Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, said in his recent speech: “Everyone eats. Everyone needs food. Yet around 795 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life. That’s about one in nine people on Earth”. Ban Ki-moon explains that that’s why the global movement for Zero Hunger needs attention of world leaders. No one is committed to the goals and policies and this is a major reason why the UN is unable to be an effective organisation.
Unfortunately, world leaders from America to China, Pakistan, the UK, India and many more gave speeches, but not a single leader mentioned the rampant poverty and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). US President Barack Obama spoke about migration, but he didn’t speak about the reasons. The UK’s Brexit is the most recent example that European nations are also facing a crisis due to the migration of thousands of people. Leaders of the nations in their speeches raised issues, which were created because of their own policies. The world is now not a safe place for everyone and thousands are sleeping without eating.
The UN under Ban Ki Moon gave nothing to world. The crises across the Arab world have not been resolved, which shows that Ban Ki Moon failed the UN.
What will the new Secretary General in 2017 be able to do? What is Ban Ki Moon leaving behind to be resolved? As per Ban Ki Moon, around 795 million people in world are hungry and facing rampant poverty. Will the new Secretary General achieve the target of zero hunger? Will he or she achieve the targets for a safe world and resolve the migration crisis? According to the current speeches of world leaders, not a single leader has mentioned their priorities to reduce poverty and address the hunger crisis.
World leaders are not serious and their priorities are different from the UN’s SDGs. The efforts of world leaders is required to address poverty, terrorism, migration and relevant issues. At this stage, the UN needs a secretary general who will resolve world issues under the banner of the UN and reform the organisation to be relevant in the new world order. Now UN needs a security council where poor nations also sit and raise their issues and the General Assembly gives importance to issues related to poverty, illiteracy, corruption, terrorism and other related issues. Otherwise, the UN will continue to fail the citizens of the world.
- The reader is a freelance writer based in Karachi, Pakistan.
