The co-facilitators presented the zero draft to Member States and observers on 5 April.
The first reading will start on 12 April and continue on 2 and 3 May.
The first meeting with interested stakeholders will be held on 24 April.
The co-facilitators leading the intergovernmental process on the Global Digital Compact, as part of the preparatory process for the Summit of the Future, have circulated a zero draft of the Global Digital Compact. The first reading of the zero draft will take place over the course of three meetings in April and May. The co-facilitators also “intend to convene periodic meetings to update interested stakeholders.”
On 1 April 2024, UN General Assembly (UNGA) President Dennis Francis transmitted to Member States a letter from the co-facilitators.
In their letter of the same date, Permanent Representative of Sweden Anna Karin Eneström and Permanent Representative of Zambia Chola Milambo inform Member States that the zero draft draws on the structural elements outlined in the co-facilitators’ letter from 23 February 2024, as well as on oral and written inputs provided during informal consultations in February and March.
The 13-page zero draft highlights digital technologies’ “immense potential” to deliver benefits for people, societies, and our planet and achieve the SDGs. It underscores that international cooperation is essential to achieve “an inclusive, open, safe, and secure digital future for all” and that such cooperation “must be agile and adaptable to the rapidly changing digital landscape.”
The document outlines the Global Digital Compact’s principles, formulates objectives and commitments, spells out actions to achieve them, and articulates follow-up and review provisions. The objectives include:
The co-facilitators presented the zero draft to Member States and observers on 5 April. The first reading will start on 12 April and continue on 2 and 3 May. The first meeting with interested stakeholders will be held on 24 April.
The UN Secretary-General’s ‘Our Common Agenda’ called for a Global Digital Compact to be agreed at the Summit of the Future in September 2024. If intergovernmentally agreed, the Global Digital Compact will be annexed to the Pact for the Future, as will a Declaration on Future Generations. [Global Digital Compact Website] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on Pact for the Future Zero Draft]