Prior to high-profile meetings of the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week, world leaders will get together on Sunday and Monday to discuss their goals for achieving greater sustainability at a conference called the Summit of the Future.
UN members have already agreed on a set of policies called the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. They hope to address and try to solve such issues as poverty, climate change, wars and other conflicts. However, the deadline is 2030, and leaders hope the summit will help get progress back on track.
The development goals are the brainchild of UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed. In an interview with NHK, she said the summit is focused on achieving what she calls “human security.”
Mohammed said: “The SDGs are a good roadmap that would end poverty. And when you end poverty, you bring back dignity in the life of a person, and less frustration, less reason to give up and to join perhaps conflicts rather than the road to peace and prosperity in one country.”
She called on participants to bring to the summit leadership, vision and action.
The UN Security Council has faced criticism over the role of multilateral institutions, which some have described as dysfunctional. Mohammed says, however, that the UN remains “our town hall for the global village” to voice issues and find solutions.
She added: “We also have to look at the United Nations, not just as the Security Council for we the people, but all the other work that we do on human rights, that we do on the humanitarian sector, that we do on development.”
At the summit, leaders will declare a Pact for the Future, laying out ideas to reinvigorate multilateralism and implement existing commitments while agreeing on solutions to new challenges and restoring trust.