María Fernanda Espinosa

There's some very energetic women running.

Some of us who competed last time unsuccessfully joined forces after that, and we've been advocating for an effective Woman SG for years and held a forum in Geneva last week where Michelle Bachelet, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, and Rebecca Grinspan all came.

The men stayed away, curiously enough.

But Any of these women could do the job, right? They've got energy.

So we have a front runner, a narrow front runner, in Carolina Rodriguez-Birkett, the Guinness ambassador to the United Nations, with eight encourage votes, four no opinion, and just three discourage votes.

She is followed very closely behind by Maria Espinosa, Ecuador's former foreign minister and former president of the General Assembly, with three discourage votes, four encourages, and eight no opinions.

And just a little bit behind them both is Rebecca Greenglassman from Costa Rica, who's taken a leave of absence as head of UNCTAD, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, with four discourage votes and seven encourage votes, four no opinion.

So the leader right now is Guyana's ambassador to the UN, Carolina Rodriguez-Birkett, judging, again, by that metric of who has the fewest number of discourage votes.

Yeah

... very closely behind by Maria Espinosa, uh, Ecuador's, uh, former foreign minister and former president of the General Assembly, with three discourage votes, four encourages, and eight no opinions.

And just a little bit behind them both is Rebecca Grynspan from Costa Rica, a former... who's taken a leave of absence as head of UNCTAD, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, with four discourage votes and seven encourage votes, four no opinion.

So the leader right now is Guyana's ambassador to the UN, Carolina Rodriguez-Burkett, judging, again, by that metric of who has the fewest number of discourage votes.

The first thing that we want is the war to end.

For this episode, I speak to María Fernanda Espinosa, Ecuador's former foreign minister and a candidate to become the first woman secretary-general of the United Nations.

She's seeking to lead the UN as it faces severe financial pressure and questions about its influence over major conflicts.

Espinosa believes the organization remains essential, but risks becoming irrelevant unless it changes how it works, describing the choice facing the UN as reform, transform, or die.

That's what we are about.

And in doing so, we need to protect the people, especially the most vulnerable, the, the people, uh, that are suffering a conflict and, and hunger and, uh, a lack of access to, to, to health services and to a life with dignity.

Welcome to The Interview from the BBC World Service with María Fernanda Espinosa.

The UN hasn't lost its purpose, hasn't lost what, uh, triggered a charter, uh, that was written after, uh, the Second World War saying the role of the UN is to prevent conflict and protect people.

The first straw poll held in July put Costa Rica's Rebecca Greenspan in the lead, followed by Guyana's Carolyn Rodriguez-Birkit and Argentina's Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The other candidates are former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, former Ecuadorian Foreign Minister María Fernanda Espinosa, and former Senegalese President Macky Sall.

So there is a distinctly international field spanning Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean, and with several women in contention for the job that has been held exclusively by men since the United Nations was created, a point put to Mr. Otunu.

The United Nations should be a United Nations of inclusion.