UN Contribution to the World

On the day the United Nations was established, it is worth recognizing the important role it has played on the global stage since its inception and remembering its various achievements that have contributed to making our world a better place. The creation of the United Nations was designed to mitigate the deleterious effects of the hitherto purely anarchical international system that had led to the maintenance of colonialism under the suzerainty of the League of Nations. Its founding charter mentioned the promotion of global security and development as some of the primary objectives of the organization. Through its subsidiary organizations, the UN has expanded the scope of its work to include the promotion of sustainable development, poverty reduction and cultural heritage among other areas.

In the area of global security, the UN has a subsidiary organization called the Security Council. The Security Council’s task is to provide a forum for a select number of countries to discuss conflicts around the world and their implications and come up with potential ideas that can be used to develop and implement solutions to these problems. The history of this institution is rife with examples of success stories where timely intervention resulted in the staving off of mass killing and genocide. Among these cases was the intervention in Somalia in 1993 which helped restore a measure of law and order, and provide humanitarian relief to the famine-stricken country ; and the intervention in Bosnia in 1995 during the Bosnian-Serbian war where large-scale genocide was prevented.

In addition, the UNDP is one of the primary global institutions leading the global struggle against poverty. It has taken a pragmatic and flexible approach that varies depending on context across different countries. For example, the UNDP’s approach to fighting poverty in Botswana has focused on addressing structural poverty in remote areas by supporting the government’s effort to create a national poverty plan. Another example is Saudi Arabia where the program’s strategy focused on reducing the income disparity between urbanized and rural areas . UNDP also made valuable contributions in the area of climate change and energy conservation. Since 1992, it has funded numerous large and small scale energy and climate projects and also built up a valuable body of expertise and experience mostly at headquarters and in regional centers.

Furthermore, in the area of education and cultural heritage, UNESCO, the UN’s educational, cultural and scientific organization has made important contributions toward enhancing development around the world in these areas. Among these contributions is the combating of illicit art trafficking and the preservation of world heritage. Making the former contribution involved collaboration with museums, non-governmental organizations and law-enforcement bodies; whereas the latter contribution involved providing a list of world heritage sites and encouraging community-based policies and conservation practices that ensure the preservation of these sites. Examples of the former include the recovery of a large number of objects that were stolen from the National Museum of Baghdad during the Iraq war in 2003 and the exposing of illegal excavations in Central America which lead to the extraction of at least 1000 Maya ceramic objects every month with an estimated value of 10 million dollars.

To sum up, the expansive role the UN plays with its various bodies has transformed international politics and ushered in a new era of collaboration among nations. Today, more than ever before, the upholding of the ideals of egalitarianism, collaboration, and progress is needed to face the existential challenges we face as a species.

References

http://www.un.org/Depts/DPKO/Missions/unosomi.htm

http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/past/unmibh/background.html

http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/corporate/Executive%20Board/2013/English/Evaluation%20of%20UNDP%20Contribution%20to%20Poverty%20Reduction.pdf

 http://web.undp.org/evaluation/documents/thematic/ee/EE-Full-Report.pdf