United Nations & Multilateralism - Archive

By Marina Lent and Saniya Mittal

The Pact for the Future, the proposed outcome of the Summit of the Future, will address Security Council reform in Chapter 5, on global governance. The Pact’s draft and process have a placeholder for input from the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN), which is due by the end of June 2024. 

The linkage of on-going and decades-long Security Council reform with the September 2024 deadline for adopting the Pact for the Future has contributed to the [...]

Topics covered in this issue: 

SOTF, UNSC, Human Rights, Debt, C5, UN Funding, QCPR, RC System, EMRTD, INFF

Topics covered in this issue:

SOTF, FfD Forum, LLDC3, SIDS4, UNSC, WSSD

Topics in this issue: 

DFG, GDC, SOTF, UN Liquidity Crisis

Topics in this issue:

SOTF, PFTF, UNSG, GDC, DFG, Nairobi Civil Society Conference

Topics in this issue:

SOTF, DFG, GDC, UN

Topics in this issue:

UNSG, UNSC, SIDS4, LLDC3, CSocD, SOTF, UN Statistical Commission, UN Funding

Member States have started negotiations on the Summit of the Future (SotF) outcome document: the Pact for the Future. The process kicked off on 29 January 2024 with the co-facilitators’ presentation of the Zero Draft of the Pact and Member States’ reactions to the Zero Draft.

This Global Policy Watch Factsheet #5 on the Zero Draft of the Pact for the Future walks through a summary of the co-facilitators’ presentation on how they approached the Zero Draft, Member State reactions [...]

By Bodo Ellmers

International financial architecture (IFA) reform has been a hot topic lately. Numerous expert groups have made policy recommendations, and the developing countries among the UN member states in particular are calling for faster and more fundamental reforms. In the run-up to the Summit of the Future, scheduled for September this year, civil society organisations have been campaigning for a wide range of changes. The latest Spotlight on Global Multilateralism highlighted campaigns for more inclusive global tax [...]

Two high-level conferences for countries in special situations are scheduled for 2024 and Preparatory Committees have begun their discussions at the UNHQ.

This Round Up focuses on central themes explored by the UNGA78 Second Committee (Economic and Financial)’s session on Groups of Countries in Special Situations, including debt distress and vulnerability, concessional funding and climate financing.

Deliberations addressed the follow-up to LDC5 and the lead-up to the 2024 conferences, SIDS4 and LLDC3.

The Third UN Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDC3) will be held on 18-21 June 2024 in Kigali, Rwanda at the highest possible level, including Heads of State and Government.

The main agenda for LLDC3 is to finalize and adopt the new development agenda for the landlocked developing countries for the next decade, the successor to the Vienna Programme of Action in 2024.

This Global Policy Watch briefing explores the pertinent issues and trajectory of the process, with the different [...]

Considered a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to address inequities in global governance and reset international cooperation, the Summit of the Future (SoTF) will be a cornerstone among a series of high-level UN meetings in 2024. While Member State priorities differ, they have confirmed that the Summit will be held on 22-23 September 2024 and have agreed on the elements and next steps towards the adoption of “a concise, action-oriented outcome document entitled ‘A Pact for the Future’, agreed in advance by consensus [...]

National and regional go-it-alone efforts characterized government action against the COVID-19 pandemic. The guidance of the World Health Organization (WHO), as the overarching and coordinating health body, to ensure equitable and efficient distribution of vaccines and other necessary medical products to contain the pandemic was not heeded. Several governments, philanthropic foundations, and the WHO launched the global multi-stakeholder initiative (MSI) Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) at short notice, with participation of pharmaceutical industry and other MSIs, as a key [...]

From October 15-17, it’s time once again for the "who's who" of global health experts to meet in Berlin for the World Health Summit. More than 6,000 participants are expected over three days. But will the right lessons be learned from the experience of the Corona pandemic to build a sustainable global health architecture?

For decades, the global community has struggled with the challenges of a highly fragmented global health architecture. Numerous international organizations, among them the World Bank and [...]

The World Bank is considered to be the most important multilateral development bank (MDB). Since it was founded in 1944 at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference to finance the reconstruction of war-torn Europe, it has reinvented itself several times. The most significant change was the transformation from a reconstruction bank to a development bank. Today, the World Bank finances exclusively in countries of the global South, while continuing to be controlled by the economic powers of the global [...]

The Global Policy Watch Team

Many world leaders during the UN General Assembly High-level General Debate (19 to 26 September 2023) referenced the sorry state of multilateralism and the various alignments and groupings, some to counter the lack of agency and redress power asymmetries across multiple policy streams. In conjunction with the historical responsibilities of developed countries for carbon emissions, many called for reparations for slavery and colonialism, highlighting the historical injustice that continues to disadvantage developing countries. Reform of [...]

This expert discussion takes place as part of the Civil Society Policy Forum at the joint Annual Meetings of International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group in Marrakesh (Morocco). 

The objective is to discuss debt architecture reforms that are needed to address the new wave of debt crises, and how to take these reforms forward at the major multilateral institution-building opportunities that are upcoming.

Global Policy Forum Europe is co-organizing with a large coalition of debt specialist organisations and CSO [...]

The Global People’s Assembly 2023 will be on 17 (Sunday) and 18 September (Monday) in New York – at the UN SDG Summit and the UN General Assembly.

The Global People’s Assembly (GPA) brings people’s representatives together and creates a strong voice at the SDG Summit for the midpoint of Agenda 2030. The assembly will be in-person in the Church Centre of the UN (opposite the UN), with 300 participants expected. Participants can also join online — we look forward [...]

The GPW Team in collaboration with students from Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs at The New School

The UN ECOSOC High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), operating under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), has convened regularly since it was established by the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). It is a means for Member States, the UN System and Major Groups and Other Stakeholders to assess progress on the Sustainable [...]

At the half-way mark to fulfilling the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the UN “SDG Summit” is charged with igniting a correction course as the UN, Member States and numerous studies agree that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are seriously off-track and the consequences of failure affect all countries and sectors of society. Key themes include: the SDG Stimulus, debt restructuring, international financial architecture reform, re-channeling of Special Drawing Rights amongst other issues.

Global Policy Watch’s factsheet highlights the significance [...]

A key theme for the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), 10-20 July 2023, was the issue of the current international financial architecture (IFA) that disproportionality disservices low and middle-income countries.

Reforms to IFA, tackling debt difficulties for vulnerable countries, the SDG Stimulus, and references to SDG Summit, Summit of the Future and Summit for a New Global Financing Pact were highlighted by various Member States and other stakeholders at the HLPF and at the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact [...]

The GPW Fact Sheet on UN General Assembly High-Level Week features a run-down of the high-level events & collection of relevant resources. Happening soon, the UNGA High-Level Week will be an opportunity for a discussion on current challenges to global multilateralism.

This GPW Round Up #6 – 2023 ECOSOC Operational Activities for Development Segment: Financing for effective UN Development System & Country Teams – features a selection of perspectives from the sessions held in May 2023.

This GPW Round Up – 5th UN Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDC5): Highlights from High-Level Roundtable discussions at LDC5 – features a selection of perspectives from different groups of participants at the LDC5 Conference held in March 2023.

This GPW Round Up #4, UN 2023 Water Conference: Highlights from the conference in UN year for Water Action and Focus, features a selection of perspectives from different groups of participants at the UN Water Conference held in March 2023.