Home > Updates > Summary and Highlights
Author
GGIN’s UNGA@81 Spotlight
Contributed by Global Governance Innovation Network, Plataforma CIPÓ
Posted 19 August 2026
UNGA's 81st Session is here, and the High-Level Week agenda is stacked this September. Between UN80 and Pact for the Future reform efforts, urgent conversations on AI governance, climate change, and peace and security are all occurring against the backdrop of the race for UN Secretary-General.
The following overviews spotlight a few not-to-miss events, co-organized by GGIN and its partners in September 2026, including two T20-related events on 23 and 25 September. So block your calendars, and watch this page for more highlights (including registration links) in the coming days!
"Redefining Global Trust" - NYC Launch of the Future of International Cooperation Report 2026
📆 Monday, 21 September 2026 | 1:00-2:45 PM EDT
📍International Peace Institute | 777 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017
💻 In-person event; Register here
📄 This UNGA@81 side event will spotlight the new Future of International Cooperation Report 2026 (FIC'26) on “Redefining Global Trust," which examines the growing trust deficits shaping global and regional politics (including diplomacy and mediation), economics (including business and technology), and security and justice (including protecting people and preventing violent extremism). The report charts a positive reform and accountability agenda to leverage the confluence of a new United Nations Secretary-General (from January 1, 2027) with the World Social Summit and Summit of the Future follow-through, alongside initial steps toward a Post-2030 Development Agenda in the lead-up to the September 2027 SDG Summit in New York. This event will launch the Future of International Cooperation Report 2026 co-sponsored by the Stimson Center, Doha Forum, and the Global Institute for Strategic Research. Read the full report here.
From Consensus to Coalitions: The Think Tank Agenda for the G20 Handover
📆 Tuesday, 22 September 2026 | 1:15-2:45 PM EDT
📍Baha'i International Community - 866 United Nations Plaza #120, New York, NY 10017, United States
🌐 Global Solutions Initiative in partnership with the U.S. T20 Consortium
💻 Register here
💻 Register for virtual participation here
📄 Think tanks engaged in the T20 process will convene to take stock of the agenda under the U.S. presidency, define what should carry into the U.K. handover, and sharpen coordination on the issues where coalition-based cooperation is most urgent. This dialogue takes place at a pivotal time, and UNGA High-Level Week is the one moment in the global calendar when this community, together with policymakers, multilateral institutions, and philanthropy, is gathered in the same city. With the T20 Summit approaching in November, it offers a rare opportunity to convene think tanks from across the G20, G7, and BRICS tracks, many of whom will not otherwise be in one room before the Summit.
Renewing Multilateralism: Charter Review as a Pathway to Deliver Security Council Reform
📆 Wednesday, 23 September 2026 | 1:00-2:45 PM EDT
🌐 Article 109 Coalition, The Quincy Institute, Oxfam International, and Trust Africa
📍 Ford Foundation, 320 E 43rd St, New York, NY 10017
💻Register here
📄 With violence and conflict rising globally, it is essential that efforts to reform the Security Council are coordinated, streamlined, and put in motion. This event will bring together speakers from the field of global governance, peace and security, and the UN who will explore how reviewing the UN Charter can deliver these much-needed Security Council reforms at a time when current processes are stalling.
Turning Pact into Progress: Strengthening Partnerships for the Road to 2028
📆 Thursday, 24 September 2026 | 8:30-10:00 AM EDT
📍Bahá'í International Community, United Nations Office, 866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 120, New York, NY 10017
🌐 Coalition for the UN We Need
💻 Registration link coming soon
No Implementation without Equality: Women as the Foundation of the Future of Climate Multilateralism
📆 Thursday, 24 September 2026 | 10:15-11:15 AM EDT
📍Bahá'í International Community, United Nations Office, 866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 120, New York, NY 10017
🌐 GWL Voices, Plataforma CIPÓ
💻 Registration link coming soon
📄 This session, hosted at New York Climate Week in the lead up to COP 31 - will explore how, in order to achieve effective implementation, gender responsive climate data, finance and policy are not a peripheral add-on, but a precondition for it. Importantly, it will demonstrate through the presentation of GWL Voices' new Spotlight report on Women in Global Climate and Environmental Leadership, that without the full and equal participation of women in global climate decision-making, the "second tier" of implementation will fall short of making real progress.
