Kenya has beaten 14 African countries including Uganda to host the lucrative United Nationals Global Shared Service Centre.
This is according to the Report of the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres titled ‘Global service delivery model for the United Nations Secretariat’ dated 8 January 2019.
The report will soon be tabled before the UN General Assembly for approval.
According to the report seen by Business Focus, locations (countries) that lost the opportunity to host the Global UN base in Africa include Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Cairo (Egypt), Dakar (Senegal), Entebbe (Uganda), Johannesburg (South Africa), Kigali (Rwanda), Lusaka (Zambia), Niamey (Niger), Rabat (Morocco), Yaoundé (Cameroon),Ebene (Mauritius) and Gaborone (Botswana).
UN says the global service delivery model will support the Organization to realize the full capacity of enterprise systems and free programme managers from transactional tasks, by providing flexible, reliable and cost-effective administrative services to all clients.
“Once the Global Shared Service Centres are established, there is estimated to be a $23.0 million annual cost reduction compared to the baseline,” the report reads in part.
The Organization has been spending $62.3 miilion annually while implementing the baseline structure.
63 locations were evaluated to host UN Global base across the various continents.
They were evaluated against the minimum requirements, including security and stability, family duty station, health, education and access issues, including reliable medical facilities, educational facilities and a nearby international airport with adequate connectivity; infrastructure, including reliable, modern ICT; availability of a qualified local workforce with the requisite skills profile; and adequate time zone coverage
“The results of the assessment indicated that Nairobi, Kenya; Shenzhen, China; Budapest, Hungary and Montréal, Canada were the highest-scoring in their respective geographic regions (i.e. Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas),” the report reads.
It adds: “Consequently, all four locations are proposed to host the Global Shared Service Centres.”
If approved by the UN General Assembly, the Global Shared Service Centres will become functional on 1st January 2020.
“The four centres would be coordinated by the Office of the Director, situated in Nairobi. Total staffing across the four centres would be 780 staff in the first two years of operation, reducing to 684 staff from the third year as efficiency gains and process improvements are realized,” the report says.
Nairobi will take a lion’s share of jobs-309.
Entebbe regional base downsized
The duty stations most affected by the implementation of the Global Shared Service Centres include New York, Entebbe, Kuwait, Offices Away from Headquarters and Regional Commissions.
According to the report, the global service delivery model will move only location-independent transactional services to service centres. Substantive offices will retain their full decision-making authority and be further enabled to focus on mandate implementation.
“ As an example, the Regional Service Centre at Entebbe will continue to perform functions not in scope for the global service delivery model, including regional information and communication technology services, regional training and conference services, and transport and movement services. In addition, the Entebbe Support Base logistics hub for MONUSCO hosts several other tenants, including the Global Procurement Support Section (previously known as the Regional Procurement Office), the civilian pre-deployment training team, the Regional Ombudsman, OIOS and the United Nations Mine Action Centre. It also hosts liaison offices and functions of neighbouring peacekeeping operations, including MINUSCA, UNISFA and UNMISS, which will continue to be performed in Entebbe. As a result, 545 staff and contractors would remain in Entebbe to perform such functions,” the report says.
The report adds that a total of 747 posts will be impacted as a result of the implementation of the global service delivery model.
391 posts have been proposed for abolishment in the respective budget proposals of the Regional Service Centre in Entebbe and other peacekeeping operations for the financial period from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021.
