ImPACT for the Future - An FAQ
What is the “ImPACT for the Future”?
One of the key outcomes of the 2024 United Nations Civil Society Conference (Conference) was the “ImPACT for the Future.” Given the short time frame for the Conference, as well as the fluid nature of the negotiations around the intergovernmentally negotiated Pact for the Future, the outcomes have taken shape in various formats to have the greatest impact. As such, the following was produced:
- A hub for “ImPACT Coalitions,” which was civil-society generated, diverse stakeholder constituted coalitions which agree to work towards advancing certain key reform initiatives leading up to and beyond the Summit of the Future.
- A Co-Chair’s Summary as a record and summary of the Conference itself.
How were these “ImPACT Coalitions” formed and what do they do?
The Impact Coalitions (ICs) were formed as an outcome of the Conference with set criteria. ICs bring together stakeholders working on various issues, aligned with human rights-based approaches and related to the Summit of the Future to create networks that support Member States who wish to champion specific reforms and proposals toward the Summit of the Future and crucially, begin the implementation process beyond. They seek to co-create new initiatives and bring existing initiatives together in a broader package, thereby expanding reach and engagement of those initiatives. This approach seeks to augment, strengthen and complement multilateral processes underway. Their purpose is to innovate the way civil society engages intergovernmental processes, focusing not just on what we expect from Member States, but on what civil society can of offer Member States who wish to champion and unlock critical issues of our time that civil society and other stakeholders have mobilized around for decades.
The principles and objectives of ICs are to:
1. Offer a platform for a more collaborative approach to meaningful engagement among civil society, stakeholders, the UN, and Member States.
2. Serve as a space to coalesce different initiatives that may be pursuing similar goals, toward and beyond the Pact for the Future, in order to diversify their membership and strengthen their outcomes.
3. Create and encourage ongoing engagement with a forward-looking plan of action focused on impact and implementation of specific governance reform proposals.
How was the Co-Chairs’ Summary formed?
It is not unusual at conferences of this style that the organizers of each session - whether it is a workshop, a side event, a plenary, or any other category- produce short summaries of the key outputs from that session. The relevant UN Civil Society Conference organizers compiled these summaries into a “Co-Chairs’ Summary.”