From Crisis Response to Peacebuilding: Putting Peace Back at the Core of the United Nations
📆 Thursday, 24 September 2026 | 1:00-2:30 PM EDT
📍Luce Foundation, 41 Madison Avenue 27th floor, New York, NY 10010
🌐 Alliance for Peacebuilding, Saferworld, the Stimson Center, the Asia Foundation, and the Luce Foundation
📄 As the UN selects a new Secretary-General, candidates seem to agree“the institution is missing in action when it comes to peace and security, and the answer to reversing this trajectory is for the next Secretary-General to first and foremost be a mediator-in-chief." However, the same candidates have yet to adequately address how they will prioritize peacebuilding and conflict and atrocity prevention. This dialogue aims to address challenging conflict trends by surfacing practical recommendations for UN reform to prioritize conflict prevention and peacebuilding.
Taking Forward the Pact for the Future: Assessing Progress & The Road Ahead Two Years Before the 2028 High-Level Review
📆 Thursday, 24 September 2026 | 1:15-2:30 PM EDT
📍United Nations Headquarters Conference Room 2
💻 Register here.
📺 Watch on UN Web TV
🌐 Coalition for the UN We Need, Global Governance Innovation Network, Permanent Mission of Jamaica to the United Nations, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Croatia to the United Nations, Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations, European Union
📄 As the international community approaches the midpoint between the adoption of the Pact for the Future (September 2024, Summit of the Future) and its official high-level review in September 2028, this high-level & civil society dialogue during UNGA High-Level Week will provide an opportunity to assess progress, identify implementation gaps, and raise ambition for the years ahead. Speakers include: H.E. Stefan Löfven, Former Prime Minister of Sweden and Co-Chair, High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism, H.E. Amb. Brian Wallace, Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Jamaica to the United Nations, and Sandrine Dixson-Declève, President, Club of Rome.
T20 U.S.: Engaging Diverse Voices in the G20 U.S. for Better Policymaking and Action in Uncertain Times
📆 Friday, 25 September 2026 | 9:00-10:30 AM EDT
📍New York City
✉️ Register virtually here
📄 The Thinktank 20 (T20) U.S. policy research network will convene a multi-G20 engagement group UNGA@81 side event. The two-part moderated dialogue, beginning with a panel of G20 Sherpas, will reflect on the policy ideas coalesced around during the past four G20 Presidencies led by South Africa, Brazil, India, and Indonesia, including those meriting continued attention this year and beyond. It will also learn from the informal G20 engagement groups in 2026 about concrete steps to keep the G20 a dynamic and inclusive global platform for collective problem-solving, contributing to solutions on today's most complex governance challenges, threats, and opportunities. This exchange will lay the groundwork for the T20 U.S. Summit (18-19 November), building momentum for the discussions to follow.
Experts Roundtable: "Middle Eastern & Global Perspectives on Restoring Trust in an Age of Uncertainty"
📆 Wednesday, 30 September 2026 | 8:30-11:30 am EST, 3:30-6:30 pm Doha
📍Embassy of the State of Qatar to the United States, Washington, D.C. | Global Institute for Strategic Research at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha
✉️ By invitation only; contact [email protected]
📄 Informed by the fourth annual edition of the Future of International Cooperation Report (FIC’26), this expert roundtable will propose a menu of innovative regional and global governance/cooperation responses, designed to renew and rebuild trust in today's fractured world. Participants will also present and debate targeted measures for restoring global trust, by leveraging the confluence of a new UN Secretary-General (beginning on January 1, 2027) with the World Social Summit and Summit of the Future follow-through, alongside initial steps toward a Post-2030 Development Agenda in the lead-up to the September 2027 SDG Summit in New York.
Critical Minerals & the G20: From Strategic Resources to Developmental Assets
📆 Monday, 12 October 2026 | 2:00 PM UTC
💻 Online Only | Register here
🌐 Global South Perspectives Network (GSPN) in partnership with the U.S. T20 Consortium
Intensifying international competition for critical minerals presents resource-producing countries with both an opportunity and a risk. These minerals are essential to the global energy transition, advanced manufacturing, digital technologies and national security. However, many producing countries could remain exporters of unprocessed resources while the greater share of economic value, technological capability and employment is created elsewhere. This consultation will explore how critical-mineral-producing countries can use growing global demand to advance industrialization, economic diversification and sustainable development. It will also consider how these countries can engage competing global powers and commercial partners without sacrificing policy independence, control over strategic resources or the ability to secure the best possible developmental return.
Downloads
Author
Geography
topics
Stay Informed
Receive email updates about the Global Governance Innovation Network and related research.
You can opt out at any time. Read our privacy policy.