s the 76th UN General Assembly (UNGA) opens in New York, the world is at a point of inflection. COVID-19 is still raging around the world destroying lives and livelihoods, humanitarian crises are on the rise creating disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable, especially women and children, and the dire consequences of climate change are felt in every corner of the world like never before.
The two weeks around the official UNGA deliberations of heads of state and ministerial delegations have become a convening moment for business, academic, and non-profit leaders to discuss and align on actions around critical global challenges, in particular around the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets agreed to by the 193 UN member states for the next nine years (2030). Pre-COVID, there were over 500 side events taking place in a span of two weeks; more than 150 heads of state and ministerial delegations; 250 CEOs of global multinationals, and a global media presence, transforming New York into a hotbed for catalytic partnerships and cross-sector action on global challenges. This year, official UN and side meetings will mostly take place virtually or in a limited hybrid format, with the potential to make the critical agenda-setting moment of the year more inclusive and bring input and participation from far and wide.
What Is on the Global Agenda
On the eve of the UN General Assembly, UN Secretary General released Our Common Agenda—a landmark report designed to accelerate the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that have been severely set back by the pandemic. Six critical priorities of the agenda focus on:
• Embrace global solidarity towards the common good, equitable COVID vaccine distribution, and taking bolder steps together to address climate mange and biodiversity loss.
• Renew social contract between governments and their people and within societies, ushering in a new era of universal social protection, health coverage, education, skills, decent work and housing, as well as universal access to the internet by 2030 as a basic human right.
• Combat the Infodemics plaguing our world, defending empirically backed consensus around facts, science and knowledge, and ending the “war on science.”
• Redefine how we measure economic prosperity and progress with new measures to complement GDP, so that people can gain a full understanding of the impacts of business activities and how we can and must do better to support people and our planet.
• Prepare youth and the next generation for challenges ahead, building meaningful, diverse and effective engagement incorporating the next generation—both within and outside the United Nations, including through better political representation and by transforming education, skills training, and lifelong learning.
• Promote a more networked and inclusive multilateral system, advancing a new agenda for peace, multi-stakeholder dialogues on outer space, and a Global Digital Compact, as well as a Biennial Summit between the members of the Group of 20 and of the Economic and Social Council, the Secretary-General and the heads of the international financial institutions.
The Secretary General called 2022 a pivotal year for people and planet and proposed series of international summits focused on tackling the climate emergency, rising inequalities and threats to peace and security, culminating with a Summit of the Future.
Many of the official UN side events and multistakeholder initiatives convened around this year’s UNGA will focus on advancing collaboration and cross-sectoral action and advocacy on these priority topics. Here is a round-up of some of the major moments and ways to follow the discussions:
• UN Food Systems Summit (September 23) will be open to all in fully virtual format. Over the past 18 months, the Summit has brought together all UN Member States and constituencies around the world—including thousands of youth, food producers, Indigenous Peoples, civil society, researchers, private sector, and the UN system—to bring about tangible, positive changes to the world’s food systems. As a people’s summit and a solutions summit, it calls for everyone to take action and work together to transform the way the world produces, consumes, and thinks about food.
• Climate Week is working in partnership with the UN—including the COP26 and Race to Zero campaign teams—and other business groups, associations, and corporate leaders on advancing and increasing commitments to climate action will have series of virtual and in-person events.
• Powered by the UN Office of Partnerships and SDG Strategy Hub, the SDG Action Zone, previously a physical space at UN HQ, will be fully virtual and accessible to all this year. The events bring together the highest levels of UN leadership, activists, government officials, business leaders, changemakers, and disruptors in a virtual collaborative space—to highlight the ecosystem-wide solutions, plans, and investments needed to positively impact people’s lives and the future of our planet.
• The UN Global Compact, the International Chamber of Commerce, and other partners will be organizing series of events under broader Uniting Business Live theme. Open to UN Global Compact members and partially livestreamed, the sessions will also include the Private Sector Forum (September 20), the Global Impact Forum (September 21), the Young SDG Innovators Summit (September 21) and the SDG Business Forum (September 22).
• The WEF Sustainable Development Impact Summit, themed “Realizing a 'Great Reset' for Sustainable Development” will be fully virtual (September 21-24) and partially live-streamed. Sessions will focus on macro issues from social justice to stakeholder capitalism, new pathways towards net zero, and food and biodiversity systems resiliency. Uplink, WEF’s digital platform will crowdsource, promote, and connect innovative solutions for SDGs.
• Concordia’s Annual Summit will be in a hybrid format open to members, and will focus on environmental sustainability, economic empowerment, and financial inclusion, technology and digital transformation as main themes.
• World’s Largest Lesson, a platform developed in collaboration with Project Everyone, UNICEF and private sector companies developed an interactive toolkit of activities for children to celebrate Global Goals week (September 20-24), with activities ranging from advocating for climate education, researching gender inequalities in their community or discussing the changes they want to see in the world.
Partnerships for a More Inclusive Recovery & Greater Collective Impact
Despite COVID’s devastating impact across sectors and geographies, the past 18 months have seen a tremendous acceleration in innovative partnerships and collaborations, spearheaded by leaders that grasp both their organizational strengths and limitations, joining forces with partners that help extend and multiply collective impact.
UN Secretary General’s Common Agenda called for new partnerships between governments, multilateral organizations, the private sector, and civil society, putting renewed emphasis on SDG-17 and global partnerships for sustainable development.
From new initiatives in the works—like the UN Futures Lab that would bring together partners including governments, academia, civil society, and the private sector, to issue regular reports to anticipate and assess catastrophic risks, there are a number of inspiring initiatives that are shaping multi-stakeholder solutions to challenges on the global agenda at UNGA and beyond.
Catalyzing Investment in Renewable Energy. The IKEA Foundation, the International Finance Corporation, and the Rockefeller Foundation joined forces to set up a $1 billion initiative to reduce 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions. The global platform will combine the organization’s combined funds to deliver clean and reliable power to 800 million people worldwide who are currently lacking electricity.
Accelerating Digital and Financial Inclusion. The EDISON Alliance, a cross-sectoral partnership, was launched by the World Economic Forum to address inequality and connect critical sectors of the economy. This alliance is the first global mobilization of the public sector and industry leaders from all industries to close to digital divide, focusing on the acceleration of digital infrastructure and global broadband rollout.
Closing the gender gap. The Gates Foundation, Data2x, the International Labor Organization, The World Banks Group, Women Count, as well as others collaborated on the brief titled: “An Urgent Need for Change Strengthening Gender Measures and Data in the COVID-19 Era.” This multi-stakeholder initiative called for gender data collection infrastructures to be put in place by all data collectors—official and non-official—to recognize gender disparities in the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
Across Asia, the biggest trend in recovery-related partnerships has been about skills building—ensuring competitiveness in an increasingly digital-first world, and support for small entrepreneurs to keep their business afloat and reach new customers. In Singapore, Grab and Microsoft launched training and development programs for drivers, delivery partners, and students. In Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand ILO is working with J.P. Morgan to support small businesses owned by women in the manufacturing, service and retail sectors to provide them with access to financial resources, training, market information, and networks. In India, Facebook and online lending platform Indifi launched a new program called “Small Business Loans Initiative” enabling small businesses and microenterprises who advertise on Facebook quick access to credit.
Informal economy jobs—particularly in the tourism sector across developing markets have been hit hardest by COVID. Airbnb developed more than 100 partnerships with regional and national tourism agencies to promote tourism recovery around the world, while also building local capacity through the Airbnb Entrepreneurship Academy, a program that empowers emerging hospitality entrepreneurs. Airbnb partnered with
The Self-Employed Women’s Association in India, The Western Cape Government in South Africa, and the Sustainable Travel and Tourism Agency in Kenya to run Academies in each local community.
There is an increasing trend of thinking bolder and broader, beyond one’s organizational boundaries to shape partnerships that advance business and societal objectives, at a time when our world needs it the most.
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UNGA 76: A Common Agenda & New Partnerships for Inclusive Recovery
United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Photo via Thinkstockphotos.
September 15, 2021
As the 76th UN General Assembly (UNGA) opens in New York, the world is at a point of inflection. The two weeks around the official UNGA deliberations have become a convening moment for leaders to discuss and align on actions around critical global challenges and especially the UN SDGs.
A
s the 76th UN General Assembly (UNGA) opens in New York, the world is at a point of inflection. COVID-19 is still raging around the world destroying lives and livelihoods, humanitarian crises are on the rise creating disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable, especially women and children, and the dire consequences of climate change are felt in every corner of the world like never before.
The two weeks around the official UNGA deliberations of heads of state and ministerial delegations have become a convening moment for business, academic, and non-profit leaders to discuss and align on actions around critical global challenges, in particular around the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets agreed to by the 193 UN member states for the next nine years (2030). Pre-COVID, there were over 500 side events taking place in a span of two weeks; more than 150 heads of state and ministerial delegations; 250 CEOs of global multinationals, and a global media presence, transforming New York into a hotbed for catalytic partnerships and cross-sector action on global challenges. This year, official UN and side meetings will mostly take place virtually or in a limited hybrid format, with the potential to make the critical agenda-setting moment of the year more inclusive and bring input and participation from far and wide.
What Is on the Global Agenda
On the eve of the UN General Assembly, UN Secretary General released Our Common Agenda—a landmark report designed to accelerate the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that have been severely set back by the pandemic. Six critical priorities of the agenda focus on:
• Embrace global solidarity towards the common good, equitable COVID vaccine distribution, and taking bolder steps together to address climate mange and biodiversity loss.
• Renew social contract between governments and their people and within societies, ushering in a new era of universal social protection, health coverage, education, skills, decent work and housing, as well as universal access to the internet by 2030 as a basic human right.
• Combat the Infodemics plaguing our world, defending empirically backed consensus around facts, science and knowledge, and ending the “war on science.”
• Redefine how we measure economic prosperity and progress with new measures to complement GDP, so that people can gain a full understanding of the impacts of business activities and how we can and must do better to support people and our planet.
• Prepare youth and the next generation for challenges ahead, building meaningful, diverse and effective engagement incorporating the next generation—both within and outside the United Nations, including through better political representation and by transforming education, skills training, and lifelong learning.
• Promote a more networked and inclusive multilateral system, advancing a new agenda for peace, multi-stakeholder dialogues on outer space, and a Global Digital Compact, as well as a Biennial Summit between the members of the Group of 20 and of the Economic and Social Council, the Secretary-General and the heads of the international financial institutions.
The Secretary General called 2022 a pivotal year for people and planet and proposed series of international summits focused on tackling the climate emergency, rising inequalities and threats to peace and security, culminating with a Summit of the Future.
Many of the official UN side events and multistakeholder initiatives convened around this year’s UNGA will focus on advancing collaboration and cross-sectoral action and advocacy on these priority topics. Here is a round-up of some of the major moments and ways to follow the discussions:
• UN Food Systems Summit (September 23) will be open to all in fully virtual format. Over the past 18 months, the Summit has brought together all UN Member States and constituencies around the world—including thousands of youth, food producers, Indigenous Peoples, civil society, researchers, private sector, and the UN system—to bring about tangible, positive changes to the world’s food systems. As a people’s summit and a solutions summit, it calls for everyone to take action and work together to transform the way the world produces, consumes, and thinks about food.
• Climate Week is working in partnership with the UN—including the COP26 and Race to Zero campaign teams—and other business groups, associations, and corporate leaders on advancing and increasing commitments to climate action will have series of virtual and in-person events.
• Powered by the UN Office of Partnerships and SDG Strategy Hub, the SDG Action Zone, previously a physical space at UN HQ, will be fully virtual and accessible to all this year. The events bring together the highest levels of UN leadership, activists, government officials, business leaders, changemakers, and disruptors in a virtual collaborative space—to highlight the ecosystem-wide solutions, plans, and investments needed to positively impact people’s lives and the future of our planet.
• The UN Global Compact, the International Chamber of Commerce, and other partners will be organizing series of events under broader Uniting Business Live theme. Open to UN Global Compact members and partially livestreamed, the sessions will also include the Private Sector Forum (September 20), the Global Impact Forum (September 21), the Young SDG Innovators Summit (September 21) and the SDG Business Forum (September 22).
• The WEF Sustainable Development Impact Summit, themed “Realizing a 'Great Reset' for Sustainable Development” will be fully virtual (September 21-24) and partially live-streamed. Sessions will focus on macro issues from social justice to stakeholder capitalism, new pathways towards net zero, and food and biodiversity systems resiliency. Uplink, WEF’s digital platform will crowdsource, promote, and connect innovative solutions for SDGs.
• Concordia’s Annual Summit will be in a hybrid format open to members, and will focus on environmental sustainability, economic empowerment, and financial inclusion, technology and digital transformation as main themes.
• World’s Largest Lesson, a platform developed in collaboration with Project Everyone, UNICEF and private sector companies developed an interactive toolkit of activities for children to celebrate Global Goals week (September 20-24), with activities ranging from advocating for climate education, researching gender inequalities in their community or discussing the changes they want to see in the world.
Partnerships for a More Inclusive Recovery & Greater Collective Impact
Despite COVID’s devastating impact across sectors and geographies, the past 18 months have seen a tremendous acceleration in innovative partnerships and collaborations, spearheaded by leaders that grasp both their organizational strengths and limitations, joining forces with partners that help extend and multiply collective impact.
UN Secretary General’s Common Agenda called for new partnerships between governments, multilateral organizations, the private sector, and civil society, putting renewed emphasis on SDG-17 and global partnerships for sustainable development.
From new initiatives in the works—like the UN Futures Lab that would bring together partners including governments, academia, civil society, and the private sector, to issue regular reports to anticipate and assess catastrophic risks, there are a number of inspiring initiatives that are shaping multi-stakeholder solutions to challenges on the global agenda at UNGA and beyond.
Catalyzing Investment in Renewable Energy. The IKEA Foundation, the International Finance Corporation, and the Rockefeller Foundation joined forces to set up a $1 billion initiative to reduce 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions. The global platform will combine the organization’s combined funds to deliver clean and reliable power to 800 million people worldwide who are currently lacking electricity.
Accelerating Digital and Financial Inclusion. The EDISON Alliance, a cross-sectoral partnership, was launched by the World Economic Forum to address inequality and connect critical sectors of the economy. This alliance is the first global mobilization of the public sector and industry leaders from all industries to close to digital divide, focusing on the acceleration of digital infrastructure and global broadband rollout.
Closing the gender gap. The Gates Foundation, Data2x, the International Labor Organization, The World Banks Group, Women Count, as well as others collaborated on the brief titled: “An Urgent Need for Change Strengthening Gender Measures and Data in the COVID-19 Era.” This multi-stakeholder initiative called for gender data collection infrastructures to be put in place by all data collectors—official and non-official—to recognize gender disparities in the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
Across Asia, the biggest trend in recovery-related partnerships has been about skills building—ensuring competitiveness in an increasingly digital-first world, and support for small entrepreneurs to keep their business afloat and reach new customers. In Singapore, Grab and Microsoft launched training and development programs for drivers, delivery partners, and students. In Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand ILO is working with J.P. Morgan to support small businesses owned by women in the manufacturing, service and retail sectors to provide them with access to financial resources, training, market information, and networks. In India, Facebook and online lending platform Indifi launched a new program called “Small Business Loans Initiative” enabling small businesses and microenterprises who advertise on Facebook quick access to credit.
Informal economy jobs—particularly in the tourism sector across developing markets have been hit hardest by COVID. Airbnb developed more than 100 partnerships with regional and national tourism agencies to promote tourism recovery around the world, while also building local capacity through the Airbnb Entrepreneurship Academy, a program that empowers emerging hospitality entrepreneurs. Airbnb partnered with
The Self-Employed Women’s Association in India, The Western Cape Government in South Africa, and the Sustainable Travel and Tourism Agency in Kenya to run Academies in each local community.
There is an increasing trend of thinking bolder and broader, beyond one’s organizational boundaries to shape partnerships that advance business and societal objectives, at a time when our world needs it the most.
