05 February 2014- Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) in New York, Ambassador Libran N. Cabactulan, hosted and chaired a breakfast meeting on February 4, between UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Friends of the Future of the United Nations.  The Secretary General’s Chief Cabinet, Ms. Susana Malcorra, and his Adviser, Mr. Kim Won-Soo, were also in attendance. 

The Friends of the Future of the UN is an informal group that includes the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, India, Pakistan, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Angola, Benin, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon thanked the Philippine Mission for organizing the meeting and mentioned his trip to the Philippines on December 21, 2013 to confer with President Benigno S. Aquino III and other high government officials and see for himself the massive destruction wrought by super typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban City and other affected areas. 

He spoke about his priority agenda for 2014 and called for action to address underlying threats in world hotspots, promote development and protect the planet.  He then focused his remarks on “mobility,” a human resource management reform initiative that his office has been pushing forward for approval by the UN General Assembly.  The issue has been controversial and will affect around 14,000 UN Secretariat professional and field service staff.  It will allow the UN management to rotate staff by establishing minimum and maximum position occupancy limits.  Upon reaching the maximum position occupancy limit, staff will be reassigned to a different position within the same duty station or to a different duty station.  It is planned to be implemented in stages from 2015 to 2019.

Ambassador Cabactulan noted that the priority agenda of the Secretary-General are all designed to make the UN truly global, modern and effective.

The Ambassadors and Permanent Representatives took turns in expressing support to the agenda of the Secretary-General. As the Fifth Committee and the General Assembly will resume the consideration of “mobility,” the exchange of ideas among the Friends of the Future of the UN with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was very timely.  END