I am honoured to have been invited to speak to you today at the initiative of the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) Seoul Policy Centre for Global Development Partnerships together with Korea University.

It is a particular pleasure to be here at one of Korea’s oldest, largest, and top-ranked universities.  I have also learned that Korea University was one of the first educational institutions to offer academic programmes in law, economics and journalism.  I commend students here for their interest and involvement in civil society.  Generations of students have gone on to play important roles in the social, economic and political development of this country.

The Republic of Korea has undergone a remarkable transition from one of the poorest aid-recipient countries to becoming a donor country and active member of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Development Assistance Committee.  A country devastated by war in the 1950’s turned into one of the most developed nations of the world, now the fourteenth largest economy in the world.

Only 20 years after joining the UN in 1991, Korea was the eleventh largest contributor to the UN regular budget and the tenth largest to UN peacekeeping operations.

Today, Korea is host to important international conferences, such as the World Water Forum in Daegu taking place this week, and the World Conference on Education to be held in Incheon in May 2015.

In the past, offices of United Nations organizations in Korea — such as UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), WFP (World Food Programme), UNDP — were providing health care and education for children, food, and supporting Korea’s development process.

UNDP provided support for over 270 development programmes at a time when Korea was transitioning from an agrarian to an industrial nation in need of planning and skills development.  The UNDP has worked closely with Korean partners as a new focus emerged in the 1990s, notably on gender inequality and environmental degradation.

Korea’s rise from the rubble of the 1950-1953 Korean War has been a success story that many developing countries wish to learn from.  I commend the UNDP Seoul Policy Centre for its role in disseminating the experience of the Korean development model and promoting cooperation with other countries.

A period of crisis and test of multilateralism and institutions:  we are now, I believe, living though the most challenging period to multilateralism and institutions since the end of the Second World War.

In 2015, an arc of crises, turmoil and violence is girdling the Middle East and Africa — from the Ebola affected nations of West Africa, to the conflict zones fanning out from the Sahel, across the Maghreb and the Arab world.  There are record numbers of people displaced, the majority of them being women and children.

The terrorist attacks earlier this year in Paris and in northern Nigeria, and more recently in Tunisia and Kenya, were appalling acts of violence.

Extreme forms of brutality have become the modus operandi for these terrorist groups.  Minorities increasingly face violent extremism and deliberate attacks, also against their cultural heritage.

Our efforts to build a world of tolerance and understanding are being severely tested.  The poison of hatred is loose far too many places.  The terrorists and perpetrators of hate crimes are targeting innocent civilians.  They are attempting to strike a blow against our common values of human decency and respect for life.

Times of turmoil are not new.  At all times, the international community must find new tools to deal with new challenges that emerge in an altered global landscape.

So what are the factors driving today’s turmoil?  What are the new elements that make us feel that events are spinning out of our collective control?  And which are the tools to help us come to grips with the challenges of this new global landscape?

Our globalized world:  one overarching parameter is that our world today is more global and more interconnected.  It is characterized by a great number of ever closer relationships between peoples, economies and Governments.

We have moved beyond “globalization” in terms of free trade and free movement of people and ideas.  We are now “hyper-globalized”:  economic supply chains and markets are intricately linked — a breeze in one country can trigger a hurricane half way across the world; millions of people both from the developed and developing world are plugging into the global grid, becoming part of an online community of global citizens.  In this world, the line between “national” and “international” has been blurred.  Almost any issue being debated at the domestic level has a regional or international dimension.  Nation States today find that they cannot deliver stable and prosperous societies at home without international cooperation.

Therefore, we need international solutions more than ever.  We need to create the space for constructive, open dialogue between UN Member States so that the right international solutions can be identified.  In today’s interconnected world these international solutions are in every nation’s interest.

Related to this globalization are some other factors:  earlier trends have intensified, such as migration, urbanization, and population growth; and new elements have emerged, such as climate change, the communications revolution, and the dangerous nexus between terrorism and international organized crime.

The situation today is therefore very different from the international context of even a decade ago.  In this new global landscape, organizations like the UN are facing a test of multilateralism.  Can international institutions still set norms and deliver results on the ground?

It is not only international organizations that are feeling the strain, but also national institutions.  In today’s world, the international and the national are increasingly interlinked.  The strains on international organizations are also felt at the national level.  And our Member States are facing a test of delivering good governance.

The three-pillar UN perspective:  peace, development and human rights.  The UN deals with this challenge from three perspectives:  peace, development and human rights.

Peace and security:  70 years ago, in the aftermath of the Second World War, the United Nations was established to prevent a return to “the scourge of war”. Looking back, we can be proud of some major achievements — decolonization, peacekeeping operations, progress on development and human rights.

In the early 1990s, we had to adjust again and find the tools and levers that would support countries to resolve internal strife and humanitarian crises.  Today, we are faced with a new set of peace and security challenges.  Firstly, we see a number of internal conflicts which have taken on a regional and international character.  When we now turn to the Security Council for the response needed to underpin our diplomatic efforts, we often find deadlock and dysfunction instead of a clear, unified voice.  Syria is a flagrant case in point.

Secondly, we are seeing an increasingly ethnic or sectarian dimension to many conflicts.  Unscrupulous leaders are inciting the us versus them syndrome for political ends.  This raises the emotional temperature of a conflict, making the traditional diplomatic tools much less effective, and heightening the risk that the unrest will spill over national borders.

