Summit of the Future | United Nations

The Summit of the Future (September 2024) is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enhance cooperation on critical challenges and address gaps in global governance, reaffirm existing commitments including to the Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations Charter, and move towards a reinvigorated multilateral system that is better positioned to positively impact people’s lives. ©UN Photo/Loey Felipe

Multilateral solutions for a better tomorrow

Major global shocks in recent years – including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine war, and the triple planetary crisis, among others – have challenged our international institutions. Unity around our shared principles and common goals is both crucial and urgent.

The Summit of the Future is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enhance cooperation on critical challenges and address gaps in global governance, reaffirm existing commitments including to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the United Nations Charter, and move towards a reinvigorated multilateral system that is better positioned to positively impact people’s lives. Building on the SDG Summit in 2023, Member States will consider ways to lay the foundations for more effective global cooperation that can deal with today’s challenges as well as new threats in the future.

Road to the Summit of the Future

2021

Our Common Agenda

The Secretary-General responded to this call with Our Common Agenda, a wake-up call to speed up implementation of the SDGs as well as recommendations to address strategic gaps in global governance arrangements. It called for a Summit of the Future to forge a new global consensus on multilateral solutions to current and future problems.

2023

SDG
Summit

Marking the mid-point of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, the SDG Summit in 2023 will be convened on 18-19 September 2023 to “mark the beginning of a new phase of accelerated progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals”.

2022-2024

Summit of the Future

Having welcomed the submission of Our Common Agenda, the General Assembly passed a resolution in 2022 (A/RES/76/307) to hold the Summit on 22-23 September 2024. Practical consultations on preparations for the Summit begin in February 2023 and a Ministerial meeting will take place this year. The Summit of the Future will build upon the SDG Summit and breathe new life into the multilateral system so that it can deliver on the promises of the United Nations Charter and the 2030 Agenda.

2024

Pact for the Future

An action-oriented Pact for the Future will be endorsed by Heads of State/Government at the Summit, showcasing global solidarity for current and future generations.

Basis of the Summit

The 75th Anniversary of the United Nations was marked in June 2020 with a declaration by Member States that included 12 overarching commitments along with a request to the Secretary-General for recommendations to address both current and future challenges. In September 2021, the Secretary-General responded with his report, Our Common Agenda, a wake-up call to speed up the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and propel the commitments contained in the UN75 Declaration. In some cases, the proposals addressed gaps that emerged since 2015, requiring new intergovernmental agreements. The report, therefore, called for a Summit of the Future to forge a new global consensus on readying ourselves for a future that is rife with risks but also opportunities. The General Assembly welcomed the submission of the “rich and substantive” report and agreed to hold the Summit on 22-23 September 2024, preceded by a ministerial meeting in 2023. An action-oriented Pact for the Future is expected to be agreed by Member States through intergovernmental negotiations on issues they decide to take forward.

Work on the Summit has already commenced in 2023

The Secretary-General updated the General Assembly in August 2022 and February 2023 on progress relating to Our Common Agenda discussing the Summit.

He will also release a series of Policy Briefs starting in March 2023 in anticipation of Member State preparations.

Practical consultations on preparations for the Summit began in February 2023, spearheaded by co-facilitators, the Permanent Representatives of Germany and Namibia to the UN.

Meetings and consultations are taking place on a broad array of proposals, including with Member States, regional groups, the UN system, and multi-stakeholder partners.

A Ministerial meeting is planned for September 2023 to prepare for the Summit of the Future.

Intergovernmental Consultations

Areas of Potential Action

Member States will ultimately decide the outcome of the Summit of the Future, but the Secretary-General has outlined an ambitious agenda for their consideration. These are further elaborated in the Secretary-General’s Our Common Agenda Policy Briefs.

1. Account for the future: practical steps to take account of the long-term impact of our decisions, fulfilling a long-standing commitment Member States have made to future generations;
2. Better respond to global shocks: put in place a stronger international response playbook for complex global shocks, maximizing the use of the Secretary-General’s convening power in the form of an Emergency Platform;
3. Meaningfully include young people: systematically include young people in global decision-making;
4. Measure human progress more effectively: agree on metrics beyond GDP so that decisions on debt relief, concessional funding, and international cooperation take account of vulnerability, well-being, sustainability, and other vital measures of progress.
5. Agree on a vision of digital technology as a motor for human progress that can deliver full benefits while minimizing potential harm;
6. Commit to integrity in public information: achieve an information ecosystem (notably online) that is inclusive and safe for all, perhaps via a code of conduct;
7. Reform the international financial architecture: to ensure it delivers more effectively and fairly for everyone and particularly the Global South, including through objectives that are aligned with the SDGs, debt sustainability, a global financial safety net, and more;
8. Advance the peaceful and sustainable use of outer space: update norms governing the use of and behaviour in space so that it is peaceful, secure and sustainable for the benefit of all;
9. Agree a new agenda for peace: update our understanding of all forms and domains of threats and adapt our toolbox to prevent and manage hostilities on land, at sea, in space, and in cyberspace;
10. Transform education: achieve a fundamental shift in how education is seen and treated including in relation to the purpose of education; the learning environment; the teaching profession; harnessing digital transformation; investing in education; and multilateral support for quality education for all.
11. UN 2.0: adapt basic UN practices on data, communications, innovation, strategic foresight, performance and results, and more, so it is better positioned to support all the above and face the challenges of tomorrow.

Member States may also elect to include in the Pact ideas and proposals from the forthcoming report of the Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism.