Building on the ongoing partnership started in 2025 in collaboration with 1 for 8 Billion Steering Committee member Southern Voice, each Global South campaign partner of the 1 for 8 Billion campaign – the Centro de Implementación de Políticas Públicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento (CIPPEC, Argentina), the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD, Bangladesh), the Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF, Tanzania), the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI, Pakistan), and Solidar Tunisie (Tunisia) – has published comparative research analysing the institutional and systemic conditions facing the next UN Secretary-General selection.

The five policy briefs offer a unique Global South perspective, showing that current challenges go beyond individual candidates and lie in the rules and dynamics that determine who becomes viable in the first place.

Across the briefs, a common concern emerges: a process still shaped by opacity, unequal participation, and non-transparent political bargaining risks producing leadership with limited legitimacy and capacity to act. They also highlight how barriers faced by women and by actors outside traditional centres of power constrain not only representation, but the overall effectiveness of the system. The studies’ recommendations underscore that strengthening transparency, expanding participation, and building political coalitions across countries and civil society are essential conditions for ensuring that the next Secretary-General has the authority needed to respond to global challenges.

Click here to read the five policy briefs and 1 for 8 Billion’s Synthesis Report summarizing recommendations, key findings, and cross-cutting insights.