Syria, Ebola failures highlight UN’s flaws

UNITED NATIONS—The worsening war in Syria, allegations of child sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers and the mishandling of the Ebola epidemic highlight the inadequacies of the United Nations.

With age, the organization has grown bloated, according to those familiar with the United Nations. It is also underfunded and overwhelmed by the tasks it faces.

The world body is trying to provide emergency supplies to keep alive 100 million people, but has received less than 30 percent of the $20 billion it needs this year.

Apart from Syria, where more than 250,000 people have been killed since 2011, conflicts have escalated from Yemen and Iraq to South Sudan and Mali, forcing tens of thousands to flee to Europe.

The United Nations, established after World War II, has grown from 51 members to 193.

Its problems were spotlighted in a series of reports on the UN health agency’s performance in last year’s Ebola epidemic brought on by incompetent leadership, political considerations and economic concerns for the delay in declaring the outbreak an international health emergency—the equivalent of an SOS signal.

Even after the alarm was raised, the World Health Organization and others struggled to respond decisively.

Were there no United Nations, however, where countries could sit down to discuss the major issues of the day, “I’m afraid to tell you that the world might have been much bloodier, much more tragic,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said.

The United Nations has had some success in its primary mission “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.”

It has helped prevent, and end, some conflicts, and more than 120,000 UN peacekeepers now are deployed in 16 hotspots.