This year, for the first time in a decade, the United Nations will select its new Secretary-General.This critical process comes at a time  when our global community faces unprecedented challenges, among them: escalating geopolitical tensions, a raging climate crisis; and rapid advances in digital technology which are transforming how we work, communicate, and function as a society. While the world has never been more in need of the United Nations, the multilateral tools set up to meet these borderless challenges are under immense strain. At the same time, the United Nations – at it’s 80th anniversary – also needs the world, because the legitimacy and efficiency of our work is strengthened when more voices are heard, and more perspectives are included – as encapsulated in the theme I have chosen for this session: Better Together.Against this backdrop, the 2025-2026 Secretary‑General selection process is more than a procedural milestone. It is a moment of reflection  and an opportunity to renew our commitment to the principles that bind us.So, what does it mean to lead the United Nations from its 80th year into the future? The world is looking to the next Secretary-General to provide strong, dedicated leadership to deliver on the three pillars of the United Nations: peace and security, human rights, and development, while adapting the United Nations to meet the realities of today and the challenges  of tomorrow. Beginning on 21 April, the interactive dialogues with candidates offer a unique opportunity for candidates to present their vision for the future of this organisation, and for Member States and civil society to ask questions and interact directly with candidates. These dialogues will be available to watch live through the UN’s Web TV service and will spotlight the vision, skills and priorities of each candidate while fostering accountability in action. By inviting civil society participation, the UN is signaling that the future of multilateralism depends on broad engagement, not closed‑door deliberations. It is an opportunity to listen, to question, and to deepen trust in the institution at a time when trust is both fragile and essential.The interactive dialogues are therefore essential to ensuring a transparent and inclusive selection and appointment process while maintaining the important role of the General Assembly.In parallel, the process will be available across social media platforms in a way that is accessible, dynamic, and educational. Because this is not simply about broadcasting information; it is about cultivating understanding and connecting with people who are politically motivated, but perhaps not yet fully engaged in the multilateral sphere. By demystifying the process and presenting it through a youthful, modern lens, we aim to inspire ordinary citizens and future diplomats alike who will advocate, support, and carry forward the work of the United Nations to the next generation.The selection of the next Secretary-General is also a moment to confront an undeniable truth: half the world’s population are women and girls, yet global leadership rarely reflects that reality. In 80 years, I am the fifth woman to serve as the President of the General Assembly. Right now, only 22% of the GA floor is represented by women Permanent Representatives. And  never has a woman held the role of Secretary-General. Our choice will send a powerful message about who we are, and whether we truly serve all the peoples of the world, of which, everywhere in the world, half are women and girls..This decision is not only about putting SDG 5 on Gender Equality into action—it is also a question of credibility for an institution that champions equal rights. Moments like this invite us to pause, to reflect, and to imagine what leadership could look like if it truly mirrored the world it serves. A world where women and men stand equally at the helm. A world where transparency is lived, not promised. The idea of being better together only matters if we choose to make it real; in who we listen to, who we select as a beacon of progress, and who we trust to guide us forward. The next Secretary-General will be the voice of all nations and all peoples; this choice will reflect not only our world today, but the future we will build together, Better Together. Follow the Process 

When Anthurium Lewis first picked up a bow and arrow at six years old, she wasn't aiming for a future as an archery champion."At first it was something mostly recreational. I never really believed I would have reached the point where I could become a six-time national archery champion," she said. But today, that's exactly what Lewis has achieved, and it's only one chapter in her story that branches off into environmental stewardship, youth mentorship and child rights advocacy.Born in Tobago, one of the two Caribbean islands that form the Small Island Developing State of Trinidad and Tobago, Lewis credits archery with teaching her the discipline and drive to balance her personal ambitions with a life of advocacy, while excelling at both.She traces it all back to the range. "Archery gives you that staying power, that discipline to keep pushing forward."Now 17, Lewis wants to use her platform as a United