Planning a large-scale event on the sidelines of one of the most important gatherings in the world takes a lot of, well, pretty much everything. Persistence, patience, attention to detail, connections, teamwork, a shrewd understanding of international affairs — and time. After all, these things don’t happen overnight. And events in development don’t come bigger than the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
So we were already planning for UNGA in January of this year, when the world we report on was turned upside down by the Trump administration’s wholesale dismantling of U.S. foreign assistance.
Suddenly, we had to field questions as to whether UNGA would even take place. Flash forward nine months and — despite the U.S. cuts hitting the U.N. hard — UNGA is not only happening, but it could be one of the most consequential yet.