United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres aired his frustration at 'endless red tape' within the organisation. Credit:AP "My answer [is] simple: bureaucracy. Fragmented structures. Byzantine procedures. Endless red tape," he told the meeting on UN reform. "Someone setting out to undermine the UN could not have come up with a better way to do it than by imposing some of the rules we have created ourselves. I even sometimes ask myself whether there was a conspiracy to make our rules exactly what they need to be for us not to be effective." Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister and a UN big wheel for more than a decade, insisted on reform if the UN was to genuinely serve people in crisis and conflict, the taxpayers whose governments funded the UN and the thousands of UN staffers and peacekeepers assigned to its missions. "To serve the people we support and the people who support us, we must be nimble and effective, flexible and efficient," he said.

US President Donald Trump used his first visit to the UN since becoming president to complain about its unreached potential. Credit:AP He alluded to chronic problems in the global organisation of which he became chief early in 2017, by referencing reform efforts now under way – rampant sexual exploitation and abuse, whistle-blowers marginalised and punished; and failing counter-terrorism structures. "We are reforming our peace and security architecture – to ensure we are stronger in prevention, more agile in mediation, and more effective and cost-effective in peacekeeping operations," he said. Guterres is instigating reforms at the UN 'to simplify procedures and decentralise decisions, with greater transparency, efficiency and accountability'. Credit:AP "We are reforming our development system to become much more field-focused, well-coordinated and accountable to better assist countries...and to underpin all these efforts we are pursuing sweeping management reform – to simplify procedures and decentralise decisions, with greater transparency, efficiency and accountability."

Like NATO, the UN was a favourite Trump whipping post – "just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time", he said in December 2016. Trump, seen speaking with US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley before a meeting at the UN General Assembly, once again showed his capacity to suck up media oxygen. Credit:AP As he became a convert on NATO, Trump did so, conditionally, for the UN in New York on Monday. Trump heaped praise on Guterres' reform plans and though he waved his big stick at the 100-plus global leaders, observers judged it to be a tempered performance. Vowing to partner with the UN in its work, Trump used his first visit since becoming president, to complain about unreached potential and of mismanagement by a bloated bureaucracy running the UN.

"We encourage all member states to look at ways to take bold stands at the UN, with an eye toward changing business as usual and not being beholden to ways of the past which were not working," he said. In keeping with his theme that the world is taking the US for a ride, he warned: "We must ensure that no one and no member state shoulders a disproportionate share of the burden, and that's militarily or financially…We also ask that every peacekeeping mission have clearly defined goals and metrics for evaluating success. "I am confident that if we work together and champion truly bold reforms, the UN will emerge as a stronger, more effective, more just and greater force for peace and harmony in the world." With just the slightest dig at the tweeter-in-chief, Guterres finished up: "We know that the true test of reform will not be measured in words in New York or world capitals. "It will be measured through tangible results in the lives of the people we serve – and the trust of those who support our work through their hard-earned resources."

Loading But again, this event proved Trump's capacity to suck up media oxygen. Guterres didn't crack a single mention in The Washington Post's report on the event and The New York Times barely gave him the time of day – just a single paragraph that quoted one line from his riff on what keeps him awake at night.