The world we once knew, shaped by decades of work toward multilateralism, international governance and legal systems, is drifting apart. Conflicts, crises and rising hostilities are making international cooperation and development efforts increasingly difficult.

Yet in this time of challenges, South Korea has been a valued partner and contributor to the United Nations Development Programme, stepping up to play a bigger role in several areas, chief Achim Steiner said in a recent interview with The Korea Herald.

“When you watch the evening news or open a newspaper, what you see across the globe is to some extent a breakdown in that international governance and law system that we have spent over 75 years building up since the Second World War,” said the UNDP administrator on Oct. 17 in Seoul.

Steiner was in Seoul for a three-day visit, his first since assuming the role in 2017, to attend the 2024 Seoul Debates co-organized by the UNDP’s Seoul Policy Centre and S. Korean Foreign Ministry. He also met with Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul to discuss opportunities for deeper collaboration.

"My visit to Seoul this week is also a gesture of appreciation and gratitude," he said. “Not only has Korea been a strong supporter and partner to the UN and multilateralism, but it is also a country investing in international cooperation in today’s world.”

"We celebrate that in UNDP because many countries are turning the other way, and this is ultimately self-defeating. If we don’t invest in one another, development will not lift us all together."

In conflict zones like the Middle East, Sudan and Yemen, governments and armed groups are disregarding international laws, which poses a significant challenge to development efforts. Steiner stressed that the UNDP remains engaged with countries facing governance crises to help them find paths toward recovery.

“That I think is where Korea and UNDP have a very shared view of the urgency and the importance of international cooperation,” he said. “Korea is a country that is economically, politically -- but also in terms of its own development-- inextricably linked to what happens in the rest of the world.”

He mentioned how the relationship between South Korea and the UNDP evolved.

The UNDP first established its presence in South Korea in 1966 to support the war-torn country's socio-economic development. After closing its office in 2009, the international body returned two years later, marking the world’s first transition of a nation from a recipient to a donor country.

"We build on decades of partnership where UNDP first supported and invested in Korea's development, (contributing to) the success of not only Korea's economic growth but also its overall development,” Steiner said. “Today, Korea has become a very critical part of the UNDP constituency that allows us to continue helping other countries.”

Steiner identified two key areas where Korea can make an even greater impact: climate change and the digital transition.

"Climate change is a threat,” he said. "Decarbonization, moving to clean energy, and shifting transport and mobility onto a clean energy platform — these efforts are shaping the industries of tomorrow's greener economy."

As the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference, a meeting more widely known as COP29 to be held in Azerbaijan in November, approaches, Steiner called for ambitious climate goals and collective action, stating, “The clock of climate change is not stopping because of domestic political tensions. We need courageous, wise, and ambitious political leadership.”

Steiner highlighted the upcoming COP meetings and urged countries to submit stronger Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement. “We are leading the effort with our country teams and UN sister agencies worldwide to help countries prepare their climate strategies, and hopefully, arrive in Brazil (where COP30 will take place next year) with a higher level of ambition,” he said. "That still gives us some hope at least that 1.5 degrees Celsius is not a lost goal."

Steiner also underscored the transformative potential of digitalization and artificial intelligence, emphasizing the need for inclusive and sustainable development.

"A key consideration here is inclusion. (…) How do we also create a pathway where a country where maybe 50 percent of the population do not yet have access to electricity, yet the economy already has to compete in a world with artificial intelligence? How do we close that gap quickly?"

He said the UNDP’s focus is to rapidly cooperate with countries like South Korea in order to assist developing countries in investing in digital public infrastructure, education and, above all, in enabling a new green economy to help lift these countries onto a path toward the 21st century and future.

Steiner stressed that the UNDP wants a stronger partnership with South Korea, emphasizing the urgency of accomplishing much more in shorter time frames: "In the age of digital and AI, we in a sense have to accomplish a lot of this in far shorter periods of time and with the potential for far greater transformation."

He cited an example in Rome, where the UNDP has set up, with the support of the Italian government, a G7 center on sustainable development and artificial intelligence, which he said will allow them to have a platform focused particularly on supporting African countries.

“We are looking for such partnerships now. Both crisis response and the digital and AI drive are opportunities where I hope Korea and UNDP can continue to invest together," he said.