'II buon governo'.

• Author: Costa, Antonio Maria
• Position: A Commitment to Good Governance

When the UN Secretary-General appointed me to head the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna, I felt honoured. I also felt a sense of trepidation, thinking: "This is half job and half mission." But the job part had to come first. On my first day in office on 7 May, in a town-hall meeting with all staff members of the UN city-as our building complex is known here--I spoke of the internal priorities that we must address in order to work on global priorities more effectively. I stressed the concept of good governance as a fundamental requirement for the credibility the Office must have. And I used history and arts to make that point.

I told them: "Many of you may have visited the town of Siena, in Tuscany--one of the foremost centres of Italian Renaissance. In the town hail, II Palazzo Pubblico, are the much admired Ambrogio Lorenzetti's two famous frescos: il buon governo (the good government), and il cattivo governo (the bad government). There is no better way to represent the very modem notion of governance than by going back a few centuries and appreciating its artistic portrayal in Siena's il buon governo. (Incidentally, and perhaps symbolically, the representation of the il cattivo governo did not survive the centuries and was dam aged beyond repair.) Why is this relevant half a dozen centuries later? Because Member States are the stakeholders of this UN city, which we must run effectively on their behalf."

This is a guiding principle of the work I have been doing in Vienna since joining the Office. From previous professional incarnations, I have learned that management can be a very lonely experience, no matter how large and well staffed the office is. So during my first week in office, together with senior colleagues, I decided to establish a key management deliberating body--the Executive Committee--which meets weekly and is empowered with main decisions, acting in a collegial, transparent and accountable manner. In order to face the global challenges of drugs, crime and terrorism in a systematic way, we have undertaken an effort to produce a guide on our operations during the next couple of years or so. This road map will be a management tool, showing how we intend to implement programmes and projects-where, to what extent and for what purpose, including evidence of the expected results.

Afghanistan is probably the best example, a real-life display, of what the Office needs to do to assist Member States in the fight...