Perspectives from the Floor: Civil Society Reflections on the 2026 UN Secretary-General Candidates Town Hall

General Introduction & Background Context

[New York – LMGlobal.Org] On July 23, 2026, the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York hosted a historic UN Town Hall: The Next Secretary-General. Convened under the authority of the President of the UN General Assembly, H.E. Annalena Baerbock, the event marked a pivotal milestone in global transparency and public accountability. In her Opening Remarks, President Baerbock underscored the solemn responsibility of selecting the custodian of the UN Charter across all three core pillars—peace and security, sustainable development, and human rights—demanding an inclusive process open to global scrutiny.

Organized in partnership with media sponsor Bloomberg TV, the broadcast was co-moderated by Bloomberg anchors Haslinda Amin and Romaine Bostick. The forum brought together all six officially declared candidates seeking to succeed outgoing Secretary-General António Guterres:

1. Ms. Michelle Bachelet Jeria (Chile) – Two-time former President of Chile, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and inaugural Executive Director of UN Women.
2. Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés (Ecuador) – President of the 73rd UN General Assembly, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and former Minister of Defence of Ecuador.
3. Mr. Rafael Mariano Grossi (Argentina) – Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
4. Ms. Rebeca Grynspan Mayufis (Costa Rica) – Secretary-General of UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and former Vice President of Costa Rica.
5. Ms. Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett (Guyana) – Permanent Representative of Guyana to the United Nations, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and former Minister of Amerindian Affairs of Guyana.
6. Mr. Macky Sall (Senegal) – Former President of the Republic of Senegal.

Following the historic UN General Assembly Town Hall on July 23, 2026, The Light Millennium, Charitable Global Human Advancement Organization gathered their observations on the floor. While the town hall offered a groundbreaking window into the candidate selection process, civil society observers viewed the proceedings through distinct yet complementary lenses. Below are two reflections from our UN NGO Representatives—the first offering an educational, human-centered and learning science and technology vision for global governance, and the second providing an analytical, realpolitik critique of candidate performance and diplomatic rhetoric, institutional mechanisms, and room dynamics.

Part I: An Educational & Human-Centered Lens

Introduction:

In this first reflection, Salih MANSUR, The Light Millennium Global, NGO Representative to the United Nations Department of Global Communications, examines the town hall through the lens of learning sciences and human potential. Mansur highlights the overarching themes of dialogue, ethical technology, and institutional trust, arguing that sustainable global progress relies ultimately on long-term investment in education and human development.

UN Town Hall: The Next Secretary-General

Reflection on the 2026 UN Secretary-General Candidates Town Hall

Attending the 2026 UN Town Hall was both inspiring and encouraging. It was a privilege to listen to six distinguished candidates share their visions for the future of the United Nations. Although each candidate brought a different background and leadership style, they all demonstrated a deep commitment to peace, dialogue, international cooperation, and strengthening the UN amid growing global uncertainty.

Ms. Michelle Bachelet Jeria (Chile) emphasized human rights, principled leadership, and the responsibility of the Secretary-General to act when diplomacy reaches difficult moments. Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés (Ecuador) spoke about prevention, institutional reform, and the importance of connecting issues that are too often treated separately. Mr. Rafael Mariano Grossi (Argentina) brought the perspective of someone working directly in conflict situations, reminding us that credibility is built through action as much as through words. Ms. Rebeca Grynspan Mayufis (Costa Rica) highlighted dialogue, partnership, and practical solutions, while Ms. Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett (Guyana) emphasized bridge-building, inclusion, and multilateral cooperation. Mr. Macky Sall (Senegal) focused on development, financial fairness, and ensuring that the voices of developing countries are heard.

Despite their different perspectives, I was struck by how often the discussion returned to a common theme: people. Whether the topic was peace, climate, economic development, institutional reform, or emerging technologies, the conversation repeatedly reminded us that sustainable solutions depend on cooperation, trust, and shared responsibility.

Many of these ideas closely reflect the mission of our organization, Light Millennium. Through its Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Initiative, Light Millennium has long promoted education, intercultural dialogue, civic engagement, digital inclusion, and the responsible use of knowledge and technology to strengthen communities. Listening to the candidates, I found many points where their vision naturally intersected with the values our organization has supported for many years.

One area, however, that I believe deserves even greater attention is education.

Education is not simply another sector. It is the foundation that supports every other goal. Peace requires education. Democracy requires education. Responsible citizenship requires education. Even the most carefully designed international agreements ultimately depend on people who understand them, value them, and are prepared to put them into practice.

The discussion on artificial intelligence was timely and important. Yet I believe the larger conversation is really about people. Technology will continue to evolve, but our ability to learn, adapt, think critically, communicate, collaborate, and make ethical decisions will always remain the deciding factor.

