The former Ecuadorian minister of foreign affairs and defence professed her “deep love” for the UN as she unveiled her bid to lead it from 2027, joining a growing field of four contenders – including two other women.
“Some people say it is time” that a woman leads the UN, “and I believe it is a matter of historical justice,” she told the AFP.
“But I think it’s also an issue of merit, of having the full pool of merit, experience and knowledge in the service of the UN.”
“We cannot leave half of the world’s population outside of that possibility. And I think if we really want change and transformation why not have, after 80 years, a woman and the right woman leading the organisation,” she added, pointing to a need for “different perspectives” in dangerous times.
While the world is experiencing a surge of wars in the post-Second World War era, the current selection process is playing out against a backdrop of political and financial crisis and accusations of inaction.
Espinosa said that in that context “the UN has to adapt to the times we live in right now. It’s not the other way around”, calling for more ambitious reforms than those announced by outgoing UN boss Antonio Guterres.
‘Difficult job’
“What we need is a leader that is hands-on, that has a lot of energy, that knows the system, that can be the first to arrive to prevent a conflict,” she said.
She proposed the creation of an “early warning” system to detect and flag signals of impending conflicts and intervene before they erupt, which she laid out in her “vision” document, submitted with the backing of Antigua and Barbuda.
While she is pushing for a new approach, she is careful not to throw the previous Secretaries-General under the blue bus.
“We should be respectful and careful to say, ‘the past doesn’t work and now…I’m a magician’,” she said.
“It’s a difficult job, but when you know how to do the job and if you are confident about your leadership style, I think the UN can…look at the 21st Century with more hope and with this sense of possibility.”
She is adamant that transformation must not be the job of just one individual but the result of “political momentum” under “assertive leadership”.
Despite mounting attacks on multilateralism, Espinosa says “the UN is the one and only universal platform to address the shared challenges of humanity.”
Espinosa points to her experience of the UN machine as she gets her bid under way.
She was Ecuador’s ambassador to the UN in New York and then in Geneva before being elected president of the UN General Assembly – one of only five women to hold that role.
But she is at pains not to compare herself to her rivals in this race, Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan, and Senegal’s Macky Sall.