Friend,
Good morning – and hope you are having a nice week. I’m just back from the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA), which met fully in-person for the first time in three years due to COVID, and I wanted to share a few quick takeaways.
My favorite moment: Sitting next to Canadian PM Justin Trudeau at the Global Food Security Summit and sneaking a photo of his awesome socks (read on below for the photo!).
There was great energy at the multitude of unofficial gatherings around town with the networking and content highly valuable, but as for impact and results – the jury is still out. My own take is that the global conversations were more fragmented than usual this year – likely due to the looming Ukraine war and diplomatic tensions with Russia – making it tough for the global development agenda to break through.
Having said that, here are some of the important bright spots:
- On Democracy – In a world where the battle between democracy and autocracy is truly on the line, USGLC co-hosted a notable roundtable with Secretary Tony Blinken and USAID’s Samantha Power on the important progress that emerging democracies are making and the power of public-private partnerships to help them foster economic growth.
- The convening highlighted some impressive wins, showcasing emerging democracies with heads of state from Moldova, Zambia, Malawi, Ecuador, and more.
- With participation from Cargill, Citi, Land O’Lakes, UPS, Deloitte, Mastercard, PepsiCo, Microsoft, Unilever, and several foundation leads, I was pleased to moderate a thoughtful conversation about ways to advance greater economic growth and opportunities for citizens in these emerging democracies.
- On Food Security – There was a great deal of attention around the food crisis, most notably dozens of world leaders gathered for the important Global Food Security Summit. Sponsored by the United States, European Union and African Union, the Summit sought to galvanize the response to the crisis impacting 828 million who go to bed hungry each night with 50 million on the verge of famine.
- I participated in the Summit – and was pleased to hear President Biden announce $2.9 billion in additional resources in his Wednesday UNGA speech to save lives and promote medium- and long-term food security around the world.
- At a related convening, UNICEF and USAID joined together to address the child malnutrition crisis, with Administrator Power announcing how the U.S. had rallied other countries and private donors to deliver an additional $280 million in critical new commitments to “change the story” around the world.
- I hosted a conversation on this topic on the Concordia stage with USAID, Tyson Foods, Citi, and Tingo and each of the expert panelists agreed to take a page out of our COVID response: bring the private and public sectors together instead of the current siloed approach to the food and fertilizer crisis.
- On Global Health – All eyes in our community were on the 7th replenishment conference of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, hosted by the United States. While the world fell short of the goal to “mobilize $18 billion to save 20 million lives” – with the UK and Italy failing to make commitments – the financing summit broke records for international investment in global health. This is a big deal.
- Closing the $3.7 billion gap will be essential given that analysis from the ONE Campaign finds that every $1 billion shortfall could result in 25 million more new infections or cases across the three diseases.
- On Climate Change – With increasing climate shocks around the world, the global threat of climate change was part of nearly every conversation during UNGA with leaders looking ahead to COP27 in Egypt this November.
- Rockefeller Foundation President Raj Shah addressed the Concordia stage, outlining climate change as their #1 priority and called on world leaders to use the upcoming gathering at Sharm El Sheikh to hold themselves accountable for their Copenhagen commitments.
- One of the big questions percolating throughout UNGA was whether the World Bank is doing enough to invest in the climate agenda – particularly with World Bank chief David Malpass doing cleanup on his comments on climate change.
- At the same time, the World Bank received kudos for stepping up on the global health agenda with last month’s announcement of the new Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response.
The events spanned the city with conversations happening on multiple platforms and ranging from water to displaced people to digital access to sports diplomacy. Corporate, non-profit, and foundation leaders met with government officials, discussing ways to make the world a better place.
Official UNGA was dominated by the raw tensions with Russia as allies rallied behind Ukraine, and of course, the never-ending geo-political complexities with China.
Ultimately, I worry that with so many global challenges, it begs the question if the “Olympics of Diplomacy” is meeting the moment? The good news is that America is at the table, leading on global food security, promoting democracy, and strengthening global health – I saw it firsthand this week. But the real question is: are we moving fast enough and are enough other countries stepping up?
One final story made the trip particularly eventful. At the Global Food Security Summit, I ended up being seated next to Justin Trudeau during the speeches and while it wasn’t the right moment to ask for a photo, I did happen to sneak a photo of his spectacular socks!
More importantly – Trudeau opened his speech calling out that he was the 14th male speaker in a row and that it’s an important reminder that we can’t forget that the food crisis disproportionately impacts women. The room exploded with applause – agreeing of course – and everyone was pleased that the next head of state to speak was a woman!
More to share soon – enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Best,
Liz
Liz Schrayer, USGLC
