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GGIN’s UNGA79 Spotlight
Contributed by Global Governance Innovation Network
Posted 27 August 2024
UNGA season is back and the 79th Session will be a big one! With the Summit of the Future, Action Days, several conference, and the General Debate, the following overviews spotlight a few key moments, as well as events, co-organized by GGIN and partners in September 2024. Block your calendars and watch this space for registration links very soon! Registering interest for Interactive Dialogues is now open.
The Road through the Summit of the Future: Generating ImPact from the Pact for the Future
⭐️ Summit of the Future Action Day Side Event
📆📍September 21, 11:15-12:30 EDT | UNHQ New York, Conference Room 1 (and webcast on UN Web TV)
Drawing on five years of experience and lessons learned from the UN2020 campaign, the Global Futures Forum, a dozen Global Policy Dialogues, regional thematic dialogues, the 2024 UN Civil Society Conference (UNCSC) and the drafting of the People's Pact for the Future, this event seeks to highlight major new initiatives in the "Pact for the Future," the "Global Digital Compact," and the "Declaration on Future Generations," and their potential areas for impact, implementation, monitoring, and follow up. The event focuses on a 12-month timeline of what key moments and actions will, and should, take place from now till the next UNGA High-Level week, with an eye toward the proposed review at the starts of the 83rd GA session (September 2018).
Doha Forum Reception and Launch of the Future of International Cooperation Report 2024
📆📍September 18, 18:00-20:30 EDT | Intercontinental Hotel on the Wharf, Washington D.C.
📲 Register
This second edition of the Future of International Cooperation (FIC'24) focuses on how technology and its governance can best advance and safeguard fundamental global development and security goals, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the quest for sustainable peace. This event will both host a reception for Doha Forum (December 7-8, 2024) participants and launch the Future of International Cooperation Report 2024 co-sponsored by the Stimson Center, Doha Forum, and the Global Institute for Strategic Research.
The Innovation Imperative: Technology and the Future of International Cooperation
📆📍September 26, 10:30-12:00 EDT | In Hybrid Format from Trygve Lie Center for Peace, Security & Development, International Peace Institute (777 United Nations Plaza, 12th Floor, New York)
📲 Attend in Person | Attend online
This event is organized in partnership with The Doha Forum, Stimson Center, Global Institute for Strategic Research, and the International Peace Institute. Following the Summit of the Future, taking place earlier the same week in New York, this event provides the opportunity to discuss the The Future of International Cooperation 2024, which identifies entry points for deepening the multiple, mutually reinforcing ways this year's Summit of the Future has positively influenced last year's SDG Summit and will likely shape next year's World Social Summit in Doha.
Taking the Summit of the Future Agenda Forward: Facilitating Implementation through Dialogue, Research & Monitoring
📆📍September 26, 15:30-16:30 EDT | In Hybrid Format from Baha'i International Community Office (866 United Nations Plaza #120, New York)
📲 Register for the webinar here
(or enquire with [email protected] for in person attendance)
Bringing together Ministers, former statespersons, UN officials, and leading scholars, this session—co-hosted by the Global Governance Innovation Network, Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy, and Development, Plataforma CIPÓ, and the Stimson Center—will consider the role of: (1) Track 1.5 policy dialogues, (2) policy research products from leading scholars worldwide, and (3) rigorous Summit of the Future (SOTF) monitoring in supporting champion governments and twenty nascent multi-stakeholder ImPact Coalitions on SOTF Actions & Commitments follow-through.
Harnessing AI & other Cyber-technologies for a Safe, Just & Sustainable Future
⭐️ Summit of the Future Action Day Side Event
📆📍September 21, 16:00-17:15 EDT | UNHQ New York, Conference Room 12 (and webcast on UN Web TV)
Artificial intelligence (AI) and other cyber-technologies offer powerful tools for global and local problem-solving, aligning with the UN's pillars of peace, human rights, and sustainable development. However, they also pose significant challenges, where unchecked competitive actions to exploit their rapidly developing potential can lead to a “tragedy of the commons.” Showcasing expertise and diverse perspectives from the new ImPACT Coalition on AI and Cybertech Governance, this SOTF Action Days session will examine challenges, threats, and opportunities in the AI & broader digital space through the lenses of regulation, security, and equity (the “digital divide”).
Road to the Summit: Insights Gained and Lessons Learned
⭐️ The final Road to the Summit event in the series
📆📍September 20, 08:30-10:00 EDT | In Hybrid Format from Baha'i International Community Office (866 United Nations Plaza #120, New York)
📲 Watch this space for registration details
Sixteen sessions of the Road to the Summit have taken place since May of 2022. We have had the representation of roughly 1000 different individuals and 78 Member States with an average attendance of 140 people at each session. What did we achieve? What did we learn? Our hope was to create a space of genuine exchange - allowing individual creativity and curiosity to find expression without regard for official positions and institutional limitations. What example might such an approach have for governance at the international level itself?
