3 September 2024 - Is there another way the world could be run? And in the face so much global turmoil, how can we make the future fairer? This September, a major event at UN Headquarters is being billed as once in a generation opportunity for the international community to grapple with these questions, and forge a new path, for the benefit of all.
1 What is the Summit of the Future?
In 2020, the UN turned 75 and marked the occasion by starting a about hopes and fears for the future.
This was the beginning of a process that would eventually lead, four years later, to the convening of the Summit of the Future, a major event this September, which will take place at UN Headquarters, just before the annual high-level debate of the General Assembly.
The Summit was conceived at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was a perception at the UN that, rather than cooperating to face this global threat that affected all of us, countries and people pulled apart.
“We were really confronted with the gap between the aspirations of our founders, which we were trying to celebrate at the 75th anniversary, and the reality of the world as it is today”, says Michele Griffin, the Policy Director of the Summit. “The problems that we faced, the threats, but also the opportunities and the imperfections in how we respond”.
UN Member States tasked Secretary-General António Guterres to come up with a vision for the future of global cooperation. His answer to their call was “Our Common Agenda”, a landmark report with recommendations on renewed global cooperation to address a host of risks and threats, and a proposal to hold a forward-looking summit in 2024.
The event will consist of sessions and plenaries based around five main tracks (sustainable development and financing; peace and security; a digital future for all; youth and future generations; and global governance), and other topics that cut across all of the work of the UN, including human rights, gender equality and the climate crisis.
The immediate outcome will be a finalised version of a Pact for the Future, with a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration for Future Generations in annex, all of which are expected to be adopted by Member States during the Summit.
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