Reinvigorating multilateralism in an era of global crises

With the world facing a slew of complex global crises — not least conflict, poverty, hunger, climate change, nature loss and pollution — multilateral action faces a formidable challenge in meeting global development goals and addressing emerging global challenges. When world leaders meet at the UN’s headquarters in New York this month, they will speak about issues of global and regional concern; a key point on the agenda will be how to reinvigorate multilateralism.

In parallel to the UN General Assembly, a special meeting, the “Summit of the Future,” aims to forge a new international consensus on how we deliver a better present and safeguard the future. The meeting will identify and recommend actions to strengthen multilateral mechanisms for speedy action on current agreements and to find solutions for emerging challenges.

Since its establishment some eight decades ago, the UN has spearheaded multilateralism, regularly convening world leaders, nurturing cooperative endeavors for peace and security, setting goals and targets for socioeconomic betterment and environmental protection, and establishing multilateral mechanisms to help nations implement policies. A wide range of UN conventions and agreements — supported by UN agencies, programs and commissions — advance international and regional cooperation between member states and other stakeholders.

This month’s meetings at UN headquarters come at a difficult juncture. The planet is enmeshed in a complex environmental crisis, an uncontrollable cost-of-living challenge and deadly conflicts in several regions. The road to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 is littered with obstacles, pushing them to the wayside while permitting poverty, inequality and hunger to entrap more people. Well past the midway point along the target timeline, their progress card is dismal, showing that only 17 percent are on track. Agreements on climate and nature loss trail further behind.

Without adequate financial support, developing countries contend they are unlikely to achieve climate and environmental targets

Jamil Ahmad

This abysmally low performance is attributable to several factors, including inflation, economic instability, political turmoil and lack of trust among nations. Financial challenges facing middle- and low-income nations have become a major stumbling block.

Without adequate financial support, developing countries contend they are unlikely to achieve climate and environmental targets. The provision of “means of implementation” — a euphemism for technology transfer and financial assistance — to these countries is a key point on the UN agenda. Unmet pledges and an insufficient inflow of climate funds are aggravating mistrust between developing and developed countries. Debt obligations to international financial institutions further constrict their fiscal space, forcing the diversion of investments from climate and environment to areas like health, food and disaster relief.

A just energy transition will also be hampered by, among other factors, its high initial costs. Developing nations maintain that “transitioning away from fossil fuels in the energy system in a just, orderly and equitable manner”— a global commitment reached last year at COP28 in Dubai — will progress meaningfully only when inequities in financing are addressed. Reforming the international financial architecture is vitally important to augment the push for strengthening the foundations of sustainable development and a peaceful society.

The two-day Summit of the Future on Sept. 23-24 has been dubbed as a once-in-a-generation opportunity not only to reboot the 2030 agenda, but also to supplement its efforts by identifying remedies for new challenges that have arisen since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. It aims to establish an agile framework to promote the implementation of global development goals, human rights and peace and security.

The proposal for the summit was presented by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in his “Our Common Agenda” report last year, which called for “inclusive, networked and effective multilateralism” as a way to turbocharge action on the Sustainable Development Goals and get the world back on track. Drawing on 11 policy briefs, a preparatory process of intergovernmental negotiations worked through numerous rounds to finalize several recommendations ranging from transforming global governance and reinvigorating multilateralism to reforming the international financial system and investing in the social and economic development of children and young people.

In a world fraught with challenges, the need for robust multilateralism has never been more urgent

Jamil Ahmad

A “Pact for the Future,” to be adopted at the meeting, will serve as an overall framework to boost the implementation of existing commitments and nourish inclusive and sustainable endeavors in search of solutions to new global challenges. A “Declaration on Future Generations,” containing a set of principles, policy direction and concrete actions, will be an important component of the pact. Equally important will be another component: a “Global Digital Compact” with recommendations and measures for harnessing the potential of science, technology, innovation and digital cooperation.

With multilateralism as part of its DNA, the UN system will work hand in hand with governments, partnering with the private sector and taking on board youth, women, civil society, Indigenous peoples and local communities and others to translate the summit’s ambitious proclamations into solid actions and results.

The multifaceted global crises of climate change, conflicts, health, inequality and poverty, and new technologies, including artificial intelligence, require an urgent global response with the support of a vibrant and revitalized multilateral system that earns and enjoys the full trust of all and is ready to meet the current and future challenges.

At the Arab League summit in Bahrain in May, Guterres again called for “deep reforms to the global multilateral system — from the Security Council to the international financial architecture — so they are truly universal and representative of today’s realities.”

In a world fraught with challenges, the need for robust multilateralism has never been more urgent. The Summit of the Future represents a critical opportunity to reimagine and reinvigorate our global governance structures for a more sustainable and equitable future.

• Jamil Ahmad is director of intergovernmental affairs at the United Nations Environment Programme. X: @JamilBAhmad