Summary
AFUNPI with a membership of 372, was kept busy in 2023. All the monthly in-person meetings in Bangalore were held on a regular basis on second Monday of every month, Mr. Raghu Rao, Chief Clients Officer of UNJSPF, was the guest of Honor for one monthly meeting. The AFUNPI hubs in New Delhi and Hyderabad also hosted few meetings for members locally residing. AFUNPI felicitated Dr. V.R. Pantulu, member from Hyderabad who celebrated his 100th birthday. AFUNPI also felicitated Dr Anasuya Kulkarni for having been conferred ‘Sangeet Natak Academy Amrit Award’. AFUNPI participated in the hybrid FAFICS Council held in Vienna in July 2023. AFUNPI was represented by Dr Seenappa and Dr Narasimhan in person, while Mr. Srinivasan, Ms. Magdalene Chand and Mr. Manohar participated virtually. Dr. Seenappa as FAFICS Vice President, participated in the monthly virtual meetings of the FAFICS Bureau and also represented FAFICS in the Fund Solvency Assets and Liability Monitoring Committee meetings both in person in New York and several virtual meetings.
Monthly meetings
Members and spouses resumed to meet monthly in Bangalore on a regular basis. Most meetings were held at Century Club in Cubbon Park. Two meetings were held outside of Century Club, one at Ramnagara in a mango grove and the other at Karnataka Golf Association Club. The monthly meetings included brief introductions by the sponsoring hosts and often included lectures. Some of the key lectures arranged were “A scientific insight into the culinary melons” by Dr Prem Nath, “Common Health issues we face” by Dr K.R Antony, “Post-conflict peace keeping” by Mr. Uday Kumar Mutturaju, “Water management” by Mr Tyagi and on “The importance of Meteorology” by Mr Satyan., “Handling of cases of sexual exploitation of children, especially girls” by Mrs Sarala Rao and Dr Sreelakshmi Gururaja, and about “UN ESCAP experience” by Mr Srinivasan. Mr Raghu Rao from UNJSPF New York addressed the monthly AFUNPI meeting and answered many questions on pension issues. AFUNPI Delhi hub met at UNDP premises under the leadership of Dr Prem Sharma and discussed various issues related to UN pension and health insurance. During the meeting Mr V. Emanvel, AFUNPI Focal Point on DCE, answered questions on the Digital CE. In addition, few members from Delhi also participated in a meeting at the UNDP organised by UNPAI with Mr Raghu Rao from UNJSPF New York. The Hyderabad / Secunderabad hub of AFUNPI held few meetings organised by Ms Sudha Murali. AFUNPI is grateful to UNICEF Hyderabad for support.
Membership
There were 372 members in AFUNPI by 31 December 2023. This included 19 new members during 2023. I am pleased to welcome all the 19 new members* who were enrolled in 2023 to AFUNPI. Sadly, there were 8 bereavements during the year** and AFUNPI offered sincere condolences to the bereaved families.
Services
So as to assist with understanding and processing health insurance claims of members and spouses, information updates sent by Chief Human Resources of UNICEF Delhi were shared to all AFUNPI members by Ms Magdalene Chand. These included: Frequently asked questions and answers on MIP/CIGNA., List of reimbursable and non-reimbursable items under MIP/Cigna., Medical Insurance Plan (MIP). 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 provided to members with regard to survivor’s/spouse benefit. The DCE support team coordinated by Mr Victor Emanvel did an excellent job assisting many members with the DCE process. Nearly one-third of AFUNPI members had opted for DCE in 2023 while others continued with paper CE. Mr Emanvel is willing to assist and can be contacted for assistance. (Tel: +91- 9312053706). It may be recalled that 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.
The UN Pension Board
The 75th session of the UN Pension Board (PB) met at a hybrid meeting in Vienna from 24 to 28 July 2023. FAFICS representation was led by Mr. Jerry Barton, the President, Mr. Pedro Guazo, the Representative of the Secretary General revealed that as of 31 December 2022 the Market value of Fund investments had declined to USD 77.9 billion largely due to new challenges to investments and the morbid and dull performance in the global economy in 2022. Continued Russian-Ukraine conflict, unstable markets, unabated high inflation and the cascading of the post COVID 19 economic shock had negated the performance of Fund investments. However, Mr Pedro revealed that the performance had since then improved positively to USD 85.5 billion by 20 July 2023. Commenting on the solvency of the Fund, Mr Karl Ludwig Soll, the Chief Finance Officer, reaffirmed that to meet the benefit payments in future there was no need to touch the corpus for the next 30 years. PB has planned to meet three times a year i.e., 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 in Bangkok, Thailand in July 2024.
