The UN has issued a report examining how its mandates are created, delivered, and reviewed. Released under the UN80 initiative, which seeks to support a more aligned, efficient, and results-oriented UN system, the report offers proposals for Member States’ consideration on how to strengthen each of these functions.
The ‘Report of the Mandate Implementation Review’ underscores that “[m]andates are the property and responsibility of Member States who adopt them.”
The report identifies two key obstacles impeding effective mandate creation: poor visibility across the landscape of existing mandates and the work of different mandating bodies; and challenges in mandate design that may constrain impact during mandate delivery. To improve mandate visibility, it proposes:
- Accelerating the creation of comprehensive registries of existing mandate texts issued by all mandating bodies;
- Improving UN Secretariat support for Member States during mandate creation, based on priorities established by Member States;
- Strengthening support by UN entities to coordinate and promote greater visibility across the work of mandating bodies; and
- Developing tools using artificial intelligence (AI) to assist with mandate drafting.
Proposed solutions for mandate design include:
- Reducing the length of mandate texts wherever possible in order to ensure mandates are effectively implemented, with greater impact;
- Framing mandates that allow the Secretary-General appropriate flexibility to assign tasks based on comparative advantages and resources across the UN system;
- Refraining from mandating new tasks which are not backed by corresponding resources or an explicit reduction in other mandated tasks; and
- For new mandates, complementing estimates of regular budget expenditures with additional information on related programmatic activities.
The report further finds that proliferating meetings and reports, inadequate management of mandate delivery, and misaligned funding modalities may hinder mandate delivery and reduce impact.
To maximize the value of meetings and reports, the report proposes: prioritizing and streamlining requests in mandates for reports or meetings; providing shorter reports and reducing maximum word counts; combining reports covering similar issues and contexts where feasible; introducing different report formats based on needs and content type; and publishing download statistics for all reports.
Proposed solutions to inadequate management of mandate delivery include: strengthening internal strategic oversight of the UN system division of labor at all levels; ensuring UN entities review mandate citations in their programmes and budgets; and making better use of system-wide coordination platforms.
To address misaligned funding modalities, the report recommends: fully applying all commitments by Member States and the UN system through the Funding Compact; allowing UN system entities greater flexibility to redeploy resources; and considering implementing relevant forthcoming recommendations from the UN80 initiative workstream on structural changes and programme realignment.
The report highlights two principal challenges to effective mandate review: limited review mechanisms; and gaps in UN system-wide accountability for impact. It proposes:
- Systematizing and reinforcing efforts underway to strengthen mandate review mechanisms;
- Including expiry clauses in new resolutions;
- Introducing processes to facilitate more collective reviews of mandates;
- Increasing use of existing mechanisms; and
- Streamlining how mandates are discussed.
It also recommends strengthening and harmonizing management for results mechanisms across the UN system.
Briefing Member States on 1 August 2025, UN Secretary-General António Guterres provided updates on: the first workstream on efficiencies and improvements, under which a first package of concrete proposals is being finalized; and the third workstream on structural changes and programmatic realignments, under which work is advancing in seven thematic clusters.
Guterres then presented the proposals contained in the report on the second workstream on mandate implantation review. He said the ideas contained in the report are different and new because they: draw on new data analytical tools to better understand the scope and scale of the challenge; focus on the systemic and structural issues that cut across mandates; and respond to the urgency of the situation with “a new level of seriousness and shared resolve.”
“The path forward is yours to decide,” the Secretary-General said, addressing Member States. “My responsibility is to ensure that the Secretariat provides the capacities and inputs required by the course of action that you choose.” [Publication: UN80 Initiative: Workstream 2: Report of the Mandate Implementation Review] [UN Press Release] [UN News Story] [UN80 Initiative] [UN Mandate Source Registry]