October 2011 - Is the United Nations fit for purpose?

Do you think the UN is fit for purpose? How do you think it could be strengthened?

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Background

The next four years will be crucial for the international community. The target date for achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals is looming and many are still off track. Population growth and climate change will put more strain on natural resources, while a global approach to sustainability continues to elude us. Complex humanitarian emergencies look set to increase and human rights violations persist in all corners of the globe. Dozens of armed conflicts remain unresolved while military spending rises.

We live in an increasingly interdependent world, where new institutions, companies and civil society movements jostle for influence with governments. Globalisation has precipitated advances in economics and communications, but it has also led to political fragmentation and increased vulnerabilities, powerfully demonstrated by the financial crisis. From cyber-security to piracy, nuclear weapons to pandemics, technological revolutions to popular uprisings, the world faces a multiplicity of challenges old and new.

UNA-UK believes that the need for the UN has never been greater. The challenges facing the world cannot be tackled in isolation and the UN is the only organisation that has the reach and remit to address them. As a peacekeeper and mediator, convenor and advocate, facilitator and frontline agency, the UN remains indispensable.

But to be effective, the organisation must ensure that it responds to developments. It must build stronger partnerships with NGOs, businesses, media and individuals as well as regional and multilateral groupings such as the G20. It must demonstrate, as it has by establishing UN Women, that it is capable of reform, and it must ensure that the Security Council becomes more representative. Crucially, it must better publicise its successes and prove that it can continue to deliver results and value for money. In order to achieve this, it will need strong support, political and financial, from governments and civil society.