Washington, D.C. – The Heritage Foundation’s Brett Schaefer, Jay Kingham Fellow in International Regulatory Affairs, was elected Friday by United Nations (U.N.) member states to serve on the organization’s Committee on Contributions, the body of experts that analyzes and reviews the “U.N. scale of assessments.” This scale is the critical component in determining how much each U.N. member state will contribute financially each year to the organization.

 

In this position, Schaefer will play a key role in helping advance U.S. priorities on U.N. reform. The current budgeting system is based on a process that results in a handful of states footing the lion’s share of U.N. costs, but with a disproportionately limited ability to shape the budget itself. This tilted system has undermined efforts to reform the U.N. to improve efficiency, transparency, and accountability.

 

Dr. James Carafano, vice president of the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, released the following statement in response to Schaefer’s selection to the committee:

“The United Nations has an important role to play on the world stage, but there remain many practices and policies in dire need of reform. Brett will provide a welcome contribution to the committee at this critical time and ensure that the longstanding, bipartisan U.S. goal of more equitably sharing the expenses of the U.N. is strongly represented. Reforming the way U.N. expenses are assessed is an important priority not only for the United States, but should also be one for the U.N. The country is well-represented with Brett on the committee.”