The race for the next UN Secretary-General enters its decisive month. According to the Security Council Report, Council members continue meeting with candidates in July and are expected to begin conducting the first straw polls before the end of the month.
The Council's own agenda sets the tone. Under the presidency of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, July features an open debate on the peaceful settlement of disputes, based on a Secretary-General's report requested by resolution 2788, and a high-level debate on natural resource governance as a foundation of peace, security and prosperity.
These themes go to the heart of the official vision statement President Macky Sall filed with the United Nations. Its first pillar rests on one conviction: peace, security and development are intrinsically linked and mutually reinforcing.
The candidate commits to three concrete levers. First, prevention: sustained efforts to strengthen early-warning initiatives and mechanisms, to act before crises erupt. Second, regional cooperation: closer collaboration between the United Nations and regional organizations, particularly in conflict prevention and resolution, an area where his experience as African Union Chair in 2022 is a proven asset. Third, coherence in the field: better synergy between peace operations, development agencies and humanitarian bodies, to avoid duplication and increase overall impact, with particular attention to structurally fragile countries.
The logic is economic as much as political. A crisis prevented will always cost less than a crisis endured, in human lives and in resources. The vision statement notes that the exorbitant costs of conflict now place a heavy burden on the Organization, and proposes a UN refocused on its original vocation: a platform for strategic consultation capable of delivering collective, credible and effective responses.
Seventeen days before the announced window for the first straw polls, the substantive debate is open. The question before member states is simple: what Organization do they want for the decade ahead? President Macky Sall's answer is a UN that prevents crises instead of enduring them, uses its resources wisely and produces results governments can defend before their citizens.
The full vision statement is available at www.mackysall.net.