Leaders Reflect on UN’s Institutional Challenges as High-level Week Ends

The High-level Week of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) concluded with more than 190 speakers, including 136 Heads of State and Government and 40 Ministers having addressed the UNGA during the General Debate. UNGA President Dennis Francis identified common themes that signal Member States’ priorities, challenges, and concerns going forward.

Addressing the Assembly at the closing of the General Debate, the UNGA President highlighted the need to:

Invest in education, particularly for girls;
Reform the international financial architecture, to achieve accessibility, equity, and justice in development finance;
Respect political independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity by ending the Ukraine war and giving “undivided attention to other raging conflicts”; and
Embrace climate action by safeguarding the Earth’s natural resources, preserving biodiversity, and ensuring equitable access to clean air and water.

Francis said these challenges demand full engagement in preparations for the 2024 Summit of the Future, to “define the future of international cooperation amid multidimensional risks.” He called on Member States to “refocus [their] energies towards creating a world that grows sustainably, for the people and planet, and that gives every child an equal chance at success.”

The General Debate took place from 19-23 and on 26 September 2023. It was part of the UNGA High-level Week, along with other high-level events, including the SDG Summit, the Climate Ambition Summit, three high-level meetings on health, the High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development (FfD), and a preparatory ministerial meeting for the Summit of the Future. The meetings delivered four political declarations covering: the need to “turn the world to 2030”; universal health care (UHC); pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response; and work to end tuberculosis.

This year’s high-level week was the largest in-person gathering of world leaders at the UN Headquarters in New York, US, since the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 2,000 bilateral meetings took place. According to the UN, “over 13,000 country delegates, 2,600 members of the media, and more than 40,000 other participants were registered for the general debate and its over 100 associated events,” which included the first-ever SDG Action Weekend, from 16-17 September. [UN News Story on UNGA 78 Opening] [UN News Story on UNGA 78 Closing]