Who does FAFICS really represent?
And what can UN retirees do to safeguard our vital interests?
By Loraine Rickard-Martin
The Federation of Associations of Former International Civil Servants (FAFICS) is trying to recruit UN retirees on Facebook. That's fair enough.
But it's also a good reason, and a good time considering current challenges to UN staff and retiree interests, to ask a simple question: what exactly are prospective members signing up for?
Current members of local FAFICS associations should be asking a different question: is my local FAFICS association actually representing my interests?
FAFICS is a 50-year-old federation of some 60 retiree associations worldwide. It claims to represent all UN retirees. In reality, its membership amounts to only about 20 percent of the global retiree population.
A mandate without an election
It's important to note that FAFICS did not gain its representative role through a vote of UN retirees. Instead, the UN Pension Board gradually recognized it as the body representing retirees, and that arrangement became accepted practice without ever being endorsed through a retiree-wide election.
That matters because FAFICS is involved in issues that affect every retiree and, indirectly, every current UN staff member, especially pensions and health insurance.
A weak system of representation
It also matters because FAFICS' system of representation is indirect and weak. Members elect representatives to their local associations. Those representatives sit on the FAFICS Council, which elects the organization's officers.
The President then plays the leading role in selecting the FAFICS delegation to the UN Pension Board, subject to formal appointment by the Council.
In 2009, FAFICS adopted reforms intended to make the selection process more representative by inviting nominations from all member associations.
In 2022, it amended those rules, giving the President, in consultation with the Bureau, greater discretion in selecting the Pension Board delegation, subject to Council approval.
If AFICS/NY is typical, its Governing Board does not consult the membership. There’s an annual meeting, featuring a long list of speakers and perfunctory reports, with little opportunity for members to ask questions or influence policy.
Centralized leadership culture
FAFICS' leadership culture is highly centralized and hierarchical.
I can't speak for every FAFICS local association, but members of the New York and Geneva associations have long dominated the federation’s leadership.
AFICS/NY, in particular, has largely been shaped by former UN administrators who brought with them the same top-down, managerial culture they practiced during their careers—in which the organization is always right.
There are honorable exceptions, including former staff union leaders who tried to reform AFICS/NY from within, only to become frustrated and eventually give up.
Pattern of accommodation
FAFICS representatives on the Pension Board have non-voting status but tend to punch far above their weight.
Over the eleven years I've written the UN Pension Blog, FAFICS—with four representatives and two alternates on the Pension Board, as well as representation on the Standing Committee—has repeatedly sided with the Pension Fund establishment on key issues affecting retirees rather than with retirees themselves.
Some of the highlights:
- FAFICS actively discouraged an OIOS (UN Office of Internal Oversight Services) audit during the worst pension backlog in the Fund's history.
- It systematically defended Fund leaders criticized by UN oversight bodies.
- It advocated for shelving a General Assembly-mandated governance review that found shortcomings in transparency and the training of Pension Board members, many of whom lacked a cohesive understanding of their fiduciary responsibility.
- It attacked retirees (dues-paying members) who demanded accountability.
- It helped impose sweeping confidentiality rules on Pension Board members, resulting in the suspension of staff representatives and threats of suspension against staff representative groups.
- It remained silent when whistleblowers in the Office of Investment Management were dismissed.
- Most recently, faced with a General Assembly-mandated review of the pension system and public calls by the US Government for rapid UN reforms, including pension reform, the FAFICS President reassured member associations in a letter last January that there is little to worry about. Any changes, he suggested, would likely affect only new Fund members—even implying that the only significant change might be the loss of COLA (cost-of-living adjustment), as though that were not an accrued right worth defending.
What about health insurance?
Meanwhile, what has FAFICS accomplished for retirees?
Health insurance premiums for UN retirees continue to soar. Aetna premiums increased by 16 percent in 2025 and another 35 percent in 2026.
A memo from HLIS (UN Health and Life Insurance Service) dated 30 July states that the 2026 premium increases were driven by rising healthcare costs, an aging retiree population, greater use of expensive drugs and complex treatments, increased post-pandemic healthcare utilization, and more advanced illnesses resulting from delayed care during COVID-19.
Why, then, have retirees been hearing for years from AFICS/NY representatives that the main causes are increasing out-of-network medical services and abuse of physical therapy services?
What has FAFICS done to help address these soaring healthcare costs? And if it has little ability to influence them, what exactly is it doing to represent retirees' concerns?
Meanwhile, HLIS/ASHI (After-Service Health Insurance) telephone service is effectively non-existent, relying on a single hotline. Email service is slow, and in-person access in New York has never fully recovered since COVID-19.
What are members paying for?
In short, membership dues for local FAFICS associations finance meetings and travel for Governing Board members, but the federation continues to deliver few tangible improvements on the issues retirees care about most.
To be fair, AFICS/NY has committed volunteers who produce an excellent journal and organize lectures, lunches, and social activities. Those are worthwhile contributions.
But social activities are not the same as effective advocacy.
A critical moment for UN staff and retirees
Given the upcoming General Assembly-mandated review of the UN pension system, and the stated intention of the US Government to link payment of US assessed contributions to reform of the UN pension system, this is precisely the moment when retirees need an independent, knowledgeable, and fearless organization prepared to defend their interests.
