The UN@75: Diplomacy Reimagined

Special Commemorative Edition VOLUME 14 I ISSUE 7 I SEPTEMBER 2020 I UNGA

Special Commemorative Edition VOLUME 14 I ISSUE 7 I SEPTEMBER 2020 I UNGA

UN@75 DIPLOMACY REIMAGINED A special commemorative edition on the occasion of the UN’s 75th anniversary.

PUBLISHER DIPLOMATIC COURIER | MEDAURAS GLOBAL WASHINGTON, DC

A Global Affairs Media Network

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ANA C. ROLD EDITOR-AT-LARGE MOLLY MCCLUSKEY CREATIVE DIRECTOR MARC GARFIELD CONTRIBUTING EDITORS ALLYSON BERRI REBECCA GRAHAM SARAH JONES ANDERS HEDBERG PAUL NASH ADAM RATZLAFF WINONA ROYLANCE SHANE SZARKOWSKI SHALINI TREFZER MERCEDES YANORA

EDITORIAL ADVISORS ASMAA AL-FADALA ANDREW M. BEATO FUMBI CHIMA KERSTIN EWELT GHIDA FAKHRY SIR IAN FORBES LISA GABLE GREG LEBEDEV ANITA MCBRIDE CLARE SHINE

CONTRIBUTORS CARINE ALLAF TAYE BALCHA ALLYSON BERRI JAY DESHMUKH JI HAN ROLAND KLUEBER

MOLLY MCCLUSKEY NASOS MIHALAKAS ARUN S. NAIR JACEK OLCZAK DOMINIC REGESTER ANNA TUNKEL

Copyright © by Diplomatic Courier/Medauras Global Publishing 2006-2020 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. First Published in 2006. Published in the United States by Medauras Global and Diplomatic Courier. Mailing Address: 1660 L Street, NW, Suite 501, Washington, DC, 20036 | www.diplomaticourier.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data ISBN: 978-1-942772-07-1 (Digital) ISBN: 978-1-942772-06-4 (Print) LEGAL NOTICE. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form—except brief excerpts for the purpose of review—without written consent from the publisher and authors. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information in this publication; however, the authors, Diplomatic Courier, and Medauras Global make no warranties, express or implied, in regards to the information and disclaim all liability for any loss, damages, errors, or omissions.

EDITORIAL. The articles both in print and online represent the views of their authors and do not reflect those of the editors and the publishers. While the editors assume responsibility for the selection of the articles, the authors are responsible for the facts and interpretations of their articles. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information in this publication, however, Medauras Global and the Diplomatic Courier make no warranties, express or implied in regards to the information, and disclaim all liability for any loss, damages, errors, or omissions.

PERMISSIONS. None of the articles can be reproduced without their permission and that of the publishers. For permissions please email the editors at: info@medauras.com with your written request.

COVER DESIGN. Cover and jacket design by Marc Garfield for Diplomatic Courier.

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Welcome

Ana C. Rold Editor-in-Chief The world is increasingly siloed. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, globalization was in trouble. Although the flow of information is largely free, the movement of people, goods, IP, and capital is not. This is a unique moment in time to connect people who don’t usually work together and generate new ideas about solutions for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Every year, on the opening day of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in September, Diplomatic Courier and its partners host a high-level meeting titled the “SDGs in Action Forum.” Every year we bring together a multi-disciplinary group of leaders with the purpose of creating uncommon collaborations. But we all know this year is different.

While I believe this UNGA is the most open it has been in decades, I also know that the UN that was established 75 years ago to respond to the ills of a world war is not entirely up to task for the multiple crises we are facing today. But I also believe they don’t need to be.

For more than 60 years our focus in development and solution-making has been based on big actors and big solutions. Experts from very large institutions, under this model, have done a lot of good and big work. But times have changed.

The solutions are also coming from hubs outside of New York, Geneva, and Washington. And so, progress on the SDGs will depend on small-but-scalable solutions, decentralized, and devised by creativity and local knowledge.

This year’s meeting is not business as usual. Not because we are meeting virtually but because we are facing multiple crises all at once. Heavy statements to the tune of: “More than a billion children out of school around the world makes this a generational catastrophe” (UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres); and, “Gains made in the past 25 years were erased in just 25 weeks of the pandemic” (Melinda Gates) are weighing on our minds.

Indeed, this year is not business as usual for the SDGs. We have to make up for all the lost time and figure out how we can build resilient systems for the future. But I feel optimistic that we can. The most open UNGA in the UN’s history is unfolding this week and we have a chance to truly democratize solution-making.

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CONTENTS EDITOR’S NOTE

THE UN’s 75TH BIRTHDAY | ANA C. ROLD............................................................................................07

PHOTO JOURNAL

THE SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE.....................................................................................10

COVER STORY

CRITICISM AND PRAISE MARK UN’S 75TH ANNIVERSARY | MOLLY MCCLUSKEY....................................................................................................16

DIPLOMATICA

BUILDING A WORLD WITHOUT WAR | MOLLY MCCLUSKEY......................................................................................................................................20

FEATURES

THE PROMISE OF THE VIRTUAL 2020 UNGA | ANNA TUNKEL..................................................................................................................................................26 GLOBAL GOVERNANCE REFORM IN A POST-COVID-19 WORLD | NASOS MIHALAKAS......................................................................................................................................30 THE PATH TO ACHIEVING INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS | RIMA KAWAS AND EGUIAR LIZUNDIA................................................................................................36 COMBINE THE COVID-19 RESPONSE WITH LONG-TERM COMMITMENTS | TAYE BALCHA...................................................................................................................................................40 DIGITAL CONTACT TRACING INTEROPERABILITY: BALANCING PRIVACY AND PUBLIC HEALTH CONCERNS TO FIGHT COVID-19 | ARUN S. NAIR AND ROLAND KLUEBER............................................................................................46 THE POST-PANDEMIC COLLEGE CAMPUS | JAY DESHMUKH................................................................................................................................................52

PARTNER EDITORIALS

HOW EARLY MEETINGS HELPED EDUCATION MOVE FORWARD AGAINST THE FACE OF CRISIS | ALLYSON BERRI...............................................................................................57 SHIFTING OUR THINKING: AN OPTIMIST’S VIEW ON 2020 | JACEK OLCZAK...............................................................................................................................................60 VIRTUAL EXCHANGE TO THE RESCUE: STUDY ABROAD DURING COVID-19 | CARINE ALLAF AND DOMINIC REGESTER...............................................................64 ASPIRING TO A “NEW NORMAL” AT ZURICH INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL | JI HAN..............................................................................................................................................66

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THE SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE 25 APRIL - 26 JUNE 1945

Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., Secretary of State of the United States and Chairman of the delegation, addresses the 16th Penary Session, 26 June 1945. President Harry S. Truman (USA) is to his left. 26 June 1945. UN photo.

A view of the United Nations Charter. Book open on the signatory page.

UN Photo/Rosenberg.

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Mr. Hiller, inventor of the Helicopter, with French delegates at Kaiser Shipyards.

UN Photo/Rosenberg

U.S. Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., Chairman, U.S. Delegation, signing the UN Charter at a ceremony held at the Veterans’ War Memorial Building on 26 June. President Harry S. Truman stands by at left. UN Photo/Yould.

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The San Francisco Conference, 25 April-26 June 1945 San Francisco, United States.

Flags of the United Nations wave in the courtyard of San Francisco City Hall.

UN Photo/Lundquist.

Repair men keep lines open on international switchboard in Veterans Building.

Board handles up to 2000 calls an hour during rush periods. UN Photo/Otto.

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Boy Scout aides from Troops 11, 48, 88, and 147 are engaged as messengers for delegates at the United Nations Conference. UN Photo.

The operation of Mimeograph Machines on the 4th floor of the Veterans Building is one step in the production of conference documents.

UN Photo/Rosenberg.

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CRITICISM AND PRAISE MARK UN’S 75TH ANNIVERSARY

BY MOLLY MCCLUSKEY

S

UN PHOTO BY KY CHUNG.

eventy-five years after the UN charter was signed in San Francisco, the world is facing a series of challenges—a pandemic, climate change, mass migration, to name a few—that should, ostensibly, make the global organization more relevant than ever. But a series of scandals, a reputation as a slow-moving, inefficient bureaucracy, and a lack of transparency about how and where its funds are spent, all challenge whether the United Nations is still relevant in the modern world.

Founded after World War II to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,” the United Nations had a fourfold mission: safeguard peace and security; reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights; uphold respect for international law; and, promote social progress and better standards of life. These were no small tasks—then or now—and the organization that began with 300 staff members in 1946, now has 44,000 staff, working with 40 programs and agencies, not including scores of contractors in varying roles.

With headquarters in New York, Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi; regional commissions in Beirut, Santiago, Bangkok, and Addis Ababa, as 16 | UN@75

well as international criminal tribunals in The Hague for the former Yugoslavia and Arusha for Rwanda, the institution touches every part of the globe. The United Nations is so large that the organization frequently has to ward off accusations that it’s attempting to become a global government.

The organization has become so large that many of its key administrative functions have become mired in bureaucracy and nepotism.

While field staff are generally regarded as idealists with an eye on fulfilling its founders’ vision of building a safer, more peaceful and equitable world for all, the officials in its global headquarters are seen in significantly lower regard.

Rut Gomez Sobrino, a PhD student in Spain, spent three years working for UNESCO, before working under UN Women, UNDP, UNCDF, and UNWTO as well as in other international organizations such as IUCN, as staff and a consultant in 35 countries. She told Diplomatic Courier that nepotism in the hiring process is a widescale issue within the UN. “As result of what is called ‘fake recruitment’ processes, internal staff, and also people with no capacity but very good connections are appointed,” Gomez Sobrino told Diplomatic Courier. “The existence, and increasing use, of waivers still shocks many of us.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by one former Latin American diplomat who requested anonymity for fear of political reprisals. “The institution lacks the values and idealism of its staff,” the former diplomat told Diplomatic Courier, “who are often shuffled around to positions not within their expertise area.”

