Muhammad Yunus, Chief Adviser of the interim Government of Bangladesh, underscored the successes of the UN in providing health, food and humanitarian support, while noting its limitations in resolving conflicts.  Bangladesh recently saw a popular uprising and has come far in its aspirations for transformation.  Its story is a reminder of “the extraordinary power of ordinary people”, he said.  “No matter how deep the crisis, no matter how impossible the solution may seem, the path to renewal is never lost,” he said. His country’s youth stood up to tyranny in July 2024, advocating for a just and equal society.  He and his fellow leaders now have the responsibility to rebuild a devastated economy and State.  Rather than using executive orders, they have chosen the hard path:  “reforms built through inclusion and sustained through consensus”.  It is a path that endures, he said.

The goal is to “create a democratic order where power is balanced, where no autocrat can ever return, where no elected leader can destroy democracy and where those who are meant to protect the people can never again prey upon them”.  Leaders in Bangladesh are using independent commissions to consult citizens and produce a reform proposal.  The National Consensus Commission has crossed political divides to create a collective pledge:  placing citizens at the centre of reforms and focusing on transparency, accountability and the rule of law.  Alongside the UN, they are documenting human rights abuses of the past autocracy, aiming to ensure they are never repeated.  Recovering the assets stolen from Bangladesh is now among the highest priorities.  This will require political commitment from other countries, as billions of dollars were siphoned abroad through corruption over the past 15 years.

He said the global financial system has “failed to prevent the illicit transfer of resources from developing nations”, denouncing its rules that enable the movement of vast sums of illegal money into tax havens.  Countries and institutions that shelter stolen assets must “return the wealth to its rightful owners — the farmers, the workers and the ordinary taxpayers”.  He proposed the adoption and enforcement of strong international regulations to prevent the plunder of resources from developing countries and to ensure their return when stolen.  Likewise, international cooperation is needed on climate change. Efforts for mitigation and adaptation must be intensified.  Bangladesh will include both in its Nationally Determined Contribution at the thirtieth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30).  “We expect the global community, particularly the high-emitting countries, to meet their responsibilities with sincerity.”

Another great challenge is the rise of global trade protectionism, he emphasized.  Without economic interdependence, conflicts will multiply, and development will falter. In that context, he said reversal of the “marginalization of the Rohingya cannot wait any further”.  Most of the discriminatory policies against them can be reversed without a comprehensive national political settlement in Myanmar.  Speaking broadly, he warned, the “truth before us is frightening” and stressed that “extreme nationalism, geopolitics that thrive on the suffering of others, and indifference to human pain are destroying the progress humanity has built through decades of struggle”.  This tragedy is most visible in Gaza.  The two-State solution must be implemented now.  He described three goals on which young people must be able to build the future: zero carbon, zero wealth concentration and zero unemployment.  “Let the dream of a three-zero world be the dream of all nations.”