Revamping international response to global food insecurity. Building transparent and participatory selection processes and governance in the UN Rome-based Agencies (RBAs)

Three concurrent crises — climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine — have combined to worsen food insecurity and malnutrition around the globe. Extreme climate events are becoming more frequent and severe, magnifying the already higher food prices caused by agricultural supply chain disruptions precipitated first by the pandemic and now by geopolitical turbulence. The Rome Based Agencies are called to provide concrete and effective responses to these multi-crises. This report is the result of an Open Consultation Forum organised with IFAD running candidates in June 2022.

Public sector expertise: A building block for a value-based Team Europe and international partnerships

UN Public Service Day has been observed on June 23 since 2002. On this day we celebrate the value of public service and the important contribution of efficient, accountable and effective public administration for achieving global development goals.

Fixing UN financing: a Pandora’s box the World Health Organization should open

In a context of existential transnational challenges and growing inter-state rivalries, we need well-financed, universal multilateralism that can set global rules and norms, drive forward action, and sidestep the tendency for money and military might to buy global influence. The WHO Executive Board now has an opportunity not only to reinvigorate its own organisation, but also to advance a discussion on how the entire UN system can be placed on a stronger, more financially sustainable footing. Passing up this moment out of fear of the implications for member state fiscal obligations to the wider UN system would be both unfortunate and short-sighted.

Still on track? The UN Climate Conference has to prove that the Paris Agreement is working

Five years after the Paris Climate Agreement entered into force and one year after the COVID-enforced hiatus, the 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (“COP26”) will convene in the Scottish city of Glasgow on 31 October. At long last! Amongst its most important tasks will be advancing the implementation of the Paris Agreement by resolving the remaining issues surrounding its rules for implementation.

Taking off multilaterally: Germany’s next federal government and the United Nations

Will Germany’s next federal government take UN’s proposal for launching a new phase of global common good promotion as an opportunity to increase the strategic value and coherence of German UN policy? How will be Germany’s post COVID-19 contribution to the multilateral world?

Climate, Conflict and Culture in EU’s diplomacy: Which way forward?

This blog is presenting an interesting combination of  ‘’the three Cs” – Culture, Climate and Conflict – at the forefront of the EU’s diplomacy. The question however arises namely how much can the EU afford to prioritise such complex “value driven” policy agendas in a rapidly changing world with more competition and uncertainty?

Libya and the COVID-19 Lifecycle: From Distraction to Dissidence

Libya and the COVID-19 Lifecycle: From Distraction to Dissidence

COVID-19 has changed the world and the way we live it, establishing something of a “new normal” as states and societies battle the pandemic and learn to accommodate its multidimensional effects. For Libyans’ living in the midst of conflict, normality and a new normal are difficult to determine.

UN reform and the COVID-19 pandemic – what role for the UN to better serve the world?

UN reform and the COVID-19 pandemic – what role for the UN to better serve the world?

The Covid-19 pandemic not only threatens to undo development gains and reverse progress in achieving the sustainable development goals of the 2030 Agenda. It also presents an early and serious test for the reform of the UN development system (UNDS), where major reform decisions were taken in 2018 to reposition the UNDS for improved, integrated and strategic support in line with the 2030 Agenda’s interlinked nature.