As the United Nations (UN) celebrates its 80th anniversary, the Secretary-General has launched “UN80,” the most wide-ranging internal reform plan in over a decade. The initiative offers a rare opportunity to re-shape how the organization governs itself, so it can respond more effectively to today’s crises and deliver on its core mandates in a fast-changing world.
Like past reform cycles, however, declarations and structural proposals alone are not enough: progress will depend on sustained political ownership, transparent processes, and mechanisms that turn commitments into real institutional improvements. UN80 is also unusually complex, spanning multiple workstreams, processes, and working groups that make the landscape harder to navigate for member states and observers alike.
What does the UN80 reform initiative reveal about the limits of United Nations (UN) reform, and how can member states, UN staff, and policymakers avoid ritualized repetition while unlocking actionable reform pathways? This paper proposes 10 recommendations to shift from reactive reform to institutional stewardship and structured intergovernmental engagement
This policy brief provides an overview of the process for the selection of the UN Secretary-General (SG). In short, the process has evolved from a non-transparent closed-door exercise almost exclusively dominated by the Security Council to a more transparent, inclusive process involving more active and engaged participation of the General Assembly.
United Nations peace operations currently face a crisis of confidence. No large mission has been launched in over a decade, existing missions struggle to implement their mandates, and the UN is increasingly marginalized from political processes.
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