure to end fighting with Pakistan
