At a time of pressing global challenges and increasingly fragmented approaches to their resolution, one question currently doing the rounds is who will be the next UN Secretary-General?
UN chief Antonio Guterres’ successor will take office in January 2027, but the decision on who will replace him will be made by UN member states in 2026.
According to CNN, Costa Rica will nominate Rebeca Grynspan, head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), for the post.
Foreign Minister Arnoldo André announced the candidacy of the former vice-president of Costa Rica at a meeting with the diplomatic corps in San José, saying Grynspan has “the strongest qualifications” and that “her candidacy will put the country at the forefront.”
As UNCTAD chief since 2021, the 69-year-old economist has confronted multiple challenges to global trade, including climate change and the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. The trade war launched by US President Donald Trump has further complicated the landscape this year.
Grynspan studied economics at the University of Costa Rica and earned a master’s degree from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. She has held various government posts: deputy finance minister, housing minister, and coordinating minister for economic and social affairs. From 1994 until 1998 she served as vice-president in the government of centrist José María Figueres.
She has also had a notable career within the United Nations, holding senior positions at the UN Development Programme and, in 2010, becoming a UN Under-Secretary-General.
In September, Chile also announced that former president Michelle Bachelet, 74, would run for the post. Her name is frequently cited among the frontrunners, along with that of Alicia Bárcena of Mexico, who has served as foreign minister and as executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
Antonio Guterres’ second term ends on 31 December 2026. Since 1945, the UN has never elected a woman as Secretary-General. Only one Latin American, Peruvian Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (1982–1991), has led the Organization to date.