And perhaps most dramatically, we see the dangerous rise of terrorist and extremist groups with territorial ambition and cross-border reach.  Non-State actors have been empowered in the Internet age to communicate instantly, to mobilize quickly, and to export their abhorrent propaganda to a global audience.  This is a challenge for both the affected countries and the international community.

Increasing exposure to asymmetric threats — groups that are targeting civilians, UN personnel and humanitarian workers — has also placed UN peacekeeping, and UN presence in general, in a more vulnerable position.  We have lost far too many colleagues during the last few years while serving the UN.

Development:  We face daunting, and at the same time demanding and energizing, challenges in the development sphere:  many of the old challenges remain unevenly met — poverty eradication, gender equality, education, sanitation, et cetera.  The disconnect between poverty and progress is often starkly apparent.  Extraordinary as it may seem, today more people are likely to own a cell phone than own a toilet.

At the same time, we are asking ourselves questions that simply didn’t occur to earlier generations:  is there a limit to how much growth our global economic system and our planet can absorb?  How can we ensure that economic growth is not coupled with untenable carbon emissions, leading to runaway climate change?  How do we counter the trend of rising inequalities and the growing concentration of wealth?

Oxfam has just published research which shows that the share of the world’s wealth owned by the best-off 1 per cent has increased from 44 per cent in 2009 to 48 per cent in 2014, while the least well-off 80 per cent currently own just 5.5 per cent.  Rising inequality is potentially dangerous.  It stunts growth and is bad for governance, with great numbers of people — not least young people — feeling voiceless and abandoned.

This is why current negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda are so important.  In a period marked by turmoil, UN member states have proposed a draft set of sustainable development goals which are to guide anti-poverty efforts for the next generation.

The goals have at their core the principle of sustainability — sustainability in both social, economic and environmental terms.  Member States have recognized the need for transformative change, with poverty eradication as the central objective.  The negotiations have begun this month, which will culminate with the adoption of the agenda in a special summit in New York in September.  Before that there is a very important conference on financing for development in Addis Ababa in July which requires positive efforts and results.

2015 is also the year for action on climate change.  Time has almost run out for us to limit the global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius, the threshold for runaway climate change.  We must reach a meaningful agreement in Paris in December which builds on the commitments made by Member States in New York and Lima last year.  Again, “transformative” is the watchword: our economies must begin in earnest to transform, harnessing the promise and the potential of a low-carbon pathway.

Governments alone cannot achieve change of this magnitude.  The success of our post-2015 development agenda and collective action on climate will require all actors to mobilize around the solutions — the public sector, the private sector, NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and civil society, as well as the scientific communities.  This is truly an example of a shared mission where no one can do everything, but everybody can do something.

On human rights and rule of law, the values that motivate the work of the United Nations remain the same as they were in 1945.  These values and principles are enshrined in the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  They are borne out in the rule of law.  Without rule of law, discussions of human rights risk being empty rhetoric.  We need national laws that enshrine human rights.  We need good governance and strong institutions for their realization.

Strengthening human rights and the rule of law around the world is a vital part of our response to some of the critical challenges in this new global landscape.  A deeper appreciation of human rights must guide our responses to the threat of terrorism and violent extremism.  We must avoid perpetuating cycles of violence and playing into the hands of those who thrive on hatred and division.

The steps we take to constrain the perpetrators and to protect civilians must be rooted in human rights and the rule of law.  The urgency of effective measures cannot bring us to betray the very same values and aspirations that terrorism defies.

At the same time, military solutions alone are never the only answer.  We must address the underlying conditions that provide extremists with fertile ground.  Good governance, access to justice and equitable public services are key to preventing dangerous marginalization.

I will end on a note of hope.  There is, after all, much to give us hope when we look ahead to the United Nations coming closer to the vision of the world as it should be:  a world with dialogue and cooperation and with nations delivering stable, just and prosperous societies.

The full empowerment of women is central to our hopes.  I firmly believe that this will happen this century, for the first time in history.  This year is a significant milestone in that struggle.  The twentieth anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action and the review of the Security Council’s landmark resolution 1325 (2000) both take place in 2015.

Secondly, more and more people are being lifted out of poverty.  As the Secretary-General has said, ours is the first generation that can end poverty – and the last that can take steps to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.  Third, democracy and accountability are becoming further rooted, with 18 elections taking place in Africa this year — most recently a successful one in Nigeria.  Fourth, there are more young people in the world than ever before, which is both a huge challenge of employment but also a great potential and promise.  With all their energy, they have enormous contributions to make.

The list could be made longer.  There are prospects for a P5+1 agreement with Iran on the nuclear issues.  There are some hopeful transitions:  Afghanistan, Tunisia being two examples.  Life expectancy is increasing and we are making inroads against disease.  There is still much work to be done, but it is important to keep hold of a wider perspective.

In this seventieth UN anniversary year in which we renew our commitment to the goals and principles of the UN Charter, let us always remember its first three words:  “we the peoples”.  The international community, national Governments and the peoples of the world must rise to the occasion and to the challenges.

It is sometimes said that the darkest hour is before the dawn.  We must ensure that 2015 can be a new dawn for all of us.  Nobody must be left behind.  Everybody has the right to a life in dignity.