VOL. 65, NO. 2 Mars – March 2006 - AAFI-AFICS, Geneva - UNOG

Stop TuberculosisProbably the world’s richest couple, Bill and Melinda Gates, have announced that the Foundation bearingtheir name will triple its funding for WHO’s “Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis” to more than 900 million USdollars by 2015. At the same time the government of the United Kingdom announced that it would give 74million dollars to help fight tuberculosis in India. There is a TB epidemic: two million people die of it everyyear and eight million become infected. The Global Plan calls for global spending on tuberculosis to tripleover the next ten years. In welcoming these donations, the WHO Director-General Dr Lee Jong-wook said“The Global TB action plan shows clearly what must be done to tackle the burden of TB. We must now acturgently to raise all the funds needed to put the plan into action.”(www.who.int/mediacentre/news/)►►►◄◄PENSIONSThe dual trackHow to make the best use of itThis article is in substance the contents of a note on this subject that will be part of the permanentdocumentation made available to members of the Association. It is being published in two parts; thesecond will appear in the June Bulletin.IntroductionPart OneThe various measures taken over the years by theUnited Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund to protectthe purchasing power of beneficiaries have to alarge extent achieved this objective in spite ofunstable economic conditions throughout theworld and the unpredictability of their evolution.But these measures are so complex that it is verydifficult for present and future retirees to grasptheir implications, quite apart from theunpredictable future economic, political andmonetary realities. A retiree has good reason tobe bewildered when faced with the fundamentaldecision: should I stay on the US dollar trackpension or go for the local-currency option?First of all, a present or future retiree should bearin mind that if the pension is to be in US dollars,there is no need to do anything. The system willdo it all. It is the dollar pension that is the basicentitlement; it is automatic, no further personaldecision is needed.It is when it comes to a local-currency pension that theretiree will need to take action by expressing his or herwish This implies a double question: Should I opt forthe local-currency track system? and Is it the righttime to do so?The decision is critical because a positive response tothe first (basic) question) is virtually irreversible. Oncethe local-currency track system has been chosen, areturn to the US dollar system is possible only undervery special circumstances that we discuss to later on.To make the situation clear, it is necessary first torecapitulate certain aspects of the pension regime.GeneralitiesUnited Nations pensions have the followinggeneral characteristics:(i) Their mode of funding is by building up acapital; beneficiaries’ monthly payments arecomposed partly of cash drawn from this capitaland partly from the income generated by the capital;(ii) The capital is made up of the contributions paidby the participants, supplemented by the employingagencies, and paid in US dollars. Whatever thenature of the Fund’s holdings, its financialmanagement is based on the dollar.32