The Future Of AFUNPR

(By: Handoko)

One may ask how AFUNPR would look like in the future given the fact that UN in Indonesia has for the last decades recruited much less and less staff with permanent nor fixed term contracts. Such posts might not be needed due to decreasing UN development budget as Indonesia had graduated to a middle income country in the last decade. This is to mean that the more successful a country in the development, the less dependent the country on UN progamme. This reality has resulted in less number of UN retirees in the future. So, AFUNPR at one point would cease to be and become a “victim of success”.  This sounds like a thought-provoking statement and skeptical, yet it is worth pondering, stretching imagination a bit as to how AFUNPR should sustain. In this respect, we may have to re-consider more seriously the role and responsible of Human Resources (HR) Unit in each UN Agency in managing UN retirees. These HR Units has in fact established a Working Group (so called UN-HRWG) which reports to UN-OMT (UN – Operations Manager Team), under auspices of UN-RC Office.

So far, AFUNPR has been doing great. Many achievements were observable and highly appreciated by its members, UNRC/UNCT, and schools that had benefitted from field visit by AFUNPR team within the framework of its out-reach activities. However, we still have to see how to sustain its presence in the future. Based on a simple analysis over the last 4 years, AFUNPR’s capacity and resources do not get any better, as expected. In the past, the interest and the number of newly retired staff were quite promising, as those got retired would automatically join (and being active) in AFUNPR activities. That is not the reality these days. Efforts have also been made to encourage former UN project funded staff to join in, but with very limited success. From the empirical data, it is observed that the higher the grade of the staff retiring, the less attention (and thus the less interest) they have towards AFUNPR. Although they had been informed what and how AFUNPR works, they seem to remain very ignorant.

In terms of capacity, based on the Articles of the Association (AD/ART), AFUNPR has no legal base at all. Therefore when it comes to deal with legal issues, such as dealing with banks, hospitals, re-marriage after his or her spouse passed away, and movement of retirees (and/or the beneficiaries) from duty station abroad to Indonesia, HR Unit of the respective agencies would therefore be in better position to assist her/him. There are other cases that are beyond AFUNPR mandate. Therefore, the respective UN Agency’s HR Unit is expected to assist retirees who have institutional (legal) issues. In regard to ‘digital divide’ challenges, most of retirees are of older generation having no capacity when it comes to deal with computer technology, while these days administrative processes have now been automated and digitalized, like submission of on-line medical claims, completion of annual CE Form and other administrative matters through MSS managed by UNJSPF Headquarters. We are all not getting younger, while younger retirees would likely become increasingly self-managed due to the on-line system. Furthermore, they unlikely get interested in voluntary work to manage AFUNPR office.

In terms of (budgetary) resources, the collection of annual dues (in the same rate with hardly any increase since its establishment) has not been encouraging over the last 4 years. Since 2015 to 2018, the collected dues decreased by almost 35% (!), while the annual expenditures to cover AFUNPR activities over the same period increasing by around 20% for obvious reasons. Note that the office management team work on voluntary basis with no salary nor transportation allowances. They, as growing older, dedicate their time and energy purely for helping the members free of any charge.

So, how to get it sustained? Gradually and systematically AFUNPR should be able to manage expectation of its members perhaps by providing a (disruptive) solution. One of the new initiatives that could be seriously considered is to significantly improve AFUNPR’s collaborative network with UN-HR Working Group, in addressing any administrative challenges faced by retirees in the years to come. Those retirees having no office of their Agency in Indonesia would remain referring cases to UNDP Office for assistance, with AFUNPR facilitating to the extent possible.

In a summary, it is observed that given the promising Indonesian development landscape, AFUNPR would likely cease to be due to

1) less and less permanent/FT staff in the years to come by; and

2) more automated web-based and digitalized system in administrative management of pension fund and medical claims, that will likely lead future retirees to be more self-contained with computer support from their family members. To face this challenging future, AFUNPR (as the “victim of success”) would expect HR Unit of the respective UN Agencies to provide much more direct support to retirees, especially for cases beyond AFUNPR capacity, such as in the following areas:

a) dealing with UNJSPF office;

b) computer literacy related issues; and

c) reaching out more retirees to join in AFUNPR, for example by sharing names of staff who will be retiring soon and encouraging them to become AFUNPR members, so that those skeptical is converted into optimists: who says a retiree is helpless?.

stephanus.michaelardito8@gmail.com