If the Summit is to Achieve Change, the UN Chief Needs to Play Hard Ball

By Simone Galimberti*

KATHMANDU, Nepal | 21 September 2024 (IDN)—The United Nations is hosting one of the most important events in the history of the world body. This is the importance that Secretary General António Guterres has placed on the Summit of the Future September 22-23.

The meeting is supposed to endorse key blueprints like the Pact of the Future, the Global Digital Compact and a Declaration on Future Generations.

Considering the geopolitical flashpoints unfolding, the stakes could not be higher. Yet whatever will be approved during the Summit will hold no legal binding value, a stark reality that is itself an indicator of a United Nations system in the recede.

But this takes place amidst a myriad of crises.

The Middle East, Europe, Africa and Latin America risk imploding; the ongoing devastating conflict in Gaza; a heinous civil war in Sudan is causing a colossal, devastating humanitarian crisis; a more and more authoritarian regime in Venezuela is not even willing to compromise and share power; the Russian invasion of Ukraine and civil war in Myanmar and a migration crisis propelling extremist governments in the West, are some of the most visible examples of conflicts affecting the international community.

These emergencies represent just the surface of a multilateral system in deep crisis, a system that is not even able to gather consensus to face off and successfully tackle climate warming and the loss of biodiversity worldwide.

And let’s not forget the dangers posed by the rapid development of artificial intelligence without adequate guardrails and safeguards. Additionally, democracy and human rights, wherever they are formally underpinning nations’ political systems, are under stress and being tested.

In this scenario, the attempt by Guterres to reinvigorate the multilateral system through a new vision for the world based on cooperation and trust, is nothing but praiseworthy.

This is exactly, on the other hand, the dilemma faced by the Secretary General, a global system that, beyond the symbolisms, does not any more recognize the essential role that the UN can play in solving the biggest challenges faced by humanity.

There is no doubt that Guterres’s efforts are unprecedented and have been long in planning.

In 2020, when the UN turned 75, Guterres started the so called UN75 initiative, a “global reality check “to spark conversations around building a better future for all.

“We need to come together, not only to talk, but to listen”, he said “It is absolutely essential that you all join the conversation. We need your opinion, your strategies and your ideas for us to be able to deliver better for the people of the world that we must serve”, the Secretary General said at the time.

The divisions between North and South caused by the pandemic, the lack of trust among nations and the rapid spread of misinformation and disinformation campaigns, further convinced Guterres on the need of a major revamp of the multilateral system.

At one time, he even went as far as advocating for a new Social Contract between the citizens and the member states, an ambitious but, at the same time, an unwelcomed agenda for many nations too unwilling to compromise on their undemocratic and authoritarian political systems.

Momentum was further added with the publication of Our Common Agenda, a global blue print for reforming the world.

Accompanied by a dozen of detailed thematic policy briefs,  Guterres identified some big and bold solutions to address the most daunting problems faced by the humanity and the planet.

It might be said that some of the proposed actions were either lacking specifics or either were constrained by the limitations imposed on a UN System that is struggling to be taken seriously and be recognized for its role.

Yet the Secretary General did not lack vision and foresight.

He put all his gravitas and convening powers to reclaim the continuing importance of the Agenda 2030 and the SDGs. After enthusiastically being embraced by the international community in the immediate years following their launch, when a generic wave of enthusiasm among young people had been generated, it seems now that the SDGs are a thing of the past.

Amid the Triple Planetary Crisis unfolding and affecting the planet and the humans and other beings living on Earth, no one seemed to pay attention anymore on the Agenda 2030.

The call for a so-called SDG Stimulus, at least $500 billion a year funding to help close the gap in achieving the goals, one of the most significant propositions put forward by Guterres, has been mostly ignored.

The Secretary General, while was forced to abandon his plans for a New Social Contract, aptly took one of the major ideas underpinning it, a more inclusive, youth centric ways of policy making, and re-branded it within the framework of Our Common Agenda.

Though the practical propositions around enabling youths into having a major role in the decision making nationally and globally, are being mostly symbolic and tokenistic, Guterres must be praised for embracing this cause.

Politics, as they work at the moment, both in democratic and authoritarian systems, are, by design, unable to engage and involve citizens.  Among them, youths are particularly being affected by a general sense of apathy and disentrancement towards political life.

While many of them have embraced existential causes like the fight against global warming, there is a widespread lack of appetite for trying to turn around the political systems they are living in.

Traditional politics, Guterres, who himself spent a life as politician in his native Portugal, realized, are estranging the new generations. As they turned to be unfit to take the much-required bold actions, current political systems are at the core, the main reasons of the multiple, intersecting crises that are unfolding.

To me, this focus on creating a space for youths to participate, is going to be one of the most important legacies of Guterres. He also tried to propose the international community a new system of cooperation to ensure that artificial intelligence can be a force for the common good rather than a supercharger that spreads destruction and overtakes the humans.

The establishment of the High-level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence is going to be remembered as another vital contribution of the Secretary General.

The final report, published just on September 19, “Governing AI for Humanity”, an indicator of the sensitivity and complexity of the theme being discussed, can become a defining blueprint on how, at the same, to harness and tame, the development of artificial intelligence.

Undoubtedly, the Summit of the Future with its Action Days preceding it, offers an indispensable platform to bring the international community together but several unanswered questions remain.

Will Guterres succeed at getting the by-in of the global leaders? Will the Heads of governments and Heads of States gathering at the Summit truly endorse, beyond formality, the propositions of the Pact of the Future, a list of unbinding commitments to address the most existential crises faced by humanity? Will the Declaration on Future Generations mark a new commitment to truly enable and facilitate youths into decision making locally, nationally and globally?

No matter the dialogues and town-hall meetings that Guterres will hold with youths over the next few days, hardly we can imagine that other leaders of the member states will embrace the reforms proposed and follow through.

There is no doubt that symbolism plays a part and the UN will offer plenty of it during the Summit of the Future. But this won’t be nearly enough to what is required to truly change the dynamics dominating the unwritten rules that the members of the international community are adhering to.

The Summit will not generate trust nor a spirit of collaboration that is required to tackle the biggest challenges. Yet it could offer a new working approach that member states might be persuaded to follow but for this to happen, Guterres will have to resort to the best of his political skills that he mastered while in politics.

We will probably need a Guterres that will act more as a Machiavellian politician rather than the classic UN diplomat, someone who takes sides and be upfront and direct while showing an unmatched ability to tell inconvenient truths.

To change the uninspiring and worrying dynamics that rules the ways leaders act and decide, we need a much more political United Nations that does not mind nudging and pushing when it is needed.

In short, if Guterres really wants leaders “to create future fit for our grandchildren’ as just stated at the outset of the Summit, he really has to start play “hard ball”. [IDN-InDepthNews]

*Simone Galimberti writes about the SDGs, youth-centered policy-making and a stronger and better United Nations.

Photo: (Left) A 30-story architectural show, “illUmiNations: PROTECTING OUR PLANET”, projected onto the side of the UN building, New York. (Right) Secretary-General António Guterres visits the Asa Wright Nature Centre, a resort and scientific research station in the Arima Valley, Trinidad and Tobago. Mr. Guterres was there to address the 45th meeting of CARICOM. 2023. Left: ©UN Photo/Mark Garten. Right: ©UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe.