This session of Interactive Dialogues featured interventions that reflected on how a sustainable future is the only possible one, where Representatives treated climate action, gender equality and education opportunities as interconnected issues that are necessary to be dealt with at the global level. This was exemplified by the words of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Turk, that reminded us that justice, sustainability and peace are the only path forward as our capacity to extinguish all of humanity has reached unparalleled dimensions. He continued by remarking that we can rebuild and we can achieve a better sustainable future, but “we need to put an end to the conflicts that are putting an end to lives and hope”.

Mafalda Duarte, Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund, focused her intervention on climate action, celebrating progress in clean energy, such as record-low solar energy costs and a 55% reduction in wind energy costs. However, she also warned that investments in sustainable energy have dropped by 20% since 2016, pointing to compounding crises like armed conflicts and COVID-19 recovery efforts. Duarte stressed that this downward trend must be reversed to meet global climate goals. The devastating effects of a failure in this sense was pointed out by the Foreign Minister of Comoros, who shared the devastating impact of rising sea levels and floods on his country, calling for international mobilization to build resilience against natural disasters.

In his remarks, the President of Spain identified climate change, gender equality, and human rights as the three most critical challenges facing the world today. He called climate change an issue of “intergenerational justice” and argued for a financial architecture that ensures countries don’t have to choose between repaying debt and addressing climate crises. Spain also proposed electing the first female Secretary-General of the UN, underscoring the importance of gender equality. Expanding on the theme of gender equality, the Foreign Minister of Burundi proposed the establishment of a women’s investment bank as a strategy to tap into women’s economic potential and address inequality at its roots.

Education was another crucial theme, as the Minister of Education for Slovakia discussed the “brain drain” phenomenon, where the country’s brightest talents leave due to limited opportunities at home. He stressed the need for better educational resources to prevent mass emigration. Dealing the issue from another perspective, UN Youth Secretary Felipe Pauller underlined that many young people remain excluded from global decision-making processes. He emphasized the importance of meaningful youth involvement and the need for intergenerational dialogue, advocating for a more inclusive approach that recognizes the full spectrum of youth diversity.

The Interactive Dialogue “Towards a Common Digital Future” begins with very different stakeholders taking the floor and underlining how much the world is still digitally divided and what a great loss of public good opportunities this represents. The Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), points out that 2.6 billion people are still offline meaning that we have to align digital inclusion with the pace of digital transformation, especially if AI has the potential to mitigate 10% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

The Representative from Microsoft warns that the challenges that we are facing are complex and can be solved uniquely through a multi-stakeholder approach and digital transformation can drive progress to sustainable development only if it is trustworthy, safe and inclusive. It continues by reminding that AI can be a crucial tool, if not the only one, to diagnose promptly diabetes patiences or save lives in the  event of a natural disaster through satellite AI. In a world where 2.6 billion people are still not connected, the priority should be bridging this gap to allow every community to benefit from technology.

Lawyers Hub brings forward an issue that they claim is often overlooked. A crucial point in the digital divide are Visas and Visa policies, as often a substantial amount of financial resources of startups in the Global South are employed in Visa applications in order to conduct fundraising in MEDCs. The Representative concludes his remark by saying that “we cannot have data that travels faster than people”.

The Norway Representative stresses that digital public tools are essential to tackle climate change, the global health crisis and much more, but since there are still 600 million people in Africa without access to electricity we have to focus on bridging this technological and digital gap. The Digital Public Alliance is a great example, with 40 members, of how we can facilitate, discover and deploy source technology with the aim to accelerate progress towards the SDGs.

The 5th plenary of the 79th session of the General Assembly proceeds with various statements by member states. The conduct of the debate reaches a rich variety of themes all exploring one or more different aspects of the Pact for the Future, praising its aspirations and warning of the most pressing challenges. For instance the Ecuador President stressed how crucial it is to provide the sufficient opportunities to young people, as only in case of a lack of them they will resort to crime and violence, making pivotal decisive investments in improving access to education and job opportunity conditions. 

