Christiana Figueres and Rebeca Grynspan, two stateswomen whose international careers have made Costa Rica very proud, are two of the names currently being mentioned as potential candidates to succeed Ban Ki-Moon as Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Women have not been elected Secretary-General of the UN in the seven decades that the prominent international institution has been around; that could change later this year when Ban Ki-Moon completes his term. Ms. Figueres and Ms. Grynspan are not the only women being considered as candidates. According to a recent article by Patricia Garcia of Vogue magazine, the list includes:

• Irina Bokova, Director of UNESCO
• Vesna Pusic, who has been instrumental in Croatia’s participation in European Union affairs
• Helen Clark, Chief of the UN Development Program
• Natalia Gherman, former acting Prime Minister of Moldova

It so happens that President Luis Guillermo Solis of Costa Rica has been a vocal supporter of electing a woman as the next UN Secretary-General. President Solis is currently leading the first-ever UN High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment during the 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

Rebeca Grynspan is a former Vice President of Costa Rica whose international career includes: the Secretary General of SEGIB,[1] the Ibero-American Secretary General, a former UN Under-Secretary-General, and the Associate Administrator of the UNDP.

Christiana Figueres was appointed executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010. She has been a member of the Costa Rican negotiating team since 1995, when she participated in the Kyoto Protocol. She has contributed to the design of key climate change models and has been a prime promoter of Latin America’s active participation in the Convention.