By: Anit Mukherjee
Every September, heads of states and governments gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). They deliver speeches, discuss global issues, and deliberate on the need for action. However, with every passing year – this is the 79th UNGA session – there is an increasing realization that the world needs more action than words. This year’s UNGA is billed as the Summit of the Future. The stated objective is “to reaffirm commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the United Nations Charter while enhancing cooperation and laying the foundations for a reinvigorated multilateral system.” The outcome would be a Pact for the Future, “an action-oriented document aimed to bolster global cooperation and adapt to current challenges effectively for the benefit of all and for future generations”, in the UN’s own words.
If this sounds like a blast from the past, it actually is. Last year, many of these same themes were echoed in the SDG Summit as it was the year before at the 77th Session in 2022. In the interim, the world has seen the hottest year on record, rising youth unemployment leading to political unrest, countries grappling with debt crisis, geo-economic fragmentation and geopolitical competition threatening trade and investment, not to mention continuing and new wars in Europe and the Middle East. All this while the dominance of the global digital platforms continues to increase, especially in the context of transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence. The future looks less rosy if one were to survey the panorama of the state of the world from the summit – much like it was in the years past, maybe even a bit worse.
So why should the Summit of the Future matter? It is for three reasons. First, it is possibly the last chance to make a big push to achieve the SDGs. As per the mid-term progress report, only 11 percent of the 167 targets are on track while progress has stalled in half of them. What is more concerning is that there has been a regression in nearly a third of the targets, including growth, poverty, inequality, climate, and debt, as well as social indicators such as children’s learning outcomes and maternal mortality. While some of it might be due to the disruption caused by the global pandemic, it is also clear that there are structural issues that need to be addressed, including the lack of financing to help countries accelerate progress towards the SDGs. The Pact for the Future should be less about “reaffirming commitments” (mentioned nearly twenty times) and more about pushing the global community to take urgent action.
Second, countries are expected to adopt the Global Digital Compact (GDC) as an annex to the Pact of the Future. The GDC will establish an inclusive global framework to overcome digital, data, and innovation divides, one that is development-oriented and rooted in SDGs. The Compact addresses the imbalances in the digital economy noting that “equitable and meaningful inclusion requires tackling existing concentrations of technological capacity and market power in a few countries and global digital platforms.” It also highlights the positive role that digital public infrastructure and innovation can play in accelerating progress towards SDGs as in the case of India. A rebalanced digital transformation has the potential to lift billions out of poverty, create employment, and tackle the multiple challenges that countries face today with appropriate guardrails to protect privacy and data integrity. The Global Digital Compact can become the touchstone for a fairer, more inclusive, and dynamic world of tomorrow.
Finally, the 79th UNGA might be a good opportunity to start thinking about the priorities of a post-SDG world. The lessons from two and a half decades of a goal-oriented approach to global development is this: it is relatively easier to get consensus on what needs to be done than how to do it. It is also important who sets the agenda and how matters. Participation does not automatically lead to voice, especially in a globalized world with serious imbalances in financial resources and capacity between developed and developing countries. The good news is that the collective voice of the Global South is getting stronger and it is therefore difficult to ignore its calls for a rebalancing of development needs and priorities. It has taken 79 editions of UNGA to reach this stage, but the Summit of the Future may actually be the first one where the future is more in the hands of the Global South to shape.
Anit Mukherjee is a Senior Fellow for the Global Economics & Development program at ORF America.