For that reason, I hope future UN initiatives place even greater emphasis on learning. Not only formal education, but also mentoring, guidance, collaboration, lifelong learning, and supporting educators who help people grow throughout their lives. These are long-term investments. Their results may not always be immediate, but they create stronger individuals, stronger communities, and ultimately stronger institutions.

As someone working in the field of education and learning sciences, I naturally viewed much of this discussion through an educational lens. Every major global challenge discussed during the Town Hall, whether related to peace, development, climate, or artificial intelligence, ultimately comes back to learning. When people have opportunities to learn, reflect, question, and grow together, they become better prepared to solve problems that no institution can solve alone.

Overall, I found the Town Hall to be thoughtful, balanced, and highly valuable. It demonstrated that meaningful dialogue still matters. It also reminded me that while policies and institutions are essential, lasting progress begins with people. Investing in human learning, human development, and human potential may be one of the most important contributions the United Nations can make for future generations.

* * *

While Salih Mansur’s reflection anchors the candidate visions in the foundational power of human learning and long-term civic engagement, the following analysis shifts the gaze directly to the immediate procedural tension, strategic rhetoric, and diplomatic realism that unfolded on the General Assembly floor.

Part II: The Reality of Diplomacy, Rhetoric, and Mechanism

Introduction:

In this second reflection, our Prospect Youth Representative Ashwin TELANG, to the United Nations Department of Global Communications, provides a sharp, realpolitik assessment of the debate dynamics. This observation dissects how the candidates navigated challenging questions, challenged media premises, and balanced idealistic diplomatic vocabulary (“trust, reform, prevention”) against hard institutional constraints—from unpaid member dues to the limits of AI regulation and Security Council stalemates.

Observations on Candidate Strategies and Floor Dynamics

By Ashwin TELANG, Prospect Youth NGO Representative of the Light Millennium Global to the United Nations Department of Global Communications

For a substantial portion, candidates kept refusing the premise of questions. One of them asked what she would protect at all costs if the money ran short, opened with “I don’t agree with you” and spent her minute arguing that a secretary-general who begins from cuts has already lost the negotiation, because the financial crisis and the political crisis are the same illness.
Mr. Grossi (Argentina) got the flattering setup, an IAEA for AI, and turned it down. His inspectors weigh uranium. There is nothing to weigh in an algorithm, so a verification regime, in his words, would be an illusion, and when the man who runs the world’s most credible verification body says verification cannot work here, the room has to sit with that. Ms. Espinosa (Ecuador) slipped the hardest number of the night into her closing almost as an aside: 72 member states have not paid their dues. 

Once you heard three answers you could write the fourth. Trust, reform, prevention, honest broker, good offices, the same five nouns continued doing laps around the podium. The moderators kept hunting for a mechanism for action, which tool first, which silo breaks first, would you act without the council, and mostly came home empty. Every first-hundred-days plan sounded very similar: a senior team chosen for competence with gender and geographic balance, early consultations with member states, physical presence wherever the conflicts are. 

Ms. Rodrigues-Birkett (Guyana), came closest to a doctrine when she said the secretary-general does not have the luxury of not trying, and Ms. Bachelet‘s (Chile) whole theory of the office boiled down to the same instinct, insist, then insist again. 

Mr. Grossi acted as a realist all evening. Counting resolutions is the wrong scoreboard for a fractured council, he argued, since their absence is now the most predictable outcome going. His evidence that multilateralism still breathes was six negotiated ceasefires around the Zaporizhzhia plant, inspectors working inside a live war. Ms. Grynspan (Costa Rica), gave the sharpest history lesson, that the founders were great powers who believed they needed restraining and built themselves a cage, and her five-year test is that nobody asks her where the UN is anymore. Ms. Espinosa went generational, half of humanity under thirty, governed by institutions their grandparents designed, young people filling the startups and the gangs alike, and she borrowed Elie Wiesel for the landing: the opposite of love is indifference.
Importantly, AI threaded through everything, and tellingly, all six had practiced a structured answer for it.

Left to right: Salih Mansur, Kathryn Good (Head, UN NGLS), Bircan Ünver and Ashwin Telang, UNGA Hall, July 23, 2026.

UN WebTV: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1h/k1hkyf9mo0

Full Transcription of the session: https://transcripts.un.org/en/asset/k1h/k1hkyf9mo0 

Photos by The Light Millennium Global & the wide shot of the #UNGA Hall captured by B.Ü. from the #UNWebTV.

©2026, The Light Millennium, Charitable Global Human Advancement Organization
Associated with the United Nations Department of Global Communications – www.lmglobal.org