Rio de Janeiro [Brazil], November 19 : United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged G20 countries to take the lead in global governance reform to address pressing issues like poverty, inequality, and climate change.
"I urge the G20 countries to lead, once again, I repeat - many of these decisions are exclusively in the hands of members of G20 countries and their presence in the governance bodies of most of our institutions," Guterres said in his remarks at the G20 Session on Reform of Global Governance Institutions in Rio de Janeiro.
Stressing that the UN Security Council is "steadily losing its effectiveness and legitimacy", Guterres voiced for carrying out reforms in the council.
"We face a global governance deficit and a global trust deficit. Poverty, inequalities, and the climate crisis are getting worse, and peace is getting further out of reach. We need global solutions rooted in the UN Charter. But our institutions are not keeping up. That was the reason for the Pact for the Future agreed in the UN Summit of the Future to strengthen multilateralism and global governance," said Guterres.
"Starting with the Security Council which is steadily losing its effectiveness and legitimacy. As wars grind on, innocent people are paying a terrible price, and the Security Council is unable to stop them. Security Council reform must be pursued with determination and not become a mirage," he added.
Guterres also stressed that peace worldwide requires actions grounded in the values of the UN Charter, the rule of law, UN resolutions, and principles of sovereignty, political independence, and territorial integrity of states.
"As the world's largest economies, many of you set the rules that dominate the boards of global financial institutions. The world looks to you to act on the Pact's commitments to accelerate reform of the international financial architecture that has become outdated and unfair. And the decisions are yours. To make it representative of today's world and not of the world of many decades ago. To give fair representation to developing countries in the governance of international financial institutions," he said.
"To adequately and equitably shield economies - particularly vulnerable ones - from global shocks, making sure that we reestablish a real global safety net. And to mobilize finance at scale to close the Sustainable Development Goals financing gap, including substantially increasing the capital and the lending capacity of the Multilateral Development Banks, making them bigger and bolder. And to boost concessional funding, taking into account vulnerability and not only GDP. And at the same time, to make debt relief work and work timely and effectively for those countries drowning in debt, while reviewing the debt architecture to enable countries to borrow with confidence. And finally, to build a more inclusive and equitable international tax system," he added.
Highlighting the upcoming Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Spain, Guterres stated, "July's conference on Financing for Development in Spain is an opportunity to deepen these reforms."
Notably, Spain has been chosen by the United Nations to host the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, an event to be held in Seville between 30 June and 3 July 2025.
The 2024 G20 Rio de Janeiro summit is the ongoing meeting of the Group of Twenty (G20), a Heads of State and Government meeting currently taking place in Rio de Janeiro from 18-19 November.