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Int'l Organizations & UN News #16/2023

Nisha Karki - Wednesday, September 6, 2023
 Events   IO/UNS Newsletter 

 International Organizations and UN News #15/2023 - September 06, 2023

Dear IO/UNS Community, 

Welcome to Fall 2023! 

At the same time as our semester, the African Climate Summit terminates (today), the UN General Assembly kicked off (yesterday) and the UN Environment Program shares the Zero Draft of the international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution (Plastics Treaty). This summer, our blog Multilateralism in Action published five exciting new think-pieces on the role of the UN for sustainable finance, secondary carbon markets, UN peacekeeping, the SDGs and a new multilateralism for migration. Just a few highlights that illustrate why studying closely what international organizations are doing is important. 

At SIPA’s International Organization & UN Studies specialization, we are fortunate to explore, influence, and engage with many processes at the UN and other international organizations. We look forward to hosting exciting panels and career talks and providing opportunities for you to attend meetings at the UN. Check out the special section on UNGA side events in this newsletter. 

As director of this specialization, it is a privilege to be part of our dynamic community of outstanding students, alumni, and faculty, who teach cutting-edge courses, conduct impactful research, and influence multilateral outcomes. Our committed IO/UNS team connects you with opportunities, events, and IO updates, namely, our IO/UNS Coordinator, Laura Dankowski Mercado and our new Program Assistants, Nisha Karki and Amy Younger (for more information about Amy and Nisha, see their spotlights in this newsletter). 

I look forward to catching up with continuing students and meeting new students. In fact, we have two opportunities to meet up soon. Tomorrow (Thursday, 7pm), we’ll be hosting our IO/UNS Back-to-School Social and I hope to see many of you there. In addition, on Sept 16, our IO/UNS Fall Retreat will take us to Columbia’s beautiful Lamont campus and we'll engage both in fun activities and serious discussions about international organizations. Please see the announcement below in this newsletter and make sure to apply by September 11. 

Wishing everyone an excellent, exciting, and enjoyable start of the semester!

Daniel Naujoks
Director
International Organization & UN Studies Specialization 
School of International and Public Affairs | Columbia University 

In this newsletter, you will find: 

  • IO/UNS Fall Courses List

  • Join our Back-to-School Social and our Fall Retreat

  • Meet the new IO/UNS Program Assistants

  • MIA Blog Recap of 4 exciting pieces published this summer

  • IO News: Key events and side events at the UN General Assembly and other IO news

**Please note this message is clipped. You can open the message in a new browser to see the full message.

course list

For those still in search of exciting courses on international organizations and the UN, please note that, unfortunately, the Bulletin is still not working for our courses. Instead, Click Here to see the IO/UNS course list.

As announced earlier, regrettably, Professor Marc Jacquand is unable to teach the IO/UNS core course "Governance, Management and Reform in the UN System" (INAF U8560) in the fall of 2023. Thus, while there won't be any core IO/UNS course offered this semester, specializers will be able to choose between two required courses in the Spring, namely, "Governance, Management and Reform in UN System" by Professor Marc Jacquand and "UN and Globalization" by Professor Daniel Naujoks.

If you found a course that you think should be recognized but is on this list, please send the information (ideally with the syllabus) to IO/UNS director, Professor Daniel Naujoks. For dual degree students, we can also recognize up to one course from your first year of the dual degree program, if you send the syllabus to Professor Naujoks.

Join us tomorrow, Sept 7, to celebrate the beginning of the new academic year at the IO/UNS Back-to-School Social. This social provides an opportunity for incoming and continuing students to mingle, share their summer experiences, and meet the IO/UNS team. Don't miss it!

RSVP Here

We are excited to invite you to the IO/UNS Fall Retreat 2023. 

WHEN: Saturday, September 16. We will be leaving early in the morning from the Morningside campus (8.30 am) and be back in the city at 7 pm but we will share the exact details soon.

WHAT TO EXPECT: The retreat takes place at Columbia's beautiful Lamont Campus, an hour away from our Morningside campus. We will be spending time discussing, chatting, and getting to know each other in the Gary C. Comer building that won multiple design awards. We have our own deck overlooking trees and will go for a hike to a waterfall and shoreline of the Hudson River through the local sanctuary forest. Select guest speakers will join us virtually and there will be many opportunities for building our community. 

