An Ecuadorian candidate for United Nations secretary-general said on Monday that the world body remains essential but must be shrunk responsibly.
Maria Fernanda Espinosa, a former foreign affairs minister and defense minister of Ecuador, is among six candidates to succeed Antonio Guterres as UN chief after his term expires at the end of the year.
Guterres’ successor will face an enormous task of revitalizing an organization in crisis with declining stature.
“I am under no illusion about the difficulties ahead, yet I remain optimistic,” Espinosa said during a hearing on her candidacy.
Like other candidates, she vowed to continue reform efforts at the UN while adding that the need for the organization formed at the end of World War Two remained “undeniable.”
‘The UN needs to rebuild credibility’
“Too often, the UN is missing in action, or relegated to the sidelines. Too often it is slow, fragmented, and constrained … the UN needs to rebuild credibility and show, not just say, that it can deliver real change,” she said.
“We can shrink the UN responsibly, while strengthening national ownership and delivery, and restoring faith in the UN,” she said.
Espinosa, a former Ecuadorian ambassador to the UN who also headed the UN General Assembly from 2018 to 2019, suggested national governments could take greater roles in areas where the UN currently operates, without providing details.
Domestically, she served in the leftist administration of former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, but has distanced herself from his party in recent years.
Race to succeed Guterres
The tiny Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda nominated her to succeed Guterres. The current Ecuadorian government of President Daniel Noboa, a right-wing ally of US President Donald Trump, has not commented on her candidacy.
Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali announced last week that his country would nominate its UN Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett for the job, and she will have a hearing on her candidacy on Thursday.
In April, four other candidates also vowed UN reforms while championing its core principles of peacemaking and support for development.
They are Rebeca Grynspan, a former vice president of Costa Rica; Michelle Bachelet, the former Chilean president; Macky Sall, a former president of Senegal; and Rafael Grossi of Argentina, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Elections are due later this year.
No woman has held the post
No woman has ever served as UN secretary-general.
Espinosa told reporters that after 80 years of the UN it was about time a woman was chosen, but added: “I would also say that not any woman, the right woman, and the right leader that the UN deserves.”
Precedent holds that a secretary-general should not come from one of the permanent members of the Security Council, Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States, although the major powers’ backing is crucial in a lengthy and arcane selection process.
