e can’t build a future for our children with a system built for our grandparents,” says UN Secretary–General Antonio Guterres on the homepage of the UN’s Summit of the Future website. For years, critics of the United Nations have argued that the organization is trying to solve 21st century challenges with a mindset from the post–WWII era.
Editors’ note: This is our publisher’s welcome note in Diplomatic Courier’s latest annual UNGA special edition publication. You can find it here.
Some of the criticism is certainly warranted. The UN of 79 years ago is not fully equipped to handle an era of exponential technological growth and disruption. It was barely a decade ago that the UN started to truly embrace other stakeholders into solution–making. That wasn’t always the case and the UN wasn’t as welcoming to the private sector and other actors the way it is now. The Sustainable Development Goals’ predecessors—the Millennium Development Goals—were to be solved by member states and ministries. Now, the SDGs are everyone’s business.
This is why we have been avid followers of UNGA and high-level side events for almost two decades now. This year is even more special because the UN Summit of the future resonates strongly with our future–forward team at both Diplomatic Courier and World in 2050 where we research major trends of our century. Other UN high level meetings this year have brought us closer than ever to agreeing how to manage the rise of AI without resorting to a race to the bottom. Our own events at the SDG Media Zone at the UN Headquarters will look to advance SDGs 4, 8, 9, 10, and 16.
This September, world leaders will convene to adopt the Pact for the Future, which will include a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration on Future Generations as annexes. Will this be the turning point that will usher a UN that serves our children’s future? The pressure will be on for the world’s foremost organization to prove that on its 79th birthday it is no longer our grandparent’s UN.
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UNGA 79: Not your grandparents’ UN
Sunset over the UN building in New York. Photo by Daryan Shamkhali on Unsplash.
September 18, 2024
The 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly could be the turning point that will usher a UN that serves our children’s future, writes Ana C. Rold.
W
e can’t build a future for our children with a system built for our grandparents,” says UN Secretary–General Antonio Guterres on the homepage of the UN’s Summit of the Future website. For years, critics of the United Nations have argued that the organization is trying to solve 21st century challenges with a mindset from the post–WWII era.
Editors’ note: This is our publisher’s welcome note in Diplomatic Courier’s latest annual UNGA special edition publication. You can find it here.
Some of the criticism is certainly warranted. The UN of 79 years ago is not fully equipped to handle an era of exponential technological growth and disruption. It was barely a decade ago that the UN started to truly embrace other stakeholders into solution–making. That wasn’t always the case and the UN wasn’t as welcoming to the private sector and other actors the way it is now. The Sustainable Development Goals’ predecessors—the Millennium Development Goals—were to be solved by member states and ministries. Now, the SDGs are everyone’s business.
This is why we have been avid followers of UNGA and high-level side events for almost two decades now. This year is even more special because the UN Summit of the future resonates strongly with our future–forward team at both Diplomatic Courier and World in 2050 where we research major trends of our century. Other UN high level meetings this year have brought us closer than ever to agreeing how to manage the rise of AI without resorting to a race to the bottom. Our own events at the SDG Media Zone at the UN Headquarters will look to advance SDGs 4, 8, 9, 10, and 16.
This September, world leaders will convene to adopt the Pact for the Future, which will include a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration on Future Generations as annexes. Will this be the turning point that will usher a UN that serves our children’s future? The pressure will be on for the world’s foremost organization to prove that on its 79th birthday it is no longer our grandparent’s UN.
