Get InvolvedWhat is the Summit of the Future?
The Summit is a high-level event, bringing world leaders together to forge a new international consensus on how we deliver a better present and safeguard the future.
This once-in-a-generation opportunity serves as a moment to mend eroded trust and demonstrate that international cooperation can effectively tackle current challenges as well as those that have emerged in recent years or may yet be over the horizon.
We already have the "what" in the form of many existing agreements and commitments, starting with the UN Charter and including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Agreement, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and many others.
The Summit of the Future will look at the "how" – how do we cooperate better to deliver on the above aspiration and goals? How do we better meet the needs of the present while also preparing for the challenges of the future?
Towards a Pact for the Future
The aim of the Summit is twofold: accelerate efforts to meet our existing international commitments and take concrete steps to respond to emerging challenges and opportunities.
This will be achieved through an action-oriented outcome document called the Pact for the Future.
The Pact will be negotiated, and endorsed by countries in the lead-up to and during the Summit in September 2024.
The result will be a world – and an international system – that is better prepared to manage the challenges we face now
Why the Summit Matters
The world is not on track to meet the goals we have already set for ourselves. Nor are we effectively rising to new challenges or opportunities.
The speed and complexity of developments have outpaced our systems for cooperating and coping.
The benefits and opportunities of progress are spread unevenly, with the majority of people left behind.
The risks and threats are also unevenly felt, disproportionately impacting the most vulnerable.
Extreme poverty and hunger are on the march. Global emissions are at their highest levels in human history, as are levels of human displacement. Threats such as climate, conflict, food security, weapons of mass destruction, pandemics and health crises, and the risks associated with new technologies, are growing.
Multilateral governance, designed in simpler, slower times, is not adequate to today’s complex, interconnected, rapidly changing world.
The Summit is an opportunity to put ourselves on a better path.
Where did the Summit of the Future come from?
The proposal for a Summit of the Future originated in the Our Common Agenda report. The report was a response by the UN Secretary-General to a call from Member States for ideas on how better to respond to current and future challenges.
The Common Agenda report called for a renewal of trust and solidarity at all levels – between peoples, countries and generations. It made the case for a fundamental rethink of our political, economic and social systems so that they deliver more fairly and effectively for everyone. It also recommended a corresponding renewal of the multilateral system, with the Summit of the Future as a defining moment to agree on the most critical improvements necessary.
Member States agreed to hold the Summit in September 2024. They also agreed that the Summit would have an outcome – a Pact for the Future.
They articulated the overarching purpose of the Summit, and the Pact:
- - to reaffirm the UN Charter,
- - to reinvigorate multilateralism,
- - to boost implementation of existing commitments,
- - to agree on solutions to new challenges, and
- - to restore trust.
How will the Summit of the Future help deliver the Sustainable Development Goals?
The Sustainable Development Goals are badly off track.
The Summit of the Future will create the conditions in which implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development can more readily be achieved.
It will do so by building on the outcome of the 2023 SDG Summit.
In addition, it will result in improvements to international cooperation that enable us to solve problems together.
We will be able to harness new opportunities for the benefit of all, not just the few, and manage the risks more effectively.
Every proposal offered by the Secretary-General for consideration at the Summit of the Future will have demonstrable impacts on achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
