Ecuadorian Candidate for UN Secretary‑General Urges Streamlined, Effective UN

An Ecuadorian candidate for United Nations Secretary‑General stated on Monday that the organization remains essential yet must be responsibly streamlined.

Maria Fernanda Espinosa, former Ecuadorian foreign affairs and defense minister, is one of six candidates to replace António Guterres as UN Secretary‑General after his term ends this year.

Guterres’s successor will confront a monumental task of revitalizing a beleaguered organization experiencing declining prestige.

“I fully recognize the challenges ahead, but I remain optimistic,” Espinosa said during a hearing on her candidacy.

Like her fellow candidates, she pledged to advance UN reforms while emphasizing that the need for the organization, founded at the end of World War II, remains undeniable.

The UN Must Reestablish Its Credibility

“Too often, the UN is absent or consigned to the sidelines, and it can be slow, fragmented, and constrained… we must rebuild credibility and demonstrate, not merely declare, its capacity to effect real change,” she said.

“We can responsibly shrink the UN while bolstering national ownership and delivery, and restoring confidence in the organization,” she said.

Espinosa, a former Ecuadorian UN ambassador who also chaired the UN General Assembly from 2018 to 2019, proposed that national governments assume larger roles in sectors currently handled by the UN, though she offered no specifics.

Domestically, she served in the leftist administration of former President Rafael Correa, but has recently distanced herself from his party.

Contest to Replace Guterres

The small Caribbean island of Antigua and Barbuda put forward her nomination to succeed Guterres. Ecuador’s present government, led by President Daniel Noboa, a right‑wing ally of US President Donald Trump, has yet to comment on her candidacy.

Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali announced last week that his country would nominate UN Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues‑Birkett for the position, and she will face a hearing on Thursday.

In April, four additional candidates also pledged UN reforms while upholding its core principles of peacemaking and development.

The candidates include Rebeca Grynspan, former Costa Rican vice president; Michelle Bachelet, former Chilean president; Macky Sall, former Senegalese president; and Rafael Grossi of Argentina, director‑general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Elections are scheduled later this year.

No Woman Has Ever Held the Post

No woman has ever served as UN Secretary‑General.

Espinosa told reporters that after 80 years of UN existence it is long overdue for a woman to be chosen, adding: “I would also say that it must be the right woman, the right leader the UN deserves.”

Precedent dictates that a secretary‑general should not hail from one of the Security Council’s permanent members—Britain, China, France, Russia, or the United States—though the backing of major powers remains essential in the complex selection process.

Source link