Antigua and Barbuda Nominates H.E. María Fernanda Espinosa as Candidate for UN Secretary-General

As Secretary General, she would establish a Prevention and Early Action Hub reporting directly to her office: a consolidated capacity for risk analysis, early warning, and rapid political engagement, designed so that warnings reach decision-makers in time, and so that the UN SG can act before escalation narrows the available space. She has signalled that prevention, peacemaking, peacekeeping and post-conflict peacebuilding must be staffed, funded and politically supported as a single continuum, and called for stronger United Nations responses to transnational organized crime, a major driver of instability that was not envisioned in 1945 and has proundly negatively impacted her region. She has emphasized that the Organization must work in close coordination with regional organizations, national leaders and diplomatic coalitions engaged in peace efforts, while remaining the final custodian of universal legitimacy, international law, and protection for the most vulnerable.

She has called for stronger domestic resource mobilization, expanded South-South cooperation, and renewed investment, jobs and economic diversification, alongside a more coherent international response to the structural debt pressures facing highly indebted and climate-vulnerable countries. As Secretary-General, she has committed to address the special needs and unlock the potential of Africa, Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States, working in close partnership with regional organizations and political platforms including the African Union, CARICOM, ASEAN, CELAC, the League of Arab States, and with key partners such as the European Union, whose engagement and support remain essential to building credible and effective multilateral solutions.

She would propose a Global Energy Security coordination mechanism to help Member States manage the consequences of energy and supply-chain shocks, particularly on the most vulnerable, where energy insecurity quickly translates into food insecurity, inflation and social instability, and would launch a sustained Secretary-General’s Dialogue on Emerging Technologies, building on the Global Digital Compact adopted under the Pact for the Future. The role of the United Nations, she argues, is not to govern these transitions, but to ensure that the conversations shaping them are genuinely global, inclusive and consequential — and that the digital divide is closed alongside the development gap.

Drawing on the General Assembly’s landmark resolution of 23 March 2026 on mandate creation, implementation and review, and on her experience chairing the Open-ended Working Group on the Revitalization of the General Assembly, she will pursue predictable relevance reviews, sunset clauses, and stronger prioritization across the system. She has called for the UN80 Initiative to be understood as “modernization for results, not austerity disguised as reform,” embedding shared country strategies, joint delivery platforms and common services as standard practice, and ensuring that accountability is built into governance as a continuous, results-based discipline rather than an afterthought.

She also signals that more costly peacekeeping operations should be subject to continuous evaluation and corrective measures aimed at consolidation, drawdown and eventual withdrawal where appropriate. Underpinning all of this will be three interlinked institutional reforms: a stronger accountability architecture for results; better stewardship that does not confuse austerity with reform; and the realignment of the United Nations’ financial base with its mandates.

“Resources require credibility, and credibility requires results,” H.E. Espinosa said. “The deeper objective is to restore confidence and a new compact between Member States, the United Nations Secretariat, and the people we serve.”