Why UN failed to elect a woman secretary-general

With the official announcement of former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres as the next UN secretary-general, the race to engender the UN secretary-general's post is now over.

For a few years now, there had been a lot of noise to have a woman as the next UN secretary-general. It would have been walk the talk for the UN, who has been working around the world with different member states to implement the third Goal of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women.

Though none of the women candidates needed empowerment, it was the UN itself that required to be seen as a gender equal place, from bottom to top. This is because the UN till date has not had a woman secretary-general in its 60 plus years of existence.

Given the favourable environment to field a women candidate, a number of excellent names emerged. Frontrunner remained Helen Clark who was former prime minister of New Zealand and who later ably headed the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

During the course of time, more desirable qualifications emerged, so the choice for a European candidate was floated, as the previous three secretary-generals were from the other parts of the world, namely, from the Middle East, Boutros Boutros Ghali, then from Africa, Kofi Annan and recently from Asia, Ban Ki-moon.

The category was further defined to Eastern Europe since there had been a number of secretary-generals from Europe but none from the eastern part. Names such as Irina Bokova, a Bulgarian and the current director-general of UNESCO was suggested.

However Bokova's candidacy was an uphill task from the start. Though an able leader and a firm executer, she'd done the unthinkable in the very beginning of her stint at UNESCO, which was, to oversee Palestine being voted in as a full member of UNESCO.

This decision did not go down well with USA, though they had supported her candidacy for UNESCO and immediately withdrew its financial support to the organisation after the vote, followed by other countries such as Canada and the UK.

UNESCO went through one of its worst financial crisis and Bokova had to make some difficult cuts to see a continued transition and relevance of the UN body.

A number of countries appreciated her stand and would have supported her candidature but with the USA in the Permanent Council, this would have been near impossible.

USA, in the meantime, floated the idea of a candidate from the Americas and Susana Malcorra, the Argentinian foreign minister's name was suggested. But Russia put its weight behind somebody from Eastern Europe, so another former foreign minister; Vesna Pusic's name emerged from Croatia.

The world is still looking for women candidates from the desired areas to be fielded for the UNSG's post. And the best of the lot were fielded and the most number of women in any given candidacy, however the top job went to Antonio Guterres. A man from Western Europe. As many as half a dozen women candidates were sidelined and as many male candidates from Eastern Europe, rejected.

This is not to deny that Guterres did not excel in this role as the former UN high commissioner for refugees or the fact that he was fielded as the Security Council candidate. But it was time that a woman was given the baton to both, address long neglected areas and bring in viewpoints that the UN has been missing.

The countries voting for the new secretary-general had stated that the candidate would be chosen based on merit and irrespective of his or her nationality and gender. And that is absolutely fair but it is hard to believe that some of the strongest women candidates weren't good enough for the UNSG post.

So in the end, between the Permanent Council members, the member states and the UN, Goal 3 of the MDG has yet again missed its 2017 deadline, this time for its UNSG's post.

Also read - How India can become a world leader in achieving UN's Global Goals