Michael Soussan, whistleblower and author of “Backstabbing for Beginners,” a book about the corruption he witnessed in Iraq while working with a United Nations program there, told Diplomatic Courier that staff idealism should drive reforms within the UN. “If the UN wants to renew itself it must empower its staff to select the leaders they want to see draft a package of true reforms,” Soussan said. “Imagine that, giving the staff within the UN the same rights as democratic citizens. Now that’s a cause I could get behind.”

Despite its core mission of safeguarding peace and security, the United Nations has been repeatedly pilloried for failing to prevent genocides in Cambodia, Srebrenica, and Rwanda; conflict in Kashmir, Somalia, Sudan and Syria; the U.S. assaults in Iraq and Afghanistan; the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, which a UN official called “the world’s largest” in 2019; and despite first convening at UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People in 1975, doing little to stop DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 17

what one United Nations official deemed “Israel’s ethnic cleansing” of the Palestinian people. This, against a backdrop of widespread, ongoing sexual abuse and exploitations by UN peacekeepers against some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

Developing nations, in particular, often criticize the United Nations for its lack of transparency, and the lavish lifestyles of its field staff, which I witnessed when on a reporting trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2014, and again on a trip to the Syrian/Jordan border in 2016. In the DRC, locals wished that after 20 years of peacekeeping operations in the region, the aid workers would simply leave, but leave behind their trucks and their buildings and their helicopters for the people of Congo when they did, allowing the locals to begin building their own future. In Honduras, recent efforts to make the organization disclose how their funds were being used, and the status of those projects, were blocked by UN officials.

“I don’t believe the UN is an element of change. They are just rhetoric,” said one former Latin American diplomat who requested anonymity for fear of political reprisals. “It’s a bureaucratic institution. Bad officials came to (my country.) They’re well paid but more interested in living well than helping the people.”

That perception, that the organization is inefficient, wasteful, and more concerned about doling out aid that looks good on paper, than meeting the needs of the communities it’s ostensibly serving, extends to the governments with which it partners.

“In the last years, the number of politicians from Member States appointed at UN agencies as result of paybacks is also increasing,” Gomez Sobrino said. “All these frustrate many committed and wellprepared staff working tirelessly at the UN, risking their lives in many contexts and with a genuine vocation of service in the field of international development.”

Kickback and bribery schemes have also extended to members of local governments coordinating with UN agencies, or to contactors aiming to land lucrative supply deals.

“If you know the local government is corrupt, and it’s destroying the economy, why does the UN keep giving them money?,” the former diplomat posited. “Don’t you have any moral requirements to know the money is helping the people?”

For all the criticism about the United Nations, justified or not, the global organization still has its legions of fans, those who believe the world, with all its flaws, is better off with the UN than without it.

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“The role of the United Nations is more important than ever,” Patrick Fine, the CEO of the international healthcare and education organization, told Diplomatic Courier.* “The type of challenges that nations and societies face are not confined within borders, like pandemics, migration, and access to water.”

“Given the interconnectedness of human life on the planet today, if we didn’t have the UN we would need it,” Fine said. “If the problems you have are global and regional in nature, solutions will require groups of nations to work together or each neighbor will suffer.”

If the UN was based on lofty ideals, and staffed with lofty idealists, it is perhaps best judged on the only metric that matters—its results. While the world has not achieved peace, human rights for all, gender equality, or a healthy and sustainable planet, it is perhaps not worse off than it would be without the global institution, for all its flaws.

“If not for UN Women, certain topics such as gender budgeting would be absent from the political discourse and agendas of many countries.

UNEP has highly contributed to leverage the debates on environmental protection and sustainable development,” Gomez Sobrino said. “Imagine what would have happened without the support of UNRWA to the Palestinian people. UNDP has for instance worked on highly sensitive topics such as Anti-Corruption and Integrity, protection of indigenous communities, the impact of environmental degradation on human security,” “At the same time there are few other agencies, that I will not mention, that just live out of having conferences here and there and some reports to show now and then,” Gomez Sobrino said. “Nowadays with the level of information and digital communications, it is easy to understand which ones contribute.”

There is nothing like a milestone to take stock of where an organization has been, and where it’s going, and the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations is an ideal time to recalibrate all aspects of its business to ensure it’s meeting the challenges of the modern age, and what’s to come. Overhauling its recruiting and hiring practices, ensuring headquarters staff have field experience, providing greater transparency on how, where, and why funds are spent, and working to regain the trust that it’s lost with its partners around the world, are all key to ensure the United Nations won’t go the way of its predecessor, the League of Nations.

“The United Nations acts its age,” said Soussan, “but it doesn’t need to.” *The author has previously provided consulting services to FHI360.

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BUILDING A WORLD WITHOUT WAR

BY MOLLY MCCLUSKEY

Christy mural. Photo by Molly McCluskey.

M

ementos of the convention that birthed the United Nations in 1945 are etched into the fabric of San Francisco; in the walls of its cathedral and the plazas of its civic center; and the buildings which served as the home for the delegates that traveled here, lured by the golden sunshine and the lure of the Pacific, perhaps disappointed to instead be greeted by San Francisco’s notorious summer fog.

But one artifact in particular, hanging on the walls of one of San Francisco’s most beautiful buildings, gifted by a man who later died under mysterious circumstances, will forever mark the occasion. ***** 20 | UNGA@75

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In August, 1944, mere days before Allied forces liberated Paris, a group gathered in Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, to plan for the eventual replacement of the League of Nations.

A sticking point, voting, was determined in Yalta by Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin.

Then, they traveled to San Francisco.

Legend has it that the idea to take the conference to San Francisco came from a vision. Edward Stettinius, President Roosevelt’s Secretary of State, recalled later that he had wakened in Yalta, and smelled the Pacific Ocean. “I saw the golden sunshine, and as I lay there on the shores of the Black Sea in the Crimea, I could almost feel the fresh and invigorating air from the Pacific,” he wrote in his diary. The city, after all, was the perfect distance from Asia, Latin America, and Europe alike, and had recently served as a launching area for soldiers fighting the war in the Pacific.

Eight hundred and fifty delegates traveled to the city by the bay in the summer of 1945, accompanied by several thousand members of their respective entourages, and 2,500 members of “press, radio and newsreel representatives and observers,” in what was believed at the time to be the largest international gathering ever to occur until that time.

The War Memorial, and its sister building, the Veterans Memorial, comprise the San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center, and are part of a complex of civic center buildings that serve as the legislative and artistic hubs of downtown San Francisco. Plazas large and small, grassy and concrete, streetlevel and balcony, offer gatherings spaces for protests, farmers markets, parade staging areas, or just a quiet place to read before ballet class begins. The largest, aptly named UN plaza, serves as a transit hub from Civic Center to the far reaches of the city and the Bay Area at large.

The buildings, which house the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco ballet, glow through every window of its Beaux Arts frame, through every column and arch, in a manner reminiscent of watchmen bearing lanterns. It glows like its neighbor, City Hall, reflects the sunset off its gold dome, as though the man who designed them both, Arthur Brown, Jr., he also of Coit Tower, wanted the buildings to serve as a beacon for anyone who might need it. And in the summer in San Francisco, in a nation so recently imprisoned by war, such a beacon would indeed be needed. As Mark Twain once wrote, “The coldest winter I DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 21

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ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” Truer words have perhaps never been written, as anyone who ever left their heart there can attest. *****

Grace Cathedral murals. Photo by Molly McCluskey.

The United Nations’ relationship with the city of its birth didn’t end at the signing of its charter. President Truman offered the Presidio to the United Nations as a site for its global headquarters. Members of the United Nations permanent site subcommittee issued a formal statement in November 1946, that they were “most especially impressed by the San Francisco Presidio, a federal military reservation, as a home for the international organization.”

It further declared, “The United Nations owe a debt of gratitude to its historic birthplace, the city of San Francisco.”

The Washington Post enthusiastically supported the possible site location, writing, in pure Washingtonian fashion, that they were “gratified” the UN was considering the Post’s “specific suggestion” of locating in San Francisco.

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“San Francisco has everything to commend it,” the Post wrote in what one could presume was an editorial. “Sentimentally, it has a claim no other city can offer of the UN birthplace, and it has never ceased to value the honor. It has unsurpassed scenic attractions, an enviable climate for work and concentration, and no hub-bub.” It noted that developments in air travel would make the Brits’ complaints about distance obsolete in a few years’ time, and pointed at the challenge of “unsatisfactory, widely separate meeting points in New York.”

Regardless of these excellent points extolling the very real virtues of San Francisco, the headquarters was instead built in New York City.

However, San Francisco continues to celebrate its history.

On the tenth anniversary, President Eisenhower welcomed “the world’s statesmen on behalf of the people of the United States,” to San Francisco, saying, “I think it is well that the whole country reviews the UN’s record of accomplishment and failure, and

Press covering the UN convention. UN Photo.

DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 23

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fix in our own minds again what are our hopes and our expectations for such a body.” President Johnson hosted a similar event on the 20th anniversary.

In 1970, on the 25th anniversary of the founding of the UN, delegates from 119 of the 126 members flew to San Francisco to mark the occasion. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported at the time, “It was the first such observance not attended by a President of the United States. A White House spokesman said that President Nixon, in Southern California, could not attend because of previous engagements.”

It further reported, “President Truman sent a message recalling that his first act as President was to order that the founding session would meet as scheduled, despite the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt less than two weeks earlier.”

Seventy-fifth celebrations have been impacted due to the coronavirus, as both buildings are closed, and California is suffering from the highest rates of the pandemic nationwide, as well as struggling with devastating wildfires that are impacting air quality and safety issues throughout the Bay Area.

