Arora Akanksha: the first woman Secretary-General of the United Nations?

On February 17^th, 2021, Arora Akanksha had submitted her application to become the next United Nations Secretary-General. If she had been elected, she would have been the first woman to hold one of the highest-ranking positions in this organization. Ambitious, she wished to completely reform the United Nations organization and focus more on humanitarian issues. In spite of significant criticism on her age, gender, lack of diplomatic experience and lack of state support, she did not accept defeat. Although António Guterres had recently been re-elected for a second mandate, Arora Akanksha candidacy symbolizes the rebirth of a generation that is more engaged and politically invested. 

During the election of the UN Secretary-General, only one application was made official: the current Secretary-General, António Guterres. However, he was not the only one who had eyes on this high-responsibility position. Arora Akanksha, a financial reforms project manager working for the UN since 2016, wanted to be his successor.   

Rebellious act for some, impertinence for others, Arora Akanksha’s campaign was not a walk in the park. Her main fight: the complete reorganization of the United Nations.

Her application, mainly supported by feminist NGOs that see Arora Akanksha as the future voice of civil society, was ignored for a while but it got more and more attention as time went by. According to her, after 76 years of existence, the United Nations must elect the first woman as head of the organization^[1]Riniki Sanyal, « UN Leadership is a Failure, Sec-Gen Candidate Akanksha Arora”, The Quint, 24 mai 2021. Disponible sur : … Continue reading. 

Who is Arora Akanksha ? 

Born in the Indian state of Haryana, Arora Akanksha spent her youth between India and Saudi Arabia before moving to study in Canada. Graduating with a Bachelor in Administrative Studies from the University of York in Toronto, she finished her studies at Columbia University in New York City^[2]Martin Gauthier, « Arora Akanksha, la Canadienne qui veut devenir secrétaire général des Nations-Unies », Courrier International, March 3rd 2021. Available on: … Continue reading. She began her UN career in 2016. She had her first experience in the international organizations field and testifies of her first disappointments: “that morning, I experienced something I had never seen before. It was not leadership, but selfishness^[3]Rit Van Puymbroeck, « Arora Akanksha : l’ONU a tellement de chose à cacher qu’elle a imposé une culture du silence », l’Echo, April 10th 2021. Available on: … Continue reading”. Far from being discouraged, she used her disappointment to fuel her will to participate in the election of António Guterres’ successor. Rich of her five-year experience inside the Organization, Arora Akanksha submits her candidacy on February 17^th, 2021 to the president of the UN General Assembly, Volkan Bozkir^[4]Ibidem. 

Arora Akanksha’s ambitious electoral program: a voice for a new generation

Two personal experiences will be Arora Akanksha’s ambitious project’s starting point. The first one is her accident. Overworked, she left her office late and got hit by a taxi: “I didn’t pay attention, my head was full of numbers, charts and ideas to put on paper^[5]Ibidem”. Narrowly escaping death, she realized that time is precious and that she had an important role to play to change mentalities and the course of history.

The second one is seeing a child eating mud during her mission to Uganda. It was a real trauma, accentuated by the passivity and condescension of high-ranking UN officials. Indeed, once she got back, when she hurried to alert a senior UN official of this dramatic situation, he answered that: “mud is good for children. It contains iron^[6]Supra note 2”. Emotionally impacted by these experiences, her motivation became unshakable. Arora Akanksha argues that we have three options in life: accept the situation, leave, or change the system^[7]Rit Van Puymbroeck, « Arora Akanksha : l’ONU a tellement de chose à cacher qu’elle a imposé une culture du silence », l’Echo, April 10th 2021. Available on: … Continue reading. She says that “leaders take these jobs to then become ministers or heads of states. They do not seriously worry about a child eating mud. If we can solve this governance problem, then we will have a functioning UN organization^[8]Raphael Grand, « Arora Akanksha, la trentenaire qui veut prendre la tête de l’ONU », RTS, May 15th 2021. Available on: … Continue reading ”.  

According to her, the refugee crisis, humanitarian aid, development and technology are fundamental issues, that must be prioritized. With her candidacy, she wished to focus on humanitarian issues instead of geopolitical questions: “You can see the UN as an organization that has to serve 193 member States or be at the service of 7.8 billion people all around the world^[9]Rit Van Puymbroeck, « Arora Akanksha : l’ONU a tellement de chose à cacher qu’elle a imposé une culture du silence », l’Echo, April 10th 2021. Available on: … Continue reading ”. 

In addition to bringing to the forefront forgotten and marginalized issues – because they are judged “less important” – her candidacy was a historic turning point, proving that both young people and women no longer want to be passive and that their future belongs to them. 

“The decision to run is to bring a new perspective, to bring the missing link of a gender that has been overlooked, of a generation who is ready and prepared for the task at hand^[10]Stephane Bussard, « Une trentenaire défie Antonio Guterres pour diriger l’ONU », le Temps, April 5th 2021. Available on: … Continue reading”, specifies Arora Akanksha to the newspaper The Quint, while explaining why millennials must run international organizations like the UN.

Arora Akanksha’s election would have constituted a real upheaval within the United Nations Organization. Her vision was ambitious, futuristic, and humanist : “Nowadays, we have the highest number of refugees and displaced people ever, almost 85 million. These are not electors or people who have social media. The UN is the only thing they have and it cannot provide for their fundamental needs such as food, clothes, and housing, which leaves them to fend for themselves^[11]Stephanie Fillion, « Arora Akanksha is done with being nice in her quest to become UN Leader », Forbes, May 7th 2021. Available on: … Continue reading”. 

Arora Akanksha also deplored the organization’s financial mismanagement, as it would have already been declared bankrupt if it was a private company^[12]Rit Van Puymbroeck, « Arora Akanksha : l’ONU a tellement de chose à cacher qu’elle a imposé une culture du silence », l’Echo, April 10th 2021. Available on: … Continue reading. 

As an example, in 2019, the United Nations knew their “biggest deficit in ten years^[13]Etienne Jacob, « Qui finance l’ONU », Le Figaro International, October 9th 2019. Available on: https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/qui-finance-l-onu-20191009”, as a result of an incomplete payment by the member States of the total amount necessary for the activities inscribed in the regular budget^[14]Rit Van Puymbroeck, « Arora Akanksha : l’ONU a tellement de chose à cacher qu’elle a imposé une culture du silence », l’Echo, April 10th 2021. Available on: … Continue reading.  

The UN 2019-2021 total budget is 12.386 billion dollars. Of this envelope, 5.868 billion dollars constitute the UN operating budget, while 6.518 billion dollars finance 14 peacekeeping operations^[15]Rit Van Puymbroeck, « Arora Akanksha : l’ONU a tellement de chose à cacher qu’elle a imposé une culture du silence », l’Echo, April 10th 2021. Available on: … Continue reading.

47.38% of the UN total budget are meant to maintain a well-functioning organization. However, because of financial mismanagement, the United Nations are constantly in deficit. Without the member states contributions, the UN would already be bankrupt. 

Arora Akanksha’s ambition was to address the financial losses, to help the UN improve its budgetary management, and to better distribute the envelopes within the different programs. She attested that: “Only 29% of the UN budget is allocated to the causes the organization is supposed to support : aid to refugees, humanitarian crises, education and digitization. The rest of the funds is allocated to the administration, holding conferences and redacting reports. The UN has lost its DNA, the one that was defined by the Charter^[16]Supra note 4”.   

A candidacy fraught with pitfalls…

In 2017, amongst the UN senior officials, only 33.7% were women^[17]General Assembly, « fifth commission: the geographic repartition of UN personnel at the heart of the debate on the human resources global strategy 2019-2021 », United Nations, November 15th 2018. … Continue reading. In 76 years of existence, no woman was allowed to be secretary general. The main obstacle Arora Akanksha faced was, with no surprise, the masculine universe of the organization. She believes her candidacy was marginalized for three main reasons: she is a woman, she is young and she is not backed by her hierarchy^[18]Supra note 2. The culture of silence and the difficulty to meet the necessary requirements  to submit an official candidacy were two other significant obstacles. 

Being a woman was already a major obstacle. According to her: “we keep on talking about women, empowerment, and inclusion, but these are only words^[19]Rit Van Puymbroeck, « Arora Akanksha : l’ONU a tellement de chose à cacher qu’elle a imposé une culture du silence », l’Echo, April 10th 2021. Available on: … Continue reading”. Protecting women’s rights has been one of the main goals of the organization since its creation. UN Women, an entity of the United Nations, has even been dedicated to gender equality and women’s empowerment^[20]United Nations, « Gender equality ». Available on: https://www.un.org/fr/gender-equality/index.html. In practice, when a woman wishes to apply for one of the most important positions in the organization, her application is marginalized. A recurring prejudice is the idea that a woman is too empathetic to get her way in the brutal world of politics. One needs to have a strong character, be brave, be manly and know how to get their way. These character traits are often seen as masculine traits. But one can ask: what is the result of these 76 years of governance?

What was also criticized was the fact that she was young. The impression that youth rimes with inexperience and carelessness. Considering that Arora Akanksha was too young, implicitly amounts to saying that she lacked maturity, experience, and knowledge. However, the decisions made by national, regional, and international powers have way more impact on future generations than on past ones. The new generation’s participation is of the utmost importance as they are the most concerned. Another reproach often made to “young people” is their lack of interest in politics. Young people seem detached from geopolitical, climatic, and humanitarian issues. It might indeed be difficult for young people to take an interest in an organization where the average age of civil servants is 45.1 years old^[21]Supra note 13. This lack of intergenerational dialogue could be the main cause of the youth’s disinterest in politics. Arora Akanksha spoke on this topic, stating that “Our generation is not represented at the UN top management level. Maybe they want us to be a clone of their generation. But we don’t, we are different because we were born in another time. We invented Airbnb, Uber, the social network Facebook. The generation preceding us also enjoys these inventions. And we don’t have a say in the matter? Our generation advocates for collaboration and shows that it works^[22]Supra note 2”. 

Finally, hierarchy was also an issue in Arora Akanksha’s candidacy. She is not a diplomat but has been a United Nations Development Program employee for five years. However, the necessity to respect a certain hierarchy excludes the important notion of competence. The quality of a candidacy should only be judged on skills. “If you are an employee, you are despised. If you need to have an operation, do you want the most competent surgeon to do it, and not, for any reason, the most handsome one? ^[23]Rit Van Puymbroeck, « Arora Akanksha : l’ONU a tellement de chose à cacher qu’elle a imposé une culture du silence », l’Echo, April 10th 2021. Available on: … Continue reading”. Not having a diplomatic career had no impact on her financial management skills, which was a significant asset. Her personal experiences in different regions of the world, her family past as a refugee, and most importantly her infallible determination should have been taken into account^[24]Andréanne Cyr, « Une candidature surprenante pour le poste de secrétaire général des Nations-Unies », Perspective Monde, March 9th 2021. Available on: … Continue reading. 

Arora Akanksha underlined other obstacles, such as the culture of silence that has settled within the organization. Free speech as faltered because being quiet is better than getting laid off^[25]Supra note 3. In spite of deficiencies, weaknesses, and indisputable failures in the UN actions and policies, nobody dares speaking up: “the UN has so many things to hide that is has imposed a culture of silence. Amongst its 44,000 collaborators, many are afraid to lose their job, so they stay quiet^[26]Supra note 2”. Arora Akanksha did not want to be silenced, she wanted to become the voice of a new generation and to put the restructuration of the organization in place in order to put an end to persisting blocks. It is in this sense that Arora Akanksha says she loves the United Nations, despite all of the deceptions, she never lost hope and continue to see its immense potential.  

