The contest to succeed António Guterres is underway. As candidates put forward their visions, the more pressing question is what kind of leader the moment demands.

UN’s budgeting process – the ‘who pays what’ that funds the world’s most important multilateral body – is fundamentally broken. We propose a dramatically different funding formula as a model to consider.

With the US stepping back and conflict on the rise, UN reform has shifted from a long-standing aspiration to an urgent necessity. The UK and EU are uniquely positioned to lead — but only if they bring the Global South with them.

With the US stepping back and conflict on the rise, UN reform has shifted from a long-standing aspiration to an urgent necessity. The UK and EU are uniquely positioned to lead — but only if they bring the Global South with them.

The creation of UN Women in 2010 offers a rare case study in successful UN reform — and a cautionary tale for the rushed, inward-looking process underway today. Transformation requires vision, diplomacy, and time.

The next Secretary-General will inherit a United Nations in crisis — budget shortfalls, ongoing conflicts, and a reform agenda mid-stream. This report maps the four priority areas that will define whether their tenure rescues or accelerates the institution's decline.

A decade after the Addis Ababa Action Agenda promised to move development financing from 'billions to trillions,' the results have fallen far short. As Africa faces mounting debt and dwindling aid, the Compromiso de Sevilla offers new tools — but real questions remain about delivery.

There is broad agreement that UN reform is necessary — and deep disagreement about what it should look like. This pulse update maps the emerging fault lines among Member States as the UN80 process moves toward its most consequential decisions.

The Sevilla financing agreement made real strides on climate finance — but gaps in equity and implementation remain. This brief spells out how African countries can use the new Sevilla Platform of Action to advance their climate priorities ahead of COP30.

With the United States dropping out of negotiations, the rest of the world signed on to an agreement that shifts voice and influence toward the Global South.

As the UN marks its 80th anniversary under acute budget pressure and political strain, Secretary-General Guterres has launched the most ambitious reform effort in a generation. This explainer breaks down what UN80 is, how it works, and what good reform would actually require.

The 5 percent payout requirement was designed as a floor, not a ceiling — yet foundations have let it cap their ambition for decades. A more systematic approach to payout, grounded in the nature of each issue, could unlock far greater impact.

Despite the noise, multilateralism isn't dying — it's reinventing itself. From a landmark pandemic treaty to a wave of regional trade agreements, new forms of global cooperation are emerging, driven less by great powers than by countries determined to work around them.

When European nations began withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention on landmines, it sent a troubling signal: even norms that once seemed settled are now up for grabs. A treaty that helped reduce landmine casualties by 80 percent deserves a stronger defense.

The Summit of the Future showed that most member states still believe in multilateral cooperation — but also how deeply divided they remain on who gets to shape it. The north-south fault line, more than the east-west one, is now the defining tension in global governance.

Achieving the SDGs isn't just a technical challenge — it's a political one. The public discontent driving historic electoral shifts around the world is a demand for a different kind of leadership, and those committed to global goals can't afford to look away.

The sartorial wedding advice offers governments a framework to meet the moment and avoid an outcome that moves toward the slow decline of multilateralism.

Inspiring and humbling in equal measure: Minh-Thu Pham reflects on her years in the UN Secretariat, the institution's enduring relevance, and why meaningful reform ultimately depends on whether member states trust each other enough to act.

As world leaders gathered in New York, the gap between demand for global cooperation and its supply had rarely felt wider. Five key tests — from Security Council reform to SDG financing — would reveal whether the UN still has the capacity to deliver.

Like the Soviet culture of secrecy that caused Chernobyl, most crises have deeper roots than their immediate triggers suggest. This piece offers practical guidance on how to think — and act — in terms of systems rather than symptoms.