The Four Nations Initiative (4NI) is a cooperation project started in 2005 as an initiative by

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. The initiative was created to contribute to the efforts to reform governance and management systems and structures of the UN Secretariat, departing from the perspective of the UN Member States. The Four Nations Initiative, active from early 2006 until October 2007, consists of a steering committee with representatives from all four countries, and a secretariat based in Stockholm. UN Secretariat reform is an important topic and was high on the agenda during the tenure of Secretary-General

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder a ...

. There have been many reform efforts, notably the Secretary-General's reports ''Investing in the United Nations'' and ''Mandating and delivering'', both from March 2006, and the ''Comprehensive review of governance and oversight in the UN'', June 2006. The Four Nations Initiative differs from the above-mentioned reform initiatives by being driven by Member States themselves. It is also characterised by its focus on a consultations process trying to create as large as possible scope for consensus before actually submitting reform proposals. The Initiative plans to submit final proposals by September 2007 but a preliminary report is already available on the 4NI website (''Towards a Compact - report of preliminary proposals by the Steering Committee of the Four Nations Initiative'').

References

*''Brief Introduction to the Four Nations Initiative'', 2006, Information paper by the 4NI Secretariat *''Comprehensive review of governance and oversight in the UN'', 2006, Report of the Steering Committee on governance and oversight, UN Document A/60/883.Add.1-6 *''Investing in the United Nations'', 2006, Report of the Secretary-General, UN Document A/60/692 *''Mandating and delivering'', 2006, Report of the Secretary-General, UN Document A/60/733 *''Towards a Compact'', 2007, Report of preliminary proposals by the Steering Committee of the Four Nations Initiative
'32 Specific Proposals to Make the UN Function Better
- An interview with Ambassador Bengt Säve-Söderbergh of Sweden on the recently issued report from the Four Nations

External links

UN reform website

Center for UN Reform
- Independent policy research organization (archived site) {{United Nations United Nations Secretariat United Nations reform