The United Nations at 80: Transforming development for a changing world

LANDRY SIGNÉ: Before we begin, could you please state your full name and title?

RAYMOND GILPIN: Okay. My name is Raymond Gilpin. I’m the Chief Economist and Head of Strategy at UNDP’s Africa Bureau in New York.

LANDRY SIGNÉ: I am delighted to have you join me during the 80th UNGA, and I truly appreciate you taking the time to share your wonderful insights with our audience.

Dr. Gilpin, after 80 years of the United Nations, what do you see as the organization’s most enduring achievements and how should these be built upon for the future?

RAYMOND GILPIN: Thank you so much. U.N. at 80 is a very important milestone. Eight decades is definitely something we can look back on and see development gains over time.

We’ve also seen improvements in governance and also a lot of focus on how together we’ve been able to set international norms that guide how we do business, how states interact, and also how we take care of the environment. I think for me, looking back over the last 80 years, one of the milestone contributions of the UN system has been how we have put people at the center of the development discourse.

It was UNDP that introduced the Human Development Index in 1990. That helped us think beyond income per capita as a measure of wellbeing to incorporate health and education indices in the first instance. I think this has been a very important contribution because we start looking at development as a human-centered endeavor and not just as an income targeting endeavor. And because of this, we’ve seen significant rises in poverty reduction. We’ve seen countries investing a lot more in human capital in health and education over time, and it’s beginning to pay off for a number of countries. And so, I think that looking back, one of the milestone achievements for the United Nations system has been putting people at the center of development.

LANDRY SIGNÉ: Fabulous. And how do you envision the UN as a whole, or UNDP in particular adapting to a rapidly changing global landscape marked by new technology, shifting power dynamics, and global crisis.

RAYMOND GILPIN: I think UNDP’s core mission remains relevant even in the midst of a lot of global turmoil and change. Firstly, being able to focus on complex development and socioeconomic challenges requires a collective and collaborative approach, one that includes UN agencies, one that includes sovereign states, one that includes a private sector coming together to ensure that the response to complexity is a multifaceted, impactful and sustainable solution. And I think the UNDP and the UN system’s focus on multilateralism is a foundation of all of this.

Secondly, we are also in a position where we recognize that collectively we have to protect our shared interests and our shared assets globally. The environment is not one of these negotiable things where you could say, okay, let’s do development and the environment, it has to be integrated.

LANDRY SIGNÉ: Absolutely.

RAYMOND GILPIN: Because if we are not doing enough to counter the effects of climate change, particularly for the most vulnerable people in the most vulnerable communities, then we are failing globally. So, we really need to do this. And the third thing, where I think the UN system, is relevant even in an environment where there’s a lot of uncertainty, a lot of change, some fragmentation, policy fragmentation, particularly when it comes to things like trade, is the UN’s role in setting global norms.

And I think that is usually underappreciated. That’s a public good that ensures that contracts, things like contract viability could transcend borders. It also ensures that we have joint policy focus on things like global financial stability. It also means that we have a collective view as to how we ensure that we conduct ourselves to preserve global security and to promote peace. And all of these things are as important now as they were 80 years ago when the UN was formed. And so, these three elements are important in, recognizing the continued relevance of multilateralism even in these very fragile times.

LANDRY SIGNÉ: Fabulous. And Dr. Raymond, what unique advantages and opportunities does the multilateral system offer countries today as they seek to advance their national priorities while contributing to global public goods?

RAYMOND GILPIN: I think the UN offers sovereign states many unique opportunities. Let me discuss two very briefly.

The first is a lot of what we do now is being revolutionized by technology. And for us to be able to ensure that technology is a development driver, we have to make that technology not just affordable, but accessible to as many people as possible. The UN system provides that framework that allows us to understand that a world in which most of the people are deprived of this important tool is a world that’s going to continue to see a lot of the deprivation and experience many of the challenges on a daily basis, ensuring that we have that focus on technology for all. Starting with the educational system, starting with the basic infrastructure. That provides for tech enabled industry, tech enabled societies, I think is crucial.

And the U.N. System, UNDP in particular is paying a lot of attention to this because this is the world of tomorrow. Particularly when you’re thinking about continents like Africa aspirations for the fourth industrial revolution, are contingent upon us making progress in this area.

The second, I think, broad area is that the multilateral system recognizes that even though we are able to have enduring goals, if we cannot connect those goals to accessible, available, and affordable financing, those goals remain dreams to materialize those dreams, we need to ensure that those who need capital the most could access it, and when they access it, it is affordable.

Because we know, we all think it’s unconscionable that over 750 million Africans live in countries that are paying more on debt interest than they devote to things like health and education. We need to flip that narrative to ensure that the countries that can afford it the least are not paying the most.

I think that becomes a fairer, not just a fairer world, but a world in which we see the growing demographics not so much as a threat but as an opportunity for markets to grow and for welfare to expand.

LANDRY SIGNÉ: Powerful insight. Looking ahead, what key priorities and recommendation will guide UNDP’s work during this 80th session of UNGA? And how do you hope these will shape the next phase of the United Nations’ role in global governance and global development?

RAYMOND GILPIN: Thank you very much. This is a very important question and one that UNDP has grappled with in recent years, and particularly as we’ve considered our new strategic plan, which runs from 2026 to 2029.

This plan has four collectively reinforcing objectives, the strategic objectives. The first is prosperity for all. We know that without growing economic and prosperity that is shared and inclusive we cannot make as much progress as we would like. And. That progress is only possible when you have governance that is effective, which is a second strategic priority.

We are, in this strategic plan, trying to connect the dots and not see the economic progress and governance prerequisites as separate tracks, but we see them as integrated action. That will deliver not just for nation states, but the global commons as a whole. We recognize that most of the countries that are struggling today are countries that are in one form of crisis or the other.

And so, building in resilience from a community level up to ensure that we have crisis resilience is also going to be a priority for us. And the fourth priority is a healthy planet. The ravages of climate change, particularly in the developing world, are really catastrophic. And for us to see a change in the fortunes of developing and emerging economies in particular we need to see a lot more attention being paid to ensure that we have a healthy planet.

These four collectively reinforcing strategic objectives are only possible when we are empowered or enabled by what we are calling three accelerators. The first is digital transformation. And we have to make sure that technology, particularly AI technology could help us not just leapfrog, but help us find efficiencies, help us to be able to target policy a bit more specifically, and also help us to be able to enable the marginalized, and those who have not had the opportunity, to contribute meaningfully either in the political or economic socioeconomic realm. And so digital transformation is important. At UNDP, we are very committed to our mantra of leaving no one behind. Quite too often, whether it’s in the development space or in the political space or the global financial space we see half of the population, particularly the women, being left behind. So, gender equity is something that we are going to promote as an accelerator. And then the third accelerator I think I mentioned earlier is sustainable financing. We are seeing countries in financing sit situations where financing is becoming more expensive.

And financial resources are becoming scarcer. An important part of this particularly from an African perspective, is doing a lot more to ensure that Africa’s own available resources are managed much better and a part of this construct that we are seeing to ensure that the goals in our strategic plan are enabled by governance. And that provides not just the framework, but also the confidence for financing to flow in and then financing that is affordable and that does not increase debt stress across the African continent. And so if we are able to do these things and we can do them with partnerships involving other development actors and also with the private sector, but most importantly with African countries themselves at the lead, I think we could look towards the future with a new sense of optimism.

LANDRY SIGNÉ: Incredibly amazing. Thank you so much for joining me today.

RAYMOND GILPIN: It is such a pleasure. Thank you so much for including UNDP in this conversation.

LANDRY SIGNÉ: Fabulous.