The Summit of the Future

The Summit of the Future is an opportunity to enhance cooperation on critical challenges and address gaps in global governance, while accelerating efforts to meet existing international commitments including to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the United Nations Charter.  The main purpose is to strengthen international cooperation and restoring trust in the multilateral system while enabling us to respond effectively to new threats and opportunities for present and future generations.

This will be achieved through an action-oriented outcome document called the Pact for the Future, which will comprise five chapters, as follows:

1. Chapter I. Sustainable development and financing for development;
2. Chapter II. International peace and security;
3. Chapter III. Science, technology and innovation and digital cooperation;
4. Chapter IV. Youth and future generations;
5. Chapter V. Transforming global governance;

The Future Summit must address the gaps of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and new intergovernmental agreements must be achieved to forge a new global consensus on how to prepare for a future of risks, but also opportunities. This is where Indigenous Peoples are key actors, not only because of their ancestral knowledge and practices, but also because of their experience and harmony with the Mother Earth, and their role of protecting ecosystems and biodiversity. The path to the Future Summit is an opportunity to include the perspective of Indigenous Peoples to adapt and reinforce the commitment to the post-2030 Agenda.

The 2024 UN Civil Society Conference in Support of the Summit of the Future (UNCSC) will be held under the title “Shaping a Future of Global and Sustainable Progress” and is the premier event in the civil society calendar at the United Nations. It is organized in close collaboration with four core networks of civil society organizations, namely the Major Groups and Other Stakeholders (MGoS) Coordination Mechanism, the Coalition for the UN We Need (C4UN), the Global NGO Executive Committee (GNEC), and the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO).

The two-day Conference on 9-10 May 2024 will have opening and closing plenaries, parallel interactive sessions, and workshops, exhibits and side events at the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON).

The 2024 UNCSC will convene some 1,500 representatives of relevant multi-stakeholders from over 80 countries and representing hundreds of organizations, governments, UN entities and academic institutions.

The conference is chaired by two civil society representatives, supported by a Conference Planning Committee of around 30 representatives of civil society organizations who co-chair ten sub-committees. The Conference Co-Chairs are Ms. Carole Osero-Ageng'o, Global Initiatives Lead & Africa Regional Representative at HelpAge International; and Ms. Nudhara Yusuf, Executive Coordinator for Global Governance Innovation Network (GGIN) at The Stimson Center.

The Conference Planning Committee is led by DGC and the Co-Chairs and has membership from representatives of CSOs that are associated with the Department of Global Communications and/or in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

Registration is now open to representatives of civil society organizations associated with the Department of Global Communications and/or in consultative status with ECOSOC. Civil society organizations, including academic institutions, private sector entities and other relevant stakeholders not included in these groups that are legally registered with the national/federal government of a Member or Observer State of the United Nations, are also welcome to register for the conference.

The Department welcomes your support in alerting civil society organizations in your networks to the conference and invite them to register and participate in this global conversation that will take place in Kenya.

Registration for Civil Society is open until 26 March 2024 and is available at this online link: https://indico.un.org/e/2024UNCivilSocietyConference.

Registration for Member States, United Nations Entities and Intergovernmental Organizations will run until 31 March 2024 through the link: https://indico.un.org/e/2024UNCSC-MSUN

On 21 February 2024, a virtual consultation open to Major Groups and other Stakeholders (MGoS) and civil society representatives took place from 10 am to 1pm, to give opportunity to MGoS and civil society to share their feedback on the zero draft of the Pact for the Future. MGoS and civil society representatives interested in participating in the consultation are asked to register via this link. In addition to the consultation, MGoS and civil society representatives are also invited to submit written input to the zero draft of the Pact for the Future by 12 February. This option will be available in the coming days via the Summit of the Future website. For more information please visit: Summit of the Future website - EN | United Nations.

On January 2024, Germany and Namibia, co-facilitators of the Summit, released the zero draft of the Pact for the Future. The draft served as a starting point for the intergovernmental deliberations this year, with the ultimate aim of adopting an ambitious, concise, action-oriented Pact for the Future, per resolution 76/307. 

On 13 November 2023 the Co-facilitators of the preparatory process for the Summit of the Future during the 78th session of the General Assembly, H.E. Ms. Antje Leendertse, Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations and H.E. Mr. Neville Gertze, Permanent Representative of Namibia to the United Nations, issued this letter inviting representatives of MGoS and civil society to a virtual consultation on 13 December. MGoS and civil society representatives interested in participating in the consultation were asked to register via this link.