multilateralism combining ‘power with pragmatic principle’ can deliver global

goods, Secretary-General tells retired international civil servants

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s message to the annual meeting of the Association of Former International Civil Servants, delivered by Netta Avedon, Chief, Human Resources Services, Office of Human Resources Management, in New York today, 21 May:

It gives me great pleasure to send greetings to all who have gathered for the annual meeting of the Association of Former International Civil Servants.

You gather at a time when the world faces a number of serious multiple crises.  In the blink of an eye, we have seen a housing crisis in the United States turned into the biggest global economic crisis in the history of the United Nations.  Our world is warming faster than the world’s top scientists had forecast.  We face a possible cascade of nuclear proliferation, as well as extremism and terrorism.  If we fail to deal effectively with these crises, there is a realprospect of instability and insecurity as Governments are weakened, and as people lose faith in their leaders and their own futures.

Some of these challenges are new, of course.  But practised hands such as you will surely recognize others, or at least aspects of them or the factors that link them.  Like my predecessors as Secretary-General, I have been stressing the need for global solidarity in addressing these challenges.  I have been calling on Member States to take multilateralism to the next level.  I want to see a new multilateralism take hold ‑‑ one that is focused on delivering global goods such as health, education, freedom from hunger, peace.  A multilateralism that combines power with pragmatic principle.  And one whose instruments of service ‑‑ the United Nations above all ‑‑ have the authority and the funding needed to do the jobs asked of them.

United Nations staff are, of course, my main allies in carrying out that vision.  But I continue to rely on the achievements, wisdom and institutional memory of those who came before ‑‑ former civil servants such as you, whose formal careers with the Organization may have ended but who remain vital members of the United Nations community.  Thank you for your service and for staying in touch with the Organization and with each other.  Please accept my best wishes for a memorable gathering.

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For information media • not an official record