RSVP: Space is limited. Thus, please submit your interest by Monday, September 11, 11 a.m. ET through this form. We will let all participants know by Sept 12 who may join and who is waitlisted. After submitting your interest, please let us know ASAP if you can't make it so we can inform students on the waitlist.

Please email the IO/UNS PAs Amy Younger (ay2564@columbia.edu) and Nisha Karki (nk2960@columbia.edu) or IO/UNS Coordinator, Laura Dankowski Mercado (ld3071@sipa.columbia.edu), if you have any questions.

IO/UNS Program Assistant

Nisha Karki (MIA, EPD 2024)

Hi all! I am Nisha Karki, one of your new PAs for the semester.

Growing up in Nepal, I have witnessed firsthand the significance of diplomacy, cooperation, and global governance in addressing issues such as peacekeeping, and economic development. My interest and reverence for global governance and multilateralism only strengthened further after my EPD workshop with the UNDPO, and internships with the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the UN, and the UNOPS Nepal office, while pursuing my education in SIPA. I have come to appreciate the critical role that multilateralism plays in facilitating cooperation among nations to tackle many critical shared problems, including climate change, global health crises, and human rights. Issues that I mostly care about are economic empowerement of marginalized communities (gender, class, caste, disability), financial innovation and quality education for all children.

I look forward to meeting you all and reading your spotlights throughout the semester.

IO/UNS Program Assistant

Amy Younger (MIA, HRHP 2024).

Hello! I'm Amy Younger. I'll be serving as your PA for the upcoming two semesters.

Originally from the UK, my background is working within the UK government. During this time, I have worked for various politicians on matters primarily centered around migration and other issues such as security and policing. This experience provided me with invaluable insights into the intricate dynamics of migration and sparked my interest for global governance and multilateralism to address some of these complexities. This interest was furthered by my involvement in gender-related issues. Recently, I had the opportunity to do an internship on to preventing sexual exploitation and abuse at the United Nations. This experience allowed me to delve into the essential work of safeguarding vulnerable populations and advancing gender equality on a global scale.

I am looking forward to meeting all of you this year!

 
Multilateralism in Action

Catch up on the summer posts from
Multilateralism in Action

Edited by IO/UNS Director, Professor Daniel Naujoks, Multilateralism in Action provides a platform for think pieces on cutting-edge issues regarding multilateralism and global governance written by leading experts in both practice and research. While the blog includes posts on a diverse array of topics regarding multilateral cooperation, its hallmark is a focus on multilateralism in action.

Did you ever wonder if UN Peacekeepers can walk and chew gum at the same time? For decades, UN peacekeepers have performed traditional duties of monitoring cease-fires and preventing the renewal of violence. However, contemporary UN peacekeepers are now thrust into the unconventional roles––or “missions”––of monitoring electionås, facilitating transitions to the rule of law, distributing humanitarian aid, and resolving conflicts in civil societies that are undergoing transformation. 

Drawing on their forthcoming book, When Peacekeeping Missions Collide: Balancing Multiple Roles in Peace Operations (Oxford University Press, 2023), Paul F. Diehl, Daniel Druckman and Grace B. Mueller show how different missions impact one another. Based on the analysis of 70 UN operations between 1948-2016 and five in-depth case studies in Bosnia, Congo, East Timor, and Sierra Leone, the authors show why it is paramount to consider mission interdependence and to distinguish between more and less compatible missions. Diehl, Druckman and Mueller’s insights have important implications for everyone designing, approving, and evaluating UN peacekeeping operations.

