President BD Faye: “We need a stronger, more representative and more effective United Nations” September 24, 2026

The world needs a “stronger, more representative and more effective” United Nations. This is what the President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, argued on Thursday during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly.

All the challenges linked to the life of the United Nations are known according to the Head of State, Bassirou Diomaye Faye. And the worrying financial situation of the organization affects its operational capacity and raises questions about its effectiveness. This is the case for peace operations. This is also the case for the Sustainable Development Goals, the achievement of which is lagging considerably behind schedule.

“Faced with this reality, which is admittedly unappealing, some might be tempted to consider multilateralism as an outdated model, and to act outside of our common mechanisms. Senegal does not share this vision,” he noted Thursday during the United Nations General Assembly.

Also read: Conflicts in the Middle East and Africa: Senegal reaffirms its call for a collective start

On the contrary, continues President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, it is precisely because the world is going through an accumulation of unprecedented crises that they need a “stronger, more representative and more effective” United Nations.

“We will not resolve crises by further fragmenting the multilateral system. We will not build peace in a logic of power relations. We will not guarantee a just international order by substituting force for law. This would jeopardize the main purpose of the Organization: dialogue, conflict prevention, peaceful resolution of disputes, cooperation and respect for international law,” he argued.

The UN 80 initiative, an opportunity to transform the organization

In this spirit, the Senegalese head of state finds that the UN 80 initiative offers them a historic opportunity to initiate the necessary structural and normative transformations.

“But reforming the United Nations must not reduce its ambition; but make it less bureaucratic in its operation, more agile in action, more efficient in its expenditure, and better articulated between headquarters and the field to better serve the people it represents. Senegal supports this dynamic,” said Macky Sall’s successor at the head of Senegal.

Thus, he underlines, this is the meaning of Senegal’s contribution to strengthening the United Nations system, with the construction, with its own resources, of the United Nations House in the new town of Diamniadio, about thirty kilometers from Dakar.

“This platform equipped with the latest technologies will accommodate all entities of the United Nations system on the same site, thus promoting greater coherence and efficiency. But a stronger organization also requires that Member States respect their financial commitments in terms of their statutory contributions,” he said.

Mariama DIEME