Nations Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to share this message with the world: young people can lead change when the world makes space for their voices and equips them with the right skills. Sport, she believes, is one of the most powerful ways to develop these skills.The 2026 theme of the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, "Sport: Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers", observed 6 April, resonates deeply with her mission. Under One ArcOver the past decade, Lewis has seen archery's popularity on the island shoot upwards since she started. She attributes this to the way the sport brings together people from diverse backgrounds in Tobago."Since there is one club, persons from the countryside, from the town of different ages, different religions as well, they all come together and they do one sport in one area and one location. So I think that is very powerful," she said.Lewis is proud of the role she has played in this transformation, which she credits in part to a school outreach programme she supports alongside her club mates from Tobago Precision Archery Club. Together, they visit schools to teach children about archery and give them an opportunity to try it out firsthand.Having coached archers as young as three years old, she's found her youth to be an asset rather than a barrier in this space, explaining that younger students are more receptive to guidance from someone they view as a peer who can connect with their lived experiences."I've had parents come to me and say, 'Since my child started archery, they've been more focused in school, their grades have improved, and they're just more disciplined overall.' Knowing that I'm playing a part in that development is what keeps me going."The confidence and skills that she has acquired as a coach are what she carries into advocacy and diplomacy spaces, where youth, especially girls, must often fight to have their voices heard.Expanding the RangeOn the range, Lewis has coached archers twice, even three times her age, and she has never had to prove her expertise or authority to lead. In the advocacy space, however, her experience has not always been the same."The biggest challenge has to be my age," she said, highlighting a cultural norm ingrained into the minds of many young Caribbean people to, "speak only when you're spoken to" and to "leave the older heads to have the big discussions."Despite having served as Junior Minister of Tourism for Tobago and authored research on how cultural beliefs shape teachers' responses to autistic students, Lewis still confronts this issue and leans into the self-confidence she has nurtured as a competitive athlete to keep pushing forward.But she wondered aloud: how much harder might the experience be for other young people with equally powerful ideas but no titles or accolades behind their name to open doors?For Lewis, the answer is to keep showing up and proving the doubters wrong."Children can do it. We have a say. We have the intellect. We have the passion behind it as well. You don't have to wait until you're 25 to want to fight for a cause... We can start right now."Hitting the TargetThrough her foundation, Fruits for Tomorrow, Lewis is on a mission to plant native fruit trees across Tobago. She visits schools, communities and faith-based organisations, where she works with youth to plant fruit trees such as sapodilla, soursop, custard apple, breadfruit and five finger. One of her goals is to boost the island's food security by empowering young people to grow food and care for nature."You won't just find me planting," she said. "You'll actually find youths, very young children as well, going out there and planting their own fruit trees that they themselves will look after."The impact was not always immediate, but it was lasting. On a first visit to a countryside primary school in Tobago, Lewis arrived to find the school's gardening area overgrown and abandoned. Two months later, she returned to find it transformed: cleared, active and full of children tending to their plants freely during the school day. "I was quite pleased by that change in sight," she said.She has seen children develop a new reason to show up to school, thanks to the programme. They understood they needed to go to school to water their trees and watch them grow, reasoning that if they stayed home, their plants might not survive.Beyond attendance, the initiative gives children a chance to step outside the noise of the classroom, connect with their peers and build something together with their own hands. For Lewis, that sense of ownership that fosters discipline and self-confidence, just like archery, is the whole point.Sport has the power to change lives. In big ways, it can be a great equaliser, creating opportunities for those who are not academically inclined or who may face barriers to accessing a quality education.But for Lewis, the most profound transformation sport brings is quieter than a trophy or a title. It begins in the mind. She maintains that archery is 80% mental, and the self-confidence and discipline it builds in a young person carries far beyond the sport.It is a lesson she has lived, and one she is determined to pass on, emphasising, "if you're not doing a sport, you're missing out."

