Daily Times

The year 2020 ushers in marking the 75th anniversary of the United Nations. The 75th session of the UNGA opened on Tuesday in New York. This anniversary provides a much-needed opportunity to pilot the hopeful direction of the UN amid the most gigantic challenges that the UN system faces in the 21st Century. Admittedly, in sowing the seeds of hopes, the UN has gone through a multitude of challenges. The signing of the United Nations Charter in 1945 heralded a new era in human history: one defined by a consensus-driven, rules-based international order and guided by multilateralism. In the post-WW11 order, the commitment by national leaders to cooperatively address common issues based on the fundamental pillars of the UN system-peace and security, development and human rights-provided cautious hope and optimism for the future. Some ofthe biggest challenges that the UN faces today are:the Climate change, the promising tasks of the SGDS, human rights, racial inequality, global conflict settlements like Kashmir & Palestine via preventive diplomacy, and the UN’s reform.

As for the UN’s working mechanism, it may be rightly characterized by its soft power (peace) and hard power (security) approaches. Hard power works through payments and coercion; soft power works through attraction and co-option. Despite those limits, the UN has considerable soft power leverage that arises from its ability to legitimize the actions of states. The greatest damage to the UN’s legitimacy has been self-inflicted. The UN has a unique power combination – both hard and soft – when states agree on policies under Chapter 7 of the Charter; in contrast, it has modest but useful soft power when great powers disagree but are willing to acquiesce in a course of action. Nonetheless, it has very little power when the great powers oppose an action, or repressive member governments ignore the claims of the new “responsibility to protect.”

We need teams that can respond to evolving national priorities in an integrated and holistic way. This includes the imperative of addressing the humanitarian-development nexus and its links with building and its links with building and sustaining peace

Yet in a changing world, the stability and dependability of the founding principles of the United Nations are crucial, including the need for cooperation across borders, sectors and generations, the need for rules-based international order, for multilateralism, for consensus, and for the United Nations system itself. In this regard, the COVID-19 has not made all other global challenges disappear; rather, it has exacerbated them.The UN75 Declaration has been drafted in July 2020 with a special focus to the affirmation: ”Under the commitment to promote peace and prevent conflicts, instead of “Rules governing the use of force must be respected,” the text was revised to read “We reiterate the importance of abiding by the Charter, principles of international law, and relevant resolutions of the Security Council’. Though to its credit, it refers to “applicable State commitments to the Paris Climate Agreement,” and mentions the “need to immediately curb greenhouse gas emissions […] in line with the 2030 Agenda” for sustainable development. It also calls for “reinvigorated multilateralism” as the only way to meet global challenges.

The UN is looking for new ideas, approaches, and partnerships crucial for the complex challenges the world faces, like the ones detailed above. It will encourage us to consider the intersecting issues and mega-trends that will shape the world ahead: digital technology, conflict and violence, inequality, climate change, shifting demographics, and global health.By now, when the UN is launching a global conversation about the future we want and the issues that matter most, with an intent of asking us all – countries, communities, businesses, organizations, individuals – to help define what we need to get there.

Most importantly, the SGDS: According to the 2020 Global Humanitarian Report, one out of every 45 people on this planet will need help and protection next year. In 2020, almost 170 million people in crises will need help and protection across more than 50 countries, the highest figure in decades.These figures put into stark relief the challenges of achieving the SDGs in such daunting contexts. At current rates, 80% of the world’s population living in extreme poverty in 2030 will be in fragile or conflict-affected settings.For recovery and to realize the SDGs, “durable solutions on debt” must be considered “to create fiscal space for investments”, stressed Mr Guterres.

“Uncertainty and a further retreat to inward-looking policies and protectionism could turn today’s sharp decline into a prolonged period of weak external financing”, the UN chief cautioned. Moreover, as the pandemic disrupts supply chains and trade, the SG flagged the danger that some manufacturing will move back to developed countries, further reducing developing countries’ resources, and challenging their integration into the global economy.

When the new Secretary- General Antonio Guterres took charge in 20017, he delivered a new agenda accompanied by a new frame of working.”.. the UN development system must accelerat its transition from the Millennium Development Goals to the 2030 Agenda. There are major gaps in the system’s current skillsets and mechanisms. The system is still set up to perform on a narrower set of goals focused on certain sectors, rather than across the entire sustainable development agenda.

The 2030 Agenda compels us to move to Country Teams that are more cohesive, flexible, leaner, and more efficient and focused in their scope. We need teams that can respond to evolving national priorities in an integrated and holistic way. This includes the imperative of addressing the humanitarian-development nexus and its links with building and its links with building and sustaining peace in a way that does not lead to a diversion of funds or shift in focus from development to other objectives, while also preserving the autonomy of the humanitarian space. We have discussed this for years; it is now time for action.”

The UN’s Climate Action Summit last year steered a roadmap for action and the SG Antonio Guterres continues to serve as a moral compass thereby pushing countries and other actors to do more, now: “If we do not change course by 2020 we risk missing the point where we can avoid runaway climate change with disastrous consequences for people and all the natural systems that sustain us.” Yet the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Madrid (COP26) did not send a strong signal of positive intent.

In 2020 we have been committed to decarbonizing large swaths of the economy, shift financial flows, protect ecosystems, and adapt for the future. Countries are all expected to reduce more emissions under the Paris Agreement. The 2021Conference on the Climate Change (COP26) in Glasgow, UK, will enable the global community to take stock of which nations stepped up and by how much. Yet the countries who have so far pledged to cut carbon outputs at the highest rates represent under 10% of those producing global emissions. At current rates, that means that temperatures will rise more than 3 degrees this century. To curb global warming is a herculean task.

To be continued

The writer is an independent ‘IR’ researcher and international law analyst based in Pakistan