– Will the new development agenda make a real difference? No, not necessarily writes Jan Vandemoortele. Only strong leadership on the part of the UN Secretariat can prevent an overloaded and fuzzy development agenda. More consultations and intergovernmental negotiations alone will not make it.
– Dag Hammarskjöld put forward two concepts of the United Nations as an organisation: as ‘static conference machinery’ or as a ‘dynamic instrument for an organised world community’. So far, the post-2015 strategy has focused on the former. Many are now expecting signals that leadership is on the way.
It is late, yet not too late.