During an informal meeting of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) plenary, the UN Secretary-General updated Member States on efforts to make the UN more effective, agile, and better equipped to respond to global challenges. He highlighted progress in achieving efficiency improvements, reforming how mandates are designed, implemented, and reviewed, and exploring changes to the internal structure of the UN system.

Addressing the plenary, UN Secretary-General António Guterres presented his progress report on the UN80 reform initiative, which:

• Reflects on the need for deliberate and decisive reform;
• Unpacks what the initiative is designed to solve, namely addressing the complexity of the UN system, moving from fragmentation to coherence, and improving efficiency, transparency, and impact;
• Reviews the logic and unifying rationale that guides the initiative’s three mutually reinforcing workstreams; and
• Outlines substantive progress achieved so far.

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Some of the achievements under Workstream 1 (efficiencies in the UN Secretariat), as reflected in the report, include:

• A 21% reduction in Secretariat posts for 2026;
• 11 teams merged into a common administrative platform serving 6,000 personnel in New York, US, with five additional duty stations to follow;
• A Digital Hub launched in Valencia, Spain, to support Secretariat-wide digital service delivery;
• Ten Secretariat payroll centers consolidated into a single global team; and
• 220 Secretariat posts relocated from high-cost locations, in addition to around 1,900 across the UN system.

Guterres said the 2027 proposed programme budget will highlight opportunities for achieving further efficiencies.

Under Workstream 2 (mandate implementation review), he identified the UNGA’s recent resolution on mandates as “a significant opportunity to strengthen discipline across their full lifecycle.”

On Workstream 3 (structural and programmatic realignments), the Secretary-General highlighted: pilot implementation of the New Humanitarian Compact; work to strengthen shared services, technology, and data capacities across the UN system; efforts to reconfigure UN country teams, reset regional arrangements, and improve access to support for countries; the establishment of the Human Rights Group for improved coordination of human rights work across the UN; and a forthcoming peace operations review in June.

Emphasizing the need for sustained engagement from Member States, Guterres presented the report’s six recommendations:

• Use the resolution on mandates as a strategic governance tool;
• Give clear direction for reconfiguration of UN country teams and resetting regional arrangements;
• Back the development of system-wide shared services, technology, and data at scale;
• Weigh proposals for structural changes on their merits while respecting applicable rules and procedures;
• Align funding practices with the objectives of the UN80 Initiative; and
• Apply the objectives of UN80 coherently across the UN system.

In her remarks, UNGA President Annalena Baerbock called for strengthening the interlinkages between the UN80 workstreams. Underscoring that “implementation will require long-term commitment and consistent follow-through,” she urged Member States to “sustain the momentum now underway and continue advancing reforms that strengthen [the UN] not only for the years ahead, but for decades to come.”

The UNGA’s informal meeting on the UN80 Initiative took place on 28 May 2026. [Publication: UN80 Initiative Progress Report: Report of the Secretary-General: May 2026] [Publication Landing Page] [UN Press Release] [UN News Story]