The past year saw deep and interlocking crises that are growing in scale and severity, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said, citing the persisting coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the deepening climate crisis as challenges, which have made the work of the UN more vital than ever.
In his Annual Report, released on Thursday just ahead of the yearly gathering of world leaders at UN Headquarters in New York next week, the UN chief said that the pandemic persists and, with less than 20 per cent of people in low-income countries vaccinated, recovery is uneven. Further, the war in Ukraine has caused distress for millions of people in and far beyond the country and has amplified the effects of the climate crisis and long-standing inequalities around the world.
With all this in mind, Guterres stressed in the introduction to the Report that throughout 2021, the United Nations, as a platform for international cooperation and solidarity, convened stakeholders and drove global advocacy and cooperation to, among others, reduce poverty, tackle climate change and propel energy and digital transformation, and reform food systems. “Collectively across the United Nations system, we offered policy options and solutions, helped to shape strategies and amplified the voices of those on the front lines and those marginalized,” he added, also noting the Organization’s efforts to reduce inequality and mobilize resources and action coalitions for boosting sustainable development investments at scale to get countries back on track. The Secretary-General went on to say that through his landmark report on ‘Our Common Agenda’, the Organization had launched and carried forward long-term recommendations, proposing solutions at the national, regional and global levels, to build a more equal, resilient and sustainable world, based on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and underpinned by human rights. That report, he said, contains proposals on ways to strengthen social cohesion and solidarity, prevent and manage crises and tackle ongoing and new threats to security. “In response, Member States have endorsed proposals that can move forward immediately, and they are fully engaged on those where further work and dialogue are needed to deliver on Our Common Agenda.”
The UN chief said the international peace and security architecture is under enormous strain, as exemplified most recently by the war in Ukraine. Moreover, converging threats, geostrategic competition and systemic inequalities are having devastating consequences, not only for people caught up in violence. The United Nations deployed a range of tools to prevent, mitigate, manage and resolve conflicts, protect civilians, confront the threats facing women and children and build pathways out of conflict and crisis to sustainable development and peace, he said, noting for example that in Yemen, the UN had facilitated a renewable two-month truce that has reduced violence around the country. “Following the outbreak of war in Ukraine, we consistently spoke out in support of the country’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity in line with the UN Charter and on the need for compliance with international law and for accountability,” the UN chief said, adding: “We also actively engaged in negotiations to facilitate unimpeded exports of grains, other foodstuffs and fertilizers to help tackle the global food crisis, which resulted in the Black Sea Grain Initiative signed by Ukraine, the Russian Federation and Türkiye under the auspices of the United Nations on 22 July 2022.”
