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Hello, this is Kasmira. In March, the United States Congress ended months of uncertainty when it approved a spending package for 2024, including what it owes to the United Nations, which by this point was severely hamstrung by the lack of funds from its largest contributor. While cash problems are a regular occurrence for the organisation, this year has marked one of the most acute yet, pointing to a multilateral system under increasing pressure, as my colleague Michelle Langrand reported this month. Do not miss our event on the topic on 15 May at the Geneva Press Club.

In the world of aid, money troubles are rarely isolated from geopolitical problems nor without acute local repercussions, as the UN Palestinian aid agency has experienced first-hand. It’s also been the case for the ICRC, which is finally on a more stable footing after a drastic turnaround, as its new head Pierre Krähenbühl explains.

The United Nations – and the League of Nations before it – have counted hundreds of thousands of employees since their inception, some more famous than others. Author Ian Fleming would only spend three months at the League, but it would be enough to inspire the name of his secret agent, James Bond, as the author of Fleming’s new biography explained at the Société de Lecture last month.

photo journaliste

Kasmira Jefford

02.05.2024


The must-reads


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UN European headquarters in Geneva, 25 March 2024. (Geneva Solutions/Michelle Langrand)

🇺🇳 Behind the UN liquidity crunch, a multilateral system in crisis? While the UN’s financial woes are not new, they are telling of a multilateral system under increasing pressure as states look out for their national interests at the expense of their commitments to the international system.

Michelle Langrand

🍸 Ian Fleming biographer traces James Bond author’s brush with the League of Nations and Geneva. While his two years as a student in Geneva would leave a lasting impression on the creator of James Bond, it would not be his short stint working for the League of Nations that would inspire his thrill-seeking secret agent, as the author of Ian Fleming’s latest biography points out.

Kasmira Jefford

💫 UN agency rebrands amid budgetary strains and political ambitions. Underlining how its mission has evolved since its inception, Unctad’s chief announced a rebranding of the UN’s trade and development office after the war in Ukraine helped catapult it out of general obscurity.

Paula Dupraz-Dobias

🏰 When a foundation for the poorest lays off workers and buys a pretty villa in Geneva. The Antenna Foundation is in turmoil. The Geneva-based organisation, designed to help transfer technology to poor countries, has laid off three-quarters of its employees and sunk half its funds into a real estate deal. The complaint against it filed by its founder, Denis von der Weid, could set a precedent in a sector worth CHF140 billion in Switzerland.

Fabrice Delaye

☔ Can UNRWA weather the storm? After a long-awaited UN review largely cleared UNRWA’s name, the Palestinian aid agency still faces uncertainties without its main donor.

Michelle Langrand

The big interview


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Pierre Krähenbühl, director general of the ICRC, in the organisation's headquarters in Geneva on 26 April 2024. (Le Temps/David Wagnières)

Pierre Krähenbühl: ‘ICRC won’t replace UNRWA in Gaza’. A month into the job, the new ICRC head asserts that within a year, the organisation has managed to stabilise its finances following the elimination of 4,000 jobs. It is now essential to foster cohesion rooted in diversity, he says in an interview.

Stéphane Bussard

Natalia Kanem: We see ‘orchestrated efforts’ to reverse gains in sexual and reproductive rights. Major strides in sexual and reproductive rights over the last three decades have failed to serve women from marginalised groups amid mounting attacks against some of those historic gains such as the liberalisation of abortion laws, according to the head of the UN Population Fund.

Michelle Langrand

Ghassan Salamé: ‘Major powers encourage each other to violate the rules they themselves have established’. According to the former Lebanese diplomat and special adviser to Kofi Annan, the world has spiralled into a period of deception and contradictions. Its origin? The American invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Kasmira Jefford

Here's what else happened this month


Opinion of the month


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❝International crimes never die, but their perpetrators do. International crimes are not subject to any statute of limitation, but what should be done when their perpetrators, sometimes judged decades after the events, have become senile, demented, and can no longer understand the charges?, asks Alain Werner, director of NGO Civitas Maxima.


From the field


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Tourists and baby seals and their mother on Mosquera Island, Galápagos, 29 February 2024. (Geneva Solutions/Paula Dupraz-Dobias)

Human-driven environmental changes in Galápagos face global pushback. Nearly two centuries after Charles Darwin’s visit to the Galápagos archipelago off South America’s Pacific coast led scientists to consider how species adapt through evolution, the rapid pace of environmental change has international organisations calling for policy resets.

Paula Dupraz-Dobias

Join us at our next event!


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Behind the UN liquidity crunch, a multilateral system in crisis? The United Nations has been facing its worst liquidity crunch, forcing it to adopt several aggressive cost-saving measures. At this event, Geneva Solutions with guest speakers Michael Møller, former director general at the UN in Geneva, and Maya Ungar, UN analyst at the International Crisis Group, will discuss its latest reporting on the UN’s money woes and the wider implications for the multilateral system. Register to attend in person at the Domaine de Penthes, where an apéritif will follow the event, or to participate online.

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