26 Sep THE UNITED NATIONS AT 77: A FUT URE VISION

This week in New York City for the first time in three years—before Covid-19—the 77th United Nations General Assembly convenes to create traffic jams and talk about the institution’s future.

Across a parade of global presidents addressing this 77-year-old body, one thing is clear: The politics of old do not apply. Today, the challenges facing the US and the UN are very new and very different. The pain of the global pandemic shows us this—it shows us we need a very new set of solutions that pull us together, that are global, and that are aimed at our next generation.

Across the world, voters in nearly every democratic election are calling for new solutions and real change—because they believe today’s status quo is just not good enough. And they are calling for three forms of real change—changes that are both national and global in their power, scope, and resonance.

FIRST, voters are calling for UNITY.
In the wake of the worst global pandemic in 100 years, the worst economic challenges since the US Great Depression, and the worst polarization many of us can remember… has this week’s UN General Assembly ever been more relevant? Sitting this week in the first real face-to-face meeting in three years, has this 193-member body ever been more called upon? Has our fate ever been more interconnected?

As Covid-19 ravaged our economies and pulled apart our health systems … perhaps it also represented a silver lining in the realization that, in both bad and good times, we are all part of one world.

From the pain of pandemic, we must not just work to tamp-down rampant polarization within our nations, but we must scale-up this effort GLOBALLY. In other words, we must double down on efforts to facilitate unity not just within our nations. But, more and more, we must double down on efforts to facilitate unity between nations.

A connected world presents problems that we can only solve through partnership. Imagine the power of working more and more together on key issues: Food insecurity… Jobs… Education… Drugs… Crime… Terrorism… Cyberattacks… Imagine the power of borrowing each other’s best practices and re-energizing our global alliances in ways that can deliver on real change.

Today, Abraham Lincoln’s house divided of 164 years ago is now a global house. And so, we must not lose sight of the fact that our global destiny binds us together not just within our own nations—but among all nations.

SECOND, voters are demanding urgent help in managing the reality of GLOBALIZATION.
Many of the world leaders addressing the UN chamber this week have been gifted with an international perspective. And while the majority of our grandparents, statistics show, likely married someone who grew up less than five miles from them . . . many of us are today blessed to be global travelers. And so are our children . . . . For many of us, our eyes are opened wider because of a knowledge and experience borrowed from faraway places.

Just as history did not end in the 1990s—neither did globalization end over the last three years. In fact, the simple truth is… people want to connect. We’re built that way. And today, we are able to surf across the vast array of technologies that help us do this—that literally, for better or worse, wire us together globally.

Globalization has survived two world wars… and it will survive the Russian-Ukrainian War, a war that 2/3rds of the world follows today on our mobile phones. Today, globalization is inescapable—and the real question before us is whether and how we choose to manage it.

Today, few things stay local for long. Covid-19 and greenhouse gases know no borders. And our mission, therefore, is to manage the downside while we also exploit the upside of this no-border globalization. Remember, 800 million people grew out of poverty faster than anytime in history. And following the pain and damage of Covid-19, we must again jump-start and nurture this kind of real global change.

To be sure, globally, voters and peoples are living in varying forms of crisis. For much of Asia and large parts of the West, living standards are stagnating, millions are without basic necessities, and inflation is perched to create real wage decline. And in Africa, climate shocks and food insecurity remain a vicious cycle.

But crisis presents opportunity—global opportunity. Some examples: First, in a global world, we must not only be thinking of bolstering vaccine participation—our secret weapon of science… But we must also be thinking about preparing, funding, and calling for action against the NEXT Pandemic. And unfortunately, there will be a next pandemic…

For the UN, then, this must be a call for a more proactive and strategic global health agenda—including more resources for the World Health Organization, more best practice cooperation and learning, more protection of migrant’s rights in times of crisis, and more training for our health workers.

Globally, the crisis of Covid-19 has spurred big advances in science. Soon, for example, a new “One Shot” will be launched to protect the next generation . . . using vaccines and injectables for diseases such as malaria, dengue, TB and even HIV/AIDs—made available to the developing world and elsewhere. And make no mistake: The United Nations of the future should lead in this effort.

Another example of voters’ and peoples’ demand for better managing globalization is food security. These are times of grave challenge. And we must search out the best of global solutions and the best practices against rising prices and lack of food supply. This means increasing farmers’ production in the planting season via subsidies, and financial and technical assistance… It means optimizing global supply chains and reducing food waste and water footprint… and it means strengthening the agricultural value chain.