The President of Finland decisively underlined the current limitations of the SC that led the body to fail in preserving peace, its main mission. Thus he proposes three different reforms to address this deficiencies: include 5 more member states, one from Latin America, two from Africa and two from Asia; abolish the veto power for all members; if a member of the SC blatantly violates the UN charter, its voting rights should be suspended.

The President of Slovakia decided to focus on challenges that lie ahead in the digital space. He advocates for a “digital humanism”, that should arise by developing online rules that reflect the ones of the physician world as “every freedom requires accountability”.

From different small states, including San Marino, Cyprus and Micronesia, a common discourse emerged, which underlined how for these countries it is important, and thus how much they are committed, in funding multilateral agreements on the international stage, as for them international law is the only substantial safeguard. The President of Micronesia stresses the fact that for his country solving the climate crisis, which can only be achieved by multilateral cooperation, represents the only possibility of existence.

And that’s a wrap for Day 1 of the Summit of the Future. Let’s take stock of what happened during an event-packed day of dialogue for the international community.

The first day of the Summit of the Future took place yesterday, which opened its procedures with an amendment tabled by the Russian Federation that sought to reduce the scope of the Pact for the Future, accusing the West of seeking to create new obligations for the Global South while neglecting its previous commitments. At the same time, the Russian delegate criticized how the negotiations have been carried out for their alleged lack of inclusiveness and transparency, making the current draft ineffective and equal to a “vague declaration”. Subsequently Congo, holding the presidency of African Union’s Mission to the UN, presented a motion of no-action to the amendment on behalf of the African Group, stressing the urgency to adopt a united pledge for the future that could set a blueprint for future challenges regarding the climate crisis, the reform of the financial global system and digital governance. The motion of Congo passed with an overwhelming majority, but in addition  to the 7 votes against and 15 abstentions that did not show support or interest for the current Pact, it is important to stress that some of the countries that might have been present but not voting. In fact, among these 28 countries there are some of them that are either in tension with traditionally-dubbed “Western” member states or aligned with Russia, such as Venezuela, Serbia, El Salvador, Niger, Burkina Faso or the bulk of central Asian states.

After its  adoption, the Secretary General Guterres hailed the Pact for the Future as the way to “bring multilateralism back from the brink” putting at the center of his speech the urgency to overcome the huge inequalities threatening sustainable development, to reform international institution such as the SC, and to accelerate the phasing out of fossil fuels. After the remarks of the Secretary General, three representatives of the youth delivered powerful  speeches that urged world leaders to act upon the spirit of the Pact. Mohammed Al-Muftah reminded how “as a society, we embrace each other” and as the Assembly listened to him, a person with disability, without prejudice and judgment, we ought to act to ensure the same treatment for the other billion people with disabilities. Niria Alica Garcia, passionately spoke about our collective duty to stop the current “scourging of Mother Earth” and the suffering of people in armed conflicts such as the one that is unfolding in Gaza. She reminds that there is still hope as we are still here, and how the future path must encompass listening indigenous people’s voices of which there is a frustrating lack of mention in the Pact. Finally, Monica Malith warned that ignoring the global disasters and refugee crises would only deepen the current state of global disorder, inciting youth leaders not only to “get degrees, but we must exemplify leadership […] leaving the youth and the refugees go unnoticed only slights our collective responsibilities.”.

In the subsequent Interactive Dialogues and the continuation of the plenary session, many Delegates echoed the remarks of Guterres, calling for bold, swift and comprehensive reforms of the current international institutional and financial architecture. Especially among small countries and those with developing and emerging economies, a unified discourse emerged, signaling a broad consensus not only to affirm the text of the Pact, but to act decisively in its spirit. We remember in the Interactive Dialogue “Transforming global governance and turbocharging the implementation of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development”, a unity of intentions between the reflections delivered by the Representatives of the World Bank, IMF and WTO, and the speeches of countries such as Malawi, Liberia and Kenya. For instance, the latter called to bridge the financing gap necessary to achieve the SDG and reform development financing in order to prevent developing countries from risking defaulting. Similarly, in the “Enhancing multilateralism for international peace and security” interactive dialogue, almost every country stressed the need to reform the SC in order to be more representative, to prevent the veto power from hindering the GA works and ensure a more effective deployment of humanitarian aids and interventions. A more miscellaneous outlook featured in the continuation of the plenary session. In fact, some countries, such as Brazil and the Central African Republic, decided to put at the center of the debate calls for financial reforms or reflections regarding the achievement of SDGs, while others, such as Israel and Serbia, preferred to use the floor to bring forward unilateral agenda items loosely related to the state of sustainable development.

