A major event at UN Headquarters – Summit of the Future scheduled for September 22-23– is being billed as a once in a generation opportunity for the international community to grapple with important questions, and forge a new path, for the benefit of all.
Nudhara Yusuf, a Research Associate with the Global Governance, Justice & Security Program at the Washington-based Stimson Center, where she is the Executive Coordinator of the Global Governance Innovation Network (GGIN), shares her perspective on the upcoming Summit and its impact on effective global governance in the 21st century.
- What are the biggest priorities and objectives of UNGA79?
So, UNGA79 really stands for the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, which began on September 10th, 2024, and will run until September 9th, 2025 when the 80th session begins. September 10th introduced an agenda for the 79th regular session of the UNGA. Provisionally this includes; (a) promotion of sustained economic growth and sustainable development; (b) maintenance of international peace and security; (c) development of Africa; (d) promotion of human rights; (e) effective coordination of humanitarian assistance efforts; (f) promotion of justice and international law; (g) disarmament; (h) drug control, crime prevention and combating international terrorism; and the usual (i) organizational and administrative matters.
Now, this is what the year ahead will focus on. When we, self-proclaimed UN nerds, say UNGA79 this time of year though, we’re referring to the wonderfully energized chaos that is about to descend onto 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Ave New York during UNGA High-Level week when the general debate is opened.
This will be the 24th of September and run through the end of the week. Of course, the key thing on all our minds are the days right before that, with the Summit of the Future Action Days from 20-21 September and the Summit of the Future itself from 22-23 September.
If the Summit comes close to the level of ambition it is striving for it, it should have a huge influence on the general debate that follows. Its agreed outcomes of the Pact for the Future and annexed Declaration on Future Generations and Global Digital Compacts should be priority areas for Heads of States in their statements.
- What’s the Summit of the Future all about, and how will it inform broader UN General Assembly objectives this September and beyond?
I wish there was a silver bullet answer to this question–I think many of us, including Member States, have been spending the better part of the last three years debating this. As a result of those discussions, here’s where I think we’re at: the Summit of the Future was an idea put on the table in the 2021 Our Common Agenda Report recognizing the fact that we cannot continue to tackle 21st-century challenges and opportunities with the 20th century foundational ideas and processes of the UN.
A system-wide rethink was needed to ensure, in the UN Secretary-General’s words, we went toward “breakthrough, not breakdown,” as a global society. Three years later I think the Summit continues to be a moment to bring together international leaders to decide how to deliver a better today and safeguard the opportunities of tomorrow.
But I think it’s a once-in-a-generation moment for another key reason. More and more the world out there questions what international cooperation can achieve. What the value of investing in global and regional organisations is?
How effective and resilient a rules-based world order stands in the face of today’s geopolitical tensions and fault lines? Why multilateral when bilateral could work? Never before has global leadership been given such a critical opportunity to put forth an answer to these questions than at this summit. I think this a key trust-building exercise for the UN, both among Member States, but also toward “we the peoples”, that the UN is critical to effective global governance in the 21st century.
- What is the Pact for the Future, and why is it being introduced now?
The Pact for the Future is the Summit’s chief outcome document and is being co-facilitated by Germany and Namibia. It has a cross-cutting chapeau that considers human rights, gender equality, and other critical overarching issues. It then dives into five chapters, across which (where we stand at the current third revision in negotiations) there are sixty actions.
Still, the chapters include: (i) sustainable development and financing for development; (ii) international peace and security; (iii) science, technology and innovation and digital cooperation; (iv) youth and future generations; and (v) transforming global governance.
The Pact will also be annexed with a Declaration on Future Generations co-facilitated by Jamaica and Netherlands and constituting ‘guiding principles’, ‘commitments’, and ‘actions’ toward safeguarding future generations’ wellbeing; as well as a Global Digital Compact co-facilitated by Zambia and Sweden which has five main objectives: (i) close all digital divides and accelerate progress across the Sustainable Development Goals; (ii) expand inclusion in and benefits from the digital economy for all; (iii) foster an inclusive, open, safe and secure digital space that respects, protects and promote human rights; (iv) advance responsible, equitable and interoperable data governance approaches; and (v) enhance international governance of Artificial Intelligence for the benefit of humanity.
It’s worth noting that as of the date of this publication, all of three of documents are in their third revision and silence has been broken (countries say they do not agree to the text due to redlines) on all of them, with for example some Member States breaking on over 80 paragraphs of the Pact. This will lead to a bit of renegotiation so while the basic structure will remain the same, we’re likely to see the documents change from where they stand now right up till the days before the Summit.
Still, I think the idea behind the Pact for the Future has remained generally consistent–a concise and action-oriented document that will set humanity up for success as it heads toward the endpoint of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and beyond. This is essentially the game plan for when the whistle blows on the final quarter.
