Let us revitalize multilateralism: The future of the world is at stake

Synopsis: The great political task of our times is to bolster a rule based global order with a stronger and more inclusive UN at its core.

Introduction

Last year, the United Nations conducted worldwide consultation. It was found that the views of most of the people are almost similar. All they want is better access to services like education, health, sanitation, relief for people who are hit by the pandemic etc. They are worried about climate change, biodiversity crisis and want more global cooperation to deal with all the challenges.

Following this, UN released “Our Common Agenda”, which follows on UN75 Political declaration adopted by all UN members.

Why there is a need for joint efforts to solve the crisis?

With the recent pandemic, it is clear that people live in an interconnected and interdependent world. Thus, to solve any challenges, there is a need for joint efforts across various levels.

Why there is a need to modernize multilateral Institutions?

To solve present-day challenges: They are only built to solve inter-country challenges. They do not deal with the problems such as financial crisis, pandemic, terrorism, crime networks etc. So, there is a need to modernize multilateral institutions. For this, we can start with:

Renew commitment: There is a need to include all stakeholders like academia, civil society, young people etc so that all the different voices can be heard. There is also a need to enhance cooperation among the UN, regional organization, international finance institution at both policy and operational levels.

Implement the agenda: There is a need to act on the UN general agenda to revive and strengthen our capacity to fight against issues like poverty, equal participation, biodiversity loss, justice etc

Strengthen International Cooperation: Countries should use various opportunities to set up joint efforts to strengthen international cooperation.

Source: This post is based on the article “Let us revitalize multilateralism: The future of the world is at stake” published in LiveMint on 4th October 2021.