The second Interactive Dialogue of the day features a vibrant discussion of the current challenges that the UN is facing in ensuring global peace and security. From different stakeholders and member states there is a general consensus that the current institutional structure has to change in order to reflect the current geopolitical realities. The speeches mainly revolved around three pillars: granting a more fair geographical representation within the Security Council; reform the Security Council procedures and veto power; address the current issues in delivering humanitarian aid. The variety of perspectives and solutions proposed shows at the same time a willingness to strengthen the UN capacity to build peace and a critical awareness that this capacity cannot be ensured by the current asset.

For instance, the CEO of the International Crisis Group suggested working outside current institutional arrangements by forming coalitions of nations within the UN. These should address peacebuilding, peacekeeping, and general peace operations, possibly involving organizations outside the UN system to address both emerging and ongoing crises more effectively. Additionally she stressed the importance to strengthen African, Latina American and smaller states representation. This call was later central in speeches of the Representatives of Fiji, Nigeria, Slovenia, Latvia and Kyrgyzstan, who argued that enhanced multilateralism, key to solving the current security crises, could be achieved only by fairer representation.

Then, the Delegate of Liechtenstein called to change the SC vetoing structure to ensure that when stalled it still allows the UNGA to act upon and exercise power on security matters, without hindering its works. Subsequently, the Iceland Prime Minister underlined the issue that the UN is currently struggling to provide timely and effective humanitarian aid, while the death count among humanitarians, journalists and other aid delivery personnel is increasing. These remarks were later echoed by the UNHCR Representative that warned that it is the seventh year in a row that displaced people figures are rising, and that humanitarian disasters can only be prevented if all humanitarians and development actors cooperate timely together from the start of a crisis.

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund proceeds with his intervention with mixed attitudes. On one side, she highlights the resilience that the world economy showed despite the recent years’ shocks, on the other she warns of the possible setbacks that global growth might experience, expecting an average growth of 3% over the next 5 years – less than before Covid. Four priorities are listed to reduce this risk and move towards a fairer financial system that can address the needs of developing countries: working with members on micro policies; leveraging financial strength to direct more to low income countries; helping countries to address their debt challenges; develop a more representative institutional architecture.

As the dialogue continues some common themes and concerns are shared by African representatives, confirming the keynotes made by World Bank, WTO and IMF representatives and the concerns expressed by the Secretary General Guterres during the plenary. Some of the main issues raised addressed the great difficulties that LDCs are facing due to the risk of default due to debt obligations, 1 in 3 developing countries, or the need of a reform in the development financing. This impacts the ability of African countries to reach both the SDGs and a just climate transition as the President of Malawi remarks “Developing countries can’t speed up while their legs and hands are being tied”, emphasizing the need of an entire reform of the global financial architecture especially with regard to LDCs that are being left behind, struggling to adequately leverage international financial markets.

The Interactive Dialogues get started with representatives of the World Bank, WTO, and the IMF presenting the latest insights and information regarding the SDGs next priorities for future accomplishment. In particular they stress out that 70% of the SDGs aren’t on target, 17% which are deemed accessible since 2015. To succeed in future accomplishment is necessary to bridge the financing gap for development and a spending gap of 40% of the GDP, while reforming the governance to ensure more inclusive and accountable and transparent decision making processes. At the same time, it is key to implement reforms that allow for debt relief initiatives to be tailored to the unique circumstances of developing countries.

The Director General of the WTO stresses: “We need not just more trade but better trade.” This is because only with open global trade, and by boosting economic growth from deeper local trade ties we managed to lift 1.5 billion out of poverty. In the same way we should bring the poor communities left in the margins to the forefront through a “reglobalization”.