Inside the temporarily shuttered buildings, however, plaques note the occasion of the signing of the charter. And one particularly notable artifact hangs on the west wall of the Herbst Theatre lobby in the War Memorial Veterans Building.

A painting by Howard Chandler Christy, the “Signing of the United Nations Charter,” depicts members of the U.S. delegation, including President Harry S. Truman; Secretary Stettinius; Commander Harold E. Stassen of the U.S. Naval Reserve; Virginia Gildersleeve, Dean of Barnard College in Columbia University; Representative Charles A. Eaton; Representative Sol Bloom; Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg; and Senator Tom Connolly.

Christy, named by Time Magazine in 1938 as the “most commercially successful artist in the U.S., was a prolific painter of portraits, including multiple U.S. presidents, Mussolini, Amelia Earhart, William Randolph Hearst, and more.

His painting, Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, is installed in the east stairwell of the U.S. Capitol, and indeed, Christy was originally commissioned for three paintings of the UN signing, to be displayed in New York City, Washington, DC, and San Francisco. However, Christy died after completing the first painting, and UN officials chose San Fran24 | UNGA@75

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Outside the War Memorial. UN Photo.

cisco, and the site of the signing of its charter, to be the home of the singular work. It was installed in the lobby of the Herbst Theatre in August 1956.

It was presented to the War Memorial Board of Trustees by then Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold, who would late die in a plane crash that not only triggered a succession crisis at the UN, but decades of conspiracy theories, most recently detailed by the Lux prize-winning documentary, Cold Case Hammarskjöld. Notably, President Truman, the day after the crash, famously told journalists, “(Hammarskjöld) was point of getting something done when they killed him.” But offered nothing to back up his claim.

Seventy-five years after the UN charter was signed in San Francisco, the city and the world are vastly different places. But like all vast things that once collide are always intertwined, the summer when thousands descended on the War Memorial in the hopes of building a world without war, is forever etched into this city, and the people who make it their headquarters. ***** About the author: Molly McCluskey is an international investigative journalist, the Editor-at-Large of Diplomatic Courier, and the creator of Diplomatica.

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THE PROMISE OF THE VIRTUAL 2020 UNGA

BY ANNA TUNKEL

T

his year marks a historic 75th anniversary of the United Nations. The first UN General Assembly brought together only 51 member states and represented a very homogenous picture of the world, far from where we are today. This September things look different in a way we could have never imagined before. Instead of a series of celebratory events and sessions—at the UN headquarters and all across New York City—the official portion of the most highprofile UN event of the year will be reduced to a series of prerecorded video messages by heads of states.

Most of the gatherings and summits of the previous years— from the UN SDG Action Zone to the UN Global Compact Private Sector Forum, to the World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Summit, to Climate Week, Concordia, MIT Solve, and numerous private initiatives convened by leading 26 | UN@75

private sector companies and international organizations—will be virtual.

COVID-19 wreaked unprecedented havoc on our society in every corner of the world, impacting health and economic systems, governance, education, trade, aid and development. While the impact of the pandemic and the lock-downs in developed markets is measured in industrial output drops, rising unemployment, and impact on specific industry sectors, like tourism, hospitality or aviation, the impact across developing and least developed countries is truly unprecedented. Underdeveloped health systems, reliance on the informal economy (nearly 80% in India alone, according to the ILO) and existing poverty levels (one in three people across the African continent’s 54 countries lives below the poverty line) will lead to long-lasting and devastating effect.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that “COVID-19 threatens decades of progress made towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals…As we build back in an inclusive and sustainable way, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to achieve the SDGs. But we cannot do it without business leadership”.

An Accenture and World Economic Forum Report assessed the near- and long-term impact of the pandemic on each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, painting a grim picture, but also highlighting opportunities for business to play a meaningful role in driving progress and action—around specific Goals, particularly Education, Gender Equality, Climate, and Rule of Law. How can we advance Goal 17—Partnerships for the Goals to help address a dire new reality that calls for mobilization and action?

And how can we make sure that these impact-multiplying partDIPLOMATIC COURIER | 27

nerships bring to the table and reach underrepresented groups in the system—from youth to indigenous people to small-holder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa?

There have been a number of recent ambitious initiatives and calls for action: • Corporate members of the Science Based Targets Initiative, representing a combined market capitalization of over $2.4 trillion and more than 5 million employees are calling for policies that will build resilience against future shocks by supporting efforts to hold global temperature rise to within 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, in line with reaching net-zero emissions well before 2050.

• Ellen MacArthur Foundation expanded its New Plastics Economy collaborative work with world’s leading consumer goods companies—from Unilever to L’Oréal, Danone and others, governments, and UNEP to eliminate single use plastics and adopt reuse and recycling models.

• Transform to Net Zero was launched by nine leading companies from Maersk to Nike and Wipro, together with the Environmental Defense Fund—as a major cross-sector initiative to accelerate the transition to a net zero global economy. The initiative aims to deliver guidance and business plans to enable a transformation to net zero emissions, as well as research, advocacy, and best practices to make it easier for the private sector to not only set ambitious goals–but also deliver meaningful emissions reductions and economic success.

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Most of them have been catalyzed at UN General Assembly and related global gatherings throughout the year. In past years, participation was confined to physical events in New York City, with few resource-constrained organizations— SMEs, regional businesses, or nonprofits able to attend. This year’s digital format hopefully makes the UN General Assembly and its ecosystem more accessible to emerging leaders and markets where action is needed the most. The UN Global Compact is anticipating more than 20,000 virtual participations for its series of summits; Concordia is partnering with UNCDF to bring nearly 2,000 SME leaders and small business owners from least developed countries to its event and partnerships-building track, while WEF will make its Sustainable Development Impact Summit and Uplink platform accessible beyond its traditional member base.

There is hope that the new COVID-induced reality can unleash more innovation in bringing previously unheard voices to the table, and in making partnerships and solutions around the SDGs more inclusive and wide-ranging. ***** About the author: Anna Tunkel is SVP and head of global strategic initiatives and partnerships at APCO Worldwide.

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GLOBAL GOVERNANCE REFORM IN A POST-COVID-19 WORLD

BY NASOS MIHALAKAS

T

he current pandemic and climate change have both exposed the inabilities of the global governance system to address such calamities, and further highlight the importance of multilateralism in dealing with global challenges as well as the need to reform the global governance system.

A recent report by The Economist argued that “international order� does not last forever: the Congress of Vienna, the Treaty of Versailles, and the League of Nations all collapsed within a number of decades.

The United Nations (UN), born out of the aftermath of a global economic depression and World War II is now 75 years old.

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As devastating as the COVID-19 pandemic has been around the world, it is unfortunately but a symptom of a failed global governance system that should have been able to identify, contain, and mitigate such a global development. On the other hand, climate change which is caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is very much like a cancer that has been growing for a century and could lead to the extinction of the human race if it’s not addressed seriously and immediately.

Our current global governance system has undoubtedly failed us. However, the answer is not to turn our backs to multilateralism and retreat to an “America First” attitude. We need to find ways, through multilateralism and shared action to make the UN more capable in dealing with our global challenges, like a pandemic, and especially climate change.

Sovereign Equality The UN is based on the current international legal system that places paramount importance on national sovereignty. All nations are sovereign within their territory (from any external interference) and all nations are equal irrespective of size, power, or population (from 1.4 billion people China to 11 thousand people Tuvalu). To put it simply, international decision (law) cannot be imposed upon a nation without its consent, and therefore international agreements need unanimity to come to life. A sovereign nation must consent to the application of international law within its jurisdiction.

Therefore, the reason why our global governance system is ineffective in dealing with international challenges which transcend national boundaries (like a pandemic or climate change), or the ability of just a few nations to address…is the need for consensus and unanimity.

Even the UN, which with its universal membership and the closest thing we have to a global government, is unable to act without consensus and unanimity. In particular, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) can only issue “non-binding recommendations,” when 2/3 of members approve. Only the 15-member UN Security Council (UNSC) can make decisions that are legally binding on all UN member states, by simple majority voting… and the consent of all permanent members (thus giving veto power to the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, or France).

On the other hand, the UN has prioritized over the past 75 years (understandably) humanitarian disasters; genocides, poverty/hunger, civil wars, natural disasters, etc. Often, such matters were contained within a few nation states (with the exception of HIV-Aids). Now we face the kind of challenges that by definition transcend nation-states: DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 31

a pandemic that due to our interconnected global economy spread from one country to the whole world in a matter of months, and rising global temperatures caused by GHG emissions generated by the ever-growing production and consumption of our global economy.

Can the UN continue with “business as usual,” or do these recent developments dictate a drastic shift in its role and function? Is there still a role for the UN, in a post COVID-19 world, where global GHG emissions are still rising? From the U.S. perspective, the answer can certainly not be a retreat to “fortress America” and the abandonment of multilateralism. Such global challenges have an almost inevitable way of impacting our domestic tranquility.

Paradigm Shifting Moment It is time for the UN to re-align its priorities and focus more on the kind of things that are truly global, that can spread from one country to the next, and that impact the whole world equally and indiscriminately. This might require that primary focus is given to Climate Change, Public Health, and Natural Disasters, but also policing the World Wide Web (access to and availability of information for an otherwise free and open internet), Outer Space, the Oceans, and the Polar Caps.

Overall, the post COVID-19 UN needs to prioritize the protection and stewardship of the global commons, which belongs to all people and not national governments. National sovereignty cannot be an impediment to a new global governance system focused on the protection of the global commons, and in particular the environment (climate, air, water, space). In the face of global pandemics and rising temperatures, “unanimity in decision making” (in the name of national sovereignty) is no longer functional.

Therefore, a new global governance system that makes decisions on the basis of “enhanced majority” might be needed to overcome the challenges of the 21st century.