Instead, we have FAFICS and its President's letter appearing to accept the outcome of the pension review before the debate has even begun.
Call for accountability
None of this is to say retirees shouldn't have a representative organization. We should.
But representation requires more than collecting dues and issuing less-than-reassuring statements. It requires expertise, transparency, participation, independence, and the willingness to challenge the system when retirees' interests are at stake.
If you're already a member of a local FAFICS association, hold your leaders accountable. Ask questions. Demand transparency. Insist on genuine representation.
If you're thinking of joining, ask yourself whether this is the organization you want speaking in your name.
UN retirees deserve better.
So what can UN retirees actually do?
FAFICS presents itself as representing all UN retirees, not just those who are members of a FAFICS-affiliated association.
All retirees therefore have a legitimate reason to ask questions and seek answers from the FAFICS-affiliated association in their area on vital issues of concern to UN retirees, and by extension all members of the Fund, such as the pension review and health insurance.
Ask your local leaders what they have heard from FAFICS, what feedback they have given FAFICS in response, and what positions they are taking.
Ask to be consulted by local leaders before the association supports FAFICS positions on major issues affecting retirees, and that they hold FAFICS accountable and report back on the positions FAFICS takes on retirees' behalf.
Local associations should also be encouraged to share information, compare views and develop common, evidence-based proposals.
On the pension review, health insurance and other major issues, retirees need a clear voice that can be heard by FAFICS, the Pension Board and Member States.
The issues are too important for us to simply sit back and hope our vital interests are being effectively safeguarded. We need to ensure we have a meaningful say in the issues that affect us.
UN retirees: please send the following email to the president of FAFICS, and copy the leader of your local FAFICS affiliate (for UN retirees in New York, afics@un.org)
To: Darshak Shah, President, FAFICS
Email: president@fafics.org, cc. secretary@fafics.org
Salutation: Dear President Shah,
Subject: Subject: Protecting the interests of UN retirees: pension and after-service health insurance
Dear President,
I am writing as a UN retiree concerned about whether the interests of retirees are being adequately represented on two issues fundamental to our security: our pension and after-service health insurance.
The General Assembly has asked the UN Pension Board to undertake a broad review of the pension scheme, including its design and ways of lowering costs and contributions. At the same time, retirees face continuing concerns about the affordability, adequacy and long-term sustainability of after-service health insurance. Decisions in both areas could have profound consequences for present and future retirees.
FAFICS has an important responsibility in this context. It presents itself as representing all UN retirees, whether or not they are members of FAFICS affiliate associations. Retirees need to be able to have confidence that those presenting themselves as representing them understand the issues, recognize the risks, both immediate and longer-term, and are prepared to defend hard-won rights. This requires more than keeping retirees informed or reassuring them that potentially significant changes are not imminent. It requires competence, vigilance and resolve.
I would therefore like to ask what FAFICS is doing to safeguard retirees’ interests, particularly with regard to:
- Pension: the implications of possible changes to pension design, including defined-benefit, defined-contribution or hybrid models; proposals to lower costs or contributions; and the protection of accrued pension rights and the integrity of the existing defined-benefit system. In particular, retirees need to know whether FAFICS considers the COLA an integral part of accrued pension rights and how it would respond to proposals that could undermine those rights or the fundamental protections of the present system.
- Health insurance: the affordability, adequacy and long-term sustainability of after-service health insurance, including the impact of rising costs on retirees and the protection of meaningful coverage over the longer term.
- Representation: how FAFICS ihow FAFICS is ensuring that the interests of the wider retiree community are properly understood and reflected in its positions, including through appropriate consultation with FAFICS-affiliated associations and meaningful opportunities for retirees beyond FAFICS membership to make their views known.
What is particularly concerning is the impression that some of the arguments now being advanced about the pension scheme, including claims about UN staff being overcompensated, may be receiving insufficient scrutiny. Nor should retirees be reassured simply because potentially consequential changes are not immediate or because their initial impact might fall on only some retirees. The relevant question is whether such changes would weaken the pension system or establish precedents that could ultimately affect retirees more broadly.
The Pension Board needs to be able to hold the line, both against immediate pressures and throughout the longer process of review and reform. Those representing retirees on and around the Board need to be sufficiently knowledgeable, independent and resolute to challenge unsupported claims, identify genuine risks and defend retirees’ interests consistently.
As President of both FAFICS and AFICS/NY, you will be particularly familiar with the concerns of retirees in New York. But these issues extend far beyond any one association. They affect the entire UN retiree community, present and future.
These matters are too important for retirees simply to assume that our vital interests are being effectively safeguarded. We need to know what FAFICS is advocating, what positions it is taking on the pension and health insurance issues now before us, and whether it is prepared to defend the rights and security retirees have worked for throughout their UN service.
I would therefore appreciate a clear response from FAFICS on its positions on these issues, the safeguards it believes are necessary, and how it intends to ensure that the interests of retirees are effectively defended throughout the processes now under way.
Sincerely,
[Name]
UN retiree
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