The plenary session starts again in the afternoon with several speakers taking the floor reacting to the new resolution adopted and giving their vision on the future of SDGs and the path to achieve them. Despite the general message that there is more than unites than divides us, the debate at times was permeated by unilateral priorities on the current state of international affairs. For instance, the President of Serbia decided to focus on family and traditional values that should be protected from the so called “woke” cultural movement, while the Representative of Israel declared that SDGs accomplishment should not happen at the expense of the fight against terrorism and terrorist organizations, making both little to none mention to their progress and commitment to SDGs and to the Pact.

On the other side, speeches such as the one of the Representative of the Central African Republic, that highlighted the necessity to affirm the Pact and the SDGs through strengthened multilateralism in order to avoid being neglected due to increased polarization and growing unrest, gave crucial importance to the path drafted by the adopted resolution stressing the importance of bold institutional reforms such as the one of the Security Council.

The General Assembly plenary segment of the UN Summit of the Future set the tone for the discussions ahead with the adoption of the much-anticipated “Pact of the Future.” Garnering 143 votes in favor, 7 against, and 15 abstentions, the Pact signifies a bold step toward reimagining global cooperation in an era of increasing fragmentation. The Secretary-General, António Guterres, delivered a powerful message, emphasizing the need to revive and strengthen multilateralism, which he said is “on the brink.” This declaration underscores the urgency of reforming international institutions to better address global challenges.


Source: UN Photo/Evan Schneider

In a moving address, Ms. Malith, a youth representative from South Sudan, spoke about her personal journey from a refugee to an advocate on the world stage. She warned that neglecting the pressing issues of global disasters and refugee crises would only deepen the current state of global disorder. Her poignant reflections highlighted the critical role of international support in transforming lives, and she urged leaders to not only support education for the youth but also to foster leadership and active engagement. As she put it, “It is not enough to get degrees, but we must exemplify leadership […] leaving the youth and the refugees go unnoticed only slights our collective responsibilities.”

The Summit’s opening clearly indicates a shared commitment to reshaping the future of global governance. However, the polarized vote on the Pact reflects persistent divisions among member states. As discussions continue, it will be crucial to see how these differences are navigated and whether this summit can truly catalyze the multilateral revival that Guterres has called for.

Starting the day from the Grand Assembly Hall, we begin with opening statements from a variety of speakers, including the Secretary-General. As the Summit of the Future centers on shaping a sustainable future as we approach 2030, my primary focus will be on discussions centered around enhancing multilateralism for international peace and security. Specifically, I look forward to reporting onconversations aligning directly aligns with Sustainable Development Goals 16 and 17, which emphasize peace, justice, strong institutions, and global partnerships, and also directly align with the work of TNGO.

Starting off the day reporting from the grand assembly hall, our first engagement is taking place in the Grand Assembly Hall, hearing opening statements from various speakers, including the Secretary General himself. As the conference will be focusing on what a sustainable future looks like as we begin closing in on 2030, the policy area I will be most interested in hearing about is AI. As a quickly growing field, with immense power, potential, and uncertainty, I look forward to hearing plans for its development and how to utilize it to support the Sustainable Development Goals and enhance multilateral efforts.

The Summit of the Future is officially underway. At a historical period of crisis of multilateralism, Member States, UN organizations, and stakeholders to work together within the walls of the United Nations Headquarters of New York City to finalize the adoption of the Pact For The Future, a document expected to become a blueprint for reform of multilateral institutions and global governance.

The Pact includes two cornerstone annexes, the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations, which aim to charter the approach of the international community towards emerging – and increasingly contested – policy arenas such as the use of Artificial Intelligence for development and intergenerational equity.

Receipient of Special Accreditation to the Summit, TNGO is excited to send a delegation to report from the ground and bring the perspectives of its 120 members from 41 countries to the consultation tables.

Follow here live updates and analyses from the UN Headquarters or contact us to meet our representatives on the ground.