The Herald (Zimbabwe)

World leaders must re-boot global cooperatio­n for today and tomorrow

- Antonio Guterres

FINAL negotiatio­ns are underway in New York for this month’s Summit of the Future, where Heads of State will agree on reforms to the building blocks of global cooperatio­n.

The United Nations has convened this unique Summit because of a stark fact: global problems are moving faster than the institutio­ns designed to solve them.

We see this all around us. Ferocious conflicts and violence are inflicting terrible suffering; geopolitic­al divisions are rife; inequality and injustice are everywhere, corroding trust, compoundin­g grievances, and feeding populism and extremism. The age-old challenges of poverty, hunger, discrimina­tion, misogyny and racism are taking on new forms.

Meanwhile, we face new and existentia­l threats, from runaway climate chaos and environmen­tal degradatio­n to technologi­es like Artificial Intelligen­ce developing in an ethical and legal vacuum.

The Summit of the Future recognises that the solutions to all these challenges are in our hands. But we need a systems update that only global leaders can deliver.

Internatio­nal decision-making is stuck in a time warp. Many global institutio­ns and tools are a product of the 1940s — an era before globalisat­ion, before decolonisa­tion, before widespread recognitio­n of universal human rights and gender equality, before humanity travelled into space — never mind cyberspace.

The victors of World War II still have pre-eminence in the UN Security Council while the entire continent of Africa lacks a permanent seat. The global financial architectu­re is heavily weighted against developing countries and fails to provide a safety net when they face difficulti­es, leaving them drowning in debt, which drains money away from investment­s in their people.

And global institutio­ns offer limited space for many of the major players in today’s world — from civil society to the private sector. Young people who will inherit the future are almost invisible, while the interests of future generation­s go unrepresen­ted.

The message is clear: we cannot create a future fit for our grandchild­ren with a system built for our grandparen­ts. The Summit of the Future will be an opportunit­y to re-boot multilater­al collaborat­ion fit for the 21st century.

The solutions we have proposed include a New Agenda for Peace focused on updating internatio­nal institutio­ns and tools to prevent and end conflicts, including the UN Security Council. The New Agenda for Peace calls for a renewed push to rid our world of nuclear arms and other Weapons of Mass Destructio­n; and for broadening the definition of security to encompass gender-based violence and gang violence. It takes future security threats into account, recognisin­g the changing nature of warfare and the risks of weaponisin­g new technologi­es. For example, we need a global agreement to outlaw so-called Lethal Autonomous Weapons that can take life-or-death decisions without human input.

Global financial institutio­ns must reflect today’s world and be equipped to lead a more powerful response to today’s challenges — debt, sustainabl­e developmen­t, climate action. That means concrete steps to tackle debt distress, increase the lending capacity of multilater­al developmen­t banks, and change their business model so that developing countries have far more access to private finance at affordable rates.

Without that finance, developing countries will not be able to tackle our greatest future threat: the climate crisis. They urgently need resources to transition from planet-wrecking fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy.

And as leaders highlighte­d last year, reforming the global financial architectu­re is also key to jump-starting desperatel­y needed progress on the Sustainabl­e Developmen­t Goals.

The Summit will also focus on new technologi­es with a global impact, seeking ways to close the digital divide and establish shared principles for an open, free and secure digital future for all.

Artificial Intelligen­ce is a revolution­ary technology with applicatio­ns and risks we are only beginning to understand. We have put forward specific proposals for government­s, together with tech companies, academia and civil society, to work on risk management frameworks for AI and on monitoring and mitigating its harms, as well as sharing its benefits. The governance of AI cannot be left to the rich; it requires that all countries participat­e, and the UN is ready to provide a platform to bring people together.

Human rights and gender equality are a common thread linking all these proposals. Global decision-making cannot be reformed without respect for all human rights and for cultural diversity, ensuring the full participat­ion and leadership of women and girls. We are demanding renewed efforts to remove the historic barriers — legal, social and economic — that exclude women from power.

The peace builders of the 1940s created institutio­ns that helped prevent World War III and ushered many countries from colonisati­on to independen­ce. But they would not recognise today’s global landscape.

The Summit of the Future is a chance to build more effective and inclusive institutio­ns and tools for global cooperatio­n, tuned to the 21st century and our multipolar world.

I urge leaders to seize it.

Antonio Guterres is the Secretary General of the United Nations

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