With present UN Secretary-Common António Guterres set to step down in 2026, who’s within the working to exchange him? On this seven-part collection, Felix Dodds and Chris Spence reveal who could be within the working and assess their probabilities.
The potential candidates embody Amina J. Mohammed (Nigeria), Mia Motley (Barbados), Alicia Barcena (Mexico), Maria Fernanda Espinosa (Ecuador), Rebeca Grynspan (Costa Rica) and Michelle Bachelet (Chile). These are names which have come up in conversations with UN insiders and different consultants. All six would provide abilities and experiences we imagine can be precious in these fast-paced, unsure instances.
APEX, North Carolina / DUBLIN, Eire, Apr 18 (IPS) – Is the rough-and-tumble of main the UN Common Meeting a great preparation for the highest UN job?
Maria Fernanda Espinosa served as President of the UN Common Meeting from 2018-2019, garnering votes from 128 out of 193 member states. Together with her victory, she turned solely the fourth lady—and the primary from Latin America—to run this necessary UN physique.
Her time in command of the Common Meeting was eventful. Throughout her 12 months as its chief, Espinosa pushed onerous for progress on girls’s empowerment and gender equality, notably when it comes to boosting girls’s political participation. On a number of events she gathered girls heads of state and authorities, in addition to different feminine leaders, for occasions aimed toward advancing this agenda.
She additionally centered on the rights of refugees, presiding over the adoption of the World Compact on Refugees, in addition to a World Compact for Protected, Orderly and Common Migration. Moreover, she launched an Worldwide 12 months of Indigenous Languages and helped advance the worldwide dialog on single-use plastics, supporting efforts to remove their use at UN headquarters in New York and Geneva.
Moreover, she used her tenure to induce better progress on nuclear disarmament and on illnesses like tuberculosis.
However her profession started hundreds of miles from New York. Her early focus was within the Amazon, working alongside indigenous communities in her native Ecuador. Later, she represented Ecuador as its Ambassador to the UN. She additionally served twice as her nation’s Minister of Overseas Affairs and in a number of different ministerial positions, together with as Minister of Protection and, earlier, as Minister of Pure and Cultural Heritage.
Previous to holding these senior authorities positions, Espinosa was an affiliate professor and researcher on the Latin American College of Social Sciences. She additionally served as an advisor on biodiversity, local weather change, and indigenous peoples’ insurance policies. Later, she turned regional director for South America for the Worldwide Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a place she held from 2005-2007.
Espinosa’s observe file on local weather change can be noteworthy, as she has served since 2009 as a key negotiator in a number of local weather conferences, together with COP21 in 2015, the place the Paris Settlement was signed.
Her early educational life was as broad and eclectic as her later skilled profession, with levels in social science, Amazonic research, anthropology, political science, and linguistics. She even received a nationwide prize in poetry.
Assessing Espinosa’s Prospects
Might Maria Fernanda Espinosa’s wide-ranging experiences qualify her to be the subsequent UN Secretary-Common? Right here is our evaluation of her benefits and drawbacks, ought to she put her identify ahead.
Benefits
Proper Area: Like a number of of our different potential candidates, Espinosa’s Ecuadorian background and an obvious choice for a frontrunner from Latin America and the Caribbean might work in her favor.UN Expertise: Espinosa has been each the President of the UN Common Meeting, the place she emerged together with her fame intact, and a UN Ambassador in New York. She has led the Group of 77 creating nations in UN negotiations and been a lead negotiator in key local weather talks. These UN experiences ought to certainly burnish her credentials.Connections: Espinosa developed sturdy networks throughout her time main the Group of 77 and as President of the UN Common Meeting. She has sturdy connections amongst main girls’s teams and indigenous peoples. Might this strong set of networks amongst senior politicians and varied necessary stakeholders assist her turn out to be Secretary-Common?A Lady Chief: As famous beforehand, the UN has by no means had a feminine chief throughout its 80-year historical past. It’s excessive time this modified. Espinosa can be one other succesful candidate. As well as, she has a transparent observe file selling girls’s management on the United Nations.
She is present Government Director of the Group of Ladies Leaders for Change Inclusion, internet hosting a profitable summit in Madrid early in 2024 that drew leaders from the UN system, in addition to high-profile names akin to Hilary Clinton.
Disadvantages
Ought to Solely Prime Ministers Apply? The present Secretary-Common, António Guterres, was beforehand Portugal’s Prime Minister. Whereas earlier UN leaders didn’t head-up governments, it’s an open query as as to whether Guterres’ appointment will set a brand new precedent or expectation for future UN leaders. If it does, Espinosa and different candidates who can not boast of being a former president or prime minister could have their work reduce out. That stated, traditionally the UN Secretary-Common’s function typically attracted former overseas ministers to use. If that earlier precedent is restored, Espinosa’s time as Ecuador’s overseas minister (twice) may very well be a bonus.An ‘Outdoors’ Insider? Like Alicia Bárcena and another attainable candidates, Espinosa can declare each exterior expertise as a authorities minister, and ‘inside’ UN experience heading up the UN Common Meeting and enjoying a number one function at main UN negotiations. Nevertheless, it’s price noting that Espinosa has by no means really labored throughout the UN as a workers member; most of her UN expertise was gained whereas she was with the Ecuadorian authorities. This makes it substantively totally different. Espinosa will possible have much less true inside working information than another attainable candidates of how the UN operates internally, presumably which means her studying curve can be steeper.Identify Recognition: Whereas these in UN local weather circles and at New York headquarters will know her, Espinosa just isn’t a family identify. Might this inform in opposition to her?
Prof. Felix Dodds and Chris Spence have participated in United Nations conferences and negotiations because the Nineteen Nineties. They co-edited Heroes of Environmental Diplomacy: Profiles in Braveness (Routledge, 2022), which examines the roles of people in inspiring change.
Earlier elements:
https://www.ipsnews.web/2024/04/next-un-leaderpart-1/https://www.ipsnews.web/2024/04/next-un-leaderpart-2/https://www.ipsnews.web/2024/04/next-un-leaderpart-3/
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© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal supply: Inter Press Service
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