Notwithstanding the promising perspectives of her ambitions, Arora Akanksha was not elected. On Friday 18^th June 2021, António Guterres, the only candidate of this electoral campaign, was confirmed for a second mandate by a resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

According to the selection procedure of the Secretary-General, regulated by article 97 Chapter XV of the United Nations Charter, recently modified by resolution 69/321, adopted by the General Assembly, a few elements must be reunited for a candidate to be elected ^[27]Rit Van Puymbroeck, « Arora Akanksha : l’ONU a tellement de chose à cacher qu’elle a imposé une culture du silence », l’Echo, April 10th 2021. Available on: … Continue reading. Firstly, the Security Council votes for a person amongst the candidates and makes a recommendation to the General Assembly, who then has to nominate the Secretary-General. Moreover, for a candidacy to be official, the candidate has to have the support of one member State of the organization. The current Secretary-General of the United Nations already had the support of a few States, including the United Kingdom and Germany^[28]Rit Van Puymbroeck, « Arora Akanksha : l’ONU a tellement de chose à cacher qu’elle a imposé une culture du silence », l’Echo, April 10th 2021. Available on: … Continue reading. That is why he was the only one in the running. The situation was more complex for Arora Akanksha, who had no State support. The candidate had appealed to the 193 States, including her native and adoptive countries: India and Canada. No State wished to answer her ask favorably: “I contacted all 193 member States. I met with five countries until now. Countries fear to nominate me by fear of retaliation by the members of the Security Council and the European Union ^[29]Supra note 11”.    

The fear of being targeted by great powers is the main reason for Arora Akanksha’s candidacy receiving no support. Economically powerful States have considerable political weight within the United Nations. They have a stronger voice within the General Assembly of the United Nations. They can also intervene or support a State’s interest during negotiations in the Assembly. It is therefore in a State’s interest to be part of a group of States because their interests are most efficiently defended.

Phenomena of groups defending common interests are inevitable within the organization.

On the other hand, António Guterres was supported by powerful States and implicitly had the approval of the Security Council member States^[30]United Nations, « Le Conseil de sécurité donne son feu vert à un second mandat d’Antònio Guterres à la tête du Secrétariat de l’ONU », ONU Info, June 8th 2021. Available on: … Continue reading. Therefore, no State wanted to risk supporting Arora Akanksha’s candidacy, in fear of rustling feathers with these great powers.

Conclusion 

In spite of her defeat, Arora Akanksha’s candidacy attracted a lot of attention from international media. Why? Because a woman applied to a job that has only been occupied by men in their fifties or sixties. This brutal reality shows the gap between the speeches promoting gender equality and reality. Women still are under-represented in key positions, with high responsibility. Women, although they represent half of the world’s population, are few to be present in the political high spheres. Between hope and weariness, Arora Akanksha has only shed  light on the real societal, mental, and structural issues. In total, only four women for seventy-one men have been elected to the presidency of the United Nations General Assembly in the past 76 years^[31]Supra note 2. The lack of confidence given to them, the assumption that any women candidate is incompetent cannot be tolerated any longer, much less within an organization such as the United Nations.

Therefore, one of the weaknesses of the UN system is put forward: the Security Council. According to the United Nations Charter, the five permanent members have a discretionary power in the choice of the Secretary-General amongst the candidates. This proves once again that the other UN actors only play a secondary role in an organization that preaches democratic values and equality. The position of Secretary-General is the highest ranking one in this organization. The elected person will determine a well-crafted policy, will set the organization’s priorities during their mandate, as well as the actions to undertake. The predominance of the Security Council permanent members in the electoral process blocks the whole organization. They have in their possession all prerogatives, power, financial funds and legitimacy, but they cannot act without the unanimous approval of the five permanent members. That is what Arora Akanksha was denouncing, as well as financial mismanagement. Because she pointed out the failures of an untouchable organization, she did not get support from any State.      

Of course, António Guterres was elected, but Arora Akanksha put her mark on UN history. Her candidacy was synonymous with a turning point and renewal. Millennials have started to act and to be aware that they cannot let the old generation decide for them. Her candidacy being rejected was disappointing, because once again, she was undervalued for non-legitimate grounds: gender, age, and hierarchy.