The 1 for 8 Billion campaign announced today a new initiative to scrutinize the policy platforms of all Secretary-General candidates, outlining their visions on core UN policy agendas. The campaign will collaborate with diverse leading NGOs to produce policy profiles of each candidate.
Our media partner, PassBlue, will publish these policy profiles following the General Assembly interactive dialogues with the candidates scheduled for 21-22 April, and ensure that they reach the inboxes of diplomats, journalists, and UN watchers around the world.
The new initiative aims to ensure that civil society representatives, member states, and members of the general public can easily understand each candidate’s vision for addressing the main policy challenges that the next Secretary-General will face.
Here are the top five issues each of our expert NGO partners will be listening for when the candidates appear before the General Assembly.
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Key policy questions for the candidates from Center for Human Rights and Policy Studies (CHRIPS) and Saferworld
Will candidates share a clear vision for how the position of Secretary-General can become a force for preventive diplomacy and mediation?
Will candidates suggest new approaches to ensure that prevention is a priority for the entire UN system – not just in rhetoric but in practice?
Will candidates propose changes to the UN architecture to strengthen prevention?
Will candidates offer ideas for how the UN can tackle emerging prevention challenges?
Will candidates address the UN’s role in supporting regional-, national-, and local-level prevention efforts?
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Key policy questions for the candidates from Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping, and Peacebuilding (CCCPA) and International Peace Institute (IPI)
How will candidates adapt UN peace operations and peacebuilding interventions to today’s political and operational realities?
Will candidates address the imbalance between the UN’s rhetorical commitment to peacebuilding and the continued prioritization of security and military responses?
How will candidates work with member states to stabilize and sustain financing for peace operations and peacebuilding, including by addressing arrears?
How do candidates view the UN’s role in deploying its own field operations and in supporting field operations by other actors, such as regional and subregional organizations and ad hoc security initiatives?
How will candidates manage transitions in contexts where the Security Council does not renew peace operation mandates?
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Key policy questions for the candidates from ODI Global
Will candidates go beyond a supply-driven approach and share a vision for UN humanitarian action grounded in what crisis-affected populations most need and where the UN adds the most value?
How do candidates plan to engage not just traditional member state donors but all potential stakeholders to build a more sustainable basis for humanitarian action?
How will candidates address increased violations of international humanitarian law, which are creating immense challenges for protection and for humanitarian action generally?
How will candidates implement the longstanding commitment to localize humanitarian action? What capacities do they believe the UN should retain, and where should the UN cede decision-making power and operational space to local and national actors?
Will candidates present solutions to ensure that all agencies and programmes work toward common objectives rather than disparate organizational interests?
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Key policy questions for the candidates from Southern Voice
Will candidates share a plan for designing the post-2030 development agenda?
Will candidates take a clear position on reforming the international financial architecture to reduce structural inequalities?
Will candidates address how UN funding models can shape development priorities, and how the system can better align support with country needs rather than donor preferences?
Will candidates offer a vision for UN engagement on AI to expand development opportunities and reduce inequalities?
Will candidates address the Global South’s demand for a more fair distribution of decision-making power over development priorities, financing norms, and the post-2030 framework?
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Key policy questions for the candidates from Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) and GQUAL Campaign
Will candidates use their authority as Secretary-General to ensure that international law – including human rights and humanitarian law – guides UN action across all pillars, and commit to upholding and defending these principles under political pressure?
Will candidates commit to strengthening the human rights pillar as a central component of the UN system and outline measures to address its structural underfunding, including ensuring adequate and sustainable financing for OHCHR, the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms, and the Treaty Bodies, as mandated in the Pact for the Future?
How will candidates protect and strengthen the UN human rights system and its accountability functions, including safeguarding the independence of experts and ensuring that key bodies, structures, and mechanisms – such as the Human Rights Council, Special Procedures, Fact Finding Missions, OHCHR, and the Treaty Bodies – can deliver on their mandates?
What do candidates see as the most urgent human rights challenges today (for example, gender-based discrimination and violence, impunity for grave human rights violations, and violence and restrictions against human rights defenders) and how do they propose to address those challenges?
What commitments will candidates make to ensure that senior appointments reflect core human rights principles, including equality, gender parity, geographic diversity, and independence, and that positions central to human rights are filled by individuals with strong human rights expertise?
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Key policy questions for the candidates from CIVICUS and Transparency, Accountability, and Participation (TAP) Network
Will candidates articulate a role for civil society as a structural partner in designing and implementing the post-2030 development agenda?
Will candidates go beyond endorsing WPS and YPS in principle and commit to closing the accountability gap in implementation, including resourcing, monitoring, and member state compliance?
Will candidates address the growing trust deficit between young people and the UN, and offer ideas to address the complex challenges facing the largest generation of youth the world has ever seen?
Will candidates address growing concerns from feminist civil society about anti-gender pushback at local, national, and multilateral levels that is regressing hard-won gains for gender equality, reproductive justice, and the rights of women and girls in all their diversity?
Will candidates present a strong vision for protecting and upholding civic space in the context of shrinking civic space, restrictions, and attacks on civil society at local, national, and multilateral levels?
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Key policy questions for the candidates from Plataforma CIPÓ and SHE Changes Climate
Will candidates acknowledge that the world is off track to meet the Paris Agreement goals and present ideas to keep the 1.5°C goal within reach?
Will candidates share a vision for supporting developing countries to meet their climate and sustainable development goals, including by pushing for reforms to reduce the financial barriers these countries face?
Will candidates explain how they would use the office of Secretary-General to respond to the first Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement and hold states accountable for delivering on agreed commitments?
Will candidates explain how they would use the office of the Secretary-General to push for delivery on the climate finance commitments already on the table?
Will candidates present a plan for strengthening global biodiversity, including through a vision for implementing key international commitments on the matter?
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Key policy questions for the candidates from Article 109
Will candidates explain how they will restore the UN’s institutional credibility and legitimacy in addressing major international challenges, especially on peace and security?
Will candidates present an ambitious vision for the role and purpose of the UN in the 21st century and set out concrete actions to deliver a high-performing UN, above and beyond UN80?
Will candidates address demands for a more equitable and more representative UN governance system to reflect the world of today, not that of 1945?
Will candidates propose ideas for preventing and responding to violations of the UN Charter?
How do candidates interpret the mandate of the Secretary-General, including their discretionary and non-discretionary powers to drive change within the organization?
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Cross-cutting analysis of the candidates applying a feminist and decolonial lens from Oxfam International
How will candidates uphold the right to self-determination, oppose situations of occupation, and challenge the structural inequalities linked to colonial legacies, and how will they ensure affected populations are meaningfully included in decision-making?
Will candidates abide by feminist principles, including gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights, and safeguard UN mandates in these areas?
Will candidates commit to an inclusive approach with respect to all people of diverse Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression, and Sex Characteristics?
How will candidates ensure that UN decision-making meaningfully reflects the priorities of feminist movements and LGBTIQ+ communities, including through advancing bodily autonomy and gender-responsive economic policies?
Will candidates challenge current funding structures by championing accessible, flexible, long-term approaches that shift power towards the Global South and marginalized groups such as feminist and queer movements, and away from intermediaries and donor-driven priorities?