1 for 8 Billion: campaign launch makes waves in the call for Madame Secretary-General

On Friday 20 September the 1 for 8 Billion campaign launched its policy platform with an unequivocal call that after 80 years of men-only leadership it’s time for a woman to serve as UN Secretary-General. 

While diplomats and civil society observers apprehensively waited to see whether last minute wrangling would sink the Pact for the Future, there was a palpable buzz in New York around the  long awaited need to appoint a woman Secretary-General.

An all-star panel of women leaders joined our event to call for a fair, open, inclusive, and transformative Secretary-General selection process.

1 for 8 Billion co-founder Natalie Samarasinghe moderated the discussion with H.E Maritza Chan-Valverde, Ambassador of Costa Rica to the UN, Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and member of the Elders, Susana Malcorra, President and Founder of GWL Voices, and Shamala Kandiah Thompson, incoming Executive Director of Security Council Report. 

All panelists echoed 1 for 8 Billion’s key demand that Member States only nominate women candidates to help ensure the appointment of a feminist woman leader who reflects the future we want and the UN we need to get there.

Recalling the previous iteration of the campaign “1 for 7 Billion” when it was established in 2014, Natalie told a packed room of civil society leaders, member states representatives and policy experts that “back then it was quite astounding that the UN seemed to have fewer rules for appointing the secretary general than it did for appointing interns.”

While the previous campaign didn’t win on all fronts - civil society’s formal participation was tokenistic and the UN’s glass ceiling remained intact despite over half of the candidates being women - 1 for 7 BIllion worked with member states to bring the selection process out of the shadows for the first time in the Organisation’s history. Public dialogues with candidates, scrutiny of their records by journalists and civil society, as well as greater involvement by the wider UN membership, all helped to put some pressure on the P5, undoubtedly shaping the outcome. 

In order to appoint a feminist woman leader to the UN’s highest office we will once again work with member states; an empowered General Assembly will be vital to ensure the P5’s iron grip doesn’t monopolise the upcoming process. Our policy platform calls for the next selection process to build on 2015-16 reforms with improved hearings at the General Assembly, cooperation between states to jointly nominate candidates and full transparency every step of the way including around any “straw polls” (or similar) that may be conducted in the Security Council. The platform also makes the case that the Security Council should give the General Assembly a meaningful choice in the appointment by supplying a shortlist of candidates for the UN’s full membership to choose from.

Ambassador Chan-Valverde is Costa Rica’s first female UN Ambassador and the diplomat leading work on this issue within the influential ACT grouping- the Accountability, Coherence and Transparency coalition of 27 small and medium-sized member states. The Ambassador spoke to the role of member states, stating, “The General Assembly and the Security Council must work together.” But, as this appointment is ultimately one made by the General Assembly, she explained pressure must be exerted on the Security Council, “for instance, with just one third of the states we could refuse to accept a male candidate.” 

Ambassador Chan-Valverde concluded by imploring civil society to pay attention to upcoming negotiations in the General Assembly through the ad hoc working group on the revitalization of the General Assembly: This working group “remains the heart of this process” as it will lay out member states’ expectations for the upcoming race.  1 for 8 Billion has consistently engaged with the working group and will upscale advocacy efforts over the coming year.

Sharing her experience as as one of the candidates for SG last time around, Helen Clark spoke of the need for a mobilised group of member states acting as friends of the election of a woman Secretary-General - such a group, she said, will be a vital component to transcending the divisions between the P5 and projecting a vision of a unified future for the UN. In her view, appointing a feminist woman leader would be “part of the revitalisation of the UN, and of ideally bringing a different touch to the way the UN can lead on some of these big and very, very challenging issues.” 

Susana Malcorra, also a candidate in 2016, elaborated on this point by noting that “women in multilateralism change the perception of the world towards the United Nations”. This notion underpins GWL Voices’ Madam Secretary-General campaign, as well as their campaign for gender rotation for the role of President of the General Assembly, a position only four women have ever held.

While it is clearly high time for a woman to hold the post of chief diplomat, there is concern that the first woman Secretary-General could be inheriting an impossible task and an office that is significantly diminished. Susana Malcorra and Shamala Kandiah Thompson, a long time UN watcher and an expert on the workings of the UN Security Council, both reiterated that the position of Secretary-General not only still matters, but that the context makes it even more important. In particular, Shamala noted that in the face of the Security Council’s failure to maintain peace and security, there is a vital role for the Secretary-General and that while “conflict prevention…is very hard to do…the Secretary-General does have a role in this (and) a woman might bring a different approach.”

The challenges facing the next Secretary-General will no doubt be immense. But the future Office of the Secretary-General will be strengthened if the appointment is seen as fair, open and inclusive and if the selection process enables a wide array of states, civil society and global public opinion to rally around the successful candidate. Candidates must be free to focus on setting out a strong vision, rather than making backroom deals. The next Secretary-General will be appointed in 2026, but the nominations phase of the official selection is expected to begin in late 2025. In Natalie Samarasinghe’s words: 

“We need to start agitating now, two years before the appointment is due and one year before the process really needs to start to ensure that what was achieved last time is a floor, not a ceiling. And because after almost 80 years, we still have not had Madame Secretary-General.”

You can join us in this effort and help ensure the UN is at long last led by a feminist woman leader: