António, who comes after you?

António Guterres will complete his second term as secretary-general of the United Nations (UN) on December 31, after a full decade in the position. Six candidates are currently in the running to replace him.

Whoever wins will face a difficult task, as the relevance, influence, and financial resources of the UN are coming under increasingly intense public scrutiny.

The UN secretary-general is "both a diplomat and an activist, a civil servant and a chief executive," according to the organization itself. The person holding this position oversees several key UN bodies, including the Security Council, which is responsible for maintaining peace and security.

The new secretary-general will be selected by the UN General Assembly, based on a recommendation from the Security Council (whose permanent members are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States), making the path to victory narrow and filled with obstacles.

Here is what you need to know about each candidate ahead of the debate taking place on Thursday (July 23) in the UN General Assembly Hall in New York.

Michelle Bachelet

Chile’s first female president (serving from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2018) is seeking to become the first woman to lead the UN, after several female candidates lost to Guterres in 2016.

"If I want to be polite, I would say that the world was not ready for it then. Is it ready now? I hope it is," Bachelet (74) said earlier this year. "That would be a very good signal," she added, emphasizing that it would bring hope to many people.

Given the current geopolitical landscape, in which nuclear war is seen as an increasingly serious threat, Rafael Mariano Grossi considers his background and education to be a "clear advantage." "You have to understand the world you live in," he told the Swiss media outlet Geneva Solutions.

Grossi supports the current UN reform effort known as "UN80" and says there is "no need to reinvent the wheel," but he wants to simplify the organization by merging certain UN bodies and reducing "duplication, triplication, and even fourfold or fivefold overlaps of structures," which impose enormous and unnecessary costs on member states.

María Fernanda Espinosa

The Ecuadorian, born in Spain, has achieved a great deal in her 61 years. In addition to serving as Ecuador’s foreign minister, Espinosa is a poet, essayist, and expert on sustainable development and climate change — particularly in the Amazon region, where she worked with Indigenous communities early in her career.

Grynspan wants the UN to be more courageous. "Bureaucracies are, by their nature, extremely risk-averse, and you cannot have good ideas or take risks that way," she said recently at an event organized by Chatham House in London. She has also called for broader representation on the Security Council, particularly from Africa or Latin America.

Macky Sall

The 64-year-old served as president of Senegal from 2012 to 2024 and previously held the position of the country’s prime minister.

During his presidency, Senegal recorded significant improvements in infrastructure. However, Sall’s popularity began to decline in 2021 during his second term, following protests over the imprisonment of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko. Sall’s unsuccessful attempt to postpone the 2024 presidential election, which triggered further protests with fatalities, turned him into a deeply divisive figure in his home country.

Senegal’s current government initially did not support Sall’s candidacy for the UN position, but last month it changed its position and backed his campaign.

Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett

Rodrigues-Birkett was the latest candidate to enter the race, joining the contest in June. She is Guyana’s permanent representative to the UN and has previously held positions within the UN itself as well as serving as Guyana’s foreign minister.