We hope that women will have a better chance than men of being elected U.N. secretary-general this year. At least for now, there are more female candidates in the race.
Three more nominees have joined the first two candidates we reported on earlier.
Argentina’s Virginia Gamba was formally nominated by the Republic of Maldives on March 11, 2026. A veteran strategist, Gamba recently served as the UN Under-Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (2017-2025) and previously led the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism in Syria.
Her vision statement, “Rebuilding Credibility Through Action,” emphasizes transforming the UN into a “modern, lean, and effective organization”.
The Republic of Costa Rica nominated Rebeca Grynspan, the current Secretary-General of UNCTAD and the first woman to lead that organization. Grynspan’s extensive background includes serving as the Vice President of Costa Rica and the Associate Administrator of the UNDP.
Her vision centers on a “path of renewal,” stating that “to defend the UN is to have the courage to change it”. She prioritizes making the organization “more useful, more agile and more accountable to the governments and people it serves”.
Finally, Macky Sall, the former President of Senegal (2012-2024), was nominated by the Republic of Burundi. Sall has also served as the President of the African Union and currently chairs the Global Center on Adaptation.
His vision, “Refounding Multilateralism for a Better World,” argues that the UN must be reformed, rationalized and modernized to remain the indispensable universal framework for dialogue and collective action.
