Reform of the United Nations (UN)
UN80 Initiative
The UN80 Initiative is a system-wide reform effort launched in March 2025 by the Secretary-General António Guterres to mark the 80th anniversary of the United Nations. On 18 July 2025, at its seventy-ninth session, the General Assembly welcomed this initiative through the adoption of Resolution A/RES/79/318 by consensus.
It aims to make the UN more efficient, coherent, and impactful by improving the way it works, rather than changing its core mandates. It also seeks to ensure that every mandate, resource, and decision delivers meaningful results for the people and countries that depend on UN support.
The UN80 Initiative Action Plan comprises 86 actions brought together under a single framework comprising 31 work packages across 3 reinforcing workstreams.
· Workstream 1: Efficiencies in the UN Secretariat
· Workstream 2: Mandate implementation review
· Workstream 3: Structural changes and programmatic realignments
The Maldives supports the objective of improving mandate creation, implementation and review in a way that strengthens the effectiveness of the UN and remains committed to engaging constructively in the process.
The strategic interests of the Maldives in engagement with the UN80 Initiative are:
· A strong UN country presence, particularly for SIDS, and ensure any changes to regional or country-level arrangements are guided by country needs and include safeguards for continuity of support.
· A UN that is practical, Member State-driven, and non-restrictive to new mandates, review.
· Reforms to protect continuity of services through clear timelines, risk assessments, and accountability measures.
· Consider structural changes through established intergovernmental processes and based on evidence of value, impact, and cost-effectiveness.
· Measure UN80 success by tangible improvements in UN support and establish a results framework incorporating Member State feedback, particularly from programme countries.
Revitalisation of the UN General Assembly
The Revitalization of the UN General Assembly is an ongoing Member State-led process aimed at enhancing the Assembly’s role, authority, effectiveness, and efficiency as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ.
Since the 60th session, the process has been advanced through an Ad Hoc Working Group open to all Member States, which has considered issues including the categories of membership, the question of the veto, regional representation, the size of an enlarged Council and working methods, and the relationship between the Council and the General Assembly.
At its 79th session, the General Assembly adopted resolution 79/327 establishing the Working Group on the Strengthening and Revitalizing of the Work of the General Assembly, which continues efforts to review implementation of past resolutions and identify further measures to strengthen the Assembly’s effectiveness, transparency, accountability, and responsiveness to contemporary global challenges.
This process reflects the commitment of Member States to reinforce multilateralism and ensure that the General Assembly remains fit for purpose in addressing evolving international priorities.
The Maldives is committed to engaging constructively in the process and is of the view that the revitalization efforts should align with the UN80 track. The Maldives supports strengthening the role and effectiveness of the General Assembly so that it can better address global challenges, improving the efficiency of its work, ensuring stable and adequate funding for the Office of the President of the General Assembly, and promoting transparent and inclusive processes for the selection and appointment of the Secretary-General.
Reform of the UN Security Council
At its 62nd session, the General Assembly through 62/557 decided to commence intergovernmental negotiations in informal plenary of the Assembly during its sixty-third session, based on proposals by Member States on the question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and other matters related to the Council, seeking a solution that could garner the widest possible political acceptance by Member States. The Maldives was one of the first countries to propose the agenda item.
The Maldives believes that the principles of equality, representativeness, and fairness that it espouses at the United Nations must also apply to the UN Security Council. The Maldives underlines the need for the UN Security Council to be more efficient and reflect the diverse needs of the international community, especially in a rapidly developing world.
Maldives position on key aspects of UN Security Council reform is as follows;
1. Categories of membership – the Maldives supports the expansion of the Security Council membership in both permanent and non-permanent category, with equal rights and responsibilities to achieve equitable geographical distribution.
The Maldives supports the establishment of a rotating seat for Small Island Developing States on the Security Council. The Maldives further supports efforts to redress the historical injustices against Africa, and permanent membership for India and Japan.
2. The question of the veto – The Maldives advocates for the abolition of the veto and at the very least to limit the use of the veto on matters pertaining to mass atrocities and peace and security of the international community.
However, if this is not the case, the Maldives believes that new permanent members should on principle, have the same rights and obligations as current permanent members with regard to the exercise of the veto.
The Maldives also supports efforts aimed at restraint and accountability, including the Accountability, Coherence, and Transparency (ACT) Code of Conduct and the “veto initiative”.
3. Working Methods – The Maldives advocates for further improvements to the working methods of the Council in order to make it more democratic, transparent, and responsive. As a member of the ACT Group, it supports strengthened dialogue between the Security Council, the General Assembly, and other relevant UN bodies.
4. Issues Covered in the Council and Reform
The Maldives calls on the Council to broaden its scope to address emerging, non-traditional security threats and threat multipliers efficiently, including climate change, sea-level rise, and pandemics.
The Maldives also supports the establishment of a new intergovernmental process with text-based negotiations to advance reform in a structured manner.
Borrower’s Platform
The Borrowers’ Platform was launched on 15 April 2026 in the margins of the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington, D.C., United States.
The Platform was established under the Sevilla Commitment, adopted at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in July 2025. It responds to a long-standing gap in the international financial architecture by creating a structured forum for borrowing countries to share experiences, exchange knowledge, and coordinate their engagement on debt-related matters.
The Platform aims to strengthen debt management capacity, improve coordination among borrower countries, enhance transparency, and support more informed participation in global debt discussions. It is supported by UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which serves as its secretariat and provides technical and administrative assistance.
The Maldives was part of the seven-member working group that developed the Platform’s draft modalities and guided its establishment process. The working group also included Egypt (Chair), Pakistan (Vice-Chair), Colombia, Honduras, Nepal, and Zambia. As part of this group, the Maldives contributed to shaping the platform’s objectives, governance structure, and participation framework, ensuring that the perspectives of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are reflected in discussions on sovereign debt and development finance.
The interim period of the Platform officially opened with its launch in April 2026 and will continue until the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group in October 2026. During this period, an interim steering committee, comprising officials from the Maldives, will work to contribute to the framing of the Platform and adoption of a work programme in October 2026.
The committee will also consider key aspects of the Platform’s future operationalisation, including membership criteria, governance arrangements, and funding mechanisms for the Secretariat, as well as other areas outlined in the draft modalities.