NEW YORK — United Nations Undersecretary-General Fabrizio Hochschild launched the yearlong process of envisioning a U.N. fit for the next generation in early 2020. At the time, climate change, inequality, and new technologies were among the issues driving the hundreds of conversations that his office planned for around the world.
Then the coronavirus pandemic hit, quickly prompting the UN75 initiative to reorient its practical operations, as well as its broader purpose. The urgency in rethinking international cooperation has never been greater, Hochschild told Devex in a recent interview.
“If we go down in history, there’s a very big danger that we’re going to go down as the ‘me’ generation — the ‘me first, now first’ generation. The founders of the U.N. were thinking about the welfare of future generations; it's written into the charter. What’s happened is, 75 years on, it's very hard to see that care for the welfare of future generations,” Hochschild said.