From the sidelines of the COP28 climate conference in Dubai, UAE, in November 2023, UN Necessary’s Daniel Perell spoke with former president of Costa Rica Carlos Andrés Alvarado Quesada on his administration’s efforts to push against societal inertia to lead Costa Rica on the path to decarbonization. Drawing inspiration from his grandparents’ generation, which abolished Costa Rica’s military, and the responsibility he feels to his family and future generations, Alvarado shares the motivations...

In the last UN Necessary episode ahead of the Summit of the Future, Nudhara Yusuf and Daniel Perell speak with Uruguayan doctor and activist Felipe Paullier, the UN’s first Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs, to explore his vision for empowering young voices in multilateral spaces. Felipe shares his personal motivations and the complexities of leading a new office—while trying to bridge the gap between institutional governance and the world’s youth. His reflections touch on the nee...

In this episode of UN Necessary, recorded in March and July, hosts Nudhara Yusuf and Daniel Perell dive into the complexities of global governance and United Nations reform with Natalie Samarasinghe, outgoing global director of advocacy at the Open Society Foundations, who was previously executive director of the UN Association-UK.Recorded amidst the bustling atmosphere of the March 2024 Global Women Leaders Voices Dialogue, in Madrid, UN Necessary’s latest conversation covers the need for a ...

David Passarelli, from the United Nations University Center for Policy Research, helped to prepare a key report to Secretary-General António Guterres ahead of the Summit of the Future. In the latest episode of UN Necessary, David shares insights from his work with the High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism, emphasizing the need for reform in global finance, digital governance, and environmental policy, and the need to let science not politics drive policy. And the experiences ...

Before he was Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres was prime minister of Portugal; and before she was President of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies, Maria João Rodrigues was Minister for Employment and Education Training in Mr. Guterres’s government, as well as an advisor, and later serving as a Member of European Parliament. In the latest episode of UN Necessary, Ms. Rodrigues regales Nudhara and Dan with tales of pushing former US president Bill Clinton...

Ishaan Shah, a 20-something student at King’s College, University of London, became seized with the problem of modern slavery while still a teenager. Now a youth activist whose work cuts across the United Nations system, he joins Nudhara Yusuf and Daniel Perell to talk about the need for young voices to be included in international forums not just for appearances but for “the plot”; in other words, to make a difference. The Summit of the Future is an opportunity to reinvigorate...

Nudhara and Dan are joined by Maria Fernanda Espinosa, president of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly and Executive Director of GWL Voices, about the international community’s responsibility to include diverse voices at the upcoming 2024 Summit of the Future. These are not limited to experts, activists or officials from the global south, as well as the north.  In the UN Necessary podcast’s launch episode, we hear how Ms. Fernanda Espinosa, a woman who was previously Ecuador’s minister...