Guyana’s candidate for United Nations Secretary General (UNSG), Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, has said that one of her priorities if elected would be to help make the international financial system fairer for developing countries, arguing that even incremental changes could significantly improve their ability to access financing for development.
Speaking in separate interviews with CGTN Europe and the Global Dispatches podcast on Wednesday, Rodrigues-Birkett said that developing countries have long advocated for changes to the international financial institutions that would give them better and more equitable access to finance.
She said the UN, while not itself a financial institution, has an important role to play in advancing those discussions by using its global voice and working more closely with institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
She said the developing countries are heavily involved in the UN’s norm-setting work, but noted that decisions on financing are made largely outside the UN system. Developing countries have therefore been calling for reforms that would create a more level playing field.
“The developing countries in the United Nations, it’s a very important block. The G77 and China, its 134 countries. They lead quite a lot of processes. They are very much part of the norm-setting in the United Nations,” Rodrigues-Birkett noted.
“Developing countries have been calling for certain types of reforms that would make the playing field fairer. Access to finance has been a very important aspect of the advocacy of developing countries. And as Secretary General, I would work very closely with the IFIs, using some of the information that we have in the UN to advance these discussions.”
If appointed SG, she said she would work closely with the international financial institutions and use information available within the UN to advance the case for reform.
Rodrigues-Birkett does not envisage an overhaul of the global financial system as the only route to progress. Instead, she believes relatively small but systemic changes could produce meaningful results.
“The United Nations is not where the decisions on financing…is made. This is made by the international financial institutions… I do not believe that we have to have an entire huge reform of the IFIs to see progress. So even incremental steps that are systemic, that would, for example, make it easier for developing countries to access finance so that they can work on their development goals would be a priority of mine.”
“Sit down together as partners”
She made a similar point in her interview with Mark Leon Goldberg of the Global Dispatches podcast, arguing that the UN should approach the international financial institutions as partners rather than adversaries.
“I would not be the Secretary General to stand on a pedestal with a moral stick to beat the IFIs,” Rodrigues-Birkett said. “I think we need to sit down together as partners.”
She said the UN has a long-standing global voice on the issue of access to finance and that some progress has already been made, including changes in the way countries affected by natural disasters are treated.
“What we need is some incremental steps, I would say, that would have a systemic effect across developing countries to make the system more fair,” she said.
One concern, she noted, is that developing countries can face significantly higher borrowing costs than larger countries, despite facing similar challenges.
“…you would not have to be borrowing at extremely high rates compared to a similar country that is larger, let’s just say that,” she said.
Rodrigues-Birkett also highlighted the UN’s work on the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index, which seeks to give greater consideration to the vulnerabilities faced by small island developing states when assessing their access to finance.
She said the challenge now is to determine how such measures, or aspects of them, can be incorporated into the way international financial institutions make decisions. The issue of finance is also central to her broader development agenda.
“Rapidly changing”
Speaking to CGTN Europe, Rodrigues-Birkett described the present international environment as “rapidly changing”.
She pointed to rapid technological advances, including artificial intelligence, geopolitical shifts, climate change, and the spread of misinformation and disinformation, as forces placing increasing pressure on societies and individuals.
Against that backdrop, Rodrigues-Birkett said the UN must focus on its three core pillars of peace and security, development and human rights, while making better use of the tools available to the SG.
Noting that “the UN was not built for easy times”, Rodrigues-Birkett noted that a central part of her agenda would be preventing and ending conflicts.
“I’ve outlined what would be some of my priorities. The UN was not built for easy times. It came after very difficult times after World War II. And so it was established to deal with global challenges,” she said.
“And as we look at the three pillars of the UN, whether it is on the peace and security pillar, on the development pillar, or the human rights pillar, there is much more that we can do. And so in setting my priorities, I’ve situated them along the pillars, looking at how we can work harder to prevent and to end conflicts.”
Rodrigues-Birkett said the SG should work with the Security Council, parties to conflicts and those capable of influencing them, noting that there are now many actors operating in the peace and mediation space.
“There are many different actors today in the peace and mediation space. So it will be important to form partnerships as we move forward,” she said.
She also stressed the importance of prevention, arguing that the UN should not wait until crises have fully developed before acting.
Interconnected priorities
Rodrigues-Birkett said the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also remain valid, but acknowledged that the 2030 targets were highly ambitious and that the international community needs to be realistic about the resources and time required to achieve them.
“As we consider the post-2030 agenda, we have to be realistic in several ways in terms of the timelines,” she said.
She argued that development, peace and security, and human rights should be treated as interconnected priorities rather than separate areas of UN activity.
“My view is that the best prophylactic against conflict will be development,” she said.
Rodrigues-Birkett also sees greater private-sector investment as part of the answer to the development financing gap. She said the UN could assist countries in preparing themselves to attract investment and help them understand the conditions required to bring private capital into their economies.
“There’s lots of money out there in the private sector, but how do we help countries to be able to attract investment?” she said.
She acknowledged that investment would be more difficult in countries experiencing conflict, but argued that there are other developing countries where greater assistance could help unlock private capital. Her proposed approach would therefore combine advocacy for improved financing conditions with technical assistance to countries seeking to attract investment.
By the end of a potential five-year term, Rodrigues-Birkett said she would want to see measurable progress in access to finance and private-sector investment in developing countries, alongside improvements in conflict prevention, human rights and the delivery of UN programmes.
“On the development side, I would like to see that we made progress with the IFIs, and that the needle has moved in terms of access to finance, but also in terms of private sector investment,” she said.
Looking ahead to the end of a potential five-year term, Rodrigues-Birkett said she would want to see tangible improvements in how the UN delivers for people on the ground, progress in resolving and preventing conflicts, greater access to finance and private-sector investment for developing countries, and an improved human rights situation.
She also identified a historic objective.
“I would also like to see that the question on whether a woman can lead the UN was answered resoundingly and affirmatively,” she said.
More than eight decades after the creation of the United Nations, Rodrigues-Birkett is seeking to become the first woman to serve as SG, bringing to the campaign a vision centred on conflict prevention, development, financial access, human rights and a UN that she says must adjust to the realities of a rapidly changing world.
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