In the second of her three lectures, Dr Noeleen Heyzer, IPS’ 10th S R Nathan Fellow for the Study of Singapore described four interlocking disruptions: the COVID-19 pandemic, climate crisis, the digital revolution, and protracted armed conflicts, which have torn open historical fault lines, weakened the state of multilateral governance and that endanger the safety and sustainability of human life.
Recovering from these challenges demands new normative frameworks and arrangements in multilateral governance, argued Dr Heyzer, which must be undergirded by sustainable development, global health and human security as global public goods.
Four Great Disruptions
Climate change has led to adverse impacts that undermine countries’ ability to sustain their development and provide human security, said Dr Heyzer. Be it heat waves and flooding in Europe, air pollution in Asia or droughts in Africa, climate change has transformed ecological systems in ways which threaten agricultural production, food and water security as well as the well-being of people and the planet.
The digital revolution and the rise of smart machines, AI and robotics have opened up new benefits, possibilities and ways of life, said Dr Heyzer, though it has also led to labour market upheavals which risk intensifying inequality and economic precarity for generations to come. The promise of new technologies is also accompanied by new possibilities of abuse, she said, and digital solutions must be supported by strong cybersecurity frameworks to guard against cybercrime, the spread of hate and falsehoods, and invasions of privacy.
Dr Heyzer further pointed to the presence of protracted conflicts across the world, which have led to the forced displacement of over 84 million people due to persecution, conflict, ethnic cleansing and mass atrocities. This is exacerbated by the inability of the international community to work collectively towards protecting civilians and global peace, and the framing of migrants and refugees by some as threats to national security.
“We are faced with new threats from the rise of violent extremism, from ethnonationalism, the spread of hate speech helping to fuel xenophobia, from the weakening of norms and institutions that promote tolerance and justice. Protectionism, divisive politics, racism and narrow self-interest threaten to weaken the multilateral order and collective global interest.”
Such conflicts and displacements have been made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, said Dr Heyzer, an unprecedented event that has magnified inequality, insecurity and humanitarian challenges worldwide, with impacts that “are playing out along the fault lines of inequalities: of wealth, decent jobs, access to resources, social protection, ability to influence decision-making.”
“The most vulnerable people are the bottom 40 percent,” she said, citing the World Bank’s report that 97 million more people are now in poverty because of the pandemic, with the worst affected being daily wage workers, casual workers, informal sector workers and caregivers. She highlighted the pandemic’s disproportionate toll on girls and women, who are not only concentrated in these categories but are also faced with increased domestic violence, school dropout and child marriage as a result of the pandemic.
Reflecting on these disruptions, Dr Hezyer noted that how society responds to them would determine if these disruptions become “a doorway to new possibilities, or a force of destruction”. In particular, society should rethink the foundations of material and technological progress, anchoring it in a foundation of ethics and compassion while orienting it towards empowering humanity and safeguarding the natural world.
Rethinking Sustainable Recovery in the COVID-19 World
For Dr Heyzer, the COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated that protecting the health and safety of the most vulnerable is integral to preserving the well-being of the whole of society.
“We can’t quarantine the problems of the forgotten and vulnerable in our societies. Sooner or later, they become everyone’s problem. Only an inclusive global public health and socio-economic response will help suppress the virus, restart our economies and recover sustainably.”
In this, she argued for a three-pronged approach to sustainable recovery: First, a large-scale, coordinated and comprehensive health response which regards universal access to health, such as COVID-19 vaccination, as a global public good.
Second, protecting core capacities to address both economic and social consequences of the pandemic, particularly among the most vulnerable. This includes keeping households afloat, businesses solvent, supply chains functioning, and supporting institutions delivering public services and social protection.
Third, a recovery process that builds back better, which contributes to more inclusive, resilient and sustainable economies and societies as well as an international system that protects the global commons and delivers on global public goods.
“Recovery is an opportunity to address the great disruptions: the climate crisis, inequality, gaps in our social protection systems, the shift from quantity of growth to quality of life, global health security, placing the well-being of every person at the core,” said Dr Heyzer.
At the same time, she outlined four priorities — tackling inequality, bridging the digital divide, greening the economy, and upholding human rights and good governance — with new normative frameworks and action on existing arrangements.
