The lazy Indigenous diplomat already knew this.
On why most Indigenous delegates leave the UN with less than 10% of what they put in.
Tabea, happy Saturday,
You know what I have seen too many times.
An Indigenous youth delegate gets their turn at the floor.
They prepare for it. They write a good statement. They deliver it well. People clap. Someone from a delegation shakes their hand in the corridor. They find the UN web TV recording of themselves presenting and post it to Facebook.
I get it. That felt like something.
But none of it moved text. Not one word.
That is the story of most energy that goes into the UN system. Coordination calls. Side events. Caucus meetings. Lobby meetings. Formal interventions. And the result at the end of the week is less than 10% of that energy. Sometimes zero.
That’s not an intervention problem.
You have a platform problem.
This article is for the lazy Indigenous diplomat. I mean that as the highest compliment. The one who looked at that scene and said no. My energy is going to equal my result.
What the lazy Indigenous diplomat already knows
Every young Indigenous leader I know either posts a lot on social media or spends a lot of time on it.
Either way, you become a witness to the features of each platform.
If you post, you figure out the formats. Video behaves differently from written. Short form is not the same as long form. You learn which platform gives you the best return on your effort.
If you consume, you notice something else. Instagram doesn’t feel like TikTok. TikTok doesn’t feel like LinkedIn. LinkedIn doesn’t feel like Youtube. Different platforms, different features, different results for the same input.
The lazy creator doesn’t spray content everywhere and hope. They figure out where their energy actually converts. Then they go deep on that.
The lazy Indigenous diplomat does the same thing. Except the platforms are not Instagram and TikTok.
They’re UNFCCC. EMRIP. UNPFII. FAO CFS. CBD. BBNJ. The General Assembly.
No two UN forums are the same.
Yes, they’re all part of the same machinery. Member states are in all of them.
But how you can participate, how you can influence, what the weight of your intervention actually is? None of that is the same.
If you don’t know the features of the room you’re in, you can’t convert your energy into result. You’re just spending it.
The lazy Indigenous diplomat checks first. For every forum they enter, they know the speaking modalities, the rules of engagement, and where the influence actually sits. They walk in to operate.
What the features actually look like
At the EMRIP, you can speak as an Indigenous Peoples’ organization in your individual capacity. Your organization gets on the list. Your organization takes the floor. You speak for yourself.
At the UNFCCC, it works differently. You speak as a constituency. Many organizations, but one coordinated voice. The coordination happens before you walk in. What goes to the floor is the collective position.
These are completely different strategic environments. What you can say, who you’re speaking for, how you build influence: All of it changes based on the features of the room.
And that’s two forums.
There’s also the FAO CFS, where the food security framework shapes what’s possible. BBNJ, where you’re in an environment room with environment experts. The CBD. The General Assembly. Each one has its own logic, its own rules, its own mechanics.
If you don’t know those mechanics, you are putting energy into a room that is not set up to convert it. That is the 10% problem.
The question you should always ask first
Before any session, before any statement, before any coordination call: What are the features of this forum?
Who can speak. In what capacity. What decisions come out of this session. What happens to those decisions after the session ends. Where the influence actually sits and how it moves.
If you cannot answer those questions for the forum you’re entering, you are not yet operating lazily. You are just spending.
The lazy Indigenous diplomat wants a return on that energy. So they do the homework. The homework is the only thing that makes the hours in the room actually count.
Before you go
I have been building a map of this. Every forum I work in, I document the features. The speaking rules. The decision weight. What’s actually moveable in each room and what isn’t.
This knowledge doesn’t get passed down. It sits in the heads of people who have been doing this long enough to figure it out by accident. The young lazy Indigenous diplomat shouldn’t have to spend years getting burned before they understand how these platforms actually work.
So here is my question.
Should I put that overview together and share it here?
Tell me yes or no.
Or tell me which forum you want me to start with. I read every reply, even the ones I cannot answer.
See you next Saturday.