Social Media platforms have been filled with reports about the United Nations planning to move its headquarters from New York, in the United States to Nairobi, Kenya, within East Africa.
But as the news about this sudden intended shift of location by the world largest multi-state institution continued to burn social media lines, updated reports later revealed that the United Nations was actually planning to relocate key agency offices to Kenya by 2026.
However a United Nations (UN) official was later to push back on reports suggesting that the global organization has finalized plans to move a number of agencies from New York to Nairobi.
“Well, it is not a sure thing,” the deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq explained to the media when asked if he could confirm reports that the headquarters of three United States offices were to be relocated to the East African country.
These are the United Nations Population Fund Agency (UNFPA), UN Women and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) headquarters that were reportedly supposed to be relocated from New York City to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi by 2026.
Sources claimed that the United Nations (UN) was in the process of cutting down the overhead costs and that Nairobi was essentially cheaper than New York, while capable of providing almost all the same type of services.
But UN spokesperson Farhan Haq explained that there were still certain proposals being discussed at various levels, such as with the executive boards of the various agencies and the staff of the organizations.
“There are certain options, as you know, that are being considered in terms of dealing with making the United Nations more cost-effective,” Haq maintained.
“So, we’re at an early stage, but the Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has divulged that this is one of the steps being considered. That is to put more of the UN operations into the field and into places where the costs are lower,” the spokesperson added.