Generally speaking, questions of human resources in the United Nations common system,which brings together 28 organizations, tend to be understudied by academics. Very little scholarship is indeed dedicated to these questions. Academics prefer to focus on diplomatic, political, security, development, and issues of the sort. Like questions of public information, statistics and data in the United Nations context, human resources have tended to be viewed by scholars of the UN as unattractive because as not strategic enough. But, of course, this is a mistake. If there is an area that is truly strategic in any organization, it is human resources. This is especially the case for the United Nations. For an organization like the UN, which has global mandates and minimal financial resources, human resources are absolutely critical for its day-to-day activities and its ability to deliver. Unless the United Nations manages its resources well, unless it maximizes them, it is very challenging for the organization as a whole to succeed.
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