Preventing conflicts before they start, with María Fernanda Espinosa

As calls for UN reform grow louder, Executive Director of GWL Voices and former General Assembly President María Fernanda Espinosa warns that global peace efforts remain too reactive and that true reform begins with prevention.

“It means building peace, having a very strong and well-equipped intellectually oversight machinery, to have a scenario-building machinery, to have early warning systems in place,” she tells GZERO Media’s Tony Maciulis on the sidelines of the Paris Peace Forum. Espinosa calls for a “refocus, not austerity,” to strengthen the UN’s early warning systems and invest in prevention. “One dollar in prevention saves a thousand in response,” she notes.

Turning to climate, she urges faster action ahead of COP30 in Brazil, warning that progress “is not matching the science.” Latin America, she says, must lead with resilience and unity despite political divides.

This conversation is part of GZERO Media’s Global Stage series, presented in partnership with Microsoft.