The significance of the Summit of the Future is a somewhat tricky to convey. On the one hand, it is hard to overstate how much of a big deal the Summit of the Future for the United Nations, which bills it as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity.” On the other hand, the Summit of the Future has not really penetrated outside the UN bubble. Not yet, at least.
The Summit of the Future is a two day confab that kicks off the 79th United Nations General Assembly on September 22 and 23. It is truly an occasion to revitalize the UN in a time of great global turmoil and restore trust in international cooperation as a means of solving common global challenges. That may sound impractically idealistic, but the Summit itself is the culmination of years of discussions, negotiations and diplomacy around concrete policies and reforms intended to make the UN more responsive to future global challenges.
Today’s episode of our To Save Us From Hell podcast is entirely devoted to the Summit of the Future and some of the specific UN reforms on the table. Co-host Anjali Dayal and I have an in-depth conversation with Richard Ponzio from the Stimson Center about the significance of the Summit and what to expect from its three major outcome documents. These include the ‘Pact for the Future,’ which enshrines the agreed-upon reforms from the Summit; the ‘Global Digital Compact,’ which aims to create a new framework for leveraging digital technologies for the common good; and the ‘Declaration on Future Generations,’ an aspirational text intended to guide policy discussions well into the future.
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The transcript is available immediately here.