The European Union (EU), in its need to get past unanimity in its decision-making process, adopted a system of qualified (or double) majority. Under this approach, decisions require the support of 55% of member states, which must also represent 65% of the population. This system can be further enhanced to form a new decision-making model for the UN, that bypasses the requirement of unanimity. UN decisions could be based on a 2/3 majority of the member states, capturing such a majority in 2/3 of the main categories: number of members, population, and depending on the issue either GDP (for public health issues), GHG emissions (for 32 | UNGA@75

climate change issues), and trade (imports/exports for economic development issues).

For example, in a UN of 193 members, a working majority would be 129 countries, representing 5.1 billion people (out of a total of 7.7 billion), account for $58 trillion in GDP (out of a total of $87 trillion), and emitting 67% of all GHG. Just for comparison, the OECD (the ultimate rich nation club—give or take a few countries) which accounts for $53 trillion of global GDP and 34.7% of global GHG emission, only has 37 member states, representing only 1.3 billion people. Similarly, the top 25 countries by wealth (which includes the G-20), account for $70.9 trillion of global GDP, and 76% of total global GHG emission, and even represent 4.69 billion people…would only represent 25 countries.

Of course, there is no guarantee that a global governance system based on a 2/3 majority of any combination will be more functional, but it should have a better chance of responding to global developments then the current system of unanimity and sovereign equality.

Amending the UN Charter Which brings us back to the current UN decision-making system, which was adopted after the devastating effects of World War II, and which was underpinned by the new emerging global super-powers (the U.S., the Soviet Union, and China) and with an eye on the impending collapse of the British and French colonial empires. According the UN Charter (Art. 18), each member state has one (equal) vote in the General Assembly (because post-colonialism independent states have equal power as past colonial empires), which however can only issue non-binding “recommendations” (because of the need to respect national sovereignty) to the UN Security Council.

The UN Security Council, on the other hand, has the power to issue decisions that are legally binding on all UN member states, but it also has five permanent members (the old and new post WWII superpowers) that can veto any such decision. Obviously, the UN Security Council is the closest thing we have to a global government, with the power to overcome national sovereignty. However, the UN Security Council has also been the most ineffective in dealing with either climate change or the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Reforming the UN Security Council has been a constant topic of discussion, within the UN and by external experts. The current permanent membership of the U.S., China, Russia, UK, and France, no longer represent the reality of the world we live in. Although obviously the U.S., China, and Russia can maintain some legitimate reasons for being considered the top global superpowers (due to economic or military might), the UK and France cannot. There have been many DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 33

proposals to reform the UN Security Council, most of which include some kind of variation of adding more permanent members of higher wealth (like Japan and Germany) or of regional representation (Brazil and South Africa).

The most meaningful UN Security Council reform however, would be to remove the UK and France and replace them with the EU (second largest market in the world) and India (second most populous nation in the world). If the U.S., China, Russia, India, and the EU were the five permanent veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council, they would constitute 48% of the worlds population, 67% of global GDP, and 63% of global GHG emission.

Unfortunately, any effort to reform the UN, will require amending the UN Charter. Whether the goal is to empower the General Assembly to make binding decisions through an EU-style qualified majority system, or to change the membership of the UN Security Council to achieve greater global representation, amending the UN charter will require the consent of the current permanent (veto-wielding) UN Security Council members. (Amendments to the UN Charter require 2/3 majority of the General Assembly, plus Security Council approval.) The chances of any of the current permanent five giving up any power to the General Assembly or to other member states are slim to none.

One example of bypassing the UN Security Council is through the use of UN General Assembly resolution 377A (V) (the Uniting for Peace resolution), which was passed on November 3rd, 1950, to deal with the Korean War. According to that resolution, if the Security Council cannot or will not act to fulfill its primary obligation (maintain peace and security) due to lack of unanimity, then the General Assembly shall consider and direct other UN member to act appropriately. The most recent case by the International Court of Justice that addressed this issue was issued in 2004, where the ICJ opined that: “Emergency Special Session, convened pursuant to resolution 377 A (V), whereby, in the event that the Security Council has failed to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, the General Assembly may consider the matter immediately with a view to making recommendations to Member States.” Of course, this “Emergency Special Session” can only be used for “peace and security” issues, and a new “Uniting for the Platen” resolution might have to be adapted.

Reviving the UN Trusteeship Council Even a more modest effort to elevate the issue of climate change within the UN hierarchy will require amending the UN Charter, which will make it subject to the approval the permanent five. For example, 34 | UNGA@75

the UN has officially six principal organs: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the International Court of Justice, the Secretariat, the Economic and Social Council, and the Trusteeship Council. The first four are very much standard in function, while the Economic and Social Council is the one with a specific subject matter (recognizing the importance of dealing with economic and social issues postWWII). The Trusteeship Council was set up to administer trust territories (former dependent territories from colonial times) and guide them towards self-government or independence.

The UN Trusteeship Council ceased its operations in 1994, when the last of the trust territories (Palau) gained its independence. The UN Charter section on the Trusteeship Council makes reference to the promotion of “the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the trust territories” (Art. 76), and that the trusteeship system shall not apply to member states of the UN. The focus therefore, is on people, while respecting member state sovereignty. However, an argument can be made that climate change could inevitably impact not only the life of people but also the very sovereignty of several UN members states: especially certain island nations.

We could wait until then to deal with a whole new host of trust territories (or people without a country) that will need to be administered by the UN. Or, we can re-purpose the Trusteeship Council with a new mandate: to protect and safeguard the sea, the air, the environment (in essence the global commons)—the parts of our planet that are under threat by climate change, that do not belong to any one sovereign nation. This, of course, cannot be done unless and until we amend the UN Charter.

The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change crisis require a response that our current system of governance is not able to offer. Maybe reforming the decision-making process of the UN is a “pie in the sky” unrealistic solution. Until we can find a way to reform the UN Security Council and amend the UN Charter, we will have to rely on the unilateral action and leadership of like-minded nations; the kind of global leadership that Joe Biden is promising to reestablish if he wins the upcoming U.S. Presidential Election. Not only do we need the U.S. to engage more with the world, but until we can reform the UN we also need the U.S. to lead the world again, in order to overcome our current challenges. ***** About the author: Nasos Mihalakas is a Global Professor of Practice in Law at the University of Arizona College of Law, and a Visiting Research Associate at the Athens Institute for Education and Research.

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THE PATH TO ACHIEVING INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS

BY RIMA KAWAS AND EGUIAR LIZUNDIA

T

he COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically highlighted the need for effective international cooperation in a globalized world, where country-level solutions cannot effectively address transnational challenges. With currently more than 30 million confirmed cases and more than 945,000 deaths and spikes appearing across the globe, no country can tackle this pandemic alone. The collective efforts to create a vaccine, improve testing, and create safe travel corridors underscore how health and mobility are critical global goods. The ongoing crisis emphasizes once again the importance of the multilateral agenda, and the role those on the frontlines play to actualize international commitments.

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From the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to the Paris Agreement, to the Open Government Partnership (OGP), the international community has made great progress in outlining a more prosperous, healthy, and transparent world. Unfortunately, these ambitious objectives risk being sidelined now, as the effects of COVID-19 will hamper the ability of countries and supranational institutions to prioritize long-term needs. Normally, these challenges—extreme poverty, global warming, corruption—and the commitments associated with them, would have been at the center of the United Nations General Assembly held annually in September. But for the first time in its 75 years of history, world leaders will not be gathering in-person in New York City, a powerful reminder that the globe is still struggling with the worst pandemic in over 100 years.

Amidst this bleak picture, a look at how local communities and subnational institutions are dealing with devastating effects of COVID-19 offers glimmers of hope. In the months since the pandemic broke out, we have witnessed several examples of citizens uniting to support each other and protect the most vulnerable. In South Africa, for instance, the Ndlovu Youth Choir utilized their artistic ability to compose a song on the World Health Organization’s safety advice to help their community stay informed. In Jordan, citizens from Mafraq created a volunteer committee to help deliver food to vulnerable residents. In nations particularly struck by COVID-19 state governments are adopting creative solutions. In India, the state of Odisha secured medical supplies to its healthcare network by rethinking its approach to procurement that included multiple stakeholders, such as doctors, hospital managers and officials across several public entities. Where national governments may struggle to manage the crisis, local community actors have tried to fill the gap.

Epidemics often showcase the need and capacity of actors outside the central government to be included. The Ebola crisis is but one example where local leadership—in coordination with national and international efforts—was essential in solving a transnational problem. The need to obtain local community buy-in, as well as the importance of national government coordination along with international organization and country to country collaboration has been key in trying to contain the crisis. Locally led responses to health crises accentuate why countries ought to enthusiastically embrace multilevel governance as a means to achieve progress on development goals.

Top-down approaches to achieve critical benchmarks on health care, the environment and government transparency, among others, must be accompanied by bottom-up initiatives. Too ofDIPLOMATIC COURIER | 37

ten it is thought of as an “either/or� or there is an expectation that this symbiosis will occur organically. As development agencies think through how to address global challenges in the absence of an in-person UNGA this year, they must be more intentional about working with and through local actors. Here are two ways they should do this.

First, ambitious development agendas need to be tailored to local realities in order to be successful, and those in close proximity to where the needs are have better information to adopt them. In addition, seeking inputs and supporting initiatives beyond the national government create the conditions for creativity and the piloting of innovative solutions. Experimentation is critical to effectively tackling socioeconomic, environmental and democratic governance challenges. Moreover, international commitments such as the SDGs can be a vehicle for governments to showcase they are reform minded, but with no real intention to implement the reform. Multilateral organizations and bilateral donors should demand that citizens are part of wholeof-society efforts to ensure that governments are pressed and accountable for achieving the goals.

