Even as it ponders a diminished future facing cutbacks and questions of relevance, the United Nations will still draw foundations and non-profit to New York next week for a packed schedule of conferences, meetings, happy hours and dinners on the sidelines of its general assembly of world leaders.
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But the uncertainty has already had an impact.
The Gates Foundation, which usually releases a report about progress towards global development goals before the UN General Assembly meets, has delayed this year’s report because it’s not yet clear how much foreign aid and global health funding countries will commit going forward. Former President Bill Clinton said the Clinton Global Initiative, which started convening its annual meeting on the UN sidelines in 2005, will change its format this year to ask leaders from business, politics and philanthropy to develop new programmes during the two-day conference.
The changes are among the signals that the UN General Assembly – also known as UNGA Week among attendees – will be different this year.
The UN’s largest funder, the United States, has frozen funding or sought to claw it back, prompting major lay-offs and programme reductions across UN agencies. Its most powerful body, the Security Council, has not acted to stop two major wars, despite its founding mandate after World War II “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.”
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The world’s uncertainty has made this year’s UNGA Week even more important, say some ready to join in the gatherings.