APEX, North Carolina / DUBLIN, Eire, Apr 19 (IPS) – This was the stark warning of Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-Basic of the UN Convention on Commerce and Improvement (UNCTAD), in 2023.
“The struggling we see round us is a reminder of what’s at stake after we lose sight of the long run, after we go away folks behind and we lose the power to place ourselves in others’ sneakers. What we’re seeing is a preview of what the world might be in 2030, if the Sustainable Improvement Targets fail.”
Grynspan was appointed as the brand new head of UNCTAD—and its first feminine chief—in 2021. Earlier than this, she had been Secretary-Basic of the Ibero-American Summits from 2014-2021, and a deputy head on the UN Improvement Programme (UNDP) from 2010-2014.
She has additionally held different UN roles relationship again a decade additional. These embody serving as a subregional director of the Financial Fee for Latin American and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and as UNDP’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
However her experience additionally crosses into authorities.
Throughout the Nineteen Nineties she held a number of high-profile roles in her native Costa Rica, together with serving as Vice President from 1994-1998. She additionally held the housing, economics, and social affairs portfolios at numerous phases of her profession, and was a Vice Minister of Finance within the late Eighties.
Grynspan has additionally been on numerous boards and high-level panels through the years, dealing both with monetary issues, human growth, or each. For example, she chaired the board of the Worldwide Institute for Surroundings and Improvement (IIED), served as a delegate to the UN Fee for the Reconstruction of Haiti, and extra lately was on the G20 Excessive Stage Unbiased Panel (HLIP) on Financing the World Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.
She has additionally served on boards tackling points equivalent to diet and meals coverage, and girls’s political management. She can also be coordinator of the Activity Group of the World Disaster Response Group on Meals, Vitality and Finance arrange by the UN Secretary-Basic to assist help nations face the financial shocks associated to the battle in Ukraine.
May Grynspan’s breadth of expertise, and her deep background in finance and economics, be considered as an asset at a time when financing generally, and notably help for the World South, are extensively seen as insufficient?
For instance, the shortfall in funding for the Sustainable Improvement Targets within the South is now estimated at $4 trillion. How can we flip this round? Grynspan’s skilled expertise, together with negotiating the debt of her nation with the IMF, and her in depth coaching as an economist (she holds economics levels from universities in Costa Rica and the UK) might be considered as well timed and helpful on this regard.
Assessing Grynspan’s Prospects
May economist Rebeca Grynspan change into the subsequent UN Secretary-Basic? Right here is our evaluation of her benefits and downsides ought to she select to enter her title into the competition.
Benefits
- Seniority: Grynspan might not have been a president or prime minister, however as Vice President of Costa Rica she climbed near the summit of her nation’s political mountain. Though it’s unclear whether or not the present Secretary-Basic’s standing as a former prime minister can be a one-off occasion or the beginning of a development, Grynspan’s seniority in her native Costa is unlikely to hurt her candidature, ought to she select to use, and would possible assist it.
- UN Expertise: As the primary feminine Secretary-Basic of UNCTAD, Grynspan has already damaged one glass ceiling inside the United Nations. She would additionally carry greater than twenty years’ expertise inside the UN system, one thing that may certainly be considered as an asset throughout these unsure occasions. Moreover, she is accustomed to the interior workings of the UN in Geneva, New York and throughout Latin America, giving her insights into choice making at each headquarters and regionally. This breadth of expertise inside the UN might be helpful to any future UN chief.
- Confirmed Affect: Grynspan is considered as somebody who can have an effect, a notion acknowledged by Forbes journal, which named her among the many 100 strongest ladies in Central America 4 years operating. She was additionally instrumental within the UN-brokered Black Sea Initiative agreed by Russia, Türkiye, and Ukraine that has allowed thousands and thousands of tons of grain and different foodstuffs to depart Ukraine’s ports, taking part in an necessary function in world meals safety.
- Connections: Grynspan has had a few years working within the regional degree and on the world degree, too. Her networks might arguably not be as extensive as another candidates, however would nonetheless present a superb platform for her to succeed.
- A Lady Chief: As with our different candidates, Grynspan gives the prospect to interrupt the glass ceiling and change into the primary feminine chief of the UN.
Disadvantages
- Local weather and the Surroundings: Though Grynspan has sturdy credentials on commerce, finance and growth, it’s only lately that she started to have a better profile on local weather change and among the different large environmental problems with our time. For example, she lately co-hosted the primary ever Commerce Day occasion at COP28, and has change into a powerful advocate for reform of the monetary and debt structure to permit growing nations the fiscal area to put money into carbon mitigation and adaptation. May her comparatively latest involvement on this key difficulty depend towards her, or will it reasonably be seen as including to her spectacular credentials in different areas?
- Peace and Safety: Peace, safety and battle decision haven’t featured prominently in her background. Nevertheless, as with local weather change, they’re typically front-and-center of worldwide information. If the UN Safety Council members are searching for experience on this space, may Grynspan’s relative lack of expertise be thought of a doable weak spot? Or, would they take into account her latest function within the Black Sea Initiative as latest proof of her engagement on this space?
- Title Recognition: Though she is extensively revered in her fields and throughout the UN, Grynspan might not have the identical type of title recognition among the many public as among the different candidates.
Prof. Felix Dodds and Chris Spence have participated in United Nations conferences and negotiations for the reason that Nineteen Nineties. They co-edited Heroes of Environmental Diplomacy: Profiles in Braveness (Routledge, 2022), which examines the roles of people in inspiring change.
Earlier elements:
https://www.ipsnews.net/2024/04/next-un-leaderpart-1/
https://www.ipsnews.net/2024/04/next-un-leaderpart-2/
https://www.ipsnews.net/2024/04/next-un-leaderpart-3/
https://www.ipsnews.net/2024/04/next-un-leaderpart-4/
IPS UN Bureau
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