On 18 June 2008, Mr Vijay Nambiar, Chef de Cabinet of the UN Secretary-General, in cooperation with the Human Security Unit – OCHA, organized an information session at UN Headquarters in order to brief representatives of UN programmes, funds and specialized agencies on the key features of the revised Guidelines of the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security (UNTFHS).

Mr Vijay Nambiar explained that the revision of the Guidelines of the UNTFHS was endorsed in the last meeting of the Advisory Board on Human Security (ABHS) in November 2007 and went into effect on 17 March 2008. He further reminded that the Guidelines for the UNTFHS defines who can be the contributors and recipients of the Fund; what are the key funding criteria; how large the project budgets could be; and how applications are reviewed, approved and reported.

While the main selection parameters remain the same, Mr Vijay Nambiar explained that the ABHS installed the following major changes to the Guidelines:
•    Expansion of the donorship of the fund;
•    Inclusion of IOM as a recipient organization;
•    Introduction of a multi-donor review/approval process; and
•    Further rationalization of the review/approval process.

The Chef de Cabinet then reminded that the daily management of the UNTFHS and the dissemination of the concept are carried out by the Human Security Unit (HSU) - OCHA under the general guidance by the ABHS. The HSU reviews applications for the UNTFHS in consultation with relevant donors and relevant departments in the UN Secretariat, disburse funds and conducts monitoring and evaluation on the projects.

Further to the presentation of Mr Vijay Nambiar, Ambassador Takahiro Shinyo of the Permanent Mission of Japan underlined that Thailand and Slovenia joined the UNTFHS as donors and that the Human Security concept has continued to draw attention in the international community. In this regard, the Ambassador highlighted the recent thematic debate on human security at the UN General Assembly (22 May 2008) and the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) meeting in Yokohama (28-30 May 2008).

The presentations were followed by questions from representatives of UN programmes, funds and specialized agencies.