UN unrivalled for its ability to bring nations together to solve key issues, official says

The recent series of high-level events at United Nations Headquarters on issues including climate change, disarmament and food security shows that no other multilateral organization has the same capacity as the UN to bring together countries to resolve key issues, a top official with the world body said today.

Kiyo Akasaka, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, said “the United Nations was the talk of the town everywhere in the world” during the week of the high-level segment of the General Assembly’s annual debate.

In an interview with the UN News Centre, he said the climate change summit hosted by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Security Council meeting on disarmament and the high-level gathering on food security all led to “outcomes that will have important implications for the work of the UN and the world.

“Those high-level events attracted the attention of the media and the world public, and I believe that a whole range of issues and priorities of the United Nations received the needed attention of the world.”

Mr. Akasaka said “this year showed the important convening power of the United Nations, because you saw Mr. [Barack] Obama [of the United States] come to the UN for the first time, Mr. Hu Jintao of China come to the UN for the first time, Mr. [Dmitri] Medvedev from Russia for the first time, and [Yukio] Hatoyama [of Japan]. All the important leaders were here in New York to attend the high-level events. There is no other organization like the UN to be able to do that.”

The Under-Secretary-General singled out the climate change summit, which attracted more than 100 heads of State or government, making it the largest ever high-level gathering on the issue, as an extraordinary example of the UN’s pulling power.

He said the summit had played a critical role in both raising awareness about climate change issues and in bringing world leaders together to spur negotiations ahead of the global talks scheduled for Copenhagen in December.

“One example of the momentum on the issue is the announcement by the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr. Hatoyama, to announce his country’s proposal to reduce, by 2020, its greenhouse gases by 25 per cent.

“That is a very big step forward to promote the negotiations and it is expected that that sort of bold initiative will encourage other major emitters or economies to do the same. As the negotiations are coming to the very final stage, that high-level event surely has played an important part in pushing forward the negotiations.”

Mr. Akasaka said the Security Council meeting on disarmament, chaired by Mr. Obama, helped build growing momentum on non-proliferation issues.

“There was general agreement on the need to ratify the CTBT – the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty – and also to make important progress before the review of the NPT [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty], due to take place in May next year.

But he warned that, despite the remarks from some world leaders during the General Assembly’s high-level segment that “green shoots” of economic recovery are appearing, millions of people worldwide are slipping further as the financial crisis continues to retard development.

“We need more concerted efforts on the part of the international community in fulfilling its commitments on official development assistance (ODA), as well as other important areas to promote the flow of resources from developed countries into developing countries, including trade, foreign direct investment and remittances.

“The developing countries are currently finding it more difficult to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) because of the financial and economic crisis, particularly in sub-Saharan countries,” he added. “We need to do more in addressing the goals of reducing maternal mortality, ensuring the universal education for children, further progress in addressing the public health problems, including malaria control.”