High-level week at a new UN General Assembly session is underway, with nothing less than the future of the multilateral system at stake.
That is, at least, how Secretary-General António Guterres frames it.
His flagship Summit of the Future got a headstart on a crowded week. On 22 September, countries adopted the so-called Pact for the Future – a broad agreement to revamp the multilateral system, which weighs in on everything from peace and security to artificial intelligence and global governance.
The official agenda for the coming week includes a summit on antimicrobial resistance, a meeting on addressing the “existential threats posed by sea-level rise”, and the general debate, where world leaders (or their designates) swap podium time.
There’s much more on the sidelines, where a host of issues and campaigns are converging in glitzy events or obscure panels across Manhattan: the climate crisis, debt and the global financial system, gender equality, pandemic preparedness, resetting global governance.
Here are a few issues we’re eyeing through a humanitarian lens – from a look at what the pact has to say about the future of crisis response, to who’s missing from UNGA.
Summit of the Future: What just happened?
After last-minute wrangling, countries adopted the Pact for the Future text early on the summit’s first day. But what did they agree to?
For Guterres, it’s a blueprint to salvage trust.
“We are here to bring multilateralism back from the brink,” he said in opening the summit.
But that’s a big ask in a world where the West’s double standards on Gaza, its unmet climate finance promises, and its dominance of the imbalanced global financial system – to name a few sticking points – are draining trust in the multilateral system.
While states may haggle over wording, in many ways the fundamental divides are between Global South and Global North, between reform and the status quo, between recognising systemic injustices and maintaining power.
Among the pact’s 56 action points are acknowledgements of the need to rebalance global financial systems, governance, and the UN itself.
The UN is calling it “the most detailed agreement ever” at the world body on the need for reforming the international financial architecture, and “the most progressive and concrete commitment” for Security Council reform.
The pact pledges to “redress the historical injustice against Africa as a priority” at the Security Council, and to examine the widely criticised use of vetoes.
But any international pact will always be a compromise. And critics and civil society groups who tried to feed into multiple revisions of the text say much was left on the cutting room floor.
A few of the many ideas being floated on the UNGA sidelines in the coming days: representation through citizens or parliamentary assemblies; new ways of raising funds for public goods that go beyond aid, such as solidarity taxes or the concept of global public investment; extending the reach of international law; and the creation of a global environment agency.
And while the pact is also peppered with commitments for gender equality, the UN itself still has never been led by a woman. A campaign for a “fair and inclusive” selection process for the next secretary-general is picking up steam during this UNGA session. The pact encourages countries to nominate women as candidates.
Humanitarianism and the pact: Same as it ever was
Humanitarian aid is not the summit’s focus. Indeed, if the pact’s goals on sustainable development, peace, and transforming global governance were effective, then it would shrink the need for emergency aid in the first place.
Still, the commitments covering humanitarian aid appear to describe a system much as it exists today.
One of the 56 action points promises to “ensure that people affected by humanitarian emergencies receive the support they need”.
It pledges to “significantly increase financial and other forms of support”, citing “innovative and anticipatory financing” and “strengthening partnerships with international financial institutions” – the kind of language commonly found in existing strategic plans and old G7 statements.
A high-level humanitarian side event before the summit stuck to a similar script.
The panel, organised by the UN system’s highest-level humanitarian coordination body, was billed as a discussion on “how global humanitarian action… contributes to the future of humanity”.
The speakers – overwhelmingly from big institutions and agencies – had familiar talking points: deteriorating aid access; respect for International Humanitarian Law; the importance of localisation commitments made nearly a decade ago, including people in crisis in decision-making; and funding.
”I’m really sorry it all comes back to funding, but it is true,” Rania Dagash-Kamara, an assistant executive director at the World Food Programme, told the conference room.
The top humanitarian missing from UNGA
The UN is well into a third month without an officially named relief chief, and some say the absence is starting to show at big events like UNGA’s high-level week.
