BUILDING A MORE UNITED NATIONS

Warwick alumna, Baroness Amos, delivers the inaugural David VandeLinde Lecture

With the Arab Spring, Pakistan floods, Turkey earthquakes and other emergencies, the United Nations is facing demand for humanitarian relief on a scale unprecedented in its history. How can the organisation move forward to meet these challenges and also build relationships with countries and regimes suspicious of its involvement? In the inaugural David VandeLinde lecture in New York Baroness Amos spelt out her vision for the UN’s future.

The United Nations (UN) was founded after World War II with the principles of impartiality and neutrality. Those principles still hold strong, with Baroness Amos, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, asserting that “anyone in desperate need, regardless of the nature of their government, where they are or their political or religious affiliation, have a right to help”.

The organisation itself is huge, made up of 193 countries, and wider political debates are mirrored within the UN itself. Says Baroness Amos: “If you’re thinking about the UN, the starting point has got to be this is an organisation which has grown up and been shaped by global politics... there are many issues about how the power of the countries of the UN are exercised, and, in particular, how the power of the countries on the security council, particularly the permanent members, exercise their power.”

Big global debates reflected in the UN include tackling poverty, dealing with conflict and environmental sustainability. The UN has, believes Baroness Amos, a responsibility to protect civilians. “We are living through extraordinary times,” she says, referring not just to the global financial crisis and China becoming the world’s second largest economy, but, in particular, to the Arab Spring uprisings. A UN human development report in 2009 had warned of pervasive human insecurity in the Arab region, a warning which came true.

In her role Baroness Amos coordinates the UN agencies and other partners in terms of their response to crises around the world. On her first day she went to Pakistan to witness first-hand the work of the UN, and to see the enormity of the challenges that people face following flooding on a massive scale. She has also seen the terrible drought in East Africa that became a famine in Somalia. “Famine in 2011. We should be ashamed of ourselves," she says.

How is the UN affected by these changing world circumstances? It’s clear to her and her colleagues that with all these challenges the UN cannot carry on with business as usual. The UN often works in highly politicised and sometimes militarised environments. Aid workers have increasingly come under attack in some places in the world, most recently in Afghanistan and Nigeria. Between 2005 and 2011 there were 403 security incidents affecting the United Nations and there have been 570 people killed. “There is a total lack of trust sometimes in the countries in which we’re seeking to work.”

Humanitarian efforts that should, says Baroness Amos, be straightforward, are hampered by a whole range of issues including national pride (where countries don’t necessarily want to admit they need help), issues of sovereignty (countries not wishing others to interfere in human rights or democracy), and domestic politics. “At the end of 2010, 43.7 million people in our world were forcibly displaced due to conflict and persecution.” This is the highest number in more than 15 years. “All of this is happening when we are seeing more and more impact of natural disasters and also the impact of human disasters. You may have an earthquake or flood but may also have violence which makes the humanitarian situation more complex.”

Baroness Amos delivered her lecture at the beginning of November 2011. She stated that she could see the seeds of 2012’s disasters: “In Yemen, where a crumbling state, conflict and drought threatens to become a humanitarian catastrophe; in Nigeria, where we see again worrying signs of impending hunger; in Syria where you have unconscionable levels of violence causing terrible suffering to people; and in a world where the seven billionth child has already been born.”

We need to share expertise and work with partners who can help to build peace.

World political changes are also having an impact on the UN. “We’re facing a situation where the relative power of nations is shifting from west to east, north to south ... which is really challenging those countries that have traditionally felt that they knew their place in the global community.” With all these challenges how should the UN adapt whilst maintaining a truly global humanitarian system that can respond to need?

The answer, says Baroness Amos, is to bring in new partners. In 2011, up to November the UN co-ordinated relief for 56 million people, 26 million more than in 2007. With growing global need it’s simply not financially or practically sustainable for the UN to continue as it is. “We need to share expertise and work with partners who can help to build peace and address the underlying causes of crises,” she says. This includes bringing in new developing powers and wealthy states that have not traditionally worked with the UN or may be suspicious of it; working with technology experts who are developing powerful new communication tools; involving the private sector who have funds and more importantly the know-how; and also working with NGOs and civic groups who are leading the change in so many countries.

This will not be easy. It “will mean significant changes to the way we do business. It will entail a degree of discomfort as groups with different philosophies and traditions come together. As crises grow in size and number, we can’t afford to do otherwise”. In today’s world, Baroness Amos points out, no one government, agency or organisation can address the scale of these crises alone.

The UN also needs to find “better solutions to prevent disasters more effectively and where we can’t, to help countries build their capacity to deal with them more effectively”. Indeed, in the vast majority of crises it’s national and local authorities and local people who are the first responders.

Baroness Amos is keen to rise to the challenge. “I am optimistic about it because I think that with the right mindset and the right political will it is possible.” A true global response requires a true global partnership and the United Nations must adapt to growing need whilst harnessing and respecting the diversity of its membership. “We have to learn to become a single community, united in purpose to save lives and help people rebuild their livelihoods,” she concludes.

Born in Guyana, Baroness Amos was created a Labour life peer in 1997. She was the first black woman cabinet minister in 2003 when she was appointed Secretary of State for International Development. Her latest role is the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Baroness Amos is a Warwick alumna having graduated in 1976 with a degree in sociology. She began her career in local government and was chief executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission from 1989 to 1994.

By Penelope Jenkins