NEW YORK - The United Nations (UN) has become too risk-averse and its next leader must be prepared to bear the cost of diplomatic failure and try again, Rebeca Grynspan, the frontrunner to be the next UN chief, told Reuters on Oct 15.
She spoke ahead of another Security Council poll on Oct 16 to gauge support for a new secretary-general to succeed Antonio Guterres, whose second five-year term ends on Dec 31.
Grynspan said the UN must also cut jobs, curb bureaucracy and stop agencies duplicating work, arguing that cost-cutting alone would not revive an institution struggling with shrinking resources and declining political clout.
“I think that the UN has become too risk-averse,” Grynspan said. “You are the one that has to take the cost of rejection, the cost of failure, and try again. That's the job of the UN.”
Call for a more proactive UN
Grynspan, 70, a former vice-president of Costa Rica, called for a more proactive UN after the 193-member body was largely sidelined in wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and as it faces pressure from US President Donald Trump’s administration to cut costs.
“Cost cutting is not enough. Yes, you can cut costs and make everything worse. If you don’t reform, you will do everything worse than before. That’s why I talk about refocusing,” Grynspan, an economist, told Reuters.
Pointing to her tenure as head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, Grynspan said she cut 20% of posts while sharpening its focus.
US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz has criticised what he called bureaucratic “bloat” and duplication at the UN and called for a clearer focus on peacekeeping.
Grynspan said she shared Waltz’s concerns: “Some consolidation and rethinking of how to carry a mandate is necessary in many of the fields that have been expanding in the UN.”
She said she would appoint a person inside her office to “impose the discipline that is necessary for mandate implementation”.
Grynspan pointed to her role in negotiations over the 2022 Black Sea Grain Initiative as a model for handling conflicts involving a permanent Security Council member. Russia withdrew from the agreement in 2023 and complained that key parts of the deal were never implemented.
“We didn’t go to the press ... It was quiet diplomacy that worked,” she said. “This is not about being able to have total harmony in the international affairs ... it’s about doing good.”
Grynspan said the UN already had the expertise, information and presence on the ground needed to play a larger diplomatic role but needed leadership capable of bringing those resources together.
“Peacemaking has to be at the centre of the efforts of the UN,” she said, citing a rise in deadly inter-state conflicts and calling for greater emphasis on mediation as well as prevention.
Grynspan also called for greater flexibility in peacekeeping, saying the secretary-general should work closely with the Security Council’s five permanent members to find alternative models when traditional peacekeeping is not viable.
Pointing to the multi-national support mission in Haiti, she said: “Why should we be so defensive? Why should it be only a UN peacekeeping force? ... Let’s try to make Haiti work and learn from the experience.”
‘Game not over’
Grynspan, who will become the first female secretary-general in the UN’s history if she wins, has come out ahead in four out of five informal straw polls, obtaining nine votes in favour last week, according to diplomats close to the process.
Securing the recommendation requires at least nine positive votes out of the 15 countries, and no “discourage” votes from the five permanent members: the United States, China, Russia, France, and Britain.
The Oct 16 poll will for the first time use colour-coded ballots revealing whether a veto power opposes a candidate.
Grynspan said she was the only candidate who has consistently reached nine votes in her favour, but she “wouldn’t be surprised” if she got a discouraging vote from a veto power. She said such opposition has been overcome in past races.
Diplomats at the UN say several senior figures, including former and current foreign ministers and country leaders, are seriously considering entering the race.
Grynspan said she expected new names could enter the race after the Oct 16 vote and added: “The game is not over - we will have to continue working.” REUTERS