Distinguished, veteran scholars' and practitioners' perspectives on the effectiveness of the United Nations as a development actor and ideas for its reform

Since World War Two the United Nations has emerged as the most influential, complex, and much debated multilateral development organization. Among its multiple functions, it plays key administrative and policy-making roles in the international development arena and serves as a mechanism through which global development goals are pursued. While serving as an institutional setting for global development discourse and practice, the UN is, however, constantly caught in the middle of competing and at times conflicting conceptualizations and priorities of "development" and what it should be doing as a development actor to facilitate social and economic progress.; This qualitative exploratory study examines what the United Nations should and should not be doing as a development institution from the perspectives of a group of distinguished, veteran scholars and practitioners. The first three chapters explore the past development discourse and practice of the United Nations, its major contributions, and the main challenges in its social and economic development efforts as seen from different disciplines, schools of thought, and individuals.; Chapter four and five present a summary and analysis of the major findings on the assessment of past development efforts, the kinds of 'development indicators' that should be used to measure progress, and the future role the United Nations should assume through its reform. Chapter six offers an analytical exposition of the major views using a conceptual framework constructed from organizational learning model and the ideas and principles derived from recommended documents. In this last chapter, the study sheds light on the questions of 'under what conditions might the United Nations be able to realize its development objectives?' and 'what kinds of policies and principles should guide its future development efforts?'; The major findings of the study suggest that development and its indicators have to be approached holistically from economic and also cultural, environmental, spiritual, psychological, and sociopolitical dimensions and underscore the need to include the knowledge and views of stakeholders in the wider international community in designing, implementing and monitoring development programs. The findings also gave renewed emphasis to the central role that proper education plays in raising the level of collective awareness as a requirement for sustainable global progress and that the principles of oneness and sharing responsibilities for an interconnected world should guide development policies and decision-making processes. The study concludes that the United Nations as a 21st century development actor should balance its norm-setting and operational roles and strengthen its capability to create consensus on social and economic development priorities among its member states. The study also suggests that a systemic learning process should be fostered within the development system of the UN and that cultural and paradigm shifts based on moral principles and universal values should guide its decision-making process and institutional evolution.