Dr Heyzer described how the pandemic has exacerbated inequalities both in terms of low-income and marginalised populations, and inequalities within and between countries. Serious conversations that challenge the fundamental conditions contributing to inequality in the first place are needed, such as the role of institutions in protecting the vulnerable, promoting global public interest and prioritising global health security over commercial profits, she said. New norms and values, public policies, civil society action, and discourses to combat inequalities also need to be established, while inclusion and sustainability should be at the centre of pandemic recovery efforts.
To bridge the digital divide, Internet literacy and affordable access need to be treated as public goods, said Dr Heyzer, while investments should be made to accelerate inclusive digital transformation and promote digital connectivity, e-commerce for small businesses, governments and services, and the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education. It is also imperative to understand the dark side of the cyber world, and develop new norms of cybersecurity, she added.
On greening the economy, Dr Heyzer emphasised embedding long-term sustainability as a core element in COVID-19 recovery, striving to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and taking urgent steps to implement multilateral frameworks such as the Paris Climate Agreement and the UN Agenda 2030 on Sustainability Development.
Upholding human rights and good governance are central to restoring trust in a rule-based multilateral governance that delivers peace and security while addressing drivers of conflict, noted Dr Heyzer. Such trust has broken down worldwide due to failures in terms of corruption, being fair and inclusive and delivering information and public goods that people need most. From her perspective, action areas include respecting fundamental human rights, addressing longstanding concerns related to democratic space, justice and the rule of law, and for political leaders, institutions and influential actors to identify gaps in state-people and business-community governance relations towards promoting greater inclusion, participation, trust and solidarity.
Normative Struggles for Our Future
Continuing her emphasis on trust, Dr Heyzer observed how even before COVID-19, there had been a wave of protests across the world, especially among youths, which underscore a deficit of trust between people, and political leaders and institutions. In her view, the young in particular have observed widening economic inequality between the poor and rich, felt the impact of austerity measures in response to global financial and debt crises, and continue to feel job insecurity and a sense of deprivation and insecurity — all of which fuels mistrust and the desire to overthrow established elites and institutions.
Trust in multilateral governance in particular has also been weakened by a global economic system that devalues women’s work and provision of care, one which destroys the natural environment and concentrates extreme wealth and power in the few while creating insecurity and desperation among the many, said Dr Heyzer, citing the hollowing out of the middle class and income stagnation among workers in powerful economies as examples.
“This, in turn, has further fuelled a range of unsettling political dynamics, including widespread disenchantment with mainstream politics, hostility towards elites, and rising ethno-nationalism, often fuelled by ideas of a return to an imagined, greater past founded on a different normative framework, including on women’s roles and gender equality.”
To restore institutional and multilateral trust, people need agency, voice and the ability to articulate their concerns, while governments need to be open, responsive and accountable to the people they are seeking to protect, stressed Dr Heyzer, identifying areas such as equitable social and economic systems, gender and racial equality, and human dignity and human rights. Leaving these issues unaddressed would open the way for conspiracy theories as well as ideologues and extremists to energise divisions and political support by demonising the other, manipulating narratives and advance their own normative frameworks and agendas, undermining multilateral governance in the process as well.
Towards rebuilding trust, Dr Heyzer recommended the creation of a “transformative framework” of norms and practices of the 21st century, one which invests in sustainable development, human security and peace, and which is based on widespread constructive engagement and action concerning how inclusion, sustainability, gender equality, and social justice can be centred in the collective response to the four great disruptions.
Turning her attention to multilateralism, Dr Heyzer contended that no single country or government can address the challenges wrought by the great disruptions alone, and that international cooperation and collective action is vital in rebuilding trust. This necessarily involves maintaining cooperation between states, though it should also include cooperation involving state and non-state actors, said Dr Hezyer, who further emphasised the value of learning from women, who have played historic roles in multilateral advocacy.
First, in terms of inter-state cooperation, Dr Heyzer raised the example of “vaccine multilateralism”, a term coined by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in the context of the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access facility (COVAX) established in April 2020, the only global initiative which facilitates equitable access to vaccines especially by low-to-middle income countries. Recognising the importance of a coordinated multilateral response to overcome the impact of the pandemic, Singapore was an early supporter of COVAX and contributed US$5 million to the initiative.
