Inside the movement to elect a woman as UN secretary general

Secretive. Haphazard. A game of thrones. These are ways in which the selection process for the world’s top civil servant—the secretary general of the United Nations (UN)—has been described.

The UN is an intergovernmental group of 193 nations or “member states,” formed in 1945 to maintain international peace and security. It has a major impact on global health. Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, for example, negotiated lifesaving access to antiretroviral drugs and started the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) to coordinate the world’s efforts to drive down HIV infections. Another former secretary general, Ban ki-Moon, established the Every Women, Every Child programme that mobilised unprecedented political and global investments to improve women’s and children’s lives.

Bringing stability and a consensus on action against global threats is the chief role of the organisation. The current political upheavals, economic insecurity, wars, and pandemic threat seen across the globe make the UN’s top job vital. And because the UN’s health agency—the World Health Organization (WHO)—faces steep defunding,1 the next secretary general will be key to positioning global health goals in the UN and multilateral system for the next decade and beyond.

In its 80 year history, every UN leader has been a man, appointed through an opaque process likened to the papal conclave. Candidates are usually nominated by their own governments and put to a vote. The voting is restricted to the 15 member states that comprise the UN security council. It takes place in secret and goes through multiple rounds—often with much political trading for votes. Nominees can be vetoed by …