Rome/Songdo, South Korea - The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has approved a $50 million project, supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), to enhance the climate resilience of vulnerable smallholders in Jamaica.The project focuses on areas where climate risks and food security challenges are most severe due to an increased frequency of hurricanes, longer droughts and progressively erratic rainfall - hazards that are already lowering yields, increasing food loss, and threatening rural livelihoods nationwide.Titled ADAPT Jamaica: Enhancing climate change resilience of vulnerable smallholders in Central Jamaica, the project represents the first ever single country climate investment that Jamaica has received from the GCF. The GCF’s grant contribution amounts to over $40 million.ADAPT Jamaica was approved on Friday, during the forty-fourth meeting of the GCF Board in Songdo, South Korea.Co-financed by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund, Jamaica’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, the Development Bank of Jamaica, and FAO, the project will reach more than 700,000 beneficiaries (around half of whom are women) across six central parishes in Jamaica that are responsible for roughly 70 percent of the country's domestic food production.The initiative builds on a previous FAO-led GCF Project Preparation Facility Readiness project that funded critical feasibility studies and site-specific analyses for ADAPT Jamaica.   "This decision underscores the trust that the GCF and the Government of Jamaica place in FAO’s capacity to deliver solutions to the multiple challenges the country faces,” said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu. “Protecting vulnerable farmers and investing in sustainable and resilient agrifood systems is among the smartest choices we can make for climate action that also delivers on the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life - leaving no one behind.”Floyd Green, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining of Jamaica, said the approval of the ADAPT Jamaica project was both timely and critical for his country."Our farmers are on the frontline of climate change, facing more intense droughts, stronger hurricanes and increasing production risks. This investment allows us to move from response to resilience by strengthening infrastructure, expanding access to climate-smart technologies and improving how farmers produce, store and bring food to market. It is a decisive step toward securing Jamaica’s food systems for the future," the minister said.As co-financiers and co-executing partners, the Jamaica Social Investment Fund and the Development Bank of Jamaica - both GCF Direct Access Entities - will be instrumental in ensuring the long-term sustainability and country ownership of the project.Building resilience in the wake of Hurricanes Beryl and MelissaJamaica’s agricultural sector contributes roughly 7 percent of GDP and supports about 18 percent of the population. Smallholder farmers mainly cultivate root crops, pulses, vegetables and fruits, often on rain-dependent hillside plots.Yet, agriculture remains one of the country’s most climate-impacted sectors.Hurricane Beryl (Category 4), which struck in July 2024, caused agricultural losses exceeding $30 million and affected more than 48,000 farmers. In October 2025, Hurricane Melissa - the first Category 5 hurricane to make direct landfall in Jamaica - inflicted $6–7 billion in damage and destroyed more than 100,000 structures across key agricultural parishes.Meanwhile, climate projections point to growing risks. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report confirms that tropical cyclones will intensify as global temperatures rise. For Jamaica, this means more frequent and more destructive hurricanes, longer and hotter dry periods, and increasingly unpredictable rainfall.In addition, unsustainable land-use practices on slopes have contributed to soil erosion, land degradation and pressure on forest margins, increasing deforestation risks and weakening ecosystem resilience.Food production is further undermined by high post-harvest food loss, estimated at 30–40 percent for many crops. Farmers frequently lose tomatoes, onions and leafy vegetables due to poor post-harvesting and handling practices, lack of temperature-controlled storage and delays in reaching markets.These impacts are already reducing yields and deepening poverty among smallholder farmers, many of whom rely on rain‑fed production and have limited access to irrigation, finance, technology and climate information.ADAPT Jamaica seeks to address these challenges by integrating climate-resilient farming practices, improved water and post-harvest systems, strengthened climate information and early‑warning services, and better access to finance and markets.Through Farmer Field Schools - which will provide training on technologies such as solar-powered irrigation and cold storage, as well as practices including mixed production systems, improved crop varieties, and sustainable soil, water and nutrient management - the project aims to reduce food loss, stabilize farmer incomes, and strengthen resilience across agricultural value chains. In addition, enhanced market and finance linkages will help producers scale and sustain these improvements. Demonstration sites will feature hurricane‑resilient protected agriculture, showcasing reinforced greenhouses and shade houses designed to withstand Category 4–5 storms.Farmers will also learn how efficient irrigation coupled with water harvesting systems can help manage drought and heat stress while reducing operating costs. The model farms will promote agroforestry and soil conservation practices such as contour planting, mulching and integrating trees into farming systems to stabilize slopes, reduce erosion, restore soil health and protect surrounding ecosystems.Overall, ADAPT Jamaica represents a critical investment in the country’s long-term food security. It will strengthen climate-resilient farming systems, reduce food losses and help secure a stable food supply in the face of intensifying climate change.

