Rebeca Grynspan

Career in national politics

Grynspan has held various official functions in her country such as Vice-President of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998 and concurrently as Housing Minister from 1996 to 1998, Coordinating Minister of Economy from 1995 to 1996, Coordinating Minister of Social Affairs from 1994 to 1998 and Vice-Minister of Finance from 1986 to 1988.

Career with the United Nations

Grynspan was appointed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to be the eighth secretary-general of UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on 13 September 2021. She is the first woman to hold this position in the history of the organization.^[3]

Grynspan served as Director of the Subregional Headquarters in Mexico of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) from 2001 to 2006, where she also served as Co-Chair of the International Food Policy Research Institute's Executive Board.^[4] She was also a member of the UN Millennium Project's Task Force on Poverty and Economic Development and of the UN High-Level Panel on Financing for Development.

Grynspan served as an Assistant Secretary-General and Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from 2006 to 2010.^[5] In 2010, she was appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the position of UN Under-Secretary-General and the Associate Administrator, serving under the leadership of Helen Clark.

Grynspan is a member of the Program for the Support of Women's Leadership and Representation (PROLEAD) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and she is former vice president of the board of directors of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) based in Washington, D.C.

SEGIB

Grynspan was unanimously elected Secretary General of the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), at a special meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers on 24 February 2014 in Mexico City, in which representatives of all 22 member countries were present. She succeeded in the office Enrique V. Iglesias, who had held the position since the establishment of SEGIB in 2005.^[6][7][8]

In September 2016, Grynspan was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to serve as a member of the Lead Group of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement.^[9]

In early 2021, Grynspan was appointed by the G20 to the High-Level Independent Panel (HLIP) on financing the global commons for pandemic preparedness and response, co-chaired by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Lawrence Summers.^[10]

Return to the United Nations

In June 2021, following consultations with member states, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres proposed Grynspan as the next Secretary-General of the UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva.^[11]

In 2021, Grynspan became a member of the G20 High-Level Independent Panel on Financing the Global Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. That same year, the president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, named her as special international advisor to the Economic and Social Council of Argentina.

On 8 October 2025, Grynspan was nominated by Costa Rican president Rodrigo Chaves to contend in the 2026 United Nations Secretary-General selection upon the end of António Guterres's tenure.^[12]

Lavish Spending During Budget Austerity

In June 2024, Grynspan presided over a three-day Global Leaders Forum at the Palais des Nations in Geneva to mark UNCTAD's 60th anniversary. According to UNCTAD's own official records, the event drew over 1,100 participants from 152 countries, requiring full diplomatic security, multilingual simultaneous interpretation in UN working languages, and high-level protocol arrangements for the duration of the forum.^[13] Attendees included seven sitting heads of state and government representing Barbados, Brazil, China, Comoros, Cuba, Madagascar, and Timor-Leste, 28 ministers of trade and foreign affairs, Nobel laureates, and prominent private sector and civil society figures, all of whom required accommodation, security, and hospitality arrangements in Geneva.^[14] The forum also served as the launch platform for a full organizational rebranding, the first in UNCTAD's history, under the new name "UN Trade and Development", adding further costs to the occasion.^[15] The forum took place at the same time that Grynspan was overseeing significant reductions to UNCTAD's workforce and budget. Geneva Solutions, an independent news outlet covering international Geneva, reported in July 2025 that Grynspan had announced plans to cut 70 positions as part of a 20 percent reduction objective.^[16] Grynspan herself publicly acknowledged the severity of the cuts, stating: "This is painful. There's no way to disguise this."^[17] UNCTAD did not publish a separate itemized budget or cost breakdown for the anniversary forum. The UN watchdog outlet Inner City Press reported that insiders alleged the forum was used "as a launchpad for her campaign for the UN's top job" rather than serving a substantive organizational purpose. Grynspan did not publicly address this characterization.^[18]

Private Jet Use

During her tenure as Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Grynspan was the subject of criticism over her use of a chartered private aircraft. Inner City Press reported that UNDP leased the UNAMA Mission's Lear jet to transport Grynspan from Dubai at a cost that insiders told the outlet approached $40,000, while the Special Representative of the Secretary-General traveled the same route commercially at a cost of between $400 and $500.^[18] The outlet noted that the expenditure occurred during a period in which the United States had raised concerns in the UN budget committee about even junior UN staff flying business class. Inner City Press submitted the matter formally to UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, who did not respond. Grynspan and her representatives did not address the allegation at the time it was first reported.^[18] The matter resurfaced during Grynspan's 2026 campaign for UN Secretary-General. On March 17, 2026, Inner City Press included the private jet question among a written questionnaire of 17 questions submitted to Grynspan and her campaign sponsors, including the Costa Rican mission to the United Nations. As of the publication of Inner City Press's April 7, 2026 report, more than three weeks after the questionnaire was submitted, not a single question had been answered.^[18]

