"Stephen Browne is Co-Director of the Future of the UN Development System (FUNDS) Project and Senior Fellow at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at The CUNY Graduate Center. He worked for more than 30 years in different organizations of the UN development system, sharing his time almost equally between agency headquarters and country assignments. He has written books and articles on aid and development throughout his career, his most recent being The United Nations Development Programme and System (2011), The International Trade Centre (2011), and The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (2012). Thomas G. Weiss is Presidential Professor of Political Science and Director of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at The City University of New York’s Graduate Center. He is Past President of the ISA (2009-10). His most recent single-authored books include Global Governance: Why? What? Whither? (2013); Humanitarian Business (2013); What’s Wrong with the United Nations and How to Fix It (2012); and Humanitarian Intervention: Ideas in Action (2012). He is co-editor of the Routledge ""Global Institutions Series"" and co-director of the Wartime History and the Future United Nations Project and of the Future UN Development System Project."
There is no better compilation of insights about the UN's lack of cohesion, growing turf battles, declining capacity, clumsy implementation, and cooptation by bilateral and private interests of the family of organizations that calls itself-somewhat awkwardly-the UN development system. Mark Malloch-Brown, former UN deputy-secretary-general and UNDP administrator The book provides a frank, detailed and informative description of the weaknesses and strong points of the UN development system. It is without doubt one of the best books written on the subject in recent years and is highly recommendable to all those who are interested in the world body as well as to those who are interested in sustainable development. Helmut Volger, Pass Blue