The emergency relief coordinator is the international system’s top humanitarian – and often its most effective glad-hander and influencer-in-chief. Former relief chief Martin Griffiths was an ubiquitous presence at previous gatherings, in public events and behind closed doors.
“You’ve lost this key figurehead who can make the case and push in these high-level rooms,” said one humanitarian leader, who asked not to be identified in order to speak freely. “It’s really worrying.”
Others in the system say the acting relief chief, Joyce Msuya, has performed well in a temporary role, but an officially named successor is needed.
Aid insiders say the holdup is on the side of the United Kingdom, which saw a change of government just as Griffiths stepped down. The next relief chief is widely assumed to be a UK national, reflecting the barely concealed convention of world powers dominating and horse-trading key UN positions.
Will the UN’s new reform pledges make a difference? There’s a relevant line in the Pact for the Future: “There should be no monopoly on senior posts in the United Nations system by nationals of any state or group of states.”
Debt, crises, and aid
The link between debt and crises continues to drive narratives at this year’s UNGA.
Dozens of countries spent more than 10% of their revenue on interest payments, and they’re spending more on interest than on healthcare, education, or other services that might help communities withstand crises, UN stats show.
A new UNAIDS report timed to UNGA found that debt is “choking” countries in parts of Africa, “leaving health and HIV services chronically underfunded”.
Another report by Results UK, an advocacy charity, draws a link between debt and malnutrition.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados has been one of the world’s most influential voices for reforming the global financial architecture. She’s rolling out a third version of her country’s Bridgetown Initiative at UNGA. Dubbed 3.0, it’s expected to have a heavier focus on emergency liquidity for climate vulnerable countries, and unlocking other forms of funding.
“We believe that developing countries must be given a stronger voice and more effective representation in the governance structures of the international development financial institutions,” Mottley said in a pre-recorded clip at an UNGA side event.
Hidden crises?
At last year’s UNGA, Guterres warned that the world was inching closer to “a great fracture”. That was before the 7 October Hamas attacks, and Israel’s subsequent destruction of Gaza.
Gaza made waves last week as the General Assembly adopted a motion demanding that Israel end the occupation of Palestinian territories. And it may be top of mind during the general debate, beginning on 24 September, especially given the escalation in Lebanon and fears of a wider war.
But mention of Gaza is noticeably more sparse on the official agenda for high-level week – even for side events (though not all).
Some humanitarian groups have tried to highlight Gaza.
An analysis released ahead of high-level week underscored the magnitude of Israel’s aid blockades – 83% of food aid doesn’t make it to Gaza, which is facing famine. The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court has said that aid obstruction is one factor that can add up to “a common plan to use starvation as a method of war”. Some 15 aid groups signed on to an accompanying statement urging governments to demand that Israel stop blocking aid. There were a few signatures missing among big NGOs, including the International Rescue Committee and World Vision.
A separate statement, signed by a mix of rights and humanitarian NGOs before last week’s UNGA vote, called for member states to adhere to an International Court of Justice advisory opinion, released in July, that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal. CARE International and Save the Children were among the groups missing from this second statement.
Later this UNGA session, in October, the UN’s special rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, will present his report on starvation as a rights issue. The report details Israel’s “starvation campaign against Gaza”.
In July, Fakhri was one of several UN rights envoys who declared that famine had spread throughout Gaza. The global humanitarian system’s mechanism to confirm famine declarations did not – amid criticism and disagreement among famine analysts.
Sudan is often described as a “forgotten” crisis, but there’s a push to keep it front and centre this week.
There’s a high-level ministerial event scheduled to raise support for humanitarian response in Sudan, where 20% of the population has been uprooted amid horrendous violence and claims of ethnic cleansing.
Meanwhile, a coalition of donors – including the Gates Foundation and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy – are announcing plans to fund mutual aid groups in Sudan.
Known as emergency response rooms, these networks have struggled to be funded but perform frontline work – often in areas where the conventional aid system can’t go.
Edited by Andrew Gully.
