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This week on Inside Geneva, we take the pulse of the United Nations as it turns 80.

“Someone celebrating their 80th birthday cannot be expected to be in tip-top shape. The UN is an old lady,” says Corinne Momal-Vanian, executive director at the Kofi Annan Foundation.

Some world leaders don’t have much time for the UN.

“All I got from the UN was an escalator that stopped halfway on the way up and a teleprompter that didn’t work,” said US President Donald Trump.

Others think it needs an injection of fresh ideas.

“We have to reimagine the UN, and reimagine multilateralism, from the point of confidence. And this confidence only comes once we account for the lived realities of people from the Global South,” says Prathit Singh, project coordinator at the Geneva Policy Outlook.

“It’s just not the right answer anymore to have all these men in dark suits in conference rooms deciding the future of humanity,” continues Momal-Vanian.

But we shouldn’t forget its successes: from eradicating smallpox, to reducing maternal mortality, to supporting the most vulnerable every day, all over the world.

“It’s important to keep our optimism, and maybe realise that the UN is what we make of it,” says Fuad Zarbiyev, professor of international law at the Geneva Graduate Institute.

“What would happen if we don’t cooperate? If we look at Covid, if we look at a potential climate disaster? People will be forced to cooperate and I think that’s something we should never forget,” adds analyst Daniel Warner.

Join host Imogen Foulkes on Inside Geneva.

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Host: Imogen Foulkes
Production assitant: Claire-Marie Germain
Distribution: Sara Pasino
Marketing: Xin Zhang