Akanksha Arora was fighting for survival in the emergency room after a traffic accident when she realised, in the face of death, what life is.
Arora said she was very lucky there was no damage to her internal organs – she was left with a broken leg and plenty of bruises – after she was hit by a taxi but the potentially fatal accident made her realise she had to make some drastic changes in her life.
“God saved me for a reason. I asked myself: What have I done for the world?” Arora told Al Jazeera, adding it was then that she realised she had to make a difference.
Arora joined the United Nations in 2016. Within two years, she felt the organisation was failing the people it was created to help. In January 2019, she decided there was no better way to make a change than to lead it.
At 34, Arora is bidding to be the UN’s next secretary-general. If she succeeds, she will not only be the youngest person but also the first woman to lead the organisation.
“The UN has let people down, it hasn’t served those who it is here to serve,” Arora said. “UN’s biggest enemy is its own inability to deliver. Decision-making is not the problem. It’s implementation that we’re falling short on. That has led to the loss in trust and credibility of the institution where people just don’t expect the UN to do anything.”
Diplomatic experience
On paper, her lack of diplomatic experience seems to hold her back as she prepares to launch her vision statement and rally support from member nations for the high-profile position currently held by someone more than twice her age, 71-year-old Antonio Guterres.
She acknowledges that gap but adds that diplomacy is not learned and mastered in conference rooms and political meetings alone.
Born in India, she moved to Saudi Arabia aged six after her mother – a gynaecologist – took up a job offer there. Three years later, she moved back to India for boarding school after her parents were unable to afford the only American school in the southwestern Saudi city.
At 18, Arora was offered a scholarship at York University in Toronto for her undergraduate studies and stayed in Canada to work after finishing university. In 2016, she moved to New York to start work with the UN.
“This whole aspect of understanding and respecting people [while living in different countries and cultures] is diplomacy. It is, at the end of the day, caring for people, appreciating and embracing diversity and just having respect for everyone. That’s diplomacy.”