However, incorporating the beneficiaries of global compacts into their design and implementation is not always easy. For emerging democracies, the infrastructure and practice for greater citizen or subnational government involvement might be lacking. Thus, a second priority for development partners is providing such countries with much needed assistance in establishing those frameworks and following through on commitments. Setting a hierarchy of priorities, especially in a context of economic downturn and strained government capacity and ensuring inputs and support from a broad range of actors, can maximize the chances of succeeding in maintaining the global development agenda. This will become more pressing as aid to stop the spread of COVID-19 and efforts to rebuild in its wake become more abundant.

The ongoing pandemic has demonstrated that effectively tackling key global challenges must prioritize the local level. Any successful global agreement or cooperation need to ensure the support of key local constituencies such as subnational government, civil society, political parties, and citizens. Fostering community buy-in and adopting a multi-level governance model are not only effective strategies in a health crisis, they should be the guiding principle to addressing various global challenges.

Existing international commitments offer a roadmap for doing this, but without sustained efforts to include and learn from lo38 | UNGA@75

cal actors, neither a solution for the current pandemic nor other critical development goals will be achieved on time. ***** About the authors: Rima Kawas is a Senior Advisor at the International Republic Institute where she focuses on providing technical advice to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) division and on private sector engagement. Eguiar Lizundia is the Associate Director for Technical Advancement of IRI’s Center for Global Impact.

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COMBINE THE COVID-19 RESPONSE WITH LONG-TERM COMMITMENTS

BY TAYE BALCHA

T

he COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented threat to humankind. The acute crisis has already altered the landscape of public health, societal fabric, and economies worldwide. By mid-September, more than 30 million people have been infected by the virus and about 940,000 died of its complications. It is predicted that the pandemic will push 100 million more people to extreme poverty and economies of several nations are expected to contract as the pandemic is following a protracted trajectory.

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The pandemic has put the global health partnership to a serious test. It has exposed the sharp and systemic divides between nations typically shaping the global health agendas. In fact, it is important to appreciate the European Union (EU) for playing a vital role in intensifying global cooperation to collectively respond to the pandemic. At this critical moment in the history of global health, it took charge of the short- and medium-term response and rallied the world to translate the early knowledge about the pandemic to effective diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics. Even more importantly, the EU has advocated for equitable access to and use of the products under development in all geographies across the world as soon they are available.

A clear notable absentee from the solidarity table was the United States, a country hitherto at the forefront of such global scale cooperation. More detrimental, the U.S. has decided to withdraw its World Health Organization (WHO) membership over China’s and the agency’s handling of the pandemic. The U.S. withdrawal may lead to twin challenges in global health: it could undermine the global response to the pandemic in the near- and mediumterm and it could put the global health targets in jeopardy in the long-term. Without U.S. leadership and involvement, the anatomy of global cooperation may not have the same shape. In particular, its withdrawal from WHO membership could leave a big gap and it could severely dent the performance of this premier global health agency in a variety of areas.

Currently, health systems across the world are struggling to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The national responses so far have largely been labile, but it should be noted that vulnerabilities of the health systems are not homogenous everywhere.

The protracted shock caused by the pandemic has far-reaching impacts on health systems of low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). The health systems of LMICs are struggling to protect essential health services and respond to multiple outbreaks like measles, yellow fever, malaria, and other outbreaks as well as other humanitarian situations while simultaneously grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic. The secondary impacts of the pandemic are also exacting a heavy toll on national economies and livelihoods as well as social structures. The scale of overall impacts will depend on the remaining trajectory of the pandemic, national government and community commitments, global cooperation, and the pace of new discoveries, particularly a vaccine.

While dealing with the headwinds of the pandemic, the global health community cannot simply relinquish its long-term comDIPLOMATIC COURIER | 41

mitments. It is not too soon to discuss the fate of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Specifically, SDG 3 was a landmark global consensus since it focuses not only on national-level achievements but “no one should be forced behind� has been the foundational commitment of the global health community.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit at the end of last year, the SDG 3 has moved from ambitious and achievable to an elusive goal, and pushed to a distal part on the spectrum of the global health priority.

Compromised Pathway Towards SDG 3 A combination of demanding communities and high-quality disease prevention, health promotion, and treatment are required to improve societal health outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified a latent mistrust in healthcare that communities already had in many nations. This has severely impacted the demand side of health care during the pandemic. Out-patients visits to health facilities have substantially declined due to the fear of hospitalacquired contagion with the virus. In particular, this has been a challenge in LMICs where the underlying infection prevention program is weak and communities are usually suspicious of their governments’ intentions even in health service settings.

The most important impediment is the heavy burden of the pandemic on the supply side of healthcare delivery. A high proportion of hospital beds have been occupied by COVID-19 patients, a chain of essential supplies has been disrupted, and health care workers are physically and mentally overwhelmed by the pandemic and its response. Poorly resourced countries do not have sufficient reserve to overcome those challenges.

Also, the pandemic has worsened a background challenge with regard to infection prevention and lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), which has critically affected the continuity of essential services.

The WHO warned that more than 80 million children aged younger than 1 year could miss scheduled vaccinations because of the pandemic. The uptake of family planning services has dropped with the resultant skyrocketing unwanted pregnancies. For instance, teenage pregnancies in Kenya increased by 40% during the three months of lockdowns compared with prior monthly average. Antenatal and delivery services by skilled health personnel have plummeted.

Major disease control programs have been severely impacted as well. A modelling study for high-burden settings published in 42 | UNGA@75

The Lancet Global Health concluded that deaths over a 5-year period from HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria could increase by 10%, 20%, and 36%, respectively. Similarly, an editorial published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization highlighted that overprescribing antibiotics for mild COVID-19 cases, increased hospital admissions, interruptions of treatments for communicable disease as well as use of biocidal agents in non-health care settings could drive the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. Further, care and treatment for chronic illness including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancers has been compromised in many settings.

A Case for Charting a New Path in Global Health Although the COVID-19 pandemic has severe effects on livelihoods, economic growth and others and these areas merit attention, I argue that improving health should be the priority.

Improved health could catalyze the mitigation of secondary effects of the pandemic, including poverty. It is clearly evident that the pandemic has disrupted health care delivery and exposed the underlying inadequacies in health systems worldwide. This will certainly reverse the major gains the world has made in improving health and reducing mortality, particularly during the last three decades. It is imperative to sustain and intensify the response to the pandemic through implementing WHO standards in the local contexts and ultimately control the pandemic. It is also inevitable that the world will emerge from this crisis regardless of the number of lives lost and the livelihoods impacted, which highlights the criticality of focusing on the next health care delivery.

The global health community should re-establish resilient health systems that could absorb any potential shock mainly at national and sub-national levels in the new future. This may entail a leading edge thinking in global health and should go beyond national recovery efforts. A collective spirit of global solidarity is required to save the finest global health targets overwhelmingly agreed upon in 2015. It also deserves community commitment so that local communities lead the way in transforming their own health and well-being. It is time to comprehensively review the actual magnitude of reversal of recent gains or the scale of the hampered progress attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated challenges across the spectrum of public health. A robust plan is required to compensate for the pandemic-related losses and re-configure health care delivery DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 43

models to make them pandemic-proof. A global-scale coalition should chart its new journey, which not only effectively controls the current pandemic but puts mechanisms in place to prevent any potential emergencies and ultimately transform the health of global citizens. To this end, I recommend three actions.

First, we should accelerate testing, tracing, and isolation of COVID-19 cases by blending international best practices and a diverse set of locally-appropriate interventions. All prevention methods including hand sanitization, social distancing, and wearing masks should remain in place until the pandemic is no more a threat to human life. It is important to keep in mind that the virus is blind to national boundaries and we should aim to control the pandemic worldwide. This could be even more relevant when an effective vaccine becomes available as equitable and timely access is essential.

Second, the global health community should find time to conduct a realistic assessment of the status of SDG 3: good health and well-being. All the health targets should be reviewed at national and local levels to ensure that no one is forced behind.

Based on the status of each target, it is important to craft a catch-up plan with embedded performance management and accountability framework. Although setting priorities could help, it is not acceptable to resign on any of the health targets. This clearly requires bolstering national health systems to match the next desired operation.

Lastly, cooperation at global and local levels is essential. The global health community should convert the learning from the pandemic apocalypse to a sustained preparedness. Nations across the world should be supported to establish resilient health systems grounded in primary health care. As witnessed in Ethiopia, Rwanda, and other countries, primary health care could serve as the Achilles’ heel of health care systems both during emergencies and normal times. Further, science and genuine partnership with local communities should inform the best response. The utter disregard to science by some governments has only been counterproductive to a successful pandemic response.

Several governments failed their citizens during this pandemic.

Instead of focusing on saving lives, scores of governments used the pandemic as an oppressing tool to expand the boundaries of their powers by skipping elections. This has undermined democracy and contributed to deepened community mistrust in their governments, and caused unnecessary loss of lives.

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The world should continue the fight to reverse and contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Concurrently, it should re-focus on its long-range health commitments. This could be done through enhancing partnership at each level and intensifying local commitments including bolstering health systems. Only unified, genuine forces could help us emerge from this crisis and transport us to a future of global health composed of cooperation and resilience. ***** About the author: Taye Balcha, MD, PhD, MPH, is a former MP in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (2010-2015) and former (2016-2018) Director General of Armauer Hansen Research Institute, a biomedical research facility for infectious disease located in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

Editor’s Note: The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.

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DIGITAL CONTACT TRACING INTEROPERABILITY: BALANCING PRIVACY AND PUBLIC HEALTH CONCERNS TO FIGHT COVID-19

BY ARUN S. NAIR AND ROLAND KLUEBER

T

he exponential spread of COVID-19 has prompted the creation of contact-tracking and contact-tracing apps to help rapidly identify potential infections and curb the disease’s spread. Digital contact-tracking and tracing is preferred over manual methods due to the ineffectiveness of the latter and due to recent insights, such as a study showing that infectiousness begins four days before the onset of symptoms.

