The Pact for the Future is aimed at strengthening multilateralism and addressing long-term global challenges. What are its most pressing priorities?
The Pact of the Future has been a long time in the making: it was based on a report prepared by the Secretary-General called “Our Common Agenda” which has become extremely relevant to the revival of multilateralism in the light of our contemporary history. We all know why multilateralism today is suffering: from situations of war and conflict, the recovery form COVID-19, and from the intensity of disasters and other global events which are shaking our world. There is strife, there is conflict, there is disease, and there are natural calamities all coming together, making our world very uncertain.
The Pact for the Future addresses many issues. First of all, it addresses, from the developmental perspective, the problem that the Sustainable Development Goals, agreed to in September 2015, are not doing well. Everybody knows that very few, in fact only 16%, of the goals and targets are on track. The rest are either stagnant, as they were in 2015, or have actually regressed. Many of the issues that I have mentioned now define our contemporary world and have come about only after 2015. It is these unexpected shocks which have set back the achievement of the SDGs. In addition, we have seen the exponential increase in the impact of technology, particularly around A.I., and the divides that separate our world in the use and the benefits of technology for benefitting society.
Putting the SDGs back on track, addressing the issues of international peace and security, leveraging science, technology, innovation, and digital cooperation, giving stronger focus to youth and future generations, and transforming global governance—these are key to a strengthened and revitalized multilateralism.
How has the Summit of the Future affected the UN in Geneva and its mission?
The UN in Geneva is very special. It is home to so many agencies, including ILO, WHO, UNECE, and many others. It is a hub of technology and innovation (ITU, WIPO, WMO) and the heart of multilateral issues on trade (UNCTAD, WTO). It has a rich ecosystem to contribute to implementing the Pact for the Future.
The Pact and its annexes are a response to the political impasse in many issues which are impacting multilateralism. It’s a commitment to utilize our collective forces in addressing the biggest challenges of our time, including peace and security as well as climate change, and it is a pact to ensure that we get back on track to achieving the SDGs by 2030. With the endorsement of member-states, it is the collective marching orders for the United Nations.
Following the adoption of the Pact for the Future, the delineation of the specific gaps and the areas in which the UN can do much more has become clear, and the organization will be able to recalibrate its work in a way which creates a greater impact on the realization of the outcomes of the Summit of the Future. The adoption of the Pact for the Future will play a great role in shaping a new sense of urgency and orientation to the work of the United Nations.
UNITAR is in the middle of an important internal process: defining our Strategic Framework for the period 2026-2029. Many of the things that we’ve talked about, including peace and security, removing the roadbumps on the path of the SDGs, and several issues related to climate change, equality, inclusivity, and the digital transformation, are things in which UNITAR should play a leading role, primarily because of our firm belief that only through learning can lasting change come. Last year, we have reached over half a million people, and I hope to see our footprint continuing to increase, especially in advocating the “why” and the “how” of the much-needed change outlined in the Pact.
Both the Summit and the Pact emphasize the need to safeguard the future for younger generations. Why do you believe the voices of younger people need to be heard?
Much has been done in that area, even before the Pact was adopted. We now have an Envoy on Youth who was appointed by the Secretary-General, who, himself, has been insisting on several actions to bring younger people onto the decision-making tables not only in the UN, but also at the regional and national levels.
The major concern for younger people, as we look into their decision-making role, is the long-term shape of our planet and many of the environmental issues that we face today, whether it’s climate change or pollution of the air, the sea, the land, or waterways. Younger people see that there is a growing population and, simultaneously, a lack of strict practices in disposing waste and unsustainable consumption and production—bringing forth a system which is driving us closer to severe tipping points for the state of the world’s environment.
It is the energy, perception, aspirations, and hopefulness of younger people which make them such important constituents in decision-making fora. So, bringing younger people into these discussions to take action on many of these issues is what I believe UNITAR, and the entire UN System, should be working on.
As UNASG and Executive Director of UNITAR, what is your personal vision for the future of global cooperation? Do you have a message you would like to share with the next generation?
The prospects for development cooperation, as we speak now, look pretty dismal. Development cooperation, which has traditionally been understood to mean the support from the developed countries for activities in the developing countries to promote prosperity, sustainability, and equality, is being increasingly sacrificed at the altar of the various humanitarian crises that we are facing. We find the sliver of development cooperation money, also known as Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), shrinking, and a lot of the budgets from donor countries related to ODA is currently being channeled to humanitarian areas. Humanitarian situations demand immediate attention, so this is understandable, but the trade-off of this is the long-term vision for cooperation between countries in the forms of transactions, aid, debt management , and financial flows, all of which are being sacrificed.
Every day, when you pick up the newspaper, it has become normal to expect something dramatic to have happened: there will be a new war, a new catastrophe or a new cataclysm, like the one we are seeing in Florida, for example. It’s really scary sometimes when you think of all these natural disasters, or if you look at the political news, or the anticipation of electoral outcomes. The uncertainty which has become the main characteristic of our contemporary times creates more questions than answers. How do you future-proof our world from the uncertainties which we are facing on a daily basis? How do you make the lives of people more secure and full of greater hope? Even then, I think that the world will realise that unless we cooperate across borders, especially with developing countries, global prospects are going to be very dismal. We saw it happen during the period of COVID, where the absence of that sense of cooperation meant that COVID anywhere became the threat of COVID everywhere. You can’t isolate your economies and you can’t isolate your societies: global issues permeate every aspect of global life. Sometimes, current wars are described as “European” wars or “Wars in the Middle East”, but these are actually wars that have an impact on the entire globe.
Soon, people will realise that unless they take greater cooperative action in the context of multilateralism, things are going to get worse and not better. I have great hope in an early realization of the potential of cooperation. I am optimistic that we will come around and that wisdom will prevail and bring forth a more enlightened citizenry, political leadership, business, civil society, and academia, who will lead our world into a better place.
I see a trend with a lot of younger people today: the feeling that things will not change, that they do not get better, and that they are turning inward. What I would like to tell them is—that’s not how the world works. It’s your hope, your aspirations, and your determination which will change our world and which will orient our leadership to think more of your future. So, don’t give up hope, don’t rest with the belief that things will remain the same. With your aspirations, you will bring hope to our societies. You are the change.