Cover image: Kofi Annan meets with high-school students in Kabul, Afghanistan, in January 2002. Copyright © Chien-min Chung/Getty Photos
Foreword
Kofi Annan spoke to us all. This conference, devoted both to his legacy and to the lessons it offers for the UN’s future, illustrated that fact. Many of those who contributed had worked with him and shared recollections of his personal affection and attention.
The power of his personality, still so evident at the conference, might suggest his success was just one of character – a disarming, engaging manner in an angry world. However, what this conference demonstrated was that this warmth and dignity in his personal dealings went so much wider. His ability to speak to the peoples of the United Nations – across barriers of race and religion and conflict, whether rich or poor, young or old, woman or man – made him a universal figure. A communicator-general.
His leadership of the UN came at a moment of hope, after the Cold War, and was buoyed by that ambition until 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that followed it. He presided over a period of expansive ambition in multilateralism, when he could seed new initiatives such as the Millennium Development Goals, the Global Fund against HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases, cooperation with the private sector, a dramatic expansion of peacekeeping operations and a relaunch of the UN’s human rights work, among others. Yet as secretary-general he also later had to battle the aftermath of 9/11 and its wars, the early beginnings of a retreat from multilateralism, and the return to suspicion and hostility among major powers.
The UN and its secretary-general are never free agents. As the first secretary-general to have risen through the ranks, he knew better than any that the UN’s ambitions are constrained by its member states. A great secretary-general can challenge member states to do more, but ultimately cannot resist them when the tide turns against international engagement. As he often observed, you cannot change the wind but you can bend the sail. His was the art of the possible.
Participants pointed to a confluence of challenges that today are putting the hard-won gains of the Annan era, and indeed the future of the rules-based international system, at risk. These challenges are:
- Environmental – as seen in the greater urgency and impact of the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, the health impacts of pollution etc.
- Economic – as seen in the 2008 global financial crisis, the causes of which have yet to be addressed, and the consequences of which continue to be felt by the poorest among us.
- Social – the fraying of the social contract due to the inability of governments to guarantee jobs for citizens, address inequalities or manage globalization, and a growing disconnect between publics and their leaders and institutions.
- Political – a resurgence in violence (e.g. the fact that civilian casualties are on the rise after many decades of falling, a spike in extremism, homicides overtaking conflict deaths), the backlash on human rights and gender equality, greater multipolarity and polarization, and big-power tensions.
The above challenges are unfolding in the context of mega-trends – for example, around demography, mobility and technology – that are creating serious challenges for multilateralism precisely when it is needed the most. We see the reneging on commitments, and more emphasis on ‘mini-lateralism’ and ad hoc policymaking.
As the UN approaches its 75th anniversary in 2020, there are opportunities for progress, but they require cooperation within and across borders, sectors and generations.
But the contemporary political and policy climate is also generating new forms of agreements – such as the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – that are voluntary, anchored in self-examination and peer review, and predicated on multi-stakeholder action and partnerships. As the UN approaches its 75th anniversary in 2020, there are opportunities (such as the green economy, technology) for progress, but they require cooperation within and across borders, sectors and generations.
Recommendations included revitalizing (as Annan had done) the process of senior UN appointments, modernizing the UN’s communications, engaging civil society and encouraging youth participation, and further recognizing the role of entrepreneurship in addressing society’s challenges.
These two days reminded us of what we have lost in multilateralism and what we must recover. Kofi Annan never gave up. His foundation, which he began when he left the UN, engages in conflict resolution, and in supporting democracy, youth and agriculture in Africa – all causes close to his heart. His post-UN work from the platform of a small but nimble foundation may also point to a final lesson of the Annan legacy: some of the most innovative future multilateralism may happen on the margins, outside the official structures of the UN proper.
Lord Mark Malloch-Brown served under Kofi Annan in a number of roles, as administrator of the UN Development Programme, the secretary-general’s chef de cabinet and UN deputy secretary-general.