“Public Meeting About the Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century”

Excellencies,
Dear students,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to be here with you today. I would like to thank the Danish United Nations Association of Northern Jutland and the Aalborg University for the opportunity to broach a particularly timely subject: the future of the United Nations. Timely because at a moment when every major problem is global, we need the United Nations now more than ever. Its success, however, depends on whether this 72-year-old organization can reform itself to meet the challenges of our time.

Reading the news today, it sometimes feels like we are living in a Medieval doomsday painting. Conflicts rage, inequalities grow and societies threaten to fragment. Our climate is changing, while our oceans are dying. Millions flee conflicts, only to be met by walls or to be abandoned in camps. The very values and norms of the United Nations are disregarded. In the face of these challenges, our institutions and leaders seem powerless. Victims – in some cases instigators – of polarized political discourses are demonized. Faced with these realities, it would be easy to give up. To see these trends as immutable. This would be a mistake. In truth, this dark vision is only half the picture. The proof is that the world has paradoxically never been safer, healthier or better educated. Nearly a billion people have escaped extreme poverty since 1990, while maternal mortality has fallen by half. Millions of children are in school for the first time. Smallpox is eradicated, while polio and leprosy are on the brink of extinction. The ozone layer is healing.

These achievements show that we are not predestined to live through chaos and decline. It is still possible for us to alter the course our global civilization has taken. We can do so because the problems we face are either manmade or exacerbated by our actions. What we have broken, we can fix. Doing so, however, will require collective action. Why? Because today’s problems are global in nature. No state, no entity, can tackle these challenges alone. Carbon emissions know no boundaries, distant conflicts lead to refugee flows and weak healthcare systems in one country – even in the most remote state - can lead to worldwide pandemics.

As the anchor of multilateralism with universal membership, the United Nations has a vital role to play in making this collaboration happen. While the UN is far from the only actor at the global level, it has an unparalleled capacity to convene and mobilize. To support partners in their efforts on the ground. Since it rose from the ashes of the Second World War, the UN has tallied a record of achievements in the defence of peace, the improvement of human welfare and the advancement of human rights. While its founding ideals have stood the test of time, its structures and practices have not kept up with social and technological changes. At times, the UN has even failed to live up to its own values. To truly serve “We the Peoples”, the Organization must become more effective, nimble and accountable. Recognizing this reality, Secretary-General António Guterres has outlined a set of ambitious, mutually-reinforcing reforms of the UN. These include a review of our peace and security architecture, development system and internal management. Allow me to discuss these three elements.

First, international peace and security. Maintaining it is the central mission of the UN. After years of progress, however, conflicts increased once again in 2016. Unlike the interstate wars of yesterday, today’s conflicts are complex intra-state struggles over limited resources and power. They are fuelled by inequality, marginalization and poor governance. They are fanned by sectarian divides and regional interference. If the nature of conflicts has changed, the UN has largely failed to keep up. The Organization remains focused on managing conflicts. A costly and prolonged undertaking with mixed results. Instead, the Secretary-General is now focusing the entire Organization on prevention. Prevention is not only cost-effective, it saves lives, preserves institutions and safeguards and promotes development. To that end, the Secretary-General has announced a “surge in diplomacy for peace”. He is bolstering the United Nations’ capacity to convene parties and mediate conflicts. Second, he has unveiled an ambitious proposal to reform the UN’s peace and security pillar. To break down bureaucratic silos, the proposal would bring the UN’s political and peacekeeping structures into a single political and operational hub. It would be led by three Assistant Secretary-Generals, each responsible for a different region of the world. These regional units would be able to address each step of the “peace continuum”: from risk analysis and prevention to peace operations and peacebuilding. This approach will enhance communication and coherence across the UN structure. It will enable the UN to think and engage regionally. These efforts, however, won’t be enough. For that, we need to address the root causes of conflict by building fairer, more sustainable societies.

In 2015, world leaders adopted the most ambitious roadmap for development in human history: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals address everything from poverty and gender equality to urban development and climate action. The product of lessons learned from decades of development work, the Goals are more than a wish list. They are a universal blueprint for progress that will “leave no one behind” and forge a safer, fairer and more sustainable world. Reaching the Goals will require Member States and their partners to build new capacities, forge new partnerships and create “whole-of-society” responses. If it raised the bar for Member States, the Goals also raised it for the United Nations. To meet its scope and ambition, the UN will need to undertake bold reforms of its own. To that end, the Secretary-General presented in June a reform proposal. The product of unprecedented consultation among 30 organizations, the proposal is built around eight guiding areas. First, the UN System should accelerate its transition from the Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals. Nearly 50 per cent of funding remains allocated to the few Goals that emerged from the Millennium Development Goals. Second, the organization should tailor its hiring and training policies to provide the support Member States need to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. Third, the UN should help Member States forge partnerships with the private sector to finance development. This is vital because the scale of investments needed to reach the Goals – one estimate is 2.4 trillion dollars per year – is simply too large for States on their own. Fourth, UN Country Teams would adopt a modular approach. Enabling them to tailor themselves to the needs of the Member States and to the competitive advantages of its organizations. Resident Coordinators would be granted greater authority and accountability. To that end, their functions would be delinked from those of the UN Development Programme Resident Representative. Fifth, Regional Economic Commissions would become centres of knowledge and innovation for the entire UN Development System. Today, UN agencies do not share the same definitions of regions and regional offices are scattered. This presents an opportunity to rationalize and pool resources. Sixth, reforms would also be instituted at headquarters to avoid new bureaucracies and to streamline collaboration. To that end, the Deputy Secretary-General, Ms. Amina Mohammed, would preside high-level management and oversight bodies to provide strategic coherence. Seventh, the UN would work with its funders to create a more efficient and stable source of funding. Today, more than 90 per cent of earmarked funding is directed by donors to specific projects alone. This limits the predictability, sustainability and flexibility of the UN System. Finally, if the UN wants greater discretionary funding, it will need to provide greater accountability and transparency to Member States and the public.

To preserve the gains made since 1945 and to advance still further, the United Nations must remain focused on delivering for those most in need. Over time, however, some elements of the organization have come to focus on process and not enough on delivery and impact. To better serve the “We the Peoples”, the UN must re-examine the way it operates. To re-evaluate its administration and internal management. Last month, the Secretary-General outlined his vision for a “UN that delivers”. A vision centred on bringing decision-making closer to the point of delivery. One that trusts manager to makes decisions, but also holds them accountable. One that links planning and budgetary processes to the Goals and deliverables. Structurally, the Secretariat would see the creation of a Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance and of a Department of Operational Support. This change would help to simplify, delegate and decentralize administration in a way that preserves accountability and transparency. The reforms would reinforce the push for gender equality across the organization, building on the Secretary-General’s goal to reach parity at senior levels by 2021. Coupled with this are a new whistle-blower policy and a new approach to preventing sexual exploitation and abuse.

The unprecedented challenges we face today can be met. Doing so, however, will require us all to do our part. To re-examine how we work, how we collaborate, how we imagine the future. The same applies to the United Nations. Having spent decades in the System, I know the Organization has its fair share of problems. I also know, however, that it is staffed with some of our best and brightest. Women and men whose potential is only waiting to be unleashed. With the support of those we serve, the Organization can rise to meet its founding ideals.

I look forward to a good exchange of ideas with you.

Thank you very much.