Globally, we need to train and prepare a new breed of farmers… equipped with modern agricultural technology—and able to engage in sustained scientific farming that will not only increase farm yields… but lift communities out of poverty and bolster resilience in the face of climate change.

One more example of managing the power of globalization is peacekeeping. And at the very top of these commitments, there is the existential challenge of preventing nuclear, chemical, and biological war .… involving weapons that must not fall into the hands of terrorists… and must be reduced, deterred, and destroyed—fully implementing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Chemical and the Biological Weapons Conventions.

THIRD, voters are calling on leaders to double-down on bolstering the NEXT GENERATION.
US President Barack Obama, in his last address before the UN General Assembly, quoted a young Martin Luther King, Jr., who wrote from his jail cell: “Human progress never rolls on the wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be ‘Co-workers with God’.”

“Co-workers with God.” This phrase sticks with me. And whatever your religion, each in our own way, according to our own values . . . our next generation duty means we must be “Co-workers with God.”

This means, for example, harnessing the Technological Revolution and the resulting disruptions—the biggest real change we all face. Today, this real change is our own version of the 19th-century’s industrial revolution. And our challenge is to ensure these technologies are put to work to help governments do more—to help governments move past any built-in status quo bias . . . and to shoot higher and deliver more real change to people. For example:

Creating jobs via forward-focused vocational training.
Creating more health centers, hospitals, Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, and more vaccine institutes.
Bringing down the prices of medicines and ensuring their steady supply.
Bolstering education via best practice global teacher training and virtual lessons.
And delivering, in the not too-far future, a tablet to every child on the planet . . . to connect them to the teachers, learnings, and wonders of a global world.

Finally, more and more, at the top of voter’s list of Next Generation global challenges is Climate Change. Over the last years, the global pandemic fueled the ravages of climate change. Today, 3.3 billion people’s daily lives are highly vulnerable. And the peoples in developing countries feel this impact dramatically. They are experiencing first-hand the mounting pressure of a warming planet. Today, this is why all parties must strengthen their communities for preparedness and resilience… because here on Earth, we have only one home.

Today, in terms of the scale and scope of climate change, the numbers tell the story. In 2022, the US has already experienced 9 weather/climate disasters with losses exceeding one billion US dollars. Over five years, weather disasters have cost the US 750 billion US dollars. And globally, just last year, the cost of weather disasters reached 101 billion US dollars.

In just one-year, last year, this totaled one billion dollars more than the United Nation’s long-term proposed 100 billion dollars to finance climate reform and restoration. And this is the cost for just one-year, last year, 2021.

This is the math our Next Generation must face. And, as is so often the case, in policy making and in life, the urgent crowds out the important—but today, climate change must be both urgent and important… because the relative impact of a dollar invested to fight climate change diminishes each day.

This also means accelerating the development and regulation of new if still unproven technologies that promise to remove CO2 from the atmosphere—or reflect sunlight away from the Earth. While this remains uncharted territory, so did Covid-19 vaccines three years ago. And there is a lesson here for our Next Generation. Plan and invest. Plan and invest now… before our next crisis.

For climate change, this means the same kind of cross-border coordination we began to see on vaccine research… Imagine the power of competition among groups racing to be the first game-changer in green energy breakthrough, in new food technologies, and in yet-undiscovered carbon capture technologies and devices.

Today, perhaps more than 77 years ago, the United Nations remains “humanity’s essential organization.” But, as with all organizations, the United Nations must continue to re-purpose itself against today’s challenges—against the need to UNIFY our world, to create GLOBAL solution, and to leave the precious gift of solution to our NEXT GENERATION.

Inevitably, as many leaders visiting the UN argue, this means improving the United Nations itself. This means strengthening the role of the General Assembly, streamlining global operations, and finding new ways to stay one step ahead of our next crisis.

Against this need to tackle the challenges of today, and tomorrow, we simply cannot fixate on past generations, past divides, or past political battles. We must look ahead. For while our sons and daughters may inherit the same last names, surely their own challenges will be a universe different from our own.

Our ally is this journey is the spirit of the Next Generation. After all, this is a generation more educated, more diverse, more inclusive, more creative—and yes, more idealistic. Gifted with revolutionary access to information about others, and to solutions yet-to-be imagined, this is the Next Generation for which we must all—each in our own way—become “Co-workers with God.”

David Morey is Chairman of DMG Global, a best-selling author, and has advised 21 winning global campaigns.