On 23 July, in the General Assembly Hall, the six candidates for UN Secretary-General answered the same questions from the same tribune. The Office of the President of the General Assembly organised the exercise with the support of Bloomberg, and UN Web TV broadcast it live. For the first time, the contenders to succeed António Guterres appeared together before delegations and UN staff as well as civil society.
Before that audience, President Macky Sall defended a simple conviction: the next Secretary-General's first task will be to restore trust. He means the trust member states of every size owe one another and the trust that binds the Organisation to the peoples it serves. That restoration runs, he argued, through an impartial UN that answers to no bloc and through a committed preventive diplomacy that acts before crises erupt.
On reform, the candidate recalled the commitments of his vision. The first is an integrated approach to peace, security and development. A renewed multilateralism faithful to the Charter and its three pillars follows, then a streamlined Organisation able to do better with less. The method, built on listening to every member state without exception, opens onto partnerships with civil society and young people as well as with the private sector.
The only African candidate in the race, President Macky Sall entered the contest on 2 March 2026 as Burundi's nominee and since 20 July has carried Senegal's official candidacy. Africa has not held the office of Secretary-General since Kofi Annan. To win it back, the candidate draws on twelve years as Head of State and on the chairmanship of the African Union in 2022. He spoke for the continent in the health crisis as in the food and energy crises.
After the town hall, the race moves to the Security Council, whose fifteen members hold their first straw polls in the last week of July. Six candidacies have been submitted to date, and no clear front-runner has emerged. The next Secretary-General's term begins on 1 January 2027.
Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.
Learn more: www.mackysall.net