However, the exorbitant cost of developing and operating these apps has grabbed the limelight. For instance, in Germany, the app development cost was a whopping €20 million (around $23 million) and the monthly operating costs are estimated to be around €3 mil46 | UNGA@75

lion. The crucial facet of the interoperability of these apps has received little attention, in turn leading to major gaps after reopening borders post partial lock-downs. As recently as June, interoperability between national COVID-19 apps was discussed intensively with open outcomes on time horizon, implementability, and costs (see Switzerland, Germany, Italy, France).

Amid such regulatory initiatives and technological innovations, however, a landmark ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has firmly brought the fundamental rights of privacy and personal data protection into focus. There are concerns that many of these apps do not have privacy policies and/or ‘publicly stated anonymity measures’ though it is important that they ensure anonymity, privacy, and data security.

The CJEU judgement on July 16 effectively invalidated a pact enabling transfer of EU citizens’ data to the U.S. The agreement, called the EUU.S. Privacy Shield, was challenged by the Austrian privacy activist and lawyer Maximillian Schrems on the grounds that U.S. laws do not adequately protect EU citizens’ data from being accessed by U.S. authorities as part of that country’s national security-related monitoring programs. According to the CJEU, U.S. surveillance programs are regarded as having primacy over such an agreement in the interests of U.S. national security, public interest, and law enforcement—which could allow for interference in the fundamental rights of EU citizens.

The CJEU said that protection of EU citizens’ data is not guaranteed “in a way that satisfies requirements that are essentially equivalent to those required, under EU law.”

This ruling would not only directly affect data flows from the EU to the U.S., but could also have implications for cross-border data flows across the world as concerned stakeholders raise alarms over how data privacy is protected by other governments. This, in turn, complicates relevant privacy and data protection regulations including those governing digital contact tracing and tracking apps.

Following the CJEU ruling, there has been a move to ensure “data independence” for EU-U.S. data flows, as well as retrieving and transferring EU citizens’ personal data that was stored in the U.S. back to Europe, or to a third country where data is protected adequately.

Given the interconnected and interdependent nature of the world today, the likelihood of pandemics that can be caused by viruses is going to be a long-lasting threat. This prospect, combined with the surge in digitalization of economies as well as increasing smartphone use, would mean that there would be a governmental-level push towards developing a digital contact-tracking and tracing app DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 47

ecosystem and the related regulatory structure to tackle such situations. Fueling this trend is concerns over the sluggish pace of manual tracing failing to keep up with the surge in the spread of the disease.

In addition, ground reality shows that the vaccination route to eliminating the disease is expected to be a long-winding one.

Ideally, such a situation should have made it easy to get everyone to use contact tracing and tracking apps. There are, however, ample challenges due to: the level of effectiveness of these apps (in terms of their ability to correctly alert the users—who are healthy—when they come in close contact with another user infected by the virus); technical problems related to the functioning of the apps; as well as the general disinclination to install these apps on smartphones owing to concerns over inadequate privacy and data protection as well as on account of complacency following a fall in the number of cases.

The digital contact tracing solutions so far are mainly driven by national initiatives that unfortunately do not address the global nature of the challenge posed by the pandemic. The world is now divided into countries where contact tracing is either comprehensive or limited in use and where there is no such activity. This disparate scenario calls for ways to ensure global interoperability of these apps in a manner that improves their operational efficiency. Interoperability can help strengthen the global economy by not only making it easier for people to re-engage in international business operations but also by boosting tourism.

The pandemic has shown that the existing regulatory system had not properly envisaged ways to effectively handle the post-lockdown phase. It would be important for the regulators to note that in order to open regional and national borders and simultaneously manage the risk of larger outbreaks in case of a shortage of vaccine, they will have to enforce interoperability of existing contact tracing applications or find ways to complement them. Private companies and governments need to collaborate now with intensity to increase their efforts to minimize the negative consequences of the disease on lives and the quality of living—not only for the current but also for future pandemics.

Data privacy, security, and even sovereignty concerns are legitimate and must be honored in the process of implementing interoperability.

There is already criticism of commercial exploitation of personal data by companies to garner huge profits, a phenomenon also being described as surveillance capitalism. In addition, there are concerns over the possibilities of repurposing of contact tracing and keeping it in force even after the pandemic is over. It is, therefore, important to find the right balance between such concerns and the greater public good—both at 48 | UNGA@75

the national and global levels. This can be done by ensuring that tracing and tracking technologies not only help control the spread of infections but also result in quick return to life without the mobility restrictions that have been in place since the pandemic outbreak.

International level regulatory dialogues are important to ensure that interoperability is among the good regulatory practices that promote market openness. Greater interoperability will benefit consumers (lower information costs and prices) and policymakers (helping them address challenges such as cyberattacks). However, striking the right balance is crucial because mandating “uniform technical standards and interfaces” just for the sake of interoperability could thwart the efforts of firms from bringing out innovative products.

At the same time, it is vital to consider the time constraints during a pandemic such as COVID-19. The benefits on account of greater interoperability in the back end as well as aligned data content and privacy standards outweigh the potential innovation limitations.

However, innovation should be promoted in the frontend to foster high adoption rates. The complexities of the situation warrant the need to hold discussions with all stakeholders, including the private sector. Such an approach can ensure that global interoperability is achieved organically (without coercion) in a transparent and nondiscriminatory manner, which not only facilitates trade, helps in “greater sharing of the benefits of digital trade,” and promotes innovation and global growthm but also protects privacy, security and consumer interests.

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Current contact tracing initiatives, however, could encounter several interoperability hurdles as they attempt to work in alignment with several existing frameworks. To address this issue, we propose a five-level customer centric contact tracing framework to ex-ante avoid global interoperability issues or help to heal them after they materialize.

Since the purpose of digital contact tracing is to serve the entire humanity, it must be inclusive, easy to use, and cost-efficient in order to enable its adoption on a large scale. Here it is vital to note that digital contact tracing will improve only if these apps are made interoperable and are used by a majority of the population. Most national contact tracing approaches might fail if they do not offer relevant incentives to boost their adoption as well as promote interoperability nationally and globally. In this regard, it is important for governments to address the digital divide by facilitating the development of digital infrastructure, including high-speed digital connectivity even in remote regions, and inclusion. As an alternative solution, governments could take steps to promote additional digital devices (such as Excalibur) or wearables (preferably globally interoperable) that support monitoring young children and the elderly, who generally do not use smart phones, as well as address situations handicapped by the unavailability or exclusion of smart phones (e.g. production lines, hospitals, slaughterhouses).

What will be crucial to achieve global interoperability is ensuring that the shared benefits from it outweigh the costs incurred in achieving it.

The costs of the lock-down accumulate to USD $1.4 trillion on the financial market and USD $6 trillion globally until April 2020. Recent estimates suggest an impact of USD $1.2-3.3 trillion on the tourism sector alone. That implies the promised value of a worldwide interoperable contact tracing would be worth the effort, as the benefits stemming from such an exercise would exceed the costs.

The benefits are that: it can lead to faster and more focused local lockdowns and speedier recovery of economies—as it can ensure that lesser number of people are infected and fewer need to be quarantined; and, it can lead to quicker and more controlled opening of international transport—as it will make it easy to track down the infected people and super-spreaders as well as those who do not comply with the reasonable restrictions in place for safeguarding public health—in turn, bringing down the overall economic damage.

50 | UNGA@75

What is required now is a stronger collaboration between governments and companies to bring out more incentives to ensure widespread adoption of a variety of interoperable digital contact tracing options. Only such an approach would lead to equitable distribution of benefits on account of a trustworthy infrastructure and data shared by the users across the world.

Lack of cooperation and collaboration will lead to more infections, loss of lives, and prolonged lockdown. A look at the history of pandemics helps us understand that COVID-19 will not be the last one and that a vaccine for the disease would not be a panacea. With lives, freedom of movement, and economic growth at stake, it is important to turn to data-secure and privacy-respecting digital contact-tracing and tracking solutions and a globally accepted interoperability mechanism. ***** About the authors: Arun S. Nair is a Visiting Fellow at the New Delhi-based think-tank Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS). Dr. Roland Klueber is an innovator, consultant, and contributor to several think-tanks.

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THE POST-PANDEMIC COLLEGE CAMPUS

BY JAY DESHMUKH

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he COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated long-emergent changes to post-secondary education and therefore, campus design. “Band-aid education� has amplified deficiencies and strengths in pedagogy and forced institutions to reevaluate systems of learning, compelling a deeper reckoning on the purpose of higher education. As an architect with almost 25 years of experience in campus design, I synthesized research insights from 50+ faculty, students and staff at 40+ campuses in fifteen countries to propose that future-focused campuses must embrace fluid learning and social continuums, expanding their built environments beyond traditional forms and boundaries.

The Evolving Whole Campus Experience Simultaneous, divergent forces are causing the campus to undergo rapid evolution as hybridity persists and serendipity and nuance in 52 | UNGA@75

campus life is evaporating. Beyond reconciling variants of hybrid education, academic life has synergies with collaborative and social spaces like libraries, offices, gymnasia, cafeterias, student centers and residences, which cannot remain agnostic to prevailing changes.

Despite plans for student life facilities already under the microscope, it is unlikely that institutions will abandon the whole-person immersive experiences intrinsic to their identities. Rather, these places will flex in scale or strategically merge with their broader communities to develop greater connectivity and civic relevance.

Innovative research-oriented campuses will grow industry partnerships like those at Audi Institute-TU Munich and Microsoft-Cisco-Intel-University of Melbourne which directly impact learning. Already, technology corporations in India and China operate “universities” with 21st century skills training, Silicon Valley provides access to “Stanford-Online”, and even Walmart proffers education benefits aligned with lifelong learning goals. Similarly, universities are refocusing their curricula from holistic knowledge creation to job-preparedness, which has already impacted planning and design. Entrepreneurial maker spaces encouraging experimentation while mimicking WeWork are now de-rigueur in new academic buildings. Time will tell if these industry-integrated spaces proliferate, or get co-opted by corporate campuses, i.e. the “MIT lab at CISCO”, rather than the “CISCO lab at MIT”.

