President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) Philemon Yang convened the second informal interactive dialogue on the implementation of the Pact for the Future. Dedicated to the theme, ‘Monitoring and Evaluation,’ the meeting served as a platform for Member States to exchange views, best practices, and ideas to advance efforts to implement the Pact at the national level, translating commitments into practice while strengthening monitoring and evaluation “to ensure meaningful tracking of implementation progress.”

In his opening address, Yang recognized that the Pact’s high-level implementation review in 2028 “will require clear evidence of progress, especially at the national level,” noting that a “focus on monitoring and evaluation will help Member States identify bottlenecks and enablers, ensure ongoing course correction, and promote accountability across systems.” He said existing monitoring systems can be adapted to serve the objectives of the Pact by: reusing relevant indicators; harmonizing data collection methods; and reducing reporting burdens, especially for developing countries.

The UNGA President invited Member States to focus their discussion on three questions:

• How can Member States effectively localize the Pact’s commitments?
• What challenges, enablers, and transformative actions can be identified through monitoring and evaluation to strengthen the effectiveness and impact of implementation efforts?
• What frameworks or mechanisms can be used to monitor and evaluate the progress of implementation, mindful of the primacy of existing mechanisms?

He underscored that monitoring efforts must be purposeful and pragmatic, drawing from what works, adapting to what is needed, and aligning with what already exists. “[W]e cannot manage what we do not measure,” Yang stated, calling for a shared commitment to transparency, impact, and progress.

Speaking on behalf of the UN Deputy Secretary-General, Under-Secretary-General for Policy Guy Ryder said the Pact “points the way to the multinationalism of the future” that is more inclusive, is shaped by science, technology, and innovation (STI), and is mindful of future generations. He noted that the UN Secretary-General launched his UN80 initiative in response to the Pact’s call for a more efficient and effective UN that can deliver on the Pact’s commitments and the SDGs.

Ryder updated Member States on the Secretariat’s efforts to track and monitor the Pact’s implementation, including a system-wide principal-level steering committee to drive and monitor implementation and an internal management tool to track implementation of the Pact’s mandates.

Associate Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Haoliang Xu briefed the meeting on UNDP’s efforts to support implementation of the Pact within the UN system. Among the key challenges, he highlighted limited national capacities and fragmented data ecosystems, which, he said, can be addressed through “the integration of evaluation into public policy and the budgeting cycle and leveraging the potential of digital tools and AI to improve access to quality evaluative evidence.”

Richard Ponzio, Director, Global Governance, Justice, and Security Program, and Senior Fellow, Stimson Center, presented findings from the Stimson Center’s framework monitoring tool, developed as part of a proposed broader Pact Monitoring Toolkit. He said the initiative “aims to inventory implementation gaps and data vacuums in existing monitoring tools to discern where new indicators are needed and to promote corrective action,” as well as collaboration between champion governments, the UN, and ImPact Coalitions to spur momentum towards the Pact’s 2028 review.

During discussion, Member States underscored the need for: strong political will to translate the Pact’s commitments into meaningful national action; national ownership; and context-specific strategies to realize the Pact’s vision on the ground. Speakers called for a flexible and adaptive approach, reflecting each country’s unique priorities, challenges, and institutional processes. They identified monitoring and evaluation as central to ensuring accountability, tracking progress, and maintaining collective commitment through efforts that are data-driven, inclusive, and transparent.

Delegates emphasized the need to ensure coherence with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to maximize impact, avoid duplication, and strengthen reporting and implementation. Calls were heard to use the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) as a platform to share experiences, successes, and challenges and to “leverage voluntary national reviews (VNRs) as feedback mechanisms to help countries track progress, identify gaps, and learn from one another.”

Among the many challenges in monitoring the Pact’s implementation, participants highlighted resource constraints, capacity gaps, and fragmentation across overlapping international frameworks, as well as political inertia, polarization, financing shortfalls, and limited data capacity. Digital transformation, youth-led innovation, and climate-resilient development emerged as critical accelerators of the Pact’s implementation.

While Member States recognized the Secretary-General’s UN80 initiative as “bringing renewed urgency to the Pact’s implementation,” some cautioned against the reform agenda under UN80 overshadowing the Pact, stating that “such efforts would have been better anchored within the Pact negotiation process.”

Among the insights and emerging action points for strengthening monitoring and evaluation, the UNGA President’s informal summary of the dialogue identifies:

• Leveraging existing frameworks that support stakeholder engagement, data collection, and progress tracking;
• Strengthening national data systems to create robust, inclusive, and interoperable data ecosystems;
• Adopting templates that are standardized but flexible;
• Aligning with regional strategies to complement national efforts, support peer learning, and strengthen collective accountability; and
• Institutionalizing regular reporting to promote peer exchange, knowledge sharing, and comparative learning among countries with similar contexts.

Following the convening of the second informal interactive dialogue on the implementation of the Pact for the Future on 19 May 2025, the UNGA President circulated its informal summary on 11 June. The event was preceded by the first dialogue, which took place on 26 March to discuss means of implementation. The third and last dialogue of the series on 17 July will focus on laying the groundwork for the 2028 review of the Pact’s implementation. [Recording of Informal Interactive Dialogue 2: The Pact for the Future – Monitoring and Evaluation] [UNGA 79 President’s Efforts on Summit of the Future and Beyond]