–says experience, bridge-building & results-driven leadership are what the United Nations needs at this critical moment

GUYANA’S candidate for United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, who has served as Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the UN since 2020, has presented herself as the practical, pragmatic and experienced leader needed to steer the world body through one of the most challenging periods in its history.

She said the UN is at a crossroads and requires decisive leadership to address mounting global challenges while advancing much-needed institutional reform.
Delivering her introductory statement during the “United Nations Town Hall: The Next Secretary-General”, held in the General Assembly Hall at UN Headquarters in New York alongside five other candidates vying for the organisation’s top post, Rodrigues-Birkett, 52, said the UN is at a crossroads.

She said the organisation is facing an increasing number of global conflicts, a liquidity crisis, slow progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and growing humanitarian needs.

“The United Nations over these last eight decades has served humanity well, but it is now at a crossroads,” she said.

She pointed to the proliferation of conflicts, the lack of progress in implementing the SDGs, the organisation’s liquidity crisis and increasing humanitarian needs as clear indications that the UN must adapt to meet evolving global challenges.
“Reform to make this organisation more efficient, more effective and more agile is now an imperative,” Rodrigues-Birkett emphasised.
Drawing on her experience as Guyana’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and International and Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Rodrigues-Birkett said moments of uncertainty also create opportunities for transformative leadership.

She said, “But it is in times of challenges that opportunities emerge, and it’s also for a moment like this that you need a Secretary-General that is practical, who is realistic, and who is pragmatic.”
Making the case for her candidacy, she highlighted more than three decades of public service spanning national government, parliament, international diplomacy and multilateral affairs.
“Over the 30 years of my career, working in the fields, serving in government as a minister, in parliament, as an international civil servant and as a diplomat, including the last two years leading my country’s delegation on the Security Council, I have gained not only the experience but the expertise that we need now,” she said.
Rodrigues-Birkett also emphasised her track record of delivering results despite limited financial resources, noting that effective leadership is measured not only by vision but by the ability to mobilise support and achieve tangible outcomes.
“I have also led in times of scarce resources, and even with scarce resources, I delivered results to ensure that we mobilise additional finances,” she said.
She pointed out that her leadership has been guided by a commitment to consensus-building, fairness and bringing diverse stakeholders together around shared objectives.
“I have also had the approach of building bridges, uniting people around common goals and objectives, and ensuring fairness.”
According to Rodrigues-Birkett, those qualities are essential if the United Nations is to respond effectively to today’s increasingly complex global challenges and remain relevant for future generations.
“These are the attributes that I believe we need in the next Secretary-General, and this is why I have put forward myself so that we can work together to make the UN fit for purpose for now and for the future,” she said.
Responding to a question posed to all six candidates, Rodrigues-Birkett outlined her vision for the United Nations over the next five years, saying the next Secretary-General must begin laying the foundation for a realistic and achievable post-2030 global development agenda.
She stated, “We have a post-2030 agenda that is realistic and that is workable. Mindful that this next Secretary-General will be there in 2030, so we need to start working on that post-2030 agenda, and we should have that by the next five years.”
She also stressed the need for a more visible and effective UN, particularly in maintaining international peace and security.
According to Rodrigues-Birkett, the organisation must strengthen its role in preventing conflicts and bringing existing ones to an end while delivering more tangible results for member states.
She said the organisation also has an opportunity to demonstrate that a woman serving as Secretary-General can effectively deliver on the UN’s mandate in partnership with member states.
“We would have seen that a woman as Secretary-General can deliver, working with member states,” Rodrigues-Birkett said.
She is seeking to become the next Secretary-General of the UN, with her campaign centred on institutional reform, effective multilateralism and practical leadership at a time of growing global uncertainty.
She brings more years of public service experience spanning national government, international civil service and diplomacy.
Her résumé includes service as Guyana’s Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and International Cooperation, Director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Liaison Office in Geneva, and Permanent Representative to the United Nations since 2020.
Academically, she holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs and Diplomacy with distinction from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and a degree in Social Work, also with distinction, from the University of Guyana.
Rodrigues-Birkett is among six contenders seeking to become the next United Nations Secretary-General. The field also includes former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, former President of the UN General Assembly María Fernanda Espinosa, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi, UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan, and former Senegalese President Macky Sall.
The next UN Secretary-General is expected to be appointed later this year and will assume office on January 1, 2027.
If appointed, Rodrigues-Birkett would become the first Guyanese, the first Caribbean national and the first woman to lead the United Nations in its 80-year history.