Singapore also initiated and chairs the Global Governance Group (3G), a group of 30 small and medium countries, and channels the group’s collective views to the Group of Twenty (G20). During the 2021 G20 Summit in Rome, Prime Minister Lee advocated for faster manufacturing and deployment of vaccines worldwide, supported the G20’s proposed reforms to improve global health governance and financing amid the pandemic, and shared Singapore’s experiences in becoming a distribution hub for vaccines.
Second, to illustrate the potential of stakeholder cooperation beyond purely state actors, Dr Heyzer raised the example of climate action. For her, the public policy and global cooperation challenges associated with reaching net-zero emissions can only be solved through multi-stakeholder alliances that bridge state and non-state actors, and across the global and local levels.
Speaking on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s warning that global warming of two degrees Celsius will be exceeded during the 21st century, Dr Heyzer made the point that inter-state efforts are not sufficient, and that a wider variety of interested parties including the private sector, international organisations and civil society, need to work together in slowing and reversing global heating.
“Coalitions of like-minded actors coalescing around a common goal are essential for urgent collective action towards sustainable development,” she said, raising examples such as the recent slew of transnational youth-led social movements and climate rallies, and Singapore’s participation in the Powering Past Coal Alliance, a coalition of 137 countries and businesses promoting the transition from coal to clean energy.
Finally, Dr Heyzer spotlighted the historic role of women in multilateral advocacy. Since the founding of the UN, women civil society actors and women leaders have participated actively in the multilateral space, noted Dr Heyzer, championing new norms and legal frameworks in their struggle against gender inequality in legal, social and economic rights. She raised as examples the role of Dr Nafis Sadik in addressing the sexual and reproductive health of women in population policies and programmes, and her own role as then-head of UNIFEM in establishing the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, which criminalises the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war, and which centres women’s perspectives and participation in decision-making for sustainable peace.
“By using the values and platform of multilateral governance, women seized the opportunity for change and strived to achieve the transformation needed on a global scale to sustain the change,” said Dr Heyzer, who also pointed out women’s track record of fostering what she called a “people-centred multilateralism” and for making change “possible without violent upheaval”.
Dr Heyzer concluded by saying that while the UN has served as the platform for collective action, norm development and international cooperation, to solve the problems that matter most to our human existence, it can no longer address the challenges of today’s complex and networked world — and that it falls to everyone to change the future.
Question-and-Answer Session
The session was moderated by Professor Tommy Koh, Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Special Adviser to IPS. Prof Koh started by asking Dr Heyzer for her opinion on how the problem of unequal vaccine access may be solved, in light of the realist status quo where countries look out primarily for their own welfare as opposed to donating to others, and where vaccine manufacturers are profit-driven and not keen to relinquish intellectual property (IP) rights.
Dr Heyzer responded that the issue is less about access to vaccines, but about intellectual property rights, and facilitating vaccine production by developing countries. She raised the possibility of nuanced agreements where IP rights may still be held by vaccine developers, yet also shared with others for purposes of vaccine production. On a broader level, conversations need to be had about whether 21st century capitalism is adequate in the course of making global public health a public good, and if companies are willing to look beyond profit and self-interest towards investing in sustainability and seeing this as synergetic for the whole, rather than as a cost or trade-off. She hoped for enlightened actors that see “solidarity as self-interest”, a theme of her first lecture.
A question was also asked about the present lack of global leadership, as opposed to the world order following WWII during which the US took the lead. Dr Heyzer opined that unlike post-WWII times, power is now dispersed and not concentrated in states, and that the world can afford a network of like-minded leaders across all sectors of society. She referenced the UN Secretary-General’s Report on “Our Common Agenda” and its vision of a network of inclusive multilateralism from the ground up, where today’s problems can be met by anyone who has the means, know-how and power to solve them.
On how the interests of powerful countries can be weighed against those of less powerful countries in multilateral governance, Dr Heyzer suggested that countries should try to find areas of common interest and act collectively on them, in the spirit of looking at solidarity as self-interest. Prof Koh added that small countries could organise themselves, such as in the Forum of Small States (FOSS), to gain leverage in negotiating with more powerful countries.
Click here to watch the video of lecture II.