Summit of the Future 2024: Our key messages

World leaders are coming together in New York for the Summit of the Future 2024. It is a critical opportunity for the international community to make progress towards a fairer, more resilient future. Ahead of the Summit, GNDR members have identified key policy messages for decision-makers and Members States.

Our key messages: 

1. Civil society has an important role in coordinating a whole-of-society approach. Member States must recognise civil society’s role in making sure a whole-of-society approach is achieved in the implementation of the Pact for the Future.

2. Conflict is a risk driver that is undermining advances in the 2030 Agenda. Ending conflict and promoting peace is essential if we are to achieve the 2030 Agenda and ambitions within the Pact for the Future.

3. Development finance must be risk-informed and reach the local level.

4. Local communities must be meaningfully engaged in the design and implementation of the emergency platforms.

The key messages unpacked 

The Summit of the Future (SOTF) offers hope and unity at a time when we need it most. However, its success will depend on its implementation. We call for Member States to recognise and champion civil society’s role in achieving a whole-of-society approach to implementation. A clear roadmap for implementation that puts civil society, local communities, youth groups, women and other marginalised groups at its heart, and that drives forward a whole-of-society approach to delivering on the SDGs and 2030 Agenda, is needed.

• The SOTF offers hope and unity at a time when we need it most. It is an opportunity to re-think multilateralism and put people and resilience at the centre of development approaches. However, it needs to be more than a dialogue. The SOTF offers a ‘beginning’ and the Pact’s actions and commitments need to be implemented and progress monitored after the Summit.
  

• A clear roadmap for implementation is needed with near and long-term check points on progress. 
  

• Member States need to meaningfully engage civil society, local communities, youth groups, women and other marginalised groups in the implementation of the Pact and to champion a whole-of-society approach – only then will sustainable development be delivered for all. 
  
• We, as civil society, will commit to help sustain the momentum after the SOTF, implement its commitments and hold ourselves accountable. We call on all Member States and international actors to do the same.

We cannot achieve the 2030 Agenda or the ambitions within the Pact for the Future without addressing the devastating escalation in conflicts worldwide. To build and sustain peaceful, inclusive and just societies and address the root causes of conflicts, we call for an increased focus on risk-informed development and governance in conflict affected states. 

• GNDR welcomes the call within the Pact to redouble efforts to build peaceful, inclusive and just societies and address the root causes of conflicts, and for the Peacebuilding architecture to be strengthened. 
  

• We also welcome the recognition of the interdependence of international peace and security, sustainable development and human rights. 
  

• Within this, and in the implementation of the Pact, we call on the international community to support conflict-affected and fragile states to implement risk-informed governance, policy, and plans; and to support fragile states to access financial mechanisms for risk reduction.

We cannot address the finance gap with business as usual development finance. Development finance must be risk-informed and promote resilience. Funds must reach the local level and be accessible to the most marginalised groups on the frontline of risk.

• GNDR welcomes the call within the Pact to close the SDG financing gap and for funding to be accessible to developing countries. It also welcomes the reference to the need to localise sustainable development.
  
• However, if we are to achieve the SDGS and localise sustainable development, this finance cannot be business as usual development finance. 

• Investing in disaster risk saves lives and money in the long term, but too little financing goes to disaster risk reduction and risk-informed development initiatives. Furthermore, local communities and actors understand their needs best and know how to build inclusive resilience, but too little finance is accessible to the local communities that are on the frontlines of disaster risk and climate change. 
  
• As we close the finance gap, we need to make sure that our investments are future-proofed, that they drive risk-informed development, and that they are accessible to local communities and marginalised groups, including, but not limited to, women, indigenous peoples, and people with disabilities. 

• Investing in risk-informed development requires analysing the complex threats that people face and understanding their vulnerabilities and capacities. This needs to be understood from the perspective of local communities. Risk-informed development also involves investing in preparedness, anticipatory action and resilience. Donors and development funds need to ensure funding considers the complex and compounding risks that hold back progress on the SDGs, and that it is directed to initiatives that build resilience. 
  

• In addition, development funds need to be made accessible to local communities, and to marginalised groups within. Funds need to be earmarked for local actors through direct access windows, and funding application processes need to be streamlined. Localisation requires more than political intention, it requires finance; and this finance needs to flow to women-led groups, indigenous peoples, people with disabilities and other marginalised groups. Only then will development funding truly work for all and build resilience.

The Emergency Platforms provide an opportunity for greater coordination and coherence and a more effective response to complex global emergencies. Local leadership is essential for this to be effective. This includes the meaningful engagement of local communities, civil society, youth groups and the most marginalised in decision-making and implementation. 

• The world is facing multiple and intersecting crises, but globally the response is often siloed and fragmented. The Emergency Platforms are proposed to help deliver interdisciplinary and multisectoral international responses that can meet the complexity of cascading and interlinked crises. The shocks targeted by the Emergency Platforms are ‘global’ in nature. But they have local-level impacts and, as underlined by the UN Secretary General, multi-stakeholder engagement and accountability is key to a successful global response (Emergency Platform, UN Sec Gen – Policy Paper, p.11).
  

• We welcome the UN Secretary General’s vision for the Emergency Platforms to enable ‘inclusive and networked multilateralism’ and for civil society to be consulted as part of this (Emergency Platform, UN Sec Gen – Policy Paper). 

• As plans for the Emergency Platforms are developed after the SOTF it will be key to not forget these intentions – and to move beyond passive consultation and have civil society, youth and marginalised groups meaningfully engaged in decisions on how the Emergency Platforms functions. The perspectives of youth, local and marginalised groups, including, but not limited to, women, indigenous peoples, and people with disabilities will be particularly key within this. We call for an inclusive process to be established to enable the engagement of civil society in the development of the Emergency Platforms after the SOTF.