INVITATION
The 24th WIDER Annual Lecture
UN at 75: slow death or new direction?

 

by Mark Malloch-Brown

Time: 17:30 – 19:00 (UTC +2)
Date: Monday, 26 October 2020
Venue: Online

Register here

You are cordially invited to the WIDER Annual Lecture 24 given by Mark Malloch-Brown, which will take place online on 26 October 2020. The lecture will provide insights into the conjecture of the United Nations at 75 years old – and options for future paths through the current overlapping global crisis.  

Mark Malloch-Brown co-chairs The UN Foundation and the International Crisis Group and is on the advisory committees to the heads of the IMF and UNICEF. He served as Deputy SecretaryGeneral and earlier Chief of Staff of the UN under Kofi Annan. For six years before that he was Administrator of the UNDP, leading the UN's development efforts around the world. 

Can UN reinvent itself or will it sink to irrelevance?

The UN is at a crossroads. Nationalistic governments across the world reject multilateralism as means of addressing the problems that matter to their constituencies. Instead they adopt aggressively transactional and competitive foreign policy agendas, torching the values upon which the UN was built, and to which member states have pledged to uphold since 1945. Its voice and impact are muted. Many would question whether it has an effective future.

However, beyond the noise of this political debate, global issues have born down on us. Climate change and a pandemic are stark reminders that whatever national politicians claim, we need multilateralism to find global solutions to the crises that don’t respect borders. 

The question is, can the UN find the likeminded allies it needs to take up this new agenda? Can the UN build alliances with younger citizens, businesses, and civil society, and challenge these dangerous new national orthodoxies that are threatening all of us? 

For further information and registration please visit the event page. This event will be live streamed.

 

Programme

17:30-18:15
Welcome by Kunal Sen, Director of UNU-WIDER
Introduction by David Malone, UNU Rector and UN Under Secretary General
Annual Lecture by Mark Malloch-Brown, Co-chair of the UN Foundation and the International Crisis Group, former UN Deputy Secretary
General
Remarks and observations from Natalie Samarasinghe, Chief of Strategy, UN75, on sabbatical from her role as Executive Director, United Nations Association - UK

18:15-19:00
Discussion and Q&A 

 

 

 

 

 

UNU-WIDER | Unsubscribe

 

Katajanokanlaituri 6 B
Helsinki, 00160
Finland