- How do UNGA79 and the Summit of the Future challenge the current global order?
This theory of change is another thing I think many of us have been contemplating. MuznahSiddiqui from UN University and I actually just published a paper with a German Journal (which we’re now converting into a book chapter in English ahead of UNGA79) that did a full trace from UN75 till date on what the theory of change of this process has been. I think there are broadly three ways to think about this.
On one level, UNGA79 and Summit of the Future will reaffirm many parts of the global order. That is a good thing; think international law, human rights, security, and justice–great!
On another level, the process of the Summit of the Future itself (when negotiations began in 2022) has had a fascinating influence. Hardly ever have we seen such strong vocal opinions from middle-power states. The massive weight given to international financial reform in the pact is a key indicator of this, as well as an influential group of some 53 small states that was convened by Singapore.
Negotiations are not being run by the usual suspects, we’re seeing and hearing that there’s actually quite a vocal and diverse set of opinions in the room. Now I realize that can be exhausting when trying to build consensus, especially as these negotiations were unfolding in the summer under the New York heat wave–suffocating was likely an understatement!
But it is indicative of a shift in global order. Middle power states, many from the Global South/Global Majority Countries, are taking a stand for what they expect out of this Summit. A Summit which, in truth, is a lot more about the countries who weren’t in the room at the UN’s founding in 1945 than not.
On a third level, this UNGA79 is being convened during a year when the most number of people in history would have gone or will go to the polls to vote in an election. With 64 countries hosting elections, the political significance of 2024 globally is not to be understated. In many countries, leadership has changed and people will be listening for what priorities look like for this new set of global leaders. The Summit’s timing therefore might actually be quite critical in shaping their points of view as we head into a new term for global cooperation, and thus potentially global order.
- What has the road been like to get here – and what are the immediate next steps post-SOTF?
I think we’ve been paving this road while driving it. It’s been a real collective exercise from the UN Secretariat, Member States, and civil society, in both defining what we need and tracing out how to get there. From negotiations being open to then closing the door, to having consultations, and roadmaps, it’s been pretty inductive.
On the civil society side, the ‘Coalition for the UN We Need’ hosted a Road to the Summit series that traced key moments along the way, supporting informal dialogue on the sidelines. A couple of key milestones stand out to me:
i. 2021: The Our Common Agenda report that introduced the Summit of the Future in a series of four summits.
ii. 2022: The Transforming Education Summit (summit #1) and establishing the High-Level Advisory Board for Effective Multilateralism (originally for Global Public Good but this was pushed back on and changed). Also, this year it was decided that SOTF would not be a twin Summit with the SDG Summit as originally proposed, but pushed back a year.
iii. 2023: The SDG Summit (summit #2) which produced the SDG Political Declaration. The launch of the Breakthrough for People and Planet report by the High-Level Advisory Board.Establishing the AI Advisory Body. And civil society hosted the Global Future Forum which produced the interim People’s Pact for the Future.
iv. 2024 Jan: Negotiations really took off in full force at the beginning of the year, the zero drafts came out.
v. 2024 May: Civil society hosted the 2024 UN Civil Society Conference in Support of the Summit of the Future, convening over 3000 people from 115 countries, 317 Member State representatives, and 22 UN entities to launch 23 ImPact Coalitions and make a pretty big statement that civil society was a driver of this process.
vi. 2024 Summer: Negotiations seem to be hitting their peak. Silence being broken means countries are engaged an care about the outcome, but as suspected this will come down to the wire for the SOTF (summit #3).
What comes next is big though. All we are doing in September is saying “this is what we should do.” The follow-through will be critical, and this is currently penciled in for a review of the Pact at UNGA83 in 2028. Of course, we cannot leave the Pact on the shelf for the next four years, this is where the critical role of multistakeholder coalitions and groups will help drive forward specific reforms and actions especially as we head toward the World Social Summit (summit #4) at UNGA80 next year.
- What are the potential criticisms or challenges UNGA79 might face?
A huge critique from last year, which will continue into this year, will be if Heads of State do not take this seriously and show up. Last year only one P5 head of state was at UNGA. Not only will Member States be critiqued for this, but the UN further loses credibility at this critical time if heads of state are not engaging at the summit. UN Missions thus need to be pushing quite hard with their capitals on the importance of showing up.
Another critique, which I certainly share, last year less than 12% of the people at the lectern for general debate were women. We’ve seen this mistake happen already, so I can guarantee that people will be watching with a critical eye this year.
Nudhara Yusuf is a Research Associate with the Global Governance, Justice & Security Program where she is the Executive Coordinator of the Global Governance Innovation Network (GGIN).
