Because the United Nations prepares to pick out its tenth Secretary-Common, the UN Basis turned to GeoPoll to reply a basic query: what does the world really take into consideration the UN, and what do folks need from its subsequent chief?
The result’s A Mandate for Renewal: World Public Opinion on the United Nations and the Choice of the tenth Secretary-Common, a 20-country research fielded between September 1 and 16, 2026. GeoPoll led the fieldwork, surveying 5,000 respondents throughout all 15 members of the UN Safety Council plus 5 further main nations, collectively representing 4.5 billion folks, or 56% of the world’s inhabitants.
Why this research mattered
Polling a UN Secretary-Common choice at this scale had not been executed earlier than. It required reaching respondents throughout P5 nations, elected Council members, and non-Council powers, in 15 languages, utilizing a mixture of cell net and computer-assisted phone interviewing the place connectivity required it. Within the DRC, Liberia, and Somalia, GeoPoll’s in-country CATI groups performed interviews in French, Lingala, English, and Somali to ensure lower-connectivity markets have been represented, not disregarded. That’s the type of problem-solving GeoPoll takes on for each hard-to-reach market we cowl.
What the info reveals
Just a few findings stand out:
- Individuals are anxious however not isolationist. 57% of respondents are nervous concerning the future, but almost 90% agree that even highly effective nations want worldwide partnerships to deal with international threats.
- Belief in worldwide establishments sits at 58% globally, and is notably greater within the World South (65%) than the World North (44%).
- 84% see the UN as needed, however 52% say it’s struggling to ship outcomes. Solely 10% need it to maintain working precisely because it does now.
- Residents need an outward-facing Secretary-Common. Respondents cut up pretty evenly between wanting a diplomat (28%), a disaster supervisor (26%), and an ethical voice (25%), with far much less urge for food for an inside reformer (17%).
- 61% imagine it will be important that the tenth Secretary-Common be a lady, a view shared most strongly by ladies, youthful adults, and World South respondents.
- The choice race itself is basically invisible to the general public. 85% have heard little or nothing about it, and candidate title recognition averages simply 19%.
Delivering knowledge that governments and establishments can act on
This undertaking displays what GeoPoll does throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America on daily basis: constructing nationally and regionally related samples in markets which can be usually excluded from international polling, and delivering knowledge that stands as much as scrutiny at scale. The methodology is documented transparently within the report’s annex, all the way down to pattern sizes, margins of error, and the restrictions of nonprobability sampling in every market. That honesty about what the info can and might’t let you know is central to how GeoPoll approaches each research.
Because the Safety Council strikes towards a remaining determination, this analysis provides the incoming Secretary-Common one thing uncommon at this stage: a transparent, present image of what the folks the UN in the end serves count on from their subsequent chief.
The complete report is offered from the UN Basis.