UN chief says global family 'dysfunctional' ahead of G-20 summit in India

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Friday that the global family is “dysfunctional” and called for “deep, structural” reform ahead of this weekend’s G-20 summit in India.

“Our world is in a difficult moment of transition. The future is multipolar, but our multilateral institutions reflect a bygone age,” he told reporters.

He said that the global financial architecture is “outdated, dysfunctional, and unfair,” urging nations to take bold steps to make those global institutions “truly universal” and representative of today’s realities and more responsive to the needs of developing economies.

“We have no time to lose,” he warned. “I have come to the G-20 with a simple but urgent appeal: We cannot go on like this. We must come together and act together for the common good.”

Guterres also called for $500 billion per year in investments for the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a universal agenda to end poverty in all its forms by 2030.