How to Save the world
This is the introduction to the report “How to save the world: Ten lessons from the history of global governance reform” published by Together First in 2019. Read the full report here.
In 2019-20, Together First will conduct a series of consultations to identify solutions to global risks. This will be a pragmatic exercise, to determine feasible changes to global institutions that would:
- Improve our ability to manage risks, and
- Create a resilient and responsive multilateral system that can address them in a timely and effective fashion.
Initially, we will focus on influencing the various intergovernmental processes taking place in 2020, notably the UN’s 75th anniversary commemoration. Governments have decided to mark this milestone with a leaders’ summit in September 2020, and a declaration on “The Future We Want, the United Nations We Need”. [See note 1] This is a crucial opportunity to take stock of our current global system – and demand action to improve it. Together First’s objective is to ensure we make the most of this historic moment.
Through our consultations, we will bring new voices into conversations on global governance, and work with them to push for concrete solutions – and implementation. Our efforts will be closely coordinated with the UN’s 75th anniversary initiative, which will stimulate dialogues around the world on the future we need, and the UN2020 civil society coalition [2] lobbying for meaningful public engagement with the leaders’ summit.
The first phase of consultations will run over the course of 2019. It will invite expert and public contributions, including through a web portal. [3] Preliminary results will be released in September 2019, with further publications and advocacy work planned for 2020. It will be geared towards influencing the leaders’ summit.
This report seeks to lay the groundwork for the consultations – by looking at why previous reform efforts have had only limited impact, and how we can avoid making the same mistakes. [4] We commissioned Sam Daws, a UN expert based at Oxford University, to identify the barriers to implementing global solutions and potential strategies for overcoming them. The result is the 10 key lessons set out in this report. They will inform our future work and provide useful insights relevant to Together First’s consultation. We also hope they will be useful to others working to improve decision-making on global issues. [5]
[1] UN General Assembly resolution 73/299 available online at: https://undocs.org/en/A/RES/73/299
[2] For more information please see: http://un2020.org/
[3] Available online at: www.together1st.org/consult
[4] Available online at: www.together1st.org/list
[5] The lessons contained within this report do not necessarily reflect the views of all of Together First’s supporters or funders.