Failure to Respond to Press Questions

On March 17, 2026, Inner City Press submitted a written questionnaire of 17 questions to Grynspan and her campaign sponsors, including the Costa Rican mission to the United Nations, covering topics including campaign finance transparency, private jet use, and the alleged use of UNCTAD resources for political purposes. As of the outlet's April 7, 2026 report, more than three weeks after submission, not a single question had been answered.^[18] The non-response was noted as particularly striking given that Grynspan had, during the same period, publicly stated in campaign materials covered by PassBlue, an independent journal covering the United Nations: "Trust is built through actions that renew and strengthen institutions over time. For me, credibility has always been built through choices, not statements."^[19] Inner City Press drew a parallel between this pattern of selective engagement with the press and that of incumbent Secretary-General António Guterres, who has been separately criticized for failing to respond to accountability-related press inquiries.^[18]

Black Sea Grain Initiative and the Russian Fertilizer Track

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, UN Secretary-General António Guterres established two parallel task forces to negotiate what became known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative, signed in Istanbul on July 22, 2022. One task force, focused on Ukrainian grain shipments through the Black Sea, was led by Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths. The second task force, focused on facilitating exports of Russian food and fertilizers to global markets under a parallel Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), was led by Grynspan in her capacity as UNCTAD Secretary-General.^[20][21] Throughout the life of the agreement, Russia repeatedly cited dissatisfaction with the implementation of the MOU as a central grievance. Specific unresolved issues included the failure to facilitate ammonia exports, a commitment explicitly referenced in the initiative text but never fulfilled during the agreement's operation, and what Russian representatives described as insufficient progress in removing sanctions-related barriers to Russian fertilizer exports.^[22] The deal was credited with facilitating the export of nearly 33 million metric tons of food from Ukrainian ports and reducing global food prices by approximately 23 percent during its year of operation.^[23] Critics argued that the Russia-side track managed by Grynspan fell consistently short of its stated objectives, and that the failure to deliver on the MOU's core commitments was a material factor in Russia's decision to withdraw from the broader agreement.^[23][21] Inner City Press additionally alleged that Grynspan used her coordination role primarily as a vehicle for building her public profile ahead of her UN Secretary-General campaign rather than pursuing the substantive goals of the MOU, an allegation Grynspan did not publicly address and which was not formally investigated.^[18]

Use of UNCTAD as a Political Platform

Inner City Press reported, citing communications from UNCTAD staff, that Grynspan was alleged to have used her position as UNCTAD Secretary-General as a vehicle for advancing her personal candidacy for the UN Secretary-General role.^[24][18] Specific allegations reported by the outlet included that the UNCTAD 60th anniversary Global Leaders Forum was organized primarily to serve as a campaign platform, that Grynspan's role coordinating the UN Global Crisis Response Group on Ukraine was leveraged for political profile-building rather than substantive policy outcomes, and that appointments within UNCTAD were made to position political allies in support of her campaign. Grynspan did not respond to these allegations. She stepped down temporarily from the UNCTAD Secretary-General role in March 2026 upon formally declaring her candidacy for UN Secretary-General, citing a commitment to avoiding conflicts of interest, a step that PassBlue noted was not taken by all candidates holding UN positions during the same race.^[19]

Appointment Controversy and Exclusion of the G-77

Grynspan's initial appointment as UNCTAD Secretary-General in 2021 was itself a source of controversy. PassBlue reported that her selection was made without consulting the Group of 77 and China, a bloc of 134 developing nations that forms the core membership UNCTAD was created to serve, and that her nomination was driven primarily by the United States and European member states, with the tacit approval of Secretary-General Guterres.^[25] Development experts cited in the same report argued that a nomination driven by Western powers risked undermining UNCTAD's founding mission of advocating for the Global South against structural asymmetries in the global trading system. Guterres and Grynspan were ultimately required to make concessions to the G-77 and China to secure the consensus approval of the General Assembly required for the appointment to be confirmed.^[25]