UN's transformative solutions to interlocking challenges  

The Philippines, like all other 200 nations today, is facing interlocking challenges: Food insecurity, climate change, and the question of the rule of law amidst issue on human rights violations and extra-judicial killings, on top of COVID-19. President BBM outlined his government's priorities for six years in meeting these challenges frontally and effectively: Impending food crisis, wars and terrorism, natural disasters, and the constant threats of the next pandemic.

On the world security alone, the UN identified its 10 interlocking challenges. First, the suffering in Afghanistan; second, the Ethiopia civil war; third, the peace situation in Libya; fourth, the challenges of peacekeeping in Yemen; fifth, avoiding the return of chaos in Haiti; sixth, keeping dialogue alive in Cyprus; seventh, helping ISIS-affiliated repatriates in Syria; eighth, how to counter disinformation and misinformation problems in several conflict areas; ninth, guiding a climate change security resolution through the UN Security Council; and tenth, planning for COVID-19 vaccinations in conflict-affected regions. The 193 or so nations attending the 77th UN General Assembly will crack their heads in finding solutions to all these huge problems.

Despite its many flaws, the UN remains the world's most effective and reliable agency with which to address issues that bring suffering to millions of people. The General Assembly will identify priority areas where the Security Council and the secretary general can focus their efforts to alleviate negative impact on nations. Many of the high-level discussions will focus on COVID-19 and climate change which may exacerbate the impact of an impending food and oil crisis. But, the most pressing challenge would be the war in Ukraine and how it is pushing more food shortages as supply chains are being disrupted. The many civil wars and internal conflicts in some member-nations are adding more headaches to world leaders.

The UN is the only global association that has mechanisms and agencies that can address food shortages especially in Ethiopia and Afghanistan. The UN mediators are helping Libya and Yemen achieve a stable and sustainable peace for their peoples. The UN is also closely watching and nurturing the peace situation in Cyprus and Haiti. The Biden administration in the USA has given the UN a new wave of hopes after the drama and uncertainties under Donald Trump. While the US continues to have an uneasy relationship with Russia and China, thus raising tension in the Security Council, the UN as a whole is still hopeful there are solutions to the convergence of problems when all nations come together with a common goal.

The ILO, as one of the most active UN agencies is taking part in the program with Secretary General Guy Ryder pushing the tripartite agenda of ILO for transformation of the world education system. The ILO believes the UNGA offers tremendous and unique opportunities to put education at the top of the global political agenda, as well as to mobilize actions to transform education. There are discussions on mechanisms and techniques to recover education losses as consequences of the global pandemic. Participants are formulating reengineering the processes of education with leaps and bounds in technological advances, which open vast windows of opportunities to level up education standards.

The Philippines, as a nation of 112 million people, can benefit immensely from whatever global solutions to the problems of food insecurity, natural disasters driven by climate change and solutions to national security and territorial integrity in world always beset by threats of terrorisms and wars. The presence of BBM in the 77th UNGA opens many windows of opportunities to the Filipinos. At least, this current administration has more global consciousness than the administration of president Duterte which seemed to have snubbed many global conferences on world issues and challenges.