Harris Gleckman Académico Asociado

The complex web of challenges – climate change, pandemics, inequality, and conflict – demands robust global governance. The current UN-centered system is seen as inadequate. This document analyzes proposed UN reforms in the Summit of the Future context, prioritizing politically achievable solutions to climate change, inequality, and conflict. It highlights the need for institutional, consultative, decision-making, and financial reforms to enhance UN effectiveness and democratic representation. 

The preparations for the September 2024 Summit of the Future (SOTF) are well underway. In this process, the UN Secretary-General and most OECD countries argue that multistakeholderism should now be accepted as a part of global governance and multilateralism. This paper argues the opposite: multistakeholderism undermines multilateralism and limits the role of developing countries in global governance.

This new report from the Transnational Institute and Friends of the Earth International explores the role of multistakeholderism in the COVID crises, when multistakeholder initiatives, working outside the multilateral system, acted as governing bodies. A follow-up to COVAX, a joint study published in March 2021, this report situates COVID-related multistakeholder undertakings within the overall strategy of the Global North towards the Global South.