The year 2022 was a very busy one for AFUNPI. With the cases of COVID 19 declining in India and globally, the monthly in-person meetings resumed in Bangalore on a regular basis. The AFUNPI hubs in New Delhi and Hyderabad have also initiated frequent meetings for locally residing AFUNPI members. AFUNPI delegation participated in the FAFICS Council held in Vienna in July 2022. AFUNPI conducted a Pre-retirement seminar in New Delhi for UN staff planning to retire or separate in a year or two. Dr. Seenappa continued to participate in the monthly virtual meetings of the FAFICS Bureau and in Fund Solvency Assets and Liability Monitoring Committee meetings.
Monthly Meetings
AFUNPI resumed monthly physical meetings in Bangalore. Apart from the brief introductions by the sponsoring hosts, some of the key lectures arranged included Food and nutrition security by Dr Prem Nath., United Nations and the current global challenges by Mr G. Giridhar on the occasion of the UN Day, Innings at UNICEF by Mr. B.B. Samanta, Healthy Ageing by Dr. Suresh and periodic updating of UN Pension matters by Dr Seenappa and briefing on FAFICS Council by Dr. Seenappa, Mr N. Srinivasan, Ms Chand and Ms Girija Devi. Physical meetings also started to be held in New Delhi with able support of AFUNPI Vice Presidents Dr. Prem Sharma and Mr R.P. Agrawal. Dr Seenappa informed the Delhi meeting about the performance of Fund investments, and about spouse pensions. Mr Srinivasan updated the meeting on the health insurance claims and procedures. Mr V. Emanvel answered questions on the Digital CE. For the first time the Hyderabad / Secunderabad hub of AFUNPI held two meetings with able support from Dr. Daphne de Rebello and Ms. Sudha Murali.
Pre-retirement Seminar at UNDP New Delhi
AFUNPI hosted and facilitated a Pre-retirement seminar on 4th November 2022 at UNDP Conference Hall, New Delhi for UN staff planning to retire /separate in a year or two. A total of 30 participants from different UN agencies attended the seminar. The participants also included few staff of the Human Resources Division. The event was inaugurated by Mr Shombi Sharp, the UN Resident Coordinator who gave opening remarks. During the opening a video message from Mr Jerry Barton President of FAFICS was screened and was highly appreciated. The seminar was facilitated by Dr. Seenappa introducing the UN Pension system, pension estimation and about the Two-track option., Mr N. Srinivasan facilitated the separation process and the health insurance claims after retirement., and Mr V. Emanvel explained the importance of the Certificate of Entitlement in the context of the newly introduced Digital Certificate. Ms M. Chand introduced AFUNPI, its achievements and about advantages of becoming a member of AFUNPI. A travel grants from FAFICS enabled the facilitators to travel to New Delhi. AFUNPI is very thankful to FAFICS for this contribution and support.
52nd FAFICS Council 18-21 July 2022, Vienna
This was a hybrid meeting with physical as well as virtual participation. AFUNPI was represented at the council by Dr DVS. Narasimhan, Ms Girija Devi, Ms Magdalene Chand and Marashetty Seenappa. Also Mr Srinivasan participated virtually. The council was briefed on the performance of the pension fund investments and about the progress in speeding up benefit payments by Mr Pedro Guazo (RSG) and Ms Rosemarie McClean, Chief Executive of Pension Administration respectively. Details regarding Fund performance is already mentioned in this report under the outcome of the Pension Board meeting held in Vienna. It was noted that the rolling 15-year Real Return had fallen below the 3.5 per cent real return objective. The failing markets and volatility during the first six months had largely contributed to this decline.
Elections were held for the FAFICS Bureau. The elected members included Mr Jerry Barton (unopposed) as President and five Vice Presidents include: Ms Odette Foudral (Switzerland), Ms Deborah Landey (USA) and Mr Juan Casas-Zamora (Panama), Ms Delia Barcelona (Philippines) and Dr. Seenappa (India). Also the meeting unanimously nominated and elected Mr Jayaraman Sundaresan Hon. Secretary (Geneva) and Mr Romesh Muttukumarou (New York) as Hon. Treasurer.
Developments at the Pension Board Meeting
The UN Pension Board (PB) met in Vienna from 25 to 29July 2022. FAFICS participated in the PB. Mr. Pedro Guazo, the Representative of the Secretary General revealed that as of 30th June 2022 the Market Value Fund investments were 30 times the market value of that in 1990. The market value of the Fund was 91.5 Billion as of 31 December 2021 with a Funding ratio of 117 per cent. This implied that the Fund had 17 per cents more assets over liabilities. However, 2022 had posed new challenges to investments and performance globally. These include the Russian-Ukraine conflict, volatile markets, the unexpected high inflation and the poor economic recovery post COVID 19 affected the performance of Fund investments. This had resulted in a drastic decline in the market value of the Fund by nearly 10 Billion USD due to global market volatility. As the markets slowly recover, the value of the Fund has started to show a positive response. Furthermore, UNJSPF has mitigated asset allocations optimally to minimise losses. It is delightful to note that UNJSPF has been awarded ‘The Leadership Award in Asset Allocation 2022’. Ms Rosemarie McClean Chief Executive of Pension Administration informed that UNJSPF had processed 82,313 benefits during the year. This represented an increase by 26 per cent in the last 10 years. The number of participants to the Fund increased by 2 per cent over the 2000 figure to 137,261 and consequently the 2.97 Billion paid as annual benefits were fully covered by the total contributions received without any shortfall. She further reassured that the new benefits were processed without any delay (within 15 business days). It was also recalled that the beneficiary switching over to the Digital Certificate of Entitlement had increased to over 50 per cent.
PB has planned to meet three times a year. Virtual meetings in February and April followed by an in-person meeting in July. The next in-person PB meeting is planned to be held from 24 to 28 July 2023 and hosted by IMO Hq in London, UK.
Membership and Services
AFUNPI membership was 360 by end December 2022. I am pleased to welcome 21 new members* who enrolled in 2022. Sadly, there were 17 bereavements during the year**. AFUNPI members in New Delhi and members from Hyderabad / Secunderabad have started to meet. The association continued to assist members who were affected by delays in getting pension. Some members were assisted with tracking of missing CE forms. Guidance was given to members with regard to survivor’s/spouse benefit. More members have issued the Digital Certificate of Entitlement. The DCE support team coordinated by Mr Victor Emanvel did an excellent job by monitoring and assisting all those members who requested for assistance. The team assisted many members with the DCE process. Over 100 AFUNPI members have successfully issued the DCE during 2022. Few members who attempted could not issue DCE due to reasons such as cell phone problems and difficulties in biometric registration process. Mr Emanvel is coordinating DCE support to AFUNPI members and is willing to assist any time (Tel 9312053706). There is a dedicated toll-free number 0008000501571 for clients from India to access client services including seeking assistance in issuing DCE. There is also a dedicated email dce@unjspf.org for seeking assistance with DCE issuance. A Step-by-step DCE Guide can be downloaded from the UNJSPF web site.
Dr. M. Seenappa
Hon. President, AFUNPI
