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The pace of today's globalized world means that change is a constant. This is no different for the United Nations. Member States' demands of the UN and its Secretariat, agencies, funds and programmes have grown enormously. The UN is expected to deliver more services to more people in more places than ever before.

In the past nine years alone, the number of civilian and soldiers deployed on peacekeeping missions has increased from 20,000 to 80,000. Over the same period, the overall financial resources managed by the Secretariat have doubled to $18 billion. The number of humanitarian and human rights operations have also dramatically increased.

Such a volume of highly operational activity places a greater premium on the ability of the organization to discharge the increased and more complex mandates it is given, and to manage the funds entrusted to it, in an accountable and ethical manner. In the meantime, these demands and expectations have strained the Organization's existing structures and systems.

The principles of the Charter of the United Nations are today as relevant they were in 1946. But the way we deliver on these aims and objectives has to move with the times. Since the Secretary-General took office, reform has been a priority -- from more effective peace operations to closer partnerships with civil society and the private sector, from improved management structures and systems to security for staff in the field.