Updated Programme for the Summit of the Future Available

President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) Philemon Yang has made available an updated programme of the Summit of the Future (SoF), along with a logistics note, an announcement of the co-chairs for the interactive dialogues to take place during the Summit, and lists of speakers for the interactive dialogues. The SoF is taking place in New York, US, from 22-23 September 2024.

According to the provisional programme, the SoF will open with the adoption of the Pact for the Future – the Summit’s main outcome document, “agreed in advance by consensus through intergovernmental negotiations.” If intergovernmentally agreed, the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations would be annexed to the Pact.

The Pact for the Future is currently available as a REV4 document. REV3 failed to survive the silence procedure earlier this month. Following further consultations, in a letter dated 13 September, the co-facilitators circulated a revised version of the Pact, placing it under the silence procedure until 16 September. According to the letter, the REV4 draft “represents [the co-facilitators’] best possible effort to bridge the different views on issues on which silence was broken” and is “the most ambitious and balanced text possible that can be agreed by consensus in advance of the Summit.” At the time of writing, no formal announcements had been made on whether the silence procedure on REV4 was broken.

Following the adoption of the outcome document(s), the provisional programme indicates, the UNGA President, the UN Secretary-General, and youth representatives, as well as the leaders of Namibia and Germany will deliver statements. The Summit also includes statements by Member States and interactive dialogues on the themes of:

Transforming global governance and turbocharging the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;
Enhancing multilateralism for international peace and security;
Towards a Common Digital Future: Strengthening inclusive innovation and cooperation to bridge the digital divides; and
The Future Starts Now: Enhancing the global system for current and future generations.

The logistics note is available here. The list of the co-chairs of the interactive dialogues is here. The lists of speakers for Interactive Dialogue 1, Interactive Dialogue 2, Interactive Dialogue 3, and Interactive Dialogue 4 are also available.

Negotiations for the Pact for the Future have been co-facilitated by Germany and Namibia. Sweden and Zambia have co-facilitated the talks on the Global Digital Compact. Jamaica and the Netherlands are the co-facilitators of the intergovernmental process for the Declaration on Future Generations.

The goal of the Summit is to reinvigorate and restore trust in multilateralism. Described as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity… to mend eroded trust and demonstrate that international cooperation can effectively achieve agreed goals and tackle emerging threats and opportunities,” it is expected “to forge a new international consensus on how we deliver a better present and safeguard the future.” [Letter from UNGA President of 13 September 2024] [SoF Programme]