Promoting Racial Representation in Global Decision-Making: The Role of the UN
📆📍September 20, 10:45-12:15 EDT | In Hybrid Format from Baha'i International Community Office (866 United Nations Plaza #120, New York)
📲 Event Details & Registration
Plataforma CIPÓ and Instituto Decodifica, with the support of the Bahá'í International Community, are convening a Roundtable on Racial Representation in Global Decision-Making on the sidelines of the UN Summit of the Future. With the aim of highlighting challenges and proposing solutions, the event will debate the current state of racial representation in global governance, with a focus on the UN's role in promoting inclusive, diverse and participatory decision-making processes. At the event, CIPÓ and Blue Smoke will launch their study on racial representation and equality within the UN System. The Roundtable will offer a unique opportunity to engage in discussions and share insights and recommendations with stakeholders and advocates committed to promoting Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
Room for Optimism
⭐️ Summit of the Future Action Day Side Event
📆📍September 21, 11:15-12:30 EDT | UNHQ New York, Conference Room 1 (and webcast on UN Web TV)
We need a shared, optimistic narrative, alongside a sophisticated understanding of the challenges we face, in order to overcome inaction. As was learned at the UN Civil Society Conference in Nairobi, this is a prerequisite on the path toward a future of peace and prosperity. Representatives from various areas of the international system will share what it is from the Pact for the Future that brings them hope in the face of the very real challenges before us. They will offer their reflections and reasons for optimism, highlighting one or two actions that they think have particularly strong potential and proposing next steps to take that action forward. Far from an exercise in idealism, the aim of this event will be to highlight and connect common aspirations in order to catalyze future action beyond the Summit itself.
What's next for Global Governance? ImPACT Coalitions' Recommendations for the Summit of the Future
⭐️ Summit of the Future Action Day Side Event
📆📍September 21, 09:45-11:00 EDT | UNHQ New York, Conference Room 6
This side event is a space to learn about and discuss proposals in this field put forward by a number of ImPACT Coalitions to build on the outcomes of the Summit and continue fulfilling a vision for renewed global governance in the coming years. How can one build on the seeds planted in the Pact for the Future to address the planetary emergency, inequitable distribution of power, lack of inclusion, continued violations of peace and disarmament goals, and gaps in accountability and the rule of law? Where is the need to go further? The event will address future pathways to bring about a more effective, accountable and inclusive global governance architecture.
Reforming the UN Security Council for an Equal and Sustainable Future
⭐️ Summit of the Future Action Day Side Event
📆📍September 21, 11:15-12:30 EDT | UNHQ New York, Conference Room 7
The session aims at interrogating key actions and policy recommendations, in line with various initiatives including the Pact for the Future, the Intergovernmental Negotiations on Security Council Reform, the report of the High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism, the People's Pact for the Future, and Oxfam's Flagship report on "Vetoing humanity: How powerful governments are hijacking our global peace and security."
Action Days side event: "Pact for the future and beyond: Towards the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development”
⭐️ Summit of the Future Action Day Side Event
📆📍September 21, 13:00-14:15 EDT | UNHQ New York, Conference Room 11
This session aims at identifying opportunities leading up to the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development and the World Social Summit in 2025. Thematic focus includes: (i) Taking Stock: Reviewing the commitments under the Pact for the Future on the issues of financing and IFA reform, to understand what has been achieved and what remains to be addressed; (ii) Follow-up Strategies: Formulating and discussing concrete strategies to ensure that commitments are fully implemented; (iii) Areas Requiring Additional Efforts: Identifying areas within the financing for development agenda that require intensified efforts towards the preparatory process and celebration of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development; (iv) Civil Society Engagement: Addressing the role of civil society in supporting these efforts, ensuring their active participation, responsibility and contribution to both the international conference and the broader financing for development agenda.
T20/G20 inputs for the Summit of the Future
⭐️ Summit of the Future Action Day Side Event
📆📍September 21, 16:45-18:00 EDT | UNHQ New York, Conference Room 5
The purpose of this event is to present the policy recommendations of the T20 Brasil Communiqué to the G20 leaders that are relevant to the outcome of the Summit of the Future. The event sessions will address the following main thematic areas: (i) SDGs implementation with a special focus on decreasing poverty and inequalities as well as tackling climate change with strong financial means; (ii) Reforming global governance and multilateralism with a particular focus on reforming the financial architecture to address the debt problems and the need for a larger-scale investment.
Alliance Action Forum: Workshop on business action and accountability towards global agreements
📆📍 Wednesday 25 September, 9:00–11:30am | Location upon registration
The World Benchmarking Alliance and the United Nations Foundation's Universal Access Project and Business Council for the UN, brings a multistakeholder group together to reflect on how business action and accountability is reflected in the Pact of the Future and UN frameworks broadly, bringing voices of stakeholders who have engaged on this issue across topics and policy processes, such as nature and the biodiversity plan, digital and the GDC and human rights and the UNGP's. Building off the Summit, the aim of the session is to look at ways to concretely take this commitment forward, looking at opportunities in 2025 and beyond.
Embedding private sector accountability in the Global Digital Compact
📆📍 21 September, 6:00–8:00pm | Location upon registration
This Saturday evening reception, co-hosted by UNICEF and the Governments of Finland, Denmark and Mexico, aims to explore how the UN Global Digital Compact might be used, in tandem with other instruments, to articulate expectations for companies on integrity and responsibility in digital governance. The UN Global Digital Compact is intended to be the first global framework to establish cross-cutting international norms and standards for the building blocks of a safe and inclusive digital environment. If acted on effectively, it may enable progress toward a global governance system that includes and prescribes the accountability of the private sector. The event will have a particular focus on AI given its relevance to many of the Sustainable Development Goals and the open questions surrounding AI’s impact on society, including upholding gender equality and human rights. It will also examine the roles of the UN, governments, and civil society in holding businesses accountable to these globally defined responsibilities.
Email [email protected] if you are hosting an event on the sidelines of UNGA79 and would like it to be considered for the GGIN spotlight list.
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