Ecuadorean candidate to head UN calls for body to be shrunk responsibly

The UN flag flies on a stormy day at the United Nations during the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

An Ecuadorean candidate for United Nations secretary-general said on Monday that the world body remains essential but must be shrunk responsibly.

Maria Fernanda Espinosa, a former foreign affairs minister and defence minister of Ecuador, is among six candidates to succeed Antonio Guterres as UN chief after his term expires at the end of the year.

Guterres’ successor will face an enormous task of revitalizing an organization in crisis with declining stature.

“I am under no illusion about the difficulties ahead, yet I remain optimistic,” Espinosa said during a hearing on her candidacy.

Like other candidates, she vowed to continue reform efforts at the UN while adding that the need for the organization formed at the end of the Second World War remained “undeniable.”

“Too often the UN is missing in action, or relegated to the sidelines. Too often it is slow, fragmented, and constrained ... the UN needs to rebuild credibility and show, not just say, that it can deliver real change,” she said.

“We can shrink the UN responsibly, while strengthening national ownership and delivery, and restoring faith in the UN,” she said.

Espinosa, a former Ecuadorean ambassador to the UN, who also headed the UN General Assembly from 2018 to 2019, suggested national governments could take greater roles in areas where the UN currently operates, without providing details.

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

The tiny Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda nominated her to succeed Guterres. The current Ecuadorean government of President Daniel Noboa, a right-wing ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, has not commented on her candidacy.

Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali announced last week his country would nominate its UN Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett for the job.

In April, four other candidates also vowed UN reforms, while championing its core principles of peacemaking and support for development.

They are Rebeca Grynspan, a former vice president of Costa Rica; Michelle Bachelet, the former Chilean president; Macky Sall, a former president of Senegal, and Rafael Grossi of Argentina, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Elections are due later this year. No woman has ever held the job.

Precedent holds that a secretary-general should not come from one of the permanent members of the Security Council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S., although the major powers’ backing is crucial in a lengthy and arcane selection process.