Once the armature of campus life gets redistributed to their communities, what experiences and spaces will be deemed essential and core to the campus? Radical modifications in academic models are being debated as even elite institutions re-examine their fundamental mandates, and the promise of mass education to effect social advancement is questioned. As campuses reconsider hybrid returns, the ubiquitous shift to remote learning has upended the pedagogical foundations of didactic and experiential learning to catalyze new forms of knowledge creation and socialization. The following speculations reshape the campus community and its architecture: Campus beyond departments: While department-based structures are likely to endure, decreasing budgets and increasing costs demand a reexamination of facilities’ utilization to amplify synergies for interdisciplinarity and efficiency. Smaller campuses will lead the charge to delink departments from space allocations and re-envision the built environment as an amalgam of intersecting typologies – scalable classrooms, labs, lecture halls, studios, and reinvented social spaces.

Hybridity: Despite significant disruption, hybridity will expand; collaborative, student-focused programs and Netflix/Khan-Academy-inspired DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 53

models exploring informal and formal partnerships will bolster personalized learning, peer-to-peer learning, specialized tutoring and allied research, potentially redefining the internationalization of education.

Auditing Real estate: Offices will see immediate impact echoing corporate trends - as courses shift online permanently and workfrom-home/hoteling retain favor, the organization of unique faculty buildings may be reexamined, and support spaces may shrink or be repurposed. Student housing may move to off-campus providers, with limited on-campus “hostels.”

Rethinking “Burolandschaft” (Office Landscape): Campuses may reinterpret this Workplace and Open Schools concept - reductively described as “(noisy) schools without walls”—to shape shared, central forums for a multiplicity of experience using adaptive infrastructure. Adopting generative design will enable iterative scenario planning for scalable manifestations of programs, activities, and circulation. Combined with sustainability-oriented intelligent building systems, this concept will imbibe the ebbs and flows of habitation.

Threshold Campus: Universities are likely to embrace a more porous, synergistic indoor-outdoor relationship in their campuses. This would involve harnessing the untapped potential of in-between spaces and extending the learning continuum while enhancing the overall student experience and supporting holistic sustainability.

Education Ecosystem: Like vibrant mixed-use neighborhoods, campuses constructed as mosaics of colleges or quads with intersecting typologies uphold community better than those with differentiated zones for academics, residences, and student life. By actively generating a fluid seam interpolating campus and community, interconnected networks enabling cross-pollination with libraries, museums, community centers, schools and urban parks can be operationalized.

Radical Transformation Has Already Begun Prior to the current crisis, MIT’s Media Lab was building a credentialing platform aimed at allowing refugees to carry “digital credentials wallets” as they crossed geographies and gathered skills. This builds upon existing trends related to personalized learning/un-learning/ re-learning, where, having gained a secondary school foundation, an individual’s future could include project-based explorations and interest/expertise-based learning, defying traditional university degree programs or single-institution boundaries.

As radical as such remaking appears, it is inherent to the debate as campuses evaluate their long-term relevance and structures. Con54 | UNGA@75

stant experimentation and residing in a “permanent beta state” may become the mindset of students, faculty, and even institutions. To develop academic and fiscal resilience, institutions are challenged to actively plan to adapt, harness curiosity and take intelligent risks without fear of failure as they embrace a state of living in vulnerability (affording more growth than years of relative stability). Ironically, this is just the kind of advice that new graduates often receive.

At a time of profound change, a foundation of predictable 4-year degree programs returns to the center of debate. We have long acknowledged that post-secondary education is preparing graduates for unknown futures by imparting a growth mindset, critical thinking skills, and creative risk taking. Still, the old order of university degrees as socio-cultural currency framing life persists, despite the fact that most graduates will “pivot” their professional identities multiple times. While aiming not to commodify education, models for career redefinition emerge - multi-year university “subscriptions”, competency-based learning, and “unbundling of traditional programs” by elite institutions to grow access. Similarly, Denmark’s government-supported retraining program allows the work-force to re-skill every four years, and Stanford’s ‘Open Loop University’ promises six years of learning over a lifetime for recurring knowledge acquisition; and beyond singular entities, innovation clusters spanning universities and partners are shaping permeable networks of learning and research based upon the shared interests of their participants - wider application of such models will dramatically change the physical campus. The postsecondary landscape is indeed ripe for transformation.

At this point of global inflection ambitious ideas are imperative and may hasten to broader fruition. The notion of design creating stable, 50-year spaces responsive to specific anticipated needs has already shifted due to changes in education over the past decade. Forward-looking schools are reimagining campuses as a series of agile, multifunctional spaces with robust, scalable, flexible, tech-enabled infrastructure which can be refashioned to support sequential or disruptive programmatic changes and new alliances. This will now expand to include variation in occupancy and habitation based on public health and big-weather events. Soon this conceptual approach will not be unconventional enough to proclaim itself the “campus of the future”; possible futures assumed to be 10-15 years away are here now and becoming the new normal. ***** About the author: Jay Deshmukh is an award-winning architect with IBI Group in Toronto, Canada.

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PARTNER EDITORIAL

HOW EARLY MEETINGS HELPED EDUCATION MOVE FORWARD AGAINST THE FACE OF CRISIS

BY ALLYSON BERRI

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hen nations first instituted lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in early March, school, as millions of children knew it, was abruptly halted. Worldwide, over 75% of students were affected by school lockdowns, and educators and policymakers scrambled to reimagine education. WISE and Salzburg Global Seminar were quick to respond to the crisis, assembling a large group of global voices in education in April, to discuss how the field could move forward in the presence of the pandemic. Through a series of three virtual conferences entitled “Education Disrupted, Education Reimagined”, leaders from around the world shared important insights for adapting to the “new normal” in their field. Now, as more countries are in DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 57

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the process of returning to schools for fall classes while continuing to fight COVID-19, these early convenings provide valuable insights for moving forward in education.

Nations’ experiences educating during the pandemic first and foremost underscore the importance of prioritizing student well-being in education. In his essay “Building the Future of Education in a Post-Pandemic World,” WISE CEO Stavros Yiannouka argues that the starting point of a good education should be the individual. When education systems focus first and foremost on students’ individual needs, the results can have a positive effect on student well-being. During this pandemic especially, prioritizing individual student needs might look more like focusing on safety and mental health before placing an emphasis on academic progress or standardized test scores.

Schools in San Diego County in the United States have offered several examples of what a focus on individual well-being might look like during the ongoing pandemic. School counselors at one middle school have hosted grief groups to help address student isolation and online discussions to teach students mindfulness and meditation techniques for coping with stress. One online school offers curriculum on social and emotional well-being as part of its learning program. And one elementary school in the area hosts “Mindfulness Mondays”—virtual classes which explain meditation and mindfulness techniques to children.

Educator and entrepreneur Daniela Labra Cardero argues that the pandemic has made it clear that social and emotional learning should be a systemic component of education going forward. In the future, Cardero argues that schools should implement articulated curriculum on social emotional learning for learners of all ages and provide extensive training in social emotional learning curriculum for educators.

The pandemic also offers educators an opportunity to think about the roles of different actors within a learning ecosystem.

Teachers, specifically, have led the way in finding new ways to engage with students from a distance. One fifth grade teacher in San Diego County created a digital badge system, inspired by video-gaming, to give his students an incentive to complete assignments. And across the United States, teachers are using the popular social media app TikTok to engage their classes in everything from foreign language lessons to wellness tips.

Teachers’ positive experiences finding creative ways to lead their classes through crisis provide powerful lessons for the future of 58 | UNGA@75

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education. Gregory J. Moncada of Qatar Academy for Science and Technology notes that teacher strategies for educating during the pandemic are “ultimately shaped by…in-school ideas and experiences.” According to Moncada, encouraging teachers to use their experiences to guide their response to the crisis can improve student learning. By letting teachers lead the way to effective changes in classroom instruction, schools can encourage the creative solutions that education needs most during this pandemic.

As schools across the world re-open for fall instruction, these lessons learned earlier in the pandemic can help guide the way.

A strong focus on student well-being will guide school responses to students who might be struggling in the middle of a global crisis. Additionally, a focus on teacher leadership will allow the members of learning ecosystems who know students best to respond to classroom challenges with creative solutions. When WISE first gathered education experts from across the globe to respond to the challenges the pandemic brought to education, many didn’t know where the field was heading over the next several months. These convenings, and the subsequent book that was produced as an outcome, have served as a real-time historical record of the education sector’s response to crisis and beyond. Now, even amid uncertainty, the knowledge educators have gathered in the past few months can help education move forward to a future more resilient to pandemics and other crises. ***** About the author: Allyson Berri is Diplomatic Courier’s Education Correspondent and a Contributing Editor.

Editor’s Note: Diplomatic Courier is a partner of WISE and contributed to the production and publishing of the WISE Book that chronicled the education sector’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.

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SHIFTING OUR THINKING: AN OPTIMIST’S VIEW ON 2020

BY JACEK OLCZAK

60 | UNGA@75

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PARTNER EDITORIAL

he pandemic alone, with its devastating consequences, would be enough for 2020 to go down in history as a turning point for the world. And considering the geopolitical, societal, and economic tensions that existed long before and which COVID-19 is further exacerbating, it is hardly surprising for this year to be referred to by some as “annus horribilis.” Global cooperation is being tested as nations try to deal with the novel coronavirus, while mounting tensions abound in international relationships and around important issues such as racial injustice, the refugee crisis, and climate. These exceptionally difficult times require us to rethink how we can emerge stronger and how each actor—in government, the private sector, and civil society—can expedite solutions for the world’s most pressing issues.

