197th Session of the Executive Board of UNESCO

Document 197 EX/5 part V

Follow-Up to Decisions and resolutions adopted by the Executive Board and the General Conference
at their previous sessions

Part V

Human Resources Issues

ORAL STATEMENT BY THE UNESCO STAFF UNION (STU)

Thank you Mr Chairman, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

First, STU would like to express its deep concern about the abuse of non- staff contracts over a long term , many with them performing core functions of the Organization.

The 22% increase in the overall spending on consultant contracts clearly indicates that UNESCO does not have sufficient resources to implement its core mandate with its permanent resources and raises concerns with regard to sufficient in-house expertise.

This should be compared with the past and on-going exercises of cuts in program , staff downgrading as well as the recent Voluntary Mutual Separation Programme.

From a purely financial perspective, most of the posts left vacant have already been advertised at the same level without any strategic planning, the savings thus generated will be very insignificant.

From an intellectual perspective, the Organization is witnessing a loss of institutional memory as well as suffering from a severe brain drain.

Furthermore, as regards career development, STU regrets that zero USD is allocated for training in the 518 million USD expenditure plan scenario for the next biennium.

In this regard, STU deplores that the promises made during the redeployment exercise in 2014, according to which redeployed staff would be duly trained in their newly assigned functions, have not been kept. A certain number of humanly difficult situations could have been avoided, especially with redeployed colleagues struggling to adapt in their new positions.

In addition, with regard to recruitment , the procedures in place remain inequitable , unfair and opaque. STU requests that HRM should have dedicated and competent staff involved at all stages of recruitment in order to avoid biased procedures which leads systematically to staff demoralization / demotivation.

Concerning gender equality , although progress has been made, STU still regrets that even at equal competence this principle is not sufficiently respected, particularly at higher grades. In addition, it is also regrettable to note that this effort from Administration is largely in favour of Group I, in all categories of staff.

Finally, the STU urges the Director General to improve the geographical representation in the Organization, the number of under or non-represented Member States continue to remain high.

Thank you for your attention.