53rd FAFICS Council 17-20 July 2023 Vienna
This was a hybrid meeting with physical as well as virtual participation. AFUNPI was represented at the council in person by Dr Seenappa and Dr. Narasimhan in Vienna. Also, Mr Srinivasan, Mr Manohar and Ms. Chand participated virtually from Bangalore. The Council elected by acclamation Ms. Delia Barcelona of AFICS Philippines as Secretary and, Mr Pierre Sayour AAFI AFICS Geneva and Mr Abdoukhadre Diahkate (AFICS Senegal) as Vice Presidents. Ms. Rosemarie McClean, Chief Executive of Pension Administration, informed the Council that at the end of 2022 the market value of the Fund’s investment was USD 77.9 billion, while the benefit liabilities stood at USD 70.6 billion. Mr Pedro Guazo, the Representative of the Secretary General, informed that the markets in 2022 were worse than those in 2008, and have picked up and consequently the market value of Fund had already improved to USD 81.7 billion by March 2023. The Fund had received USD 3.12 billion from active participants and their employers and disbursed USD 3.13 billion in periodic benefits including pensions. Ms. McClean recalled that over 4000 retires had crossed the age of 90 years and was happy noting that pensioners were now leading longer healthy lives. Recalling the goal of processing 90 per cent of new cases within 15 business days, Ms. McClean thanked the AFICS associations for tracing many members who had not submitted their Certificate of Entitlement and consequently number of those who had not submitted CE was reduced from a total of 4000 to 1264. As the Fund gets ready to celebrate 75th anniversary in 2024, Ms. McClean revealed of a CARE strategy the Fund was embarking on from 2024 to 2030. The strategy includes three pillars: to improve clients experience, to modernize pension services and to strengthen relationships with all stake-holders. The next meeting of FAFICS Council is planned to be held in Bangkok in July 2024.
Member recognitions
Dr Anasuya Kulkarni, spouse of Mr Narayan Kulkarni, was conferred the prestigious national award ‘Sangeet Natak Academy Amrit Award” in recognition of her lifetime contribution to Carnatic vocal music. The award was received from Dr Jagdeep Dhankar, Vice President of India, on 16 September 2023. In recognition of this award, AFUNPI held a special function to felicitate Dr Anasuya Kulkarni. with a bouquet and a shawl. The 100th birth day of Dr V.R. Pantulu was on 28 October 2023. AFUNPI representation to the grand function in Hyderabad was through Ms Sudha Murali and Mrs. Daphne De Rebello who presented a shawl and a bouquet to Dr. V.R. Pantulu. Dr Seenappa will continue as FAFICS Vice President and member of FAFICS Bureau into 2024.Also Dr Seenappa continues to be a member (till July 2025) of the Fund Solvency and Assets and Liabilities Monitoring Committee having been nominated by FAFICS & endorsed by the UN Pension Board,
Acknowledgement: Untiring yet enthusiastic services of Ms. Magdalene Chand Hon. Secretary, and that of Mr R.M. Manohar Hon. Treasurer, are highly acknowledged. Sincere thanks to all members of AFUNPI who hosted the monthly meetings. Continued support of Mr Venkatesh Malur, Mr B.R. Prasanna and Mr G.R. Parameswara is gracefully acknowledged. Very special appreciation to AFUNPI members who delivered
lectures at the monthly meetings. A ‘Distinct Appreciation’ to Mr Victor Emanvel and team for coordination of DCE support to AFUNPI members.
AFUNPI meetings in New Delhi and in Hyderabad were largely made possible due to main efforts of Dr Prem Sharma and Mr R.P. Agrawal, and Mrs. Daphne de Rebello and Ms. Sudha Murali, respectively. Special thanks to the AFUNPI web site revision team headed by Mr Srinivasan for dedicated efforts. Grateful to all members of AFUNPI executive committee for full support and continued dedication. AFUNPI sends best wishes to Mr S.A. Janakiram, AFUNPI President Emeritus and FAFICS Vice President Emeritus, for a speedy recovery and gratefully acknowledges his financial contribution. Voluntary financial generous contributions for AFUNPI operational costs and AGM made by members are gracefully acknowledged.
Contacting UNJSPF: Mailing address remains as UNJSPF PO Box 5036, United Nations, NY 10163-5036 USA or by FedEx / DHL UNJSPF 37th Floor, 1 DHP, 885 second Ave. NY 10017. or contact Client Services Call Centre by calling Tel 00-1-212-963 6931(7 a.m. to 7 p.m. New York time) also please note that toll free access number is 00-1-800-2001-401. Members are requested to ensure that they are registered in member self-service MSS portal of UNJSPF and access the account (https://www.unjspf.org/member-self-service/). One can also submit any query by filling the online CONTACT FORM which can be accessed at https://wwwunjspf.org/-contact-us/. The UID number or Retiree number should be mentioned every time. MSS facility to directly upload signed forms, signed CE etc is possible since December 2020.. Kindly note that after the demise of the primary retiree please send message to UNJSPF (deathrelated@un.org), MSS will be closed and spouses will have no rights to operate MSS. Members are advised to visit unjspf.org and click on “Subscribe to the Newsletter” to get the UNJSPF Newsletter regularly.
- *New Members: (19): Mrs Padma Herur / Arjun, Mr Ashok Mahapatra, Mr Jai Keshri / Sunita, Ms Sharon Forbes, Ms Sunitha Balraj, Mrs Uma Murthy, Mrs Sukanya Lalwani, Mr Hari Mepurathu, Mr Subhash Misra, Mrs Sushma Jaiswal, Dr K.R Antony, Mrs Ramani Murthy, Ms Mridula Sharma, Ms Pratibha Mehta, Mr Paramjeet Walia, Mrs Jiji Bhattacharji, Mr Raju Makil, Mr Raghu Rao, and Mrs S.K. Thankachi.
- **Bereavements (8): Mr K.S. Narayana Swamy, Mr Chandra Malik, Mr K. Lakshminarayana, Mr P.C. Choudhury, Mrs Saraswathi Thampy, Mrs Shirley Scurville, Mr. R. Adiseshan, and Mr M. Rajendran.
Marashetty Seenappa
President, AFUNPI
