The race for the next UN Secretary-General has entered its decisive month. The Security Council opened private consultations on 30 June, and indicative votes are expected in the last week of July. President Macky Sall has approached this phase with one method: dialogue with member states.
That method rests on a record. As Chair of the African Union in 2022, through the war in Ukraine and the food crisis it triggered, President Macky Sall carried the continent's demand for a permanent seat at the G20; the African Union joined in 2023. In June 2022 he traveled to Sochi to press for the resumption of grain and fertilizer exports on which the continent depended. He has long championed the reallocation of Special Drawing Rights and the reform of the global financial architecture. His exchanges with member states focus on multilateralism, UN reform, and respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.
The consultations include Senegal. On 14 July, President Macky Sall announced that he will travel to Dakar on Friday 17 July as part of the consultations and visits related to his candidacy, where he will be received by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
The next milestone comes on 23 July, when all candidates will address member states and civil society in the General Assembly Hall, at the initiative of General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock. President Macky Sall will present his vision: a United Nations recentred on its Charter, effective in its operations, attentive to every region.
Listening first, proposing next. A Secretary-General serves the member states, and that service begins before any vote. The current Secretary-General's term ends on 31 December 2026; the next will take office on 1 January 2027.