The Ambassador of Nepal to the United Nations, Lok Bahadur Thapa, was on Thursday elected president of the Financial and Social Council (Ecosoc) at what he known as a “historic second” for his nation and its enduring dedication to multilateralism.
Mr. Thapa stated that the motto of his presidency will likely be “Delivering Higher,” which requires strengthening partnerships and multilateralism to attain simpler implementation of initiatives, together with the 2030 Agenda adopted 15 years in the past.
“Delivering higher will not be an possibility — it’s an crucial. It’s our pathway to restoring belief in multilateralism, bridging divides, empowering essentially the most susceptible and translating commitments into motion,” he stated.
FOUR VICE-PRESIDERS WERE ALSO ELECTED FOR THE COMING YEAR: Ama Blessed (Algeria), Héctor Gómez Hernández (Spain), Wellington Darío Bencosme Castaños (Dominican Republic) and Paruyr Hovhannisyan (Armenia).
80 years of ECOSOC
The UN Financial and Social Council (ECOSOC) is without doubt one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, answerable for selling worldwide financial and social cooperation and growth.
It has 54 member States, elected by the Common Meeting for three-year phrases on a rotating foundation, with seats distributed by area.
ECOSOC coordinates the work of UN specialised companies, commissions and our bodies on points starting from sustainable growth and human rights. It additionally serves as a central platform for fostering debate, forging consensus, and selling motion on international financial and social points.
For Mr. Thapa, this physique is central to shaping the world’s growth agenda and making certain that nobody is left behind.
“ECOSOC is our place. It wants dedication, participation and energetic engagement of all UN membership and stakeholders,” he stated.
5 methods to ship higher
Whereas “delivering higher” would be the motto of Mr. Thapa’s presidency, he outlined 5 particular areas upon which he and the Council will focus within the coming 12 months.
With over 735 million folks worldwide experiencing starvation, his first precedence space is remodeling agriculture to strengthen rural resilience and finish starvation.
Digital entrepreneurship and youth engagement are tied to this — and are his second precedence space. He famous the “youth bulge” in lots of growing international locations which he stated will likely be a strong demographic asset if it may be taken benefit of.
Like ECOSOC presidents earlier than him, his third precedence space offers with local weather motion and resilience. This time, nevertheless, he would really like ECOSOC to focus particularly on glacier lakes and floods.
His last two precedence areas are reforming the worldwide monetary structure in order that it’s extra inclusive and commemorating the eightieth anniversary of ECOSOC.
Mr. Thapa famous that he and ECOSOC’s membership will likely be working to attain these challenges within the midst of a number of, interlinking crises together with accelerating local weather change, rising geopolitical tensions and reducing belief within the multilateral system.
“These challenges are systemic and interconnected. They demand built-in, inclusive and forward-looking responses,” Mr. Thapa stated.
Repair, restore, mend
Earlier than Mr. Thapa’s remarks, Bob Rae, the outgoing president of ECOSOC and Canada’s Ambassador to the UN, mirrored on his tenure. He acknowledged that the world is at the moment in a time of nice hardship and real anguish.
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However he stated that it should be the job of ECOSOC — and UN Member States extra broadly — to not solely give voice to this anguish and hardship however to truly discover options for it as properly.
“We hear quite a bit within the UN discourse about how issues are damaged, how issues have fallen aside, how issues are unhinged … However our job is to repair, it is to restore, it is to fix, it is to permit issues to heal, it is to make change occur,” Mr. Rae stated.
Each Mr. Thapa and Mr. Rae affirmed that multilateralism can work and that ECOSOC ought to play a singular function in rewriting the narrative surrounding worldwide cooperation.
“We should reaffirm our collective perception within the energy of multilateralism — not as an summary preferrred, however as a realistic instrument for delivering higher outcomes for all,” Mr. Thapa stated.