Sustainable Finance

Despite many years of efforts to integrate sustainability into financing strategies, financial engineering, and market standards, the sustainable finance market has been slow to develop. In Re-defining State Intervention: Achieving Balanced Decision Making in Sustainable Finance, Marcos Neto, Director of UNDP’s Sustainable Finance Hub, draws on UNDP’s work to showcase how to create robust institutional arrangements to ensure that countries’ financing strategies are aligned with national development priorities, community needs, the conservation of natural ecosystems.

https://multilateralism.sipa.columbia.edu/news/sdgs-have-been-declared-dead-lets-bring-them-back-life

In The SDGs have been declared dead – let’s bring them back to life! Svenja Schulze, Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation argues that if the global community wants to achieve the 17 SDGs by 2030, it needs to focus on money, women, and social protection.

Schulze stresses the need for a World Bank reform that tasks the Bank with protecting global public goods like water, and forests, and making it more attractive for countries to borrow in order to invest in climate resilience. Based on the experiences with Germany’s feminist development policy and cooperation with the UN, Schulze highlights the need to tackle the structural causes of inequality, including inequality before the law, access to resources, and decision-making processes. 

new multilateralism for migration

In Human Migration needs a New Multilateralism, Amy Pope, the new Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), argues that we will fail to meet the basic human needs of millions of vulnerable people around the world if nations’ only response to migration is to offer refugee protections or return to the country people have left. Pope calls for a new approach, a new vision, and new multilateral solutions to enable the global community to proactively address the challenges of migration and harness its benefits. 

Specifically, the IOM must put people at the center of its work and ensure meaningful ways for migrants to participate in building solutions for affected populations. The IOM must revise the playbook so that it better anticipates and mitigates displacement factors before millions of people are on the road. And lastly, the IOM must partner with other non-state actors––such as diaspora communities, civil society, and the private sector––who have an interest in promoting well-managed migration.

Pope argues that a new multilateralism for human migration will use resources more effectively, save lives, and unlock the enormous potential for progress, innovation, and development that migration offers.

MiA June 2023

In their think-piece Using Private Sector Engagement in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement to Grow Secondary Carbon Markets to Finance Loss and Damage from Climate Change, Alexandra Soezer and Kate Zabinsky draw on experiences at UN Development Programme to show that secondary carbon markets hold untapped potential for creating funding streams to address Loss & Damage caused by climate change. By attaching a residual model to trading mechanisms and financial transactions, these markets can generate stable and significant financing to aid in the recovery, adaptation, and resilience-building efforts required for communities facing the adverse impacts of extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and other climate-related damages. By harnessing this potential, the financing gap can be bridged, ensuring that the most vulnerable populations receive the necessary support to mitigate and cope with the irreparable losses and damages resulting from climate change. 

  • On September 4, 2023, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) shared the Zero Draft of the international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution (#PlasticsTreaty). You can read the zero draft (which now will undergo important negotiations) here.

  • From 4-6 Sept, the African Union convened the Africa Climate Summit 2023 in Nairobi Kenya that focused on delivering climate-positive growth and finance solutions for Africa and the world. See here for more information on the summit and it's outcome document, the Nairobi declaration. 

  • Amy Pope (US) started her term as the new Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). If you want to know what her plans for the organzation are, read her Multilateralism in Action think-piece on “Human Migration needs a New Multilateralism”.

  • On September 5, the 78th session of the UN General Assembly started and in two weeks, its high-level debate will kick off. While the high-level meetings are usually not accessible in-person, you can watch the proceedings on UN WebTV and attend some side events. Over the next few weeks, we'll share key insights into the UNGA and related events.

  • General Assembly General High-level Debate 
    Sept 19-23, 2023, Virtual

    World leaders gather to engage in the annual high-level General Debate under the theme, “Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards peace, prosperity, progress and sustainability for all.” Heads of State and Government and ministers explore solutions to the intertwined global challenges to advance peace, security, and sustainable development. Watch the meetings live and on demand at UN Web TV. 

  • SDG Summit
    Sept 18-19, 2023, Virtual

    Heads of State and Government will gather at UN Headquarters in New York on 18-19 September 2023 to review the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and provide high-level political guidance on transformative and accelerated actions leading up to the target year of 2030 for achieving the Goals. The outcome will be a negotiated political declaration. Watch the event live or on demand at UN Web TV.