The resolution spearheaded by Ghana received 123 votes in favour.  Three countries – Argentina, Israel and the United States – voted against and 52 abstained.  “Today, we come together in solemn solidarity to affirm truth and pursue a route to healing and reparative justice,” said Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama, speaking ahead of the vote on behalf of the 54-member African Group – the largest regional bloc at the UN. Stolen, shackled, shipped For more than 400 years, millions of people were stolen from Africa, put in shackles and shipped to the New World to toil in cotton fields and sugar and coffee plantations under scorching heat and the crack of the whip. Denied their basic humanity and even their own names, they were forced to endure generations of exploitation with repercussions that reverberate today including persistent anti-Black racism and discrimination. The resolution emphasised “the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialised chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity by reason of the definitive break in world history, scale, duration, systemic nature, brutality and enduring consequences that continue to structure the lives of all people through racialized regimes of labour, property and capital.”  Address wrongs, support reparations It affirmed the importance of addressing historical wrongs affecting Africans and people of the diaspora in a manner that promotes justice, human rights, dignity and healing, while emphasising that claims for reparations represent a concrete step towards remedy.    The text was “highly problematic in countless respects,” Ambassador Dan Negrea, US representative to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), said prior to the vote. He regretted that Washington “must once again remind this body that the United Nations exists to maintain international peace and security” and “was not founded to advance narrow specific interests and agendas, to establish niche International Days, or to create new costly meeting and reporting mandates.” Furthermore, the US “does not recognise a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred.” A grave human rights violation The horrors of slavery echoed in the General Assembly Hall as Member States commemorated the International Day to remember its victims. “The slave trade and slavery stand among the gravest violations of human rights in human history – an affront to the very principles enshrined in the Charter of our United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, themselves born, in part, from these injustices of the past,” said Assembly President Annalena Baerbock. The countries where enslaved Africans were taken from also suffered “a hollowing out” having lost entire generations who potentially could have helped them to prosper. “It was, to put it in colder terms, mass resource extraction,” she said.  Remove persistent barriers UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for confronting slavery’s lasting legacies of inequality and racism. “Now we must remove the persistent barriers that prevent so many people of African descent from exercising their rights and realising their potential,” he said. “We must commit — fully and without hesitation — to human rights, equality, and the inherent worth of every person.”  In this regard, the Second International Decade for People of African Descent and the African Union’s Decade of Reparations are significant. Respect for African countries He urged countries to use them to drive action to eradicate systemic racism, ensure reparatory justice and accelerate inclusive development, marked by equal access to education, health, employment, housing, and a safe environment. “But far bolder actions — by many more States — are needed,” he added. “This includes commitments to respect African countries’ ownership of their own natural resources. And steps to ensure their equal participation and influence in the global financial architecture and the UN Security Council.”  No peace without reparatory justice The Poet Laureate of Barbados, Esther Philips, read from some of her works including a piece about a young girl walking on the grounds of a former sugar plantation and not understanding its historical significance as her ancestors buried there look on.  “There are spirits of the victims of slavery present in this room at this moment, and they are listening for one word only: justice" — Ms. Philips told delegates. “Because for them and for the world, there can be no peace without justice –reparatory justice – and that call is answered only when words are turned into action. The question is, what will you do?” ...............................................................................This story was first published by UN News.