Following our last global crisis, the great recession of 2008, an analysis conducted by McKinsey showed that the small group of companies that proved resilient and outperformed their peers stood out for their preparation before the crisis (mostly via strong balance sheets) and their effective action during it— specifically, their ability to cut operating costs.

As COO of a multinational company, I can tell you, no one anticipated COVID-19 nor its impact on the world. The virus has turned the world on its head, and when we look back to 2020 in 10 years—and we will—I believe we’ll find that financial strength that proved invaluable in 2008 was but a fraction of what was required for companies to survive and prosper.

In the post-COVID-19 era, the first line of defense for companies committed to sustainability is the focus on sustaining their employees, their families, and the community. It is this ability to think and act with all stakeholders in mind that will build resilient and engaged organizations. Businesses that will thrive in the long term will be the ones that act upon the realization that there’s no success to be had in a world mired in inequalities or in a deteriorating natural environment.

The rationale and framework for businesses to do their part in helping build a more sustainable future has already been very well articulated, in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and beyond. And while there’s a concern that the devastating impact of the global pandemic could hinder these efforts, this unprecedented year can become a catalyst for more—and faster—progress. Businesses and governments are being forced to relook at resources and review short- and long-term goals. In doing so, we need to prioritize our collective future.

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The pandemic has fundamentally changed our notion of what is immutable. Globalized supply chains, travel, and other former “norms” are far from guaranteed in a post-COVID-19 world.

Against this backdrop, organizations of all types and sizes have had to focus on what’s critical—first and foremost to support the well-being of their people and the communities in which they operate, while maintaining business continuity. Remaining laser-focused on what matters most is crucial, especially when business leaders are called to make decisions quickly and under extreme levels of uncertainty.

We have magnificent tools within our reach to develop and implement solutions to the most pressing issues. Recent decades have brought a raft of scientific and technological wonders. From nanotechnology and 3D printers to advanced knowledge of the human body and the still nascent field of AI—to name a few. And yet, for all that promise, we’ve often failed to harness this collective ingenuity to do better for all. It’s clear that only when we commit to making full and responsible use of all we have that we will be able to rebalance the scales and prioritize the economic, social, and environmental well-being of the world.

My fear, though, is that this global pandemic and the so-called “triple crisis” will not be solved without true collaboration by all relevant stakeholders—by governments, scientists, businesses, NGOs, and individuals working in unison and toward a common goal of widespread economic, environmental, and social well-being. To achieve this, many hatchets will need to be buried. Now is not the time for unilateral action. If anyone doubted last December just how intertwined our new world is, I suspect they’ve found the recent evidence hard to ignore. What happens in China is felt in Italy. What happens in Italy is felt in the United States. That holds true for highly contagious viruses and for economic, environmental, and social malaise.

This need to refocus on what is essential has accentuated the importance of having a clear corporate purpose and a deep understanding of how the organization creates value for all stakeholders, not just shareholders.

Of course, the value of recognizing what’s essential and sticking to it has been demonstrated long before these trying times, with data indicating that businesses with a strong and clear purpose outperform their competitors. Re-embracing the essential has helped write some of the best business transformation stories, often by companies that had to break with their past to move forward.

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We all hope we won’t face anything of this nature again—but, unfortunately, we know we will. It needn’t be our undoing, however. Now is the time to reset, reposition, and rethink what we want our future to look like and rediscover our ability as humans to work together for better. If we get this right, we can look forward to a time we’ll be able to call our “annus mirabilis.” ***** About the author: Jacek Olczak is Chief Operating Officer at Philip Morris International. He oversees the development and global deployment of key strategies as the company transforms from a cigarette manufacturer to a science- and technology-led company, with the purpose to deliver a smoke-free future.

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VIRTUAL EXCHANGE TO THE RESCUE: STUDY ABROAD DURING COVID-19

BY CARINE ALLAF AND DOMINIC REGESTER

“T

ravel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Mark Twain’s much quoted observation from “The Innocents Abroad” feels particularly pertinent in 2020, when, travel has come to a sudden halt for many, or has been reduced tremendously for others. As the new academic year is beginning all over the world, far fewer students than usual are surely going to benefit from studying or travelling abroad or meeting international students at home.

It is unclear if missing out on the chance to study abroad or make friends with international students will have any long-term consequences, but it is not unreasonable to assume that this could contribute to a less open worldview later on in life. In an increasingly globalized world, many of the major global challenges that we will face over the next decades will require multilateral, cross-cultural responses. We will need more leaders who are global in their worldview and outlook. Yet, many of these future leaders are going to have missed out on the chance to be able to study internationally. Despite travel challenges, there are still many ways in which students today can still have an international experience to help them become global leaders tomorrow.

The Virtual Exchange Coalition is a U.S. based organization that has been promoting the importance and value of virtual exchange for many years. They believe that “education exchanges and study abroad programs are among the best means to prepare young people for such a world—increasing their inclination and capacity to deal effectively with difference and to communicate and collaborate 64 | UNGA@75

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across cultures.” A research project with the Saxelab Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at MIT has “demonstrated that virtual exchange programs can increase participants’ empathy for other cultures and perspectives, develop their willingness to engage constructively with peers of diverse backgrounds and views, and provide participants with the experience of being heard and respected.”

This speaks to a really wide range of current societal challenges as well as longer term future ones.

The British Council, a UK cultural relations and educational organization has long promoted programs that support both in person and virtual exchange. Vicky Gough and John Rolfe, advisers in the Education Division, explained that the “organization’s vison is that every young person should have an intercultural and international experience.” The process of “exchanging innovative ideas, developing joint projects, communication, and collaboration bring motivated schools, educators, and students together in a global shared conversation that brings the world into all our places of teaching and learning.

These virtual exchanges are authentic, engaging and offer focused exposure to a wide community of learning to develop a more opened minded attitude and greater global awareness.”

Members of the Virtual Exchange Coalition and the British Council have an abundance of evidence of the positive impact of international exchanges but even pre-pandemic only a small number of schools and universities participated in these programs. UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres has spoken about the current moment, with all the disruption caused by COVID-19, offering “a generational opportunity to reimagine education.” What if part of that reimagining included making an international experience part of education for all students, without even having to get on an airplane or have a passport? Imagine all of the benefits that could produce.

As schools and universities continue to adapt to a new physically distanced reality and prepare for a year in which there will almost certainly be localized school shutdowns in many parts of the world, what if they also seized the opportunity to embed international connections into students’ education experiences. Students around the world could come out of this strange year of enforced physical distancing more socially connected and internationally minded, with all the benefits that could yield in the future, than ever before. ***** About the Authors: Dr. Carine Allaf is Senior Programs Advisor at Qatar Foundation International. Dominic Regester is a program director at Salzburg Global Seminar.

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ASPIRING TO A BETTER NORMAL AT ZURICH INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

BY JI HAN

W

hen Alex wakes up, he is genuinely excited about his coming day at school. As a 16-year-old student, he is looking forward to working with his fellow classmates exploring the question that was posed in his class yesterday. Alex really enjoys his time learning from his fellow students and his teacher. He feels like he is traveling with them on a collaborative learning journey.

He remembers his school before the great pandemic of 2020. He remembers the dreariness of attending an endless array of lessons being “taught at” by his generally enthusiastic yet often exhausted teachers. He and his fellow classmates diligently completed assignments and tasks with a sense of compliance combined with a nagging feeling of wasted time because the “lessons” being taught did not connect in any meaningful way to their lives now or in the future. They endured the school day to get on to the more important things of soccer practice, video games with their friends, and curating their Instagram and YouTube channels.

Then the pandemic of 2020 erupted like Vesuvius and learners, both students and adults, had to adjust to the dramatic circumstances. Existing models of instructional delivery were no longer viable, time was limited and modes of communication were completely digitized. Teachers were forced to find creative and more effective ways to share knowledge, structure learning experiences, assess virtually, give meaningful and timely feedback, and be explicit about how the learning connects to the world around them.

When Alex returns to his school post-pandemic, there is a noticeable change. Teachers and administrators allow more independent exploration and choice in his learning in which he is able to demonstrate his thinking in various ways rather than just completing prescribed assignments. All adults communicate a clear and 66 | UNGA@75

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explicit message both in words and actions about the purpose of each lesson and how it connects within a local and global context.

Both students and teachers display compassion for each other’s well-being and empathy for various learning styles. Problem posing and problem solving in areas Alex is passionate about frame the daily learning activities and the teacher is a guide, facilitator, and advocate in supporting students in developing both academic and personal competency. Alex can see the relevance of each learning experience and is encouraged to find opportunities to share his thinking with his peers regularly.

The story above outlines the vision we are striving to achieve as the new, better normal of learning in schools. At Zurich International School (ZIS) we believe that with crisis comes opportunity. The pandemic of 2020 hindered us from continuing many practices which we knew needed change, and provided a seminal opportunity to begin the process of improvement guided more by best practice and less on traditional models. As we begin this new school year after five months of lockdown and isolation, we have redoubled our commitment to continue making the ZIS experience for every student more relevant to the current reality, responsive to changing conditions, and personally significant for the learner. In response, we have seen our community members step up how they leverage technology to expedite what is learned by using a flipped classroom approach to deliver content, expand how and when feedback is given using consultancy protocols, and maximize opportunities to demonstrate their understanding and skills using visible thinking routines.

Additionally, increased options for STEM projects related to sustainability concepts and active Maker Space projects serve to increase student agency and make explicit connections to real-world problem solving. With a toolbox that includes state-of-the-art facilities, a talented and growth-oriented pool of educators, a set of key learning principles and dispositions, and a deep commitment to doing what is right instead of what is easy, we set goals as a community to embark on this bold, courageous, and necessary journey of making Alex’s story the “new normal” of learning within our school. We invite all schools to begin the journey as well. ***** About the author: Ji Han is Director of Curriculum and Learning at Zurich International School (ZIS).

Editor’s Note: Zurich International School is a partner of Diplomatic Courier’s 2020 Global Talent Summit.

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