  • Climate Ambition Summit
    Sept 20, 2023, Virtual

    Alongside the SDG Summit, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres will convene the Climate Ambition Summit, with a call on every leader from Governments, business, cities and regions, civil society, and financial institutions to step up. The UN chief urges individuals or organizations participating in the event to present credible, serious and new climate action and nature-based solutions that will move the needle forward and respond to the urgency of the climate crisis. Watch the event live or on demand at UN Web TV.

Select UNGA Side Events

High-Level meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response 
Sept 20, 2023, Virtual

The President of the General Assembly, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, will convene Heads of State and Government for a one-day meeting to adopt a political declaration aimed at mobilizing political will at the national, regional and international levels for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. Watch the event live or on demand at UN Web TV.

UNGA78 Virtual Side Event - Gender, Migration and the SDGs: GenMig Insights from developing countries
Wed, 20 Sept 2023, 8:30–10:00am ET
In-person & online
This event will address the impact of gender on migration and mobility, highlighting perspectives from developing countries. The speakers will discuss gender-responsive approaches to policies, operations, programming, and practices for addressing gendered vulnerabilities, empowering migrants of all genders, and securing human rights for all. Discussions will focus on identifying needs and gaps in migration research and priorities for developing countries. Thematic topics will span from labour migration pathways, climate change, displacement, and migrant inclusion. 


Climate Mobility Summit
Wed, 20 Sept 2023 | 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
In-person & Online

The Global Centre for Climate Mobility (GCCM) invites you to join us at the Climate Mobility Summit, in the margins of the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Week. Both in-person and online attendance options are available. Express your interest in attending the Summit by completing this form.

The Climate Mobility Summit is an all-day event bringing together global champion leaders and Principals of relevant UN organizations and stakeholder entities to discuss ways to harness climate mobility for adaptation and resilience, as well as to press for climate action to prioritize climate-resilient development around the adaptation needs of populations affected by the climate crisis, particularly those forced to leave the places they call home.

More information and registration here

Transforming education: Overcoming crisis, improving learning outcomes
Wed, Sept. 20, 9:30-10:30 a.m. ET
In-person & online 

Educational poverty in low- and middle-income countries has reached a tipping point; 53 percent of children are unable to read and understand a story by the end of primary school. This requires an ambitious transformation of the education sector, which is still recovering from the impact of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. But returning to the pre-COVID status quo isn’t enough, and ambitious learning recovery and acceleration are needed if we are to have a shot at achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 on inclusive and equitable quality education for all by 2030. The current education system is at capacity and the demand is only set to increase, with nearly 750 million children expected to be of school age by 2060. This shift will strain education budgets and increase the need for sustained investment in quality education. But the education gap is also a data gap. According to UNESCO, there is no information on the learning levels of two-thirds of children across sub-Saharan Africa. Gathering and analyzing data is an essential first step for improving learning outcomes, and recent interventions show that progress is possible if efforts focus on classroom practices informed by evidence and data that’s tangible and easy to interpret for teachers and policymakers alike.

This event, co-hosted by Devex and NewGlobe on the occasion of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, will explore outcomes to help improve the quality of education in low- and middle-income countries. It will also shine a light on what’s needed to equip everyone from teachers to education ministries with the data tools needed to drive improved learning outcomes for all.


International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD)
Sept 5-29, 2023
In-person & Hybrid 

SDSN UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) is hosting a number of events alongside the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 78) and the 2023 SDG Summit, which mark the midpoint of the 2030 Agenda and a new phase of accelerated progress towards the SDGs. This year, SDSN’s flagship conference, the International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD) will be hybrid, with parallel sessions online and plenary sessions in person at Columbia University. SDSN will also convene a high-level meeting of its Leadership Council alongside the SDG Summit in New York. We invite our networks and the sustainable development community to join us at the following events. 

More information and registration here

Engage with the IO/UNS Specialization on
CampusGroups, Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp.

Feel free to reach out to us:
Daniel Naujoks, IO/UNS Director, daniel.naujoks@columbia.edu
You can book office hours here.

Laura Mercado, IO/UNS Coordinator, ld3071@sipa.columbia.edu
Nisha Karki, Program Assistant, nk2960@columbia.edu
Amy Younger, Program Assistant, ay2564@columbia.edu