By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Akanksha Arora, an Indo-Canadian auditor and United Nations official had announced her intention to be the next United Nations Secretary-General.
Arora, in February 2021, announced her candidacy to challenge incumbent UN Secretary-General António Guterres in the 2021 United Nations leadership selection.
She is the first millennial candidate for the position and the first known candidate to challenge an incumbent.
If selected, Arora would be the youngest-ever, and first female Secretary-General. However, no country has yet expressed support for her candidacy.
She has been an audit coordinator for the United Nations Development Programme since 2017.
Arora joined the United Nations in 2016. Within two years, she felt the organisation was failing the people it was created to help. In January 2019, she decided there was no better way to make a change than to lead it.
At 34, Arora is bidding to be the UN’s next secretary-general. If she succeeds, she will not only be the youngest person but also the first woman to lead the organisation.
“The UN has let people down, it hasn’t served those who it is here to serve,” Arora said. “UN’s biggest enemy is its own inability to deliver. Decision-making is not the problem. It’s implementation that we’re falling short on. That has led to the loss in trust and credibility of the institution where people just don’t expect the UN to do anything.”
On paper, her lack of diplomatic experience seems to hold her back as she prepares to launch her vision statement and rally support from member nations for the high-profile position currently held by someone more than twice her age, 71-year-old Antonio Guterres.
She acknowledges that gap but adds that diplomacy is not learned and mastered in conference rooms and political meetings alone.
Born in India, she moved to Saudi Arabia aged six after her mother – a gynaecologist – took up a job offer there. Three years later, she moved back to India for boarding school after her parents were unable to afford the only American school in the southwestern Saudi city.
At 18, Arora was offered a scholarship at York University in Toronto for her undergraduate studies and stayed in Canada to work after finishing university. In 2016, she moved to New York to start work with the UN.
While climate, education, technology, and economic recovery post-COVID also make her priority list, Arora feels a lot of work needs to be done on women’s empowerment, at the organisation she is part of as well as globally.
The UN has never elected a female secretary-general. In the last elections five years ago, seven out of 13 nominated candidates were women. While the current deputy secretary-general is Nigeria’s Amina Mohammed, Arora feels it’s “high time we show the world what women leadership can achieve”.
“We’re 75 years too late in having a female chief. This candidacy is not just a test of my ability but also the UN. Do they really believe in gender equality and women empowerment or are these just words for them? What’s important is to practice what you preach,’’ she said.
