UN80: A missed opportunity for transformation?
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Article summary
- World confronts economic, environmental and institutional disorder that requires urgent multilateral action.
- UN80 reform process has thus far proved superficial and unambitious.
- Member states must ensure reform results in improved governance architecture, strengthened accountability, well-funded human rights structures and respect for planetary boundaries.
Why has the United Nations (UN) been failing repeatedly to maintain peace and security, one of its foundational goals? Is the UN fit for the purpose of dealing with emerging challenges such as climate change and disruptive technologies? This piece argues that the UN80, an initiative to reform the UN on the occasion of its 80th anniversary, is turning out to be a missed opportunity for the strategic transformation required to keep the UN relevant.
The UN, an institution built on the ruins of World War II, is facing an unprecedented legitimacy crisis. The crisis is real because all three pillars stipulated in the UN Charter – peace and security, human rights, and sustainable development – are shaking. With a dysfunctional Security Council, the world is experiencing the highest number of conflicts since World War II (see Observer Winter 2023). States are enjoying impunity for gross violations of human rights. Ten years after the launch of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, only 35 per cent of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets have shown adequate progress. What reforms would make the UN fit for purpose in the 21st century? As the UN marks its 80th anniversary, the UN Secretary-General launched an initiative in March 2025 for “ambitious, system-wide reform” of the UN. The initiative aims to respond to the following question: “How can the UN adapt to become more agile, integrated, and equipped to respond to today’s complex global challenges amid tightening resources?”
The reform process is organised around three workstreams: identifying and addressing inefficiencies; reviewing and addressing duplication in the implementation of mandates; and examining possible structural changes and programme realignments. Different UN entities are developing reform proposals around seven thematic clusters for further consideration by the UN80 Task Force and then approval by states.
Despite rhetoric, reforms remain insufficient
While UN80 is presented as an “opportunity for transformation”, the proposals so far look far from being transformative. For example, numerous measures (e.g., up to 20 per cent staff cuts, moving staff to cheaper locations, and fewer reports and meetings) have been proposed to cut costs. However, these measures are neither transformative nor should they have waited for UN80. Similarly, the measures proposed in the Report of the Mandate Implementation Review about the creation, delivery and review of mandates are anything but transformative – most of these proposals are aimed at improving efficiency.
The UN80 process will be truly transformative only if it addresses the root causes of the crumbling three UN pillars and, in turn, responds to the emerging world disorder – comprising economic, environmental and institutional disorder.
The Pact for the Future, adopted by states in September 2024 during the Summit of the Future, included a blueprint for such transformative reforms, four elements of which are highlighted here as part of a transformative reform:
Reform of the governance architecture: the current international governance frameworks concerning peace and security, trade, investment, financing and taxation are inequitable. The Security Council is a case in point. The current membership and voting structure have become a barrier to the Council discharging its mandate of securing peace and security. Consequently, conflicts are consuming resources that should have gone to fund the SDGs and human rights. Reform of the international financial architecture, including the governance structure of the IMF and the World Bank (see Observer Summer 2022), is equally urgent to enable developing countries to leave no one behind, meet their international human rights obligations and contribute to social and political stability (see Observer Autumn 2025).
Strengthen accountability: states breaching agreed international law norms must face collective deterrent consequences rather than be able to hide behind national sovereignty. Moreover, states that consistently fail to pay their membership contributions on time must not be allowed to participate in UN processes. It is also critical to hold accountable multinational corporations that can lobby and influence UN processes to serve their interests but avoid direct international obligations. Business lobbying at UNFCCC and plastic pollution treaty negotiations illustrate this paradox.
Fund human rights: with less than 5 per cent of the UN budget allocated to human rights, it is a forgotten pillar. This is despite a collective recognition by states that the three UN pillars “are equally important, interlinked and mutually reinforcing.” Instead of funding war economies, states should boost significantly investment in all human rights for everyone to contribute to lasting peace and sustainable development.
Respect planetary boundaries: since six of nine planetary boundaries have been breached, any future reforms of the UN must embed respect for planetary boundaries into its institutional design, mandates and programmes. Two climate change advisory opinions issued by the International Court of Justice and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights provide key elements of such embedding (see Observer Autumn 2025).
In short, for UN80 to live up to its title, nations who are part of the UN need to act in a “united” way to deal with multiple interrelated crises. The Pandemic Agreement and the Seville Commitment demonstrate that states can still reach consensus on issues of common global concern.
However, to maintain peace, safeguard multilateralism, strengthen international cooperation, promote human rights, respect nature, achieve sustainable development and build fairer institutions, the UN requires a strategic transformation – not reactive and rushed reforms that we have seen so far to grapple with the budget crisis triggered by the Trump administration.
