U.N. should cut costs before pursuing emergency coronavirus appeal

"The United Nations is seeking $255 million to help protect and mitigate coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreaks in refugee and displaced persons camps as part of a larger $2 billion appeal. While there is no organization better suited and cost-effective than the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to address the problem among a population that otherwise might fall through the cracks, the UN should trim or eliminate its more wasteful or unproductive programs before asking for new handouts at a time of global recession.

The UN could save money by folding what remains of the scandal- and corruption-plagued United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) into the purview of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. At a time of tight budgets, there is no reason why the UN should maintain two separate bureaucracies and duplicate bureaucracy if its goal is to serve those in most need. UNRWA's 2020 budget appeal is for $1.4 billion. Folding its operations into UNHCR could save hundreds of millions of dollars.

Prior to approaching world leaders for this new hand out, UN Secretary General António Guterres should also explain the necessity at this time of crisis of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. That organization's annual budget exceeds $250 million. The Human Rights Council can brag no material achievement; quite the opposite, its embrace of dictatorships makes a mockery of human rights